Digital Games: A Context for Cognitive Development

Executive Director Michael Levine and former Cooney Center fellow Sarah Vaala have co-authored Games for Learning: Vast Wasteland or a Digital Promise?, the conclusion to the new anthology Digital Games: A Context for Cognitive Development, edited by Fran C. Blumberg and Shalom M. Fisch.

The volume takes a broad look at the many positive impacts digital games can have for children’s cognitive and social development, opening with a call for developmental psychologists to recognize how digital games present an important context through which children grow and learn. In their chapter, Levine and Vaala stress the importance of research and development into educational games’ potential to strengthen student engagement and academic achievement. They present games as one solution to the many educational challenges presented in the Digital Games anthology. Also featured in the anthology are articles on Electronic Gaming and the Obesity Crisis by Advisory Board member Sandra Calvert, et al. and on Applying Developmental Theory and Research to the Creation of Educational Games by Glenda Revelle, a frequent collaborator. At the Cooney Center, we hope that policy makers and industry leaders will heed this anthology’s call and continue to expand opportunities for educational games both in and out of the classroom.

Digital Games: A Context for Cognitive Development can be viewed online at the Wiley Online Library.