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This paper aims to describe innovations at the Games + Learning + Society Center to explore the future of education.

This paper is an overview of several published studies and design interventions.

Commercial partnerships, particularly generating copyrightable materials can maximize impact and diversify research funding, but they also run counter to the culture and purpose of many research universities.

Researchers interested in forging new partnerships to maximize impact might explore relationships with commercial entities but be aware that they are running counter to the grain of most institutions and goals. Other universities of different sizes, ages and orientations may have different results.

Building private partnerships requires different staffing and skill sets than traditional research. Guidance for staffing key roles and projects are provided.

This paper is a reflection on unique research initiative that generated revenue and helped shape a subfield of education.

This paper (published in two consecutive issues of On the Horizon) aims to contextualize research on games for learning by describing the current drivers of innovation in learning technologies situated within broader trends in open educational publishing.

The paper begins with an overview of changes, driven largely by technology in educational technology and publishing. Using massively open online courseware as an example, it describes how these factors are aligning to challenge the status quo. Next, it provides a brief discussion of changes in higher education more generally, including changes in education as a marketplace, reductions to state funding for education and changes in the research enterprise, particularly the rapid growth of the scientific enterprise and leveling off of federal support.

The paper pivots to describe the most recent chapter of over 15 years of work within the Games + Learning + Society (GLS) Center, which has sought to create innovative models of learning, innovative models for funding and conducting research in light of these challenges, and innovative ways of engaging the public.

The assumption driving GLS (and this paper) is that rather than wait for these changes to happen to us, educational technologists can help drive the future by creating it. A good way to get the kinds of learning systems we want is to go about creating them and seeing what works. During this time, GLS developed and released over a dozen game-based learning titles, raised US$10,000,000s in grants and contracts, graduated over 30 doctoral students and post docs, spun out multiple companies, created materials in use by 10,000s (or more) students across the world, and helped build a nascent field of games and learning.

The paper pivots to describe the most recent chapter of over 15 years of work within the GLS Center, which has sought to create innovative models of learning, innovative models for funding and conducting research in light of these challenges and innovative ways of engaging the public.

This brief introductory paper aims to outline seven key principles for educators thinking about life in a continuously partial virtual world.

The seven educational design principles are based on observations of both successes and failures the authors have encountered in their work as the “Games, Learning and Society” (GLS) Initiative.

The seven principles of virtual world cultures that educators should address (if not capitalize on) are: ubiquitous access to information, overlapping copresences, collective intelligence, learners as information producers and not just consumers, authentic participation, learners as designers of messages, and student autonomy.

Already, inside and outside of classrooms, students participate in virtual worlds of their own choosing with genuine consequence for what and how they learn. As such virtual spaces/communities become increasingly ubiquitous to work and play, traditional power structures in schools fall under increasing pressure. This brief paper provides initial heuristics that educators might use to design compelling curricula that take for granted that students will access online content whenever they so please.

Rather than advocating the effort to continue firewalling out the digital world and cultures of today's youth, the paper suggests building on them.

David M. Marcovitz suggests that public education has not changed very much in the last 100 years, in spite of information and communication technology (ICT). Is ICT simply another educational fad or will it have a lasting impact on K-12 education? Lisa C. Yamagata-Lynch and Sharon Smaldino maintain there have been several examples of effective uses of technology in K-12. However, the inability of public schools and higher education to properly train teachers has severely limited the success of using computer technology in most public schools. Sharon Tettegah, Diana Betout, and Kona Taylor describes cyber-bullying, as a phenomenon that is creating difficulty for educators and has led to the humiliation of many students across the nation. David Williamson Shaffer and Kurt D. Squire argue that researchers of educational technology should study Pasteur's Quadrant for “use-inspired basic research” to create better models to evaluate educational practices and the use of technology. John Keller and Matthew J. Stuve discuss teacher quality, a topic that has taken on greater importance since NCLB. They also talk about the use of “teacher as brand” as a construct to further affect teacher quality. In connection, branding has been a very successful venture in the commercial context.

This paper seeks to build a theory of mobile media learning by studying indigenous use of these media and theorizing what impact they might have on learning and education.

Using a critical approach, the paper reviews contemporary developments in mobile media learning particularly those happening outside of schools. It includes reviews of games and/or media, literature (particularly firsthand accounts published by designers and/or users), and analyses of online communities.

Although mobile media learning has mostly been framed as “anytime, anywhere” their more profound impact may be in the experience of place. Mobile media enables a multiplicity and hybridity of place that causes opportunities and challenges to learning and education.

To date, there has been relatively little close study of how youth use such media in educational and learning contexts, and more case studies are needed to understand the impact of mobile media on learning.

Those designing learning environments for a mobile media‐enabled world will need to rethink some basic assumptions about classroom configurations and learning. Rather than designing for large groups, educators might design for students to be in multiple places in time and place.

As handheld computing initiatives continue to proliferate, educators might benefit from taking a step back and reconsidering how mobile media is understood, and this paper argues that looking at mobile media as media with unique affordances makes new kinds of interactions come to light.

In his book Pasteur's Quadrant, Donald Stokes (1997) argued that research projects can be described by their contributions to theoretical understanding and the solution of practical problems. Building on this model, scholars have suggested that educational research should focus more or less exclusively on what Stokes called “use-inspired basic research.” With this move has come a focus on projects with the potential to create systemic change – and the concurrent devaluation of naturalistic studies of learning in context and design research to develop innovative educational interventions. We argue that this current predilection is based on a fundamental misreading of the processes through which scientific investigation addresses practical problems, and (more important) is counter-productive for the field of educational technology. To make this case, we look more closely at the operationalization of Stokes’ quadrant model in the field of education, suggesting that its short-term focus on systemic change is based on a misunderstanding of history. We use Latour's (1983) study of Pasteur to suggest an alternative lever model for the research-based transformation of educational practices through educational technologies. By way of illustration, we use a brief example of a research project in educational technology to ground a discussion of the broader implications of this alternative conceptualization of the process of education research.

A growing number of educators are turning to games for a model of next‐generation learning environments. To date, there has been a lack of critical inquiry into what kind of learning occurs through game play, and how games get learned by their players. Aims to plug this gap

This paper is a critical study of Viewtiful Joe, a cult‐classic sidescrolling 2D fighting game for the Nintendo Gamecube. Noted for its difficulty, Viewtiful Joe is an interesting case because, as a fighting game, it embodies many of the principles fundamental to the medium, most of which are missed by educators illiterate regarding the medium. It shows the cognitive complexity that goes into a fighting game, as well as a cutting‐edge example of how to manage that complexity. Far from button‐mashing, success in Viewtiful Joe requires the player to learn to read the game symbol systems, understand Viewtiful Joe's capacities, and see potential interchanges between them.

The paper analyzes how Viewtiful Joe is structured to balance flow and novelty, encourage players both to develop new skills and to master those they have. Finally, the paper examines how learning occurs through game play as an activity system, using player‐generated FAQs to analyze how gamers represent their practice and suggest theories of expert game practice.

Central to this paper is the argument that playing Viewtiful Joe is a performative act, where declarative knowledge, while clearly present for players, is secondary to players' ability to see and do in real‐time.