Serious Games: Incorporating Video Games in the Classroom.

Abstract

16 Today’s schoolchildren bear the label Generation N or the Net Generation because they have grown up in a networked world where technology is not a novelty but normal in everyday life. Current research suggests Net Gen students are more likely to engage in online games than to interact with other students or the instructor when in face-to-face learning environments.1 The K–12 arena in particular—often lacking the technology that students expect in the classroom—has faced an uphill battle to engage these students. Technological advances in the new millennium may evoke disquiet among administrators and teachers taxed with understanding how to harness new capabilities and merge them with sound pedagogy. To understand how gaming might bridge the gap between student interest and how lessons are taught, graduate students in science education at North Carolina State University (NCSU) took an online course that incorporated role-playing games.