Young People, Online Gaming Culture, and Education

Abstract

The capacity of video games to engage and challenge players through increasingly complex and demanding stages, and the range of cognitive, linguistic and sociocultural practices generated by games and game play, have led to increased interest in the use and study of videogames in schools. Views of digital games as "hard fun" or "serious play" have important implications for education, problematizing assumptions about what students can and might be asked to do, about teaching and learning, and about the ways in which curriculum is resourced and organized. To fully capitalize on games' potential to enrich learning, the nature of play, the kinds of play entailed in playing games of varying genres, the experience of game play in and out-of-school and the relationship between them, all need to be carefully considered and explored.