Game Design: Academic Resources

     The six sources I found all had something in which games were tested with students, or teachers talked about games and their students, all relating to language arts.

    http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?sid=0f9e230b-c404-4e15-b560-0af106818705%40sessionmgr4004&vid=0&hid=4109&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=a9h&AN=20430351

"Using Theater Games to Enhance Language Arts Learning", was the first one I looked at. What was done was different types of games were used in order to find out what ones students learned from most. Some were more visual while others were more verbal, as to test out different areas. All the games were theater games, so students were actively involved in each

http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=e207e8b9-f0cc-458b-a2a9-1cb3a25aab05%40sessionmgr4005&vid=1&hid=4109

"Promoting Language Arts Through Vocabulary Development with Internet Resources in the Elementary Classroom", had students use electronic games for learning vocabulary, rather than traditional school methods; they used, "hands-on-learning", and found that it was more effective than traditional methods of learning vocabulary.

    http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=3e4f1979-c0e5-4162-89cb-7ed9729a3b08%40sessionmgr4003&vid=1&hid=4109

     "The Games Children Play" had children do learning games with parents and such at home, and found that students who did not participate at home, were outperformed by those who did, and that the games had helped those students who had played them at home. 

    http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=19b0cf37-1bed-4523-b903-49a2044753ab%40sessionmgr4003&vid=1&hid=4109

     "Fighting baddies and collecting bananas: teacher's perceptions of games-based literacy learning" was about teacher's opinions on using games in their curriculums, and found that while many teachers do want to do this, problems of budget, perceived lack of administrative support, and even fear that colleagues would not approve, usually keep teachers from incorporating games into their students' learning experiences, limiting their students to traditional methods, not all of which actually help students learn. 

http://www.itu.dk/people/jrbe/DMOK/Artikler/Computer%20games%20and%20learning%202006.pdf

     "Computer Games and Learning: Digital Game-Based Learning" explores video games as being more than just entertainment in our digital age, and why they are good sources for education as well. One of the strongest arguments in this article, is that newer generations are "digital natives", people who are already used to doing most things over a digital medium, so it's not really a leap to learn through a video game, as much as it might be to learn through a more traditional method.

http://telearn.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/19/04/53/PDF/kirriemuir-j-2004-r8.pdf

     "Literature Review in Games and Learning" recognizes the importance of video games in the lives of children and in our culture as a whole, explores contemporary games for leisure as well as developing educational games for children, as well as the failings of educational games that have come out so far. It admits that while interesting, using video games in classes is also challenging, considering the unorthodoxy of the medium in classroom settings; the article even goes so far as to discuss the future of games in the classroom as well. It's a pretty long article, thirty-seven pages, but is quite detailed.