Games, love games

Published in D-Lib magazine, The effectiveness of a Web-based Board Game for Teaching Undergraduate Students Information Literacy Concepts and Skills is an article written by a research team at the University of Michigan School of Information on an online board game, ‘Defense of Hidgeon’ which they developed to promote information literacy amongst first year undergraduates. The article stresses the role that games have to play in education, stating that: ‘We opted for a game in lieu of other approaches because what people are doing when they are playing good games is good learning’. It also points out that online games can reach students where tutors cannot, i.e. anywhere with internet access and in the students’ free time. Working along similar lines is the Open University’s Digilab, which produces and promotes educational games, interestingly stretching to leisure based platforms like the XBox 360 and PSP.