Product Description

This is the paperback version of the hardcover (ISBN 0071363440) and PDF versions already listed on Amazon as Digital Game-Based Learning, by Marc Prensky

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #855207 in Books
• Published on: 2004-10-22
• Released on: 2004-08-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 443 pages

Review
"...systematically analyzed the contexts and events of training and has synthesized a logical framework for digital game-based learning." -- From the Foreword by Sivasailam

"A 'must read' for business managers and HR directors as well." -- Mark Bieler, former EVP, Human Resources, Bankers Trust Company, 1989-1999

"This is a breakthrough book that looks at learning as a high activity, high engagement and high intensity process." -- Elliott Masie, The MASIE Center, Editor, TRENDS e-Letter and Learning Decisions

From the Author
I wrote this book as a hands-on guide for anyone who has ever had trouble getting people (adults or kids) to learn things. Digital games are now being used to teach babies the alphabet, to help kids monitor their diabetes and overcome ADD, to teach both practical and tactical skills to the military, to teach financial derivatives to auditors and to teach CAD software to engineers, among many other things. And this is just the beginning -- ANYTHING can be taught more effectively through Digital Game-Based Learning.

From the Inside Flap
The time has come for Digital Game-Based Learning. Thanks to the Internet, video games, and increasingly accessible cutting-edge technology, new thinking styles have emerged. The Nintendo and MTV generation processes information more rapidly than ever before, prefers graphics to text, and works on several fronts at once, making them champion multi-taskers. As a result, today's new workforce is eager for new challenges. But, so far, the traditional mainstream business world has done very little to accommodate them, particularly apparent in the realm of training sessions. The question arises: How do you train today's bright, young businesspeople for the rules of corporate life in ways that will effectively tap their learning potential - and won't put them to sleep?

Written by former vice president of human resources at Bankers Trust and present founder, CEO and Creative Director of the groundbreaking games2train.com Web site, this timely and innovative book defines Digital Game-Based Learning, explains its advantages and benefits far into the future, where it can be used - and how.

From derivatives trading to policies on sexual harassment, here are numerous practical ideas and examples of this revolutionary approach to motivating and educating twenty-something workers. Ranging from the use of simple card games and quizzes to twitch-speed games modeled on such popular PC games such as Doom and Quake, Digital Game-Based Learning leads the way in melding business conventions with the highly successful ways individuals learn today.

In addition to an array of training ideas, contained here are the views of experts such as Nicholas Negroponte of MIT, Bran Ferren of Disney, J.C. Herz of the New York Times, and many others. Also included are fascinating and informative case studies, based on on-site visits, of many companies and institutions using game-based learning tools and techniques.

Customer Reviews

A Must Read for all educators
This book opened my eyes to the new requirements for the New/Next generation to be engaged and connected to learning. It contains great practical reference material too.

An important book but it with severe flaws
Prensky's book had a great impact and have many good things in it, but one become annoyed by the lack of documentation, hype and comlete ignorance of much previous research. The subjectivity gives it a spark but in the (too) long book it becomes too much, getting in the way of solid arguments and evidence.

A book that, attempting to be about digital games and their learning value, is about neither.
When I first got this book, I was hoping to find a much needed argument in favor of the learning and educational benefits of games. Instead I found a lackluster series of marketing-like evangelisms that have neither valid science nor learning theory to back them up. By using a sales-pitch approach in an attempt to convince the reader, this book can do more damage than good to the field of educational videogame design and research. If one really wants to find out about what games have to tell us about learning, I would recommend Jim Gee's What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy book instead.