Learning in Real and Virtual Worlds ― Commercial Video Games As Educational Tools

Packed with critical analysis and real-life examples, this book explores how video games can cultivate learning. Lacasa takes several commercial video games and shows how they can be used both in and out of the classroom to teach initiative and problem-solving, encourage creativity, promote literacy, and develop reasoning skills. The result of almost ten years spent discovering video games, learning to play, conversing with their designers and distributors, and working in the classroom with young people and teachers, Lacasa's work uncovers the educational value already present in commercial video games and shows how to integrate games for learning purposes into the curriculum. It is invaluable for anyone wishing to discover the cultural and educational value of this new form of entertainment in an interdisciplinary environment in which psychology, sociology, art, literature, graphic design, and computer programming are all present.

Pilar Lacasa is Professor of Communication and Education and former Dean of the Faculty of Information at the University of Alcala, Spain.