This investigation narrates how digital game playing while integrating augmented reality can help enhance higher-order thinking. Digital game playing, when referring to games played on computers, game consoles, or handhelds, can be considered a powerful learning tool in education. The central problem of this investigation lies in the fact that…

This dissertation examines the possibilities and anxieties that attend a notion haunting Western thought since at least Kant--that reality itself is a revisable construct, a kind of collective game with social and physical rules that simultaneously delimit and solicit radical interactivity. Investigating experiments in the gamification of reality…

This book illuminates the lived experience of a group of primary school children engaged in virtual world play during a year-long after-school club. Shaped by post-structuralist theory and New Literacy Studies, it outlines a playful, participatory and emergent methodological approach, referred to as 'rhizomic ethnography'. This 'hybrid' text uses…

This article takes as its starting point a recognition of play as meaning-making, and the playground as a rich and dynamic 'meaning-makerspace' where children draw moment-to-moment, rapidly and readily on the multiple resources available to them to make signs of their interest evident. These resources are drawn from their own lifeworlds, folkloric…

In this excerpt from the author's new book, "Watch Me Play: Twitch and the Rise of Game Live Streaming," (Princeton University Press, 2018), she discusses some of the work game live streamers undertake to convert their private play into public entertainment. She details the layers involved in a typical broadcast and argues that this…

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyse the effect of 8 weeks of Pokémon GO on physical fitness (cardiorespiratory fitness [CRF], Speed/Agility [S/A], and muscular strength [MS]) and fatness (body mass index [BMI], percentage of body fat [%BF], and waist-hip index), as well as possible differences between weekly physical activity (PA)…

Background: Research into digital practices and cultures repeatedly calls attention to the complexity of communication spaces and meaning-making practices. With the blurring of boundaries between online and offline, these entangled practices involve the interweaving of human, material, semiotic, and discursive practices. Purpose: This introductory…

In this article, the authors discuss the light and dark side of attachments and attachment style in physical and digital worlds. They argue that many games offer opportunities for the generation of new and meaningful attachments to both physical and digital others. They discuss two "fundamental attachment errors" and show how these can…

Learning physics often requires overcoming common misconceptions based on naïve interpretations of observations in the everyday world. One proposed way to help learners build appropriate physics intuitions is to expose them to computer simulations in which motion is based on Newtonian principles. In addition, playing video games that require…

Many early developmental theorists such as Freud, Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky suggested that play--which the authors of this article define as both playful activity and playful thought--had the power to influence the moral emotions, behaviors, and reasoning of children. More recent researchers have also found evidence of moral development in…

Effective design of training-related games (games for training and/or assessment) requires synergy between the mechanisms for delivering instructional content and the mechanisms for learning game play and game functionality (Becker, 2006). The learning domain must be embedded as a core game mechanic: that is, the game cannot be advanced or won…

This paper examines the ways in which Mattel's "Barbie Girls" and "Xtractaurs," online sites aimed at girls and boys of six years of age and up, respectively, offer markedly distinct literate and semiotic resources for their young users. Analysis focuses on the multimodal layers of meaning and the mediating tools,…

When kids play video games, they want to perfect their skills, advance to the next level, and become a master. It is the kind of focus that many teachers would love to see in their classrooms. From elementary through high school, computer games are being woven into the curriculum to engage students in new ways. However, many schools lack the…

In this study, we explored a new experimental methodology for investigating children's (ages 10 to 14) stances with respect to the ethics of online identity play. We used a scenario about peer identity misrepresentation embedded in a 3D virtual game environment and randomly assigned 265 elementary students (162 female, 103 male) to three…

This study, based on experiential play methodology was used to explore student engagement while playing "Medal of Honor (2002)" and "Call of Duty (2003)". It identifies some of the key issues related to the use of video games and simulations during the training phase of game play. Research into the effects of gaming in education has been extremely…