Learning through Digital Game Design and Building in a Participatory Culture

← VIII | IX → Acknowledgments

Throughout this book, I reference projects that we have conducted to substantiate the points and ideas. By “we,” I mean work I conducted with colleagues to which K-12 students, preservice and in-service teachers, and graduate students have contributed. This is truly a collaborative effort and every participant deserves recognition. Although not possible to name everyone who contributed, I will try my best.

First, this book would be impossible without the countless hours of the work produced by the participants. The graduate students and preservice teachers who were involved in my projects include students who took my game-based learning courses and other methods courses, in particular, Steve Martin, Chris Appleton, Shai Nathoo, Arkhadi Pustaka, Robert Louis, Yang Liu, Scott McEwen, Elise Vandermeiden, and Collette Lemieux.

Second, many colleagues have supported this work in different ways. James Paul Gee, a wonderful mentor and supporter, has been instrumental in my work related to digital games. I am extremely grateful for his never-ending support, including writing the Foreword for this book. Henry Jenkins at the University of South California deserves special recognition because of his continued support. Several years ago when Henry was a professor at MIT, I spent part of my sabbatical year as a visiting scholar to work with Henry and his teams on his research projects. That experience of meeting and working with like-minded people, including Erin Reilly, Eric Klopfer and Philip Tan, has further inspired my interest and passion in game-based learning, in particular learning through game design and building. Ian Winchester at the University of Calgary has been an insightful supporter. Many hours of conversation about enactivism shaped my ideas about this new paradigm. Richard Tay at the La Trobe University in Australia was part of The Driven project, and I thank him for his intellectual inspiration on integrating games to the field of road safety. Special thanks also go to David Wizer at Towson University, who has provided continued practical and moral support.

← IX | X → Third, I also want to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRCC), Towson University, the University of Calgary, and MIT, which provided financial support to the game projects discussed in this book. In a similar vein, my department (the Department of Educational Technology and Literacies) deserves thanks for acknowledging the value of my research and for supporting my work in this area.

Fourth, I thank my series editors, Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel, for their insightful comments and invaluable feedback. I also want to express my sincere appreciation to Lisa Twiss and Keturah Fountaine for their help in editing this book and providing suggestions. Thanks also to Peter Lang editorial members including Phyllis Korper, Chris Myers, and Jackie Pavlovic.

Last, but definitely not least, I want to express my gratitude to my special family members. My dad, a math professor his entire life, was my first mentor and role model who encouraged and inspired my career in academia. My mom taught me how to be persistent to get through the tough times. My two kids, Vivian and Richard, are both the initial and continued inspiration for my interest in digital game-based learning. In particular, I thank Vivian for her patience in editing my work at any time without hesitation. And my dear husband, Liang, deserves a very special acknowledgment for his unceasing encouragement and support that have allowed me to find and pursue my academic passions.

This book is grounded on my years of work in the field of education, and more specifically game based learning. Parts of chapter one were co-written with Bruce Clark and Ian Winchester and initially published as “Instructional design and technology with enactivism: A shift of paradigm?” in British Journal of Educational Technology (2010), reprinted by permission of the publisher, Taylor & Francis Ltd, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals and http://www.informaworld.com. The Do It Yourself project discussed in this book also contains components of my paper titled “Understanding enactivism: A study of affordances and constraints of engaging practicing teachers as digital game designers” in Educational Research & Development (2012), 60(5), 785-806, reprinted by permission of the publisher, Springer, http://www.editorialmanager.com/etrd/ and http://www.springer.com.

This book have elements of my previous published papers: Li, Q. (2010), Digital game building: Learning in a participatory culture, in Educational Research, 52(4), 427-433; and Li, Q. (2013), Digital games and learning: A ← X | XI → study of preservice teachers’ perceptions. International Journal of Play, 2(2), 101-116, reprinted by permission of the publisher, Taylor & Francis Ltd, http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals and http://www.informaworld.com.

The Driven project discussed in the book contains elements from the coauthored paper Li, Tay & Louis (2012). Designing digital games to teach road safety: A study of graduate students’ experiences, Loading, 6(9), 17-35. http://journals.sfu.ca/loading/index.php/loading/article/view/102/114 reprinted with the permission from the journal.

This book also uses materials from the following papers:

• CHAPTER ONE •

← 2 | 3 → Enactivism: A Framework for Understanding Cognition and Beyond

This chapter starts with a discussion of learning, knowledge, and cognition. The introduction describes several stories, one of which is a story of Sam, an elementary school teacher, and his kindergarten students, playing with Crayon Physics, an online game. These stories demonstrate that learning can occur through learners’ conscious and unconscious interactions with their environment without any specific, predetermined goals. This leads to the introduction of enactivism, an emerging philosophical paradigm. Such discussion is contextualized by comparing enactivism to constructivism and behaviourism. Then, leading figures in the field of education—Lev Vygotsky, Seymour Papert, and James Paul Gee—are profiled. The ideology of their work forming a foundation for digital game-based learning is discussed. This chapter concludes with a proposed model based on enactivism, integrating learning by game building and Web 2.0.

Learning and Cognition

Prologue