Abstract:
In the past 15 to 20 years there has been an increased interest in the use of games for learning. A considerable amount of work has already been done by educational researchers and theorists (Gee, Squire, Malone, Lepper, Shaffer, etc.) to identify and to operationalize the native affordances of games that make them good for learning. Unfortunately this has not led to widespread adoption of game-based learning in the classroom. The root cause for this is the paucity of professional development opportunities centered on the proper integration of games within the curriculum. This article will discuss why professional development is the proper avenue for increasing the integration of games aligned with desired outcomes, what a game-based learning professional development curriculum should look like, and report on an ongoing game-based learning professional development opportunity.
