" With a significant existing research base that focuses on the efficacy of computerized game-based learning, researchers should shift their research focus to how to best implement it in classrooms,” says Forbes contributor Barbara Kurshan.

Kurshan discusses the evolution of educational games from the 1980s onward with the advent of games like Reader Rabbit, culminating with the current “gamification” of culture.

"There is a growing body of literature that draws on learning principles, theories and models to explain why computerized game-based learning is effective, but there is limited research with practical guidance for how (when, who and under what conditions) games should be incorporated into the learning process to maximize their benefits,” Kurshan says.

She argues that further research should be sanctioned to determined how educational games can find "the sweet spot between pedagogy and engagement where learning intersects with fun.”

Entrepreneurs, she says, must partner with academic researchers to make this happen.

She uses Games and Learning Assessment Lab (GlassLab) as an example of an edtech company that does this.

"GlassLab uses an innovative approach to collect gameplay data that serves as an assessment of student learning. Teachers can review and act on this personalized student reporting in real time without interrupting the learning with assessment,” she says.

This kind of approach, she argues, helps educational game designers to find a happy medium between focusing on the learning experience yet making it enjoyable.

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Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

2/11/2016