Research

Research Blogs
Our fabulous Institute of Play interns (Chloe, Albert, Rhadika, Holladay) author a set of blogs tracking research in different areas. Check back often for updates.

• Mobile Media
• Gamekits
• Virtual Environments
• Game School
• Game Taxonomy

Game Frameworks
Part of our recent focus has been on developing materials to help teachers and others imagine ways on integrating games and game design materials into a range of spaces of learning. While the work is still in draft form, you can see some of the ideas here:
Uses of Games (pdf)

GAMING Literacies
Below are a number of papers and other resources exploring the concept of gaming literacies and their application to learning that we have found useful in our own work.

Ecology of Games (pdf)
On December 12, 2007, The MIT Press announced the The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. This new book series examines the effect of digital media tools on how people learn, network, communicate, and play, and how growing up with these tools may affect peoples sense of self, how they express themselves, and their ability to learn, exercise judgment, and think systematically.

In one of the volumes, titled The Ecology of Games, editor Katie Salen of the Institute of Play gathered essays not only from those who study games and learning but from those who create such worlds. Jim Gee's essay cuts through the debate on "are games good or bad?" to describe the ways in which well-designed games foster learning both within and beyond the play, while Mimi Ito chronicles the cultural history of children's software and the role educational games have played in it. At the same time the volume contains articles on open-ended simulation games (Kurt Squire), a case study on collective intelligence gaming via I Love Bees (Jane McGonigal), a fascinating ethnography of kids playing games in the home (Reed Stevens, Tom Satwicz, Laurie McCarthy), and several chapters on topics ranging from race (S. Craig Watkins and Anna Everett), rhetoric (Ian Bogost), virtual worlds (Cory Ondrejka), inclusive design (Amit Pitaru), and youth media (Barry Joseph).

All six volumes are available as Open Access Online Editions on The MIT Press website, http://mitpress.mit.edu/dml

"Games and Learning: Issues, Perils, and Potentials. A Report to the Spencer Foundation. Fall 2006. James Paul Gee (pdf)

“Confronting the Challenges of Participatory Culture: Media Education for the 21st Century.” (pdf) Henry Jenkins, with Katie Clinton, Ravi Purushotma, Alice J. Robinson, Margaret Weigel.

"Instruction Sets for Learning Engines: Games and the Architecture of Persistence." Katie Salen. (pdf) Aims of Education Speech, Convocation, The New School University, Fall 2007.

“Everywhere Now: Three Dialogs on Kids, Games, and Learning.” MacArthur Series on Digital Media and Learning. Transcript of an online conversation held in Summer 2006.

"Gaming Literacies: A Game Design Study in Action," Katie Salen. Jl. of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia (2007) 16(3), 301-322 (pdf)

Game Design Glossary, Katie Salen. Design Dictionary (Wörterbuch Design). Michael Erlhoff and Tim Marshall, eds., Birkhäuser Verlag. (pdf)