Watched this video below which discussed opportunities for bridging the gap between games for learning and games for entertainment. The author stressed that the developers have the easiest opportunity at no cost to them to incorporate some learning opportunities throughout their games. Things such as putting quotations or information on loading screens, creating character names related to the topic you want them to study, in-game indexes or links to Wikipedia throughout PC games.

The most important idea I got from this video was that of Tangential Learning, which means being exposed to things in a context you are already interested in. So, from the classroom standpoint, find those things that students are already interested in (games, for example) and find a way to use that context to structure the things you want them to learn. Games should be able to expand the player’s horizons and enrich their life.

The Tech Integrator