by Drew Davidson and Sara DeWitt
There is a lot of talk at the government, industry, and producer level about the promise of games in education, but has anyone really proven true educational outcomes from informal gaming? In this presentation, Sara and Drew will share some of the most effective gameplay mechanics for teaching kids, discuss how challenges and rewards influence outcomes, showcase video of kids engaged in gameplay, present some of the latest theories for skill-scaffolding within games, and share outcome data from real educational gaming evaluations. Using specific examples, we will show how learning and well-designed games share important traits (like fun, frustration, failure and flow) that get kids engaged and motivated.