Tag Archives: play-based learning

The potential of digital games for education is enhanced by the fact that digital games are everywhere. In 2008, the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that 97 percent of those ages 12–17 played computer, web, portable, or console games, and 50 percent of them reported daily or near-daily gameplay. Another Pew study reported that digital games generated $25 billion in sales in 2010. Studies have demonstrated the potential of digital games to support learning through conceptual understanding, process skills and practices, and…

My kids and I recently downloaded a game for all three of our smartphones. Ever since, competition in the house has been fierce. The game is called Forest and the premise is simple. You plant trees to grow a forest. But trees only grow when Forest is the only app running. If you switch to another game, reply to a text, or check social media, the tree dies. Choose a seed, set the timer, and wait.  Longer sessions grow bigger trees.…

I recently met Paul Darvasi and Aleksander Husøy at the annual UNESCO Forum on Global Citizenship Education in Ottawa, where we were on a panel hosted by the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development. The subject of our panel was a debate on the topic, “Innovative pedagogies for ESD and Global Citizenship Education: Is game-based learning the future?” Both Paul and Aleks use games in the classroom often when they’re teaching and I’ve been creating them for the past nine years, so frankly, there wasn’t all that much debate…

When I was nine years old, an American boy named Kyle moved to our neighborhood in suburban Stockholm. When we met him, my best friend Gustaf immediately switched to English. I had never heard him speak much English before, but Gustaf had spent a couple of years in an American school in Germany and spoke it fluently. I only knew a few English words, but I don’t remember it ever being a problem. We played well, and I always had…