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This article aims to better understand game-based learning teaching practices through an interview with Zack Gilbert, a 6th grade teacher who is incorporating video games Civilization IV (Civ) and Minecraft into his social studies classroom.

This article is based on an interview with Zack Gilbert, regarding his practices and ideas toward using video games to facilitate learning.

In this interview, he shared his journey exploring teaching practices and experiences applying Civ and Minecraft to social studies class, which may serve as an example for other teachers.

The pioneering and successful experiences of Zack Gilbert may offer an example or insights for other teachers who intend to incorporate video games into their classrooms.

This paper aims to explore the characteristics of playful literacies in case study research examining digital games in secondary English classrooms. It analyzes how educators use play as a resource for meaning-making and the impacts of play on student learning.

The authors used a keyword search in relevant academic databases to identify articles within specified search parameters. This was followed by bibliographic branching to identify additional articles. Following the identification of 30 articles, two rounds of open coding were used to identify themes for analysis.

The literature revealed five types of playful pedagogical practices: single-player gameplay, turn-taking gameplay, multiplayer play, play-as-design and little or no gameplay. Discussion of these findings suggests that classroom play was a highly social activity across case studies. Furthermore, boundaries between types of play and their contributions to learning were blurred and often disrupted normative approaches to curriculum and teaching.

Given the novelty of replacing traditional texts with digital games in English classrooms, this study represents an important moment to pause and review the literature to date on a particular, understudied aspect of digital games in English curricula: their playfulness. This is especially important given the innovative ways in which digital play can shift thinking about meaning-making and narrative, two historically dominant concerns within the discipline of English.

This research explored the intersection of cognitive processes, emotions and their impacts on digital game-based vocabulary learning (DGVL) among university students. Recognizing the scant research in this area, especially with integrating innovative technologies, this study aims to understand the influence of these elements using advanced monitoring tools.

This inquiry was carried out as an observational study involving 44 university students segmented into three English language proficiency levels: high, intermediate and low based on their English course scores. The methodological tools included a portable eye tracker to observe visual behaviors and deep learning technology to identify and analyze the participants’ emotional responses and engagement with the DGVL during the learning process.

The results showed that distinct fixation sequences and variations in visual attention during DGVL were correlated with different levels of competency, suggesting a direct correlation between visual engagement and language competence. In addition, emotional transitions, predominantly from engagement (“flow”) to challenge (“frustration”), were common among participants, reflecting the emotional dynamics of learning. Furthermore, all participants consistently focused on the English vocabulary definitions, indicative of their targeted approach to understanding and test preparation. These findings highlighted the intricate dynamics between emotions and cognitive processes in learning environments.

Contribution of this study shows the interplay of cognitive engagement and emotional experiences in the context of DGVL. It underscored the complex nature of these factors and their collective influence on learners’ visual and emotional engagement, offering valuable implications for educational strategies and technological applications in language learning.

In this five-week study, two teacher educators and one preservice teacher brought console and virtual reality games into an elective middle school language arts course in order to explore aspects of literacy as a social practice. To the extent possible in a public school, researchers sought to construct the classroom as an affinity space, treat the games as literature worthy of thoughtful response, and position students as co-investigators. Small groups of students played games and reflected on their experiences in writing, class discussion, and a culminating interview. The evolving discourse was framed with questions designed to evoke student explanations of their thinking related to their play experiences. Thematic analysis of student writing, researcher field notes, artifacts from large group meetings, and final interviews revealed the importance of community to the gamers' progress in the game and to their well-being in the classroom.

The research described here presents an approach to gamification for the classroom. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether students would perceive the gamification activities in a positive light. Previous research has contended that students need a positive mental attitude for effective learning. The core question was to examine student attitudes to gamification, not the success of the gamification itself.

Based on a survey of the gamification literature, and particularly drawing on the work of Groh (2012), this system is designed with three key principles in mind: relatedness, competence and autonomy. Classroom activities and associated software were designed and implemented. Almost 200 students were surveyed to determine their attitude to the gamification. The survey included both Likert-scale and qualitative responses.

A majority of the students reported that they found the gamification useful and enjoyable, only a minority of students (around 15 per cent) disagreeing with such statements. However, only a minority of students perceived a relationship between the gamification activities and games. The authors conclude that well-designed gamification systems can be well-received by students and suggest that the success of gamification projects may not lie in their ability to recreate the experience of a video game, but in the strength of the relatedness, competence and autonomy of the student experience.

The research is limited by the nature of the participants, who were drawn from videogame and media units and who may be predisposed to game-like activities.

This research demonstrates that students are able to perceive value in gamification in the classroom.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the feasibility of modifying a commercial off‐the‐shelf video game that incorporates elements of information literacy.

This paper examines six game design elements of educational video games and discusses the resources required to design and build Benevolent Blue, a “modded” video game.

This paper provides a discussion of the skills, time and funding required to build a “mod” incorporating information literacy.

Although modifying commercial videogames is quite popular, very little discussion or work is written about “modding” and its potential use designing video games for libraries. Further research is required to determine if the knowledge transfer of information literacy skills occurs with players. Additional study could look at incorporating information literacy into video games of different genres and well as the impact that video games have on undergraduate student engagement and satisfaction.

This paper outlines the resources needed to modify a commercial off‐the‐shelf video game and provides suggestions on how others in libraries might do the same.

This paper looks at serious educational games in a new way – the modification of commercial off the shelf games to develop complete game play experiences that sit outside the classroom and emphasize the importance of play.

Recreational use of MP3 players, cell phones, computers and/or video game units is on the rise among today’s students. This article helps teachers integrating economics into their classrooms plug into this M2 frenzy. It identifies numerous high-quality resources with economic content that are readily available in the media at relatively low costs to Kindergarten-12 teachers and their students. Student preferences for different types of media guide the choices of content in economic education described here. By using the revealed preferences of the students, teachers can be more successful at engaging students in advancing along the economics learning curve. Hopefully, their engagement will spill over and entice students to learn more outside the classroom.

The objective of this research is to measure Chinese students' progress in gaining new vocabulary in Spanish at the B1 level after using the serious video game Guadalingo.

A group of 30 Chinese students participated in an experiment, in which 16 of them played Guadalingo; the other 14 were used as the control group. The experimental group played five lessons of the video game in a period of 10 days. Before and after the lessons, students were tested on their knowledge of the vocabulary from these units.

Results have shown that the use of Guadalingo helped these students to enhance their knowledge of the target vocabulary by 17.40% after the completion of the missions.

Based on our result, the use of video games seems to be a suitable and great support to the foreign language classroom, and the use of Guadalingo could be considered a valuable tool for this purpose.

The emergence of digital technological advances pushes educators for understanding and utilizing these technologies for classroom use. The current generation of teenagers has grown up in a networked world where everyone is immersed in technology-based gadgets in everyday life. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate video game-based academic and information literacy (IL) learning of teenagers of private schools of Lahore city. Lahore is the capital city of the province of Punjab. Literary works highlighted the importance of video games in developing academic and IL skills; therefore, the current research aims to reveal this fact in local context.

The present study adopted qualitative research design and utilized phenomenological research method to achieve study’s objectives. The data were collected through face-to-face interviews. The study participants were teenagers (aged 13‒19 years) of elite economic class of private schools where students normally owned latest video game gadgets.

Based on the study findings, it is elucidated that playing video games has a positive impact on teenagers’ learning, and it promotes quick thinking. The participants exert effort to achieve goals, take up challenges for completing different points at various stages of games and interact with online competitors. It enhanced their social communication, problem-solving and IL (searching/locating and evaluating) skills.

The present study has some limitations. First, sample is limited to elite economic private schools of Lahore. Second, the lack of availability of regular video game players has limited the sample size, as Pakistan is a developing country and limited numbers of teenagers use and can afford gaming gadgets. Lastly, the results of this study are based on students’ perceptions, so there is a need to measure actual learning with assessments.

The results of the study are beneficial for the game developers, teachers, librarians and parents. The education sector may support video games usability as learning tools.

Gaming and interactive virtual simulation environments support a learner‐centered educational model allowing learners to work through problems acquiring knowledge through an active, experiential learning approach. To develop effective virtual simulations and serious games, the views and perceptions of learners and educators must be assessed and taken into account, regarding their use in the classroom. This paper aims to present the results of two surveys conducted to assess faculty and student perceptions.

Both surveys were conducted at University of Ontario Institute of Technology. The surveys were made available to students and faculty members via a link on an institute‐wide internal course management system.

Results indicate that students and educators appreciate the use of virtual simulations and serious games, but care must be taken to ensure that they are relevant to the course material and that educators are familiar with their use to assist students, should problems arise.

This is the first study of its kind conducted at a laptop‐based university and the results are important when considering the development of virtual simulations and serious games for teaching and learning.