Educational uses of games

Brian Smith and Bart Pursel in the College of Information Sciences and Technology ask students to investigate the design and potential of video games and online virtual worlds for use in education and business.

In Pursel’s “IST 110 Information, People, and Technology” course, students explore the virtual world Second Life, developing objects and evaluating how the environment is being used for business purposes. He said that by creating items such as interactive signs and even full-scale buildings on the college’s Second Life island of “Istania,” they learn to use scripting language and 3-D modeling tools. He said, “We’re throwing the kitchen sink at Second Life to see what it works best for.”

Smith teaches a graduate design studio course in the College of Education’s Instructional Systems program (INSYS 597A) in which the class is developing a history game for sixth graders. The course centers on prototyping educational materials and the process of proceeding from an idea to a storyboard. “There’s a whole range of techniques I want them to get through that now I’ve embedded in the process of doing game design,” he said.

The work that Pursel and Smith are doing represents a growing interest in both the potential educational uses of games and the impact of games on our culture. Penn State's Educational Gaming Commons initiative was created to establish community of users who will support both physical and virtual infrastructure to promote the broad impact of gaming within the teaching, learning, and research environment.

For more about Brian Smith and Bart Pursel and to read other faculty success stories, see http://tlt.its.psu.edu/success-stories/. For more information about the Educational Gaming Commons, see http://gaming.psu.edu/