Connected Gaming: What Making Video Games Can Teach Us about Learning and Literacy
Authors: Yasmin B. Kafai, Quinn Burke, Yasmin B. Kafai, Quinn Burke
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Overview
This book explores how making video games can be a powerful context for learning in the 21st century, not just about coding or other technical skills, but also about content and collaboration. My co-author Quinn Burke and I argue for “connected gaming,” which integrates making and playing games within a larger gaming ecology. We begin by tracing the history of constructionist gaming from our early work in the 1990s with children making educational games, to current examples including the emergence of modding in commercial games and the popularity of Minecraft in fostering creative online communities. We examine how constructionist gaming practices support both technical learning – such as computational thinking concepts, practices, and perspectives – as well as content learning within a variety of subjects from math and science to language arts and social studies. Making games is presented not just as a technical exercise but also as a social and cultural activity that leverages children’s deep familiarity with games and the surrounding gaming culture. We show how the tools and materials used in game making activities support multiple learning pathways, be it on-screen or off-screen, highlighting how such activities address issues of equity and access by broadening participation to traditionally underrepresented groups such as girls and underrepresented minorities. The book’s ultimate goal is to develop and promote a more inclusive and informed vision for connected gaming that gives young learners a greater hand in designing and producing games while creating more robust opportunities for sharing and collaboration both in and outside of school. Our target audience includes educators, researchers, designers, and policy makers, as well as anyone interested in the power of games for learning. The book’s key contribution is to situate game-making within the larger media ecology to create connected learning environments.
Book Outline
1. Introduction
Making games fosters both technical and content learning for the designers. It shifts learners’ role from consumer to producer and allows them to see themselves as creators of digital media.
Key concept: Making is Connecting. Games aren’t just evocative objects, they are also a currency in the new maker economy, becoming “objects-to-think-with” and “objects-to-share-with.”
2. The Serious Side: Making Games for Learning
Making games provides a rich context for learning coding and computational thinking concepts, practices, and perspectives. Designers learn not just about specific content but also about learning itself through debugging and redesign.
Key concept: Computational participation involves problem solving, designing systems, and understanding human behavior, not as individual acts, but as communal practices within networked communities.
3. The Social Side: Making Games Together Beats Making Them Alone
Learning is enhanced by collaborative game making. Effective learning happens in social contexts that allow students to share and discuss their work with each other and the larger community. Examples are given from Quest to Learn, a school designed around game making principles, and Globaloria, an online platform and curriculum for learning to make and share games.
Key concept: What if teachers gave up the vestiges of their educational past…and reconfigured the foundation upon which a century of learning has been built?
4. The Cultural Side: Rethinking Access and Participation in Gaming
Constructionist gaming addresses issues of equity and access. Making games can increase girls’ and underrepresented minorities’ interest and engagement in STEM.
Key concept: The lack of access and participation in tech culture reveals itself most poignantly in what is being valued in these communities: preferred ways of working with technology, preferred representations, and preferences in what is being made.
5. The Tangible Side: Connecting Old Materials with New Interfaces in Games
Learning with tangible materials makes traditionally abstract concepts of programming more concrete. Examples are given of children designing their own game controllers with Makey Makey and creating augmented board games using Scratch.
Key concept: Syntonic learning allows children to identify with computational objects in multiple ways, connecting digital objects with physical actions and properties.
6. The Creative Side: Tools for Modding and Making Games
The digital tools for making games must incorporate features such as ease of use, sufficient complexity for more advanced projects, allowance for different interests, and open access to online communities where designers can share their games, get feedback and remix others’ work. Examples are Scratch, Alice, Gamestar Mechanic, and others.
Key concept: Low floors, high ceilings, and wide walls: a metaphor for tool design. Good tools are easy to learn, allow for diverse projects and deeper learning, and support wide ranges of interests and expertise. Open windows connect users with online communities.
7. Connected Gaming for All
Minecraft is a stellar example of connected gaming for all. Its focus on making and building combined with accessible graphics and active online communities has made it a worldwide phenomenon and fruitful learning environment, both in and out of school.
Key concept: Minecraft demonstrates that connected gaming – the blurring between playing and making games – is a reality.
Essential Questions
1. How does making games support computational learning?
Constructionist gaming emphasizes both the process and product of game design. Creating a game necessitates acquiring computational thinking concepts like sequences, loops, parallelism, and conditionals. These are foundational to programming and apply across different programming languages. Designing games, unlike other introductory programming projects, motivates learners to wrestle with debugging and iteratively refine their designs, gaining a deeper understanding of how and why the game works (or doesn’t). This deeper engagement leads to new perspectives on computing and can help transform stereotyped perceptions of computing as boring or only for certain types of people.
2. How does game making foster collaboration and community engagement?
Learning is enhanced through social interaction. Making games together promotes sharing, collaboration, and communication as core components of the learning process. Game design projects, especially those shared online, offer students the chance to be part of a wider community of like-minded creators and players, where feedback and peer interaction help improve and refine the final product. Schools such as Quest to Learn and the online platform Globaloria leverage these collaborative aspects of game making to promote deeper learning.
3. How do cultural values and biases affect participation in gaming and game making?
The lack of access and participation in tech culture reflects what is valued in these communities and impacts how we think about access and participation in constructionist gaming. Game-making projects focusing on math, science, and storytelling have proven effective in increasing girls’ interest in STEM fields and computing, as well as improving underrepresented minorities’ perceptions of computing. Values and interests shape access. Therefore, to make gaming more inclusive, we need to consider the values and contexts shaping learners’ motivation and engagement with gaming and computing, not just access and interest.
4. How can tangible interactions enhance learning about technology and computing?
Constructionism values both concrete and abstract forms of learning. Tangible game making connects the physical and digital worlds to teach children about computational concepts, engineering principles, and design thinking in an engaging and accessible way. This is achieved through construction kits like Makey Makey, augmented board games, and wearable controllers. Such projects reveal the hidden mechanisms underlying digital technologies while also leveraging children’s innate interest in playing with objects and making things.
1. How does making games support computational learning?
Constructionist gaming emphasizes both the process and product of game design. Creating a game necessitates acquiring computational thinking concepts like sequences, loops, parallelism, and conditionals. These are foundational to programming and apply across different programming languages. Designing games, unlike other introductory programming projects, motivates learners to wrestle with debugging and iteratively refine their designs, gaining a deeper understanding of how and why the game works (or doesn’t). This deeper engagement leads to new perspectives on computing and can help transform stereotyped perceptions of computing as boring or only for certain types of people.
2. How does game making foster collaboration and community engagement?
Learning is enhanced through social interaction. Making games together promotes sharing, collaboration, and communication as core components of the learning process. Game design projects, especially those shared online, offer students the chance to be part of a wider community of like-minded creators and players, where feedback and peer interaction help improve and refine the final product. Schools such as Quest to Learn and the online platform Globaloria leverage these collaborative aspects of game making to promote deeper learning.
3. How do cultural values and biases affect participation in gaming and game making?
The lack of access and participation in tech culture reflects what is valued in these communities and impacts how we think about access and participation in constructionist gaming. Game-making projects focusing on math, science, and storytelling have proven effective in increasing girls’ interest in STEM fields and computing, as well as improving underrepresented minorities’ perceptions of computing. Values and interests shape access. Therefore, to make gaming more inclusive, we need to consider the values and contexts shaping learners’ motivation and engagement with gaming and computing, not just access and interest.
4. How can tangible interactions enhance learning about technology and computing?
Constructionism values both concrete and abstract forms of learning. Tangible game making connects the physical and digital worlds to teach children about computational concepts, engineering principles, and design thinking in an engaging and accessible way. This is achieved through construction kits like Makey Makey, augmented board games, and wearable controllers. Such projects reveal the hidden mechanisms underlying digital technologies while also leveraging children’s innate interest in playing with objects and making things.
Key Takeaways
1. Game making promotes computational thinking.
Making games necessitates understanding the logic of how systems work. Computational thinking concepts like sequencing, looping, events, and conditionals are not just abstract concepts but crucial for creating functional games. Students learn about cause and effect, debugging, and iterative design in the process. Game-making activities can be integrated with other subject matter to further contextualize content learning.
Practical Application:
An AI product engineer could use game design principles to develop educational simulations or training modules that are more engaging and promote deeper learning. For instance, incorporating branching narratives and player choices to teach about ethical considerations in AI development.
2. Game making fosters social learning and collaboration.
Learning is fundamentally a social endeavor. Game-making activities, especially those involving teams and online communities, foster collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills. The act of sharing, receiving feedback, and iteratively refining projects with and for a real or virtual audience adds purpose and increases motivation, benefiting both the individual and the collective.
Practical Application:
AI engineers working on collaborative platforms should prioritize intuitive interfaces and feedback mechanisms. For instance, enabling easy sharing of project updates and incorporating peer review tools to promote collaborative problem solving and continuous improvement.
3. Cultural values and biases shape participation in gaming.
Who gets to play and make, what is considered “good” or “fun”, and how games are made, played, and learned are shaped by cultural values and biases. These biases can unintentionally discourage participation from certain groups, like girls and minorities. Designing more inclusive game-making environments and acknowledging how values frame learning are essential for addressing equity issues and broadening participation in STEM and computing fields.
Practical Application:
AI developers should consider how cultural values and norms might shape user engagement with their product. For instance, when designing AI-powered educational resources for different regions or cultural groups, developers need to take into consideration how learners’ own cultural background and educational experiences might influence their approach to and reception of learning.
4. Tangible interactions can bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds.
Making things visible can deepen understanding of complex systems and promote greater engagement with technology. Connecting digital design with physical making through projects like augmented board games or wearable controllers bridges the gap between abstract and concrete thinking, making computational learning more tangible and playful.
Practical Application:
AI product engineers can use tangible interfaces and construction kits to develop and test new ways to interact with AI systems, making the abstract dimensions of programming more concrete and accessible to different user groups. For example, integrating physical gestures or haptic feedback mechanisms as new ways to control and receive feedback from AI-powered devices.
1. Game making promotes computational thinking.
Making games necessitates understanding the logic of how systems work. Computational thinking concepts like sequencing, looping, events, and conditionals are not just abstract concepts but crucial for creating functional games. Students learn about cause and effect, debugging, and iterative design in the process. Game-making activities can be integrated with other subject matter to further contextualize content learning.
Practical Application:
An AI product engineer could use game design principles to develop educational simulations or training modules that are more engaging and promote deeper learning. For instance, incorporating branching narratives and player choices to teach about ethical considerations in AI development.
2. Game making fosters social learning and collaboration.
Learning is fundamentally a social endeavor. Game-making activities, especially those involving teams and online communities, foster collaboration, communication, and problem-solving skills. The act of sharing, receiving feedback, and iteratively refining projects with and for a real or virtual audience adds purpose and increases motivation, benefiting both the individual and the collective.
Practical Application:
AI engineers working on collaborative platforms should prioritize intuitive interfaces and feedback mechanisms. For instance, enabling easy sharing of project updates and incorporating peer review tools to promote collaborative problem solving and continuous improvement.
3. Cultural values and biases shape participation in gaming.
Who gets to play and make, what is considered “good” or “fun”, and how games are made, played, and learned are shaped by cultural values and biases. These biases can unintentionally discourage participation from certain groups, like girls and minorities. Designing more inclusive game-making environments and acknowledging how values frame learning are essential for addressing equity issues and broadening participation in STEM and computing fields.
Practical Application:
AI developers should consider how cultural values and norms might shape user engagement with their product. For instance, when designing AI-powered educational resources for different regions or cultural groups, developers need to take into consideration how learners’ own cultural background and educational experiences might influence their approach to and reception of learning.
4. Tangible interactions can bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds.
Making things visible can deepen understanding of complex systems and promote greater engagement with technology. Connecting digital design with physical making through projects like augmented board games or wearable controllers bridges the gap between abstract and concrete thinking, making computational learning more tangible and playful.
Practical Application:
AI product engineers can use tangible interfaces and construction kits to develop and test new ways to interact with AI systems, making the abstract dimensions of programming more concrete and accessible to different user groups. For example, integrating physical gestures or haptic feedback mechanisms as new ways to control and receive feedback from AI-powered devices.
Suggested Deep Dive
Chapter: Chapter 4: The Cultural Side: Rethinking Access and Participation in Gaming
This chapter delves into how cultural values and biases affect access and participation in gaming, a topic especially relevant to AI product engineers developing games and applications for diverse user populations.
Memorable Quotes
Foreword. 12
Games are a communicative medium. To make a game is not only to decompose a system, understand its structure and parts, but then also reassemble a model of that system using algorithms (code).
Introduction. 19
Making games never became part of the school’s curricula. Nor did it enter into the scope of digital games for learning some ten years later with the emergence of the serious gaming movement.
Introduction. 31
Connected gaming makes serious gaming altogether more accessible (you can play, make, and learn everywhere – in and out of school), more inclusive (everyone can play, make, and learn with a wide variety of materials), and more comprehensive (it’s not just on-screen but also offscreen).
Chapter 2. 46
Every educator must have felt some envy watching children playing video games: if only that energy could be mobilized in the service of learning something that the educator values.
Chapter 7. 125
Minecraft is more like Legos or the Logo programming language…children programming the computer rather than being programmed by it.
Foreword. 12
Games are a communicative medium. To make a game is not only to decompose a system, understand its structure and parts, but then also reassemble a model of that system using algorithms (code).
Introduction. 19
Making games never became part of the school’s curricula. Nor did it enter into the scope of digital games for learning some ten years later with the emergence of the serious gaming movement.
Introduction. 31
Connected gaming makes serious gaming altogether more accessible (you can play, make, and learn everywhere – in and out of school), more inclusive (everyone can play, make, and learn with a wide variety of materials), and more comprehensive (it’s not just on-screen but also offscreen).
Chapter 2. 46
Every educator must have felt some envy watching children playing video games: if only that energy could be mobilized in the service of learning something that the educator values.
Chapter 7. 125
Minecraft is more like Legos or the Logo programming language…children programming the computer rather than being programmed by it.
Comparative Analysis
Connected Gaming carves its own niche within the field of serious games by focusing on the often-overlooked constructionist approach (making games) as opposed to the dominant instructionist approach (playing games). While James Paul Gee’s work, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, served as an inspiration for many researchers investigating instructionist gaming, our book extends Gee’s learning principles to show how and why making games also provides a powerful context for learning. We align with Gee’s focus on affinity spaces and the social and cultural aspects of gaming but go a step further by emphasizing the need for educators and designers to understand and acknowledge how values frame learning opportunities, especially when it comes to issues of equity and access. Unlike books promoting the maker movement such as Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson, which is largely focused on tangible design and making, and others advocating for coding education such as Connected Code by ourselves, this book’s emphasis is on making games with and for others. And unlike popular books such as The Game Believes in You by Greg Toppo which tend to champion instructionist approaches, and those promoting project-based learning such as DIY Media: New Literacies across the Classroom by Bud Guzzetti, our focus is on connected gaming, where making and playing become intertwined.
Reflection
Connected Gaming presents a compelling argument for bringing game making into formal learning environments, not just as an after-school activity or for “fun,” but as a central part of the K-12 curriculum. The book’s strength lies in the authors’ deep historical understanding of the field and firsthand experience conducting research on constructionist gaming. They provide concrete examples, practical applications, and policy recommendations for implementing connected gaming in diverse educational settings. One potential weakness is the book’s heavy emphasis on Minecraft, which although popular and widely used, might overshadow other important developments in game making and modding. The book might benefit from exploring other successful examples of connected gaming platforms and communities, particularly those used outside of the US. Furthermore, as it has been nearly a decade since the book was published, some of the technical discussions concerning particular tools and platforms may no longer be as relevant given the rapid evolution and emergence of different tools in the interim. Nevertheless, Connected Gaming has had a significant impact on the field of serious gaming, offering a more inclusive vision of learning by integrating making, playing, and critical analysis of digital media within a larger gaming ecology.
Flashcards
What are ‘low floors’ in the context of game design tools?
The principle that educational tools should be easy to use and inviting for beginners.
What are ‘high ceilings’ in the context of game design tools?
The principle that educational tools should allow for increasing complexity and deeper learning as users gain expertise.
What are ‘wide walls’ in the context of game design tools?
The principle that educational tools should support a wide range of user interests and expertise, allowing for diverse project possibilities.
What are ‘open windows’ in the context of game design tools?
The principle that educational tools should facilitate sharing and community engagement by connecting users with online platforms and each other.
What is instructionist gaming?
Making games for learning that are specifically designed to teach academic content and skills to students.
What is constructionist gaming?
Learning through designing and creating games, fostering computational thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills.
What is connected gaming?
The integrated approach to gaming that emphasizes both making and playing games within a larger gaming ecology, blurring the lines between player and designer.
What is modding?
The practice of modifying or extending existing video games, often by players themselves, demonstrating the desire to not just consume but create.
What is metagaming?
Any activities related to playing games that extend beyond the actual gameplay, such as participating in online forums or developing cheat sites.
What are ‘low floors’ in the context of game design tools?
The principle that educational tools should be easy to use and inviting for beginners.
What are ‘high ceilings’ in the context of game design tools?
The principle that educational tools should allow for increasing complexity and deeper learning as users gain expertise.
What are ‘wide walls’ in the context of game design tools?
The principle that educational tools should support a wide range of user interests and expertise, allowing for diverse project possibilities.
What are ‘open windows’ in the context of game design tools?
The principle that educational tools should facilitate sharing and community engagement by connecting users with online platforms and each other.
What is instructionist gaming?
Making games for learning that are specifically designed to teach academic content and skills to students.
What is constructionist gaming?
Learning through designing and creating games, fostering computational thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills.
What is connected gaming?
The integrated approach to gaming that emphasizes both making and playing games within a larger gaming ecology, blurring the lines between player and designer.
What is modding?
The practice of modifying or extending existing video games, often by players themselves, demonstrating the desire to not just consume but create.
What is metagaming?
Any activities related to playing games that extend beyond the actual gameplay, such as participating in online forums or developing cheat sites.