Games as learning tools are in my mind A LOT these days. And so it happens with this gamefi-learni-cation happening all around that the topic is in many peoples’ minds. A question that comes up when I have conversations around the topic (which happens pretty often) is what are effective strategies to design a game for learning. The obvious answer is that games for learning are first and foremost games and in order to make them you should take all the steps you would take to create a fun game. A rule of thumb I apply whenever I design a game for the classroom is to ask myself whether or not a kid would play this again outside of the school context, say at home with friends. If the answer to that question is NO - then it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

Gamification has come under some fire from gamers recently, specifically since this post from Ian Bogost (since republished in The Atlantic). It could be the beginning of a backlash against the use of video games and game culture in a wide variety of spaces. Bogost is ruthless in his attack on the corporate world's foray into gaming, but what of serious games and the broader concepts around gamification and game-based learning in education? Where does this leave the push by schools and educators who have been exploring the use of games and game-based learning as a way of engaging students, teaching twenty-first century skills and finding ways to make the technologically-saturated lives of our children relevant in the classroom?

Ha, got your attention, eh?  But this is actually an important topic, of the 'reality is broken' variety.  Like the fact that we're obsessed over sexting and other digital phenomena related to sex, yet we have done little to improve sex education in this country.  In fact, we have vilified and cut funding to Planned Parenthood and other organizations that save people's lives by providing them critical information that affects them physically, emotionally, spiritually.

Lee Sheldon is an accomplished screenwriter and game writer, having worked on TV shows like ST:TNG and Charlie's Angels as well as the Agatha Christie series of games from The Adventure Company. He now teaches game design courses for Indiana University's Department of Telecommunications. Instead of assigning his students a grade at the end of the course, he instead starts every student at 0 xp and they earn points through completing quests like solo projects and quizzes in addition to grouping up for guild projects and pick up groups. How many points they have at the end of the course determines their actual "grade."