Purpose The purpose of this paper reporting an exploratory pilot study is to examine how participant engagement in design thinking varies when playing and fixing (playfixing) three partially complete games (broken games). Design/methodology/approach The data for this study consist of transcripts of five playfixing sessions with a total of 16 participants. Each session focused on one of three games. The authors used Winn’s (2009) design-play-experience framework to analyze features of each game that might relate to differences in design thinking. Next, the authors coded each playfixing session’s transcript to identify patterns of design thinking. Finally, these findings were used to make conjectures about how design features and flaws might encourage particular forms of design thinking. Findings The findings indicate how playfixing tabletop games with varied levels of complexity, playability and rule definition lead to different patterns of design thinking. Originality/value This is a first step toward understanding how the constraints associated with various elements of broken games might direct participants toward desired modes of design thinking and more broadly, contributes to the literature on the educational uses of game making.

James Gee's work at the intersection of literacy, education, and game studies has explored how videogame affinity spaces are examples of how good teaching and learning often occur outside of schooling. His work can be safely characterized as influential in these fields. For instance, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy helped catalyze a lasting surge of interest in videogame studies. Game studies currently represent a diverse group of scholars that continually push the field into promising spaces. With our eyes on these promising spaces, we interviewed Gee on the topic of what is-and should be-the future of game studies. Gee discussed how the future of game studies would be well-advised to explore ways to network multiple experiences and technologies-including the real world-to focus on how to make people healthier, more prosocial, and better able to collaborate. This interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity.

This study explores the feasibility of forming detailed inferences about museum visitor behavior based on analysis of data collected via Dr. Discovery—a mobile question-and-answer app. We analyzed 5656 questions asked by 795 visitor groups recorded by Dr. Discovery across two museums in the American Southwest. Analysis of this data supported the act of intuiting visitor movement through museum exhibit halls without the use of costly tracking or location technology by leveraging question keyword content, knowledge of exhibit hall layout, and question timestamp information. Additionally, data on question topic frequency enabled us to infer visitor engagement levels with specific exhibit hall content. We conclude that analysis of seemingly limited app-based data carries implications for the practice of museum evaluation since evaluators can gain evidence-based insight into visitor behaviors as well as illustrate helpful and promising technology-supported alternatives for conducting affordable, dependable, and scalable evaluations.

Background Videogames are widely considered effective learning environments, with powerful lessons relevant to those who design teaching and learning experiences. Violent videogames, however, are often left out of such conversations. Intervention In this context, we examine Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (MW) as a violent videogame that might suggest design principles useful for effecting emotional experiences, a key element to the formation of memories and therefore learning. Methods Through narrative description of two missions from MW and interleaved discussion of its mechanics, we contend even violent videogames might inform the design of interactive learning experiences. Results We highlight how MW’s mechanics (a) are designed to constrain player’s actions to facilitate visceral experiences, while being (b) thoughtfully juxtaposed with typical first-person shooter mechanics, to (c) create opportunities to develop what we call civic empathy, the ability to understand—even share to some extent—the feelings of another person with whom one shares a common affiliation with and responsibility to one or more social groups. We also highlight the concept of global civic empathy, in which one includes the world’s citizens as co-members of a global community. Discussion Learning from simulations and games is often discussed through the lens of actions made available to players. Our contribution is the flip side of that coin—what a game or simulation prevents players from doing—is equally important. Limitations We played these missions ourselves. We therefore limit our conclusions to our own experiences, though we contend our findings may inform the design of learning games and simulations. Conclusion In simplest terms, our theory of action is this: (1) Constraining mechanics (2) create juxtaposition and cognitive dissonance, which in turn (3) create emotional experiences that serve as rich sites for complex learning (empathy development) to take place.

In this study, we describe an activity in which participants play and fix broken games - tabletop games with ambiguous rules or mechanics - through the use of collaborative talk (CT). The playfixing activity provides a useful context for examining how participants think together and collectively build understanding through redesigning an incomplete game. We qualitatively analysed a small group of participants' talk as they playfixed a broken game, Pollutaplop. We examined their utterances through a framework of CT strands that included participating, understanding, and managing. Findings suggest the majority (54%) of participants' talk was collaboratively oriented and served mostly to manage game play and redesign. Moreover, participants used different personal pronouns to shift perspectives in collectively understanding the task. This study contributes to the design of future learning experiences that invite the use of CT and foster the development of abilities to co-design on complex tasks.

Question-asking is essential for reasoning, understanding, and investigating scientific problems within and beyond traditional classrooms. Nevertheless, questions generated in formal and informal learning environments can be infrequent and unsophisticated. This study explores museum visitors' question-asking quality by considering their interactions with two different modes of a question-asking mobile app (Ask or Game Mode) in two different museum environments (linear non-interactive or non-linear interactive exhibits). Results showed that visitors' question-asking quality was influenced by app modes and by museum environments. Specifically, we found that visitors' question-asking quality was significantly higher when using the gamified version of the app (Game Mode) compared to a non-gamified version (Ask Mode) in a linear non-interactive exhibit. Findings also revealed that question-asking performance could be significantly influenced by instrumental factors (such as app performance in answering questions) and socio-contextual factors (such as visitor group inquiry frequency). The study provides fundamental and comprehensive insights for designing active learning environments by considering the influential factors of question-asking.

Designing games from the ground up is a popular activity for helping students think in designerly ways. Despite their benefits, such game design activities may place higher-than-anticipated demands on cognitive and institutional resources. In an effort to alleviate these demands, this study explored how playing and fixing partially completed games may elicit engagement with designerly thinking. This paper reports on the results of examining participants' talk during a playfixing activity in which, rather than designing wholesale, participants mended incomplete or “broken” tabletop games. Results suggest participants focused on problem identification, demonstrated quick and sustained engagement with thinking like designers, and drew from designerly modes non-linearly. These results illustrate that broken games may hold potential as accessible alternatives for helping learners think in designerly ways.

Designing games from the ground up is a popular activity for helping students think in designerly ways. Despite their benefits, such game design activities may place higher-than-anticipated demands on cognitive and institutional resources. In an effort to alleviate these demands, this study explored how playing and fixing partially completed games may elicit engagement with designerly thinking. This paper reports on the results of examining participants' talk during a playfixing activity in which, rather than designing wholesale, participants mended incomplete or “broken” tabletop games. Results suggest participants focused on problem identification, demonstrated quick and sustained engagement with thinking like designers, and drew from designerly modes non-linearly. These results illustrate that broken games may hold potential as accessible alternatives for helping learners think in designerly ways.

Framing, implementing, and engaging youth in authentic scientific inquiry are highly valued in science education; however, we have very limited knowledge of the nature and use of tools that accomplish these. Therefore, we proposed that board game design is a meaningful tool for engaging youth in understanding environmental issues. We reported findings from an educational board game design workshop based on real world issues for teens aged 13-17 years conducted at a large public library Makerspace. Using qualitative methods, we analysed the teens' process of making one such game, Pollutaplop, to understand its merits and argued that board game design nurtured the development of tools for inquiry. In response to the recent surge of interest in creating tools for learning about natural systems, we found that designing board games in authentic contexts engaged youth in building models as well as systems thinking. Intent gamers, including youth, might be well positioned to appreciate the complexities of both games and the contexts they are set in.

Purpose - This paper aims to explore how making tabletop board games elicited adolescents' design thinking during their participation in a summer game design camp at their local library. Design/methodology/approach - This study leverages qualitative approaches to coding transcripts of participants' talk. This study uses the design thinking framework from the Hasso-Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University as provisional codes to identify andmake sense of participants' verbalized design activity. Findings - This study found that the making context of designing tabletop board games elicited a high frequency of design talk in participants, evidenced by both quantitative and qualitative reports of the data. Additionally, participants in large measure obviated constraints on their design activity imposed by linear conceptions of the design thinking model this study introduces, instead of moving fluidly across design modes. Finally, participants' prior experiences in both life and in regard to games significantly influenced their design study. Originality/value - This study highlights the unique affordances of making-centric approaches to designing tabletop games in particular, such as participants' quick and sustained engagement in the study of design. This study also highlights the need for conceptions of design thinking specific to designing games.

Mobile devices and apps have become a standard for the museum experience. Many studies have begun to explore the impact mobile apps may have on user experience and informal learning. However, there has been relatively little research on how visitor groups interact collaboratively while using these devices in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments. In this paper, we explore the impact of a mobile question-asking app on museum visitor group interactions using the Interactive-Constructive-Active–Passive (ICAP) framework, a hierarchical taxonomy that differentiates modes of cognitive engagement. In a post-hoc analysis of survey findings from a study conducted at two large museums in the American southwest, we found that our app encouraged sharing of information among group members. In addition, users of a gamified version of the app were significantly more likely to report engaging in a group discussion during question-asking than groups using a non-game version of the app. We also found that group collaboration levels depended on the group-designated primary user of the app. Whenever a child or the group collaboratively asked the most questions, group discussion frequency was significantly higher. The study’s findings support mobile question-asking apps’ viability as a means to better understanding of museum visitor groups’ interactions with exhibit content and provide evidence that game-based mobile apps, designed to foster question-asking by visitors, may bolster collaborative group interactions and informal learning.

This study examines the impact of a mobile game app on science museum visitors’ level of engagement with exhibit content, compared to a non game-based version of the same app. Ask Dr. Discovery (Dr. D) is a question-asking app containing two versions: a Game Mode employing casual game mechanics and an Ask Mode providing a baseline version. We implemented both versions of Dr. D at two science museums located in the Southwestern United States with 1539 participants. In both conditions, participants could type or speak questions to receive vetted answers about museum content, but only Game Mode embedded question-asking within a simple game. Participants’ level of engagement was represented by the number of questions asked about exhibit content in Dr. D. Additionally, we explored the relationship between app engagement and participants’ self-reported level of interest in science. All participants completed pre- and post-questionnaires with questions related to science interest, impressions of the Dr. D app, and demographic information. Results in both museums indicated that users of Game Mode asked nearly twice as many questions on average as participants using Ask Mode. Science interest predicted engagement at one of two sites. Demographic variables, including gender, age, and race/ethnicity were not found to influence the rate of question asking in either mode. These results indicate that employing simple game mechanics in apps for museum visitors may lead to strong positive impacts on visitor engagement with museum content.

In recent times, there has been a surge of interest in both learning through design and learning systems thinking. Game design is well accepted as a rich learning environment [12, 25] and intent gamers, including children and teens, might be well-positioned to design games around environments while exploring both the context and the game as systems. We present a preliminary analysis of emergent systems thinking among teens who were making a board game about water pollution in a game-making workshop. Our findings suggest that through game-making, teens were compelled to think about both games and the context of the game as systems. We discuss implications for nurturing systems thinking as well as understanding of science concepts, and point to the affordances of non-digital games as tools for learning.

This chapter outlines a multidimensional framework for theorizing digital-age literacies—one which considers the content, procedural, and contextual dimensions of literacy practices enacted through and around digital technologies. The authors then provide an overview of three empirical studies that illustrate the application of this framework to understand the integration of digital technologies and literacy pedagogies. The authors offer their experiences as classroom teachers, teacher-educators, learning scientists, and literacy specialists working to understand and support the literacy and language practices of learners in the 21st century. The goal of the chapter is to illustrate the value of shifting conversations about digital technologies away from notions of moral panic and techno-idealism, and instead toward a renewed focus on technology-mediated social practices that shape what it means to be and become literate in contemporary society.