Educational Video Games and Technology Integration

This chapter discusses the affordances and transportability of educational video games. Scholars and educational psychologists have recognized that playing challenging educational video games requires complex problem-solving, the acquisition of knowledge, and application of new skills. We report on the results of a 4-year study evaluating the extent to which a video game approach to undergraduate engineering education increased student engagement and learning, as well as the extent to which it was transportable to other engineering courses and universities. The studies highlight some unique affordances of educational video games for real-life learning. At the same time, they also suggest that the benefits do not lie in the educational technology alone, underscoring the vast importance of ongoing technological support, adaptability supports, student supports, and especially, teacher professional development when an instructor attempts to implement sophisticated technologies to teach complex content.