Bruno: The Limits of Game-Based Learning

As a player and fan I've always wanted to believe that video games are poised to revolutionize education. Contrary to years (decades?) of breathless commentary, though, that revolution has conspicuously failed to materialize.

Kris Wheaton at Mercyhurst College has been working on a great series of posts that explain exactly why game-based learning hasn't lived up to the hype. He identifies a large number of challenges, including the massive costs of developing most video games and the virtual impossibility of making a learning game that will appeal to a broad-enough audience. He also points out that educational games have actually been with us for a very long time, so video games per se don't have the revolutionary potential we might assume.

I had been waiting to post a link until Wheaton's series was completed, but it's been over a month since the last update. Here's hoping we can nudge him to lay out the rest of his thoughts. - PB (@MrPABruno) (image source)

Comments

[online jobs data entry]

Thanks for the quality post........I found it really interesting and thought provoking!

[Kris]

Paul,

Thanks for the encouragement! I hope to get back to the series in the next week or so. Life has, as they say, gotten in the way...

Kris

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[A Plus Tutoring]

I'm also a fan of educational video games. Though Kris Wheaton has his own point of view about this but I still enjoy it much.