GameWerks camp: Using gaming to foster learning by design

Abstract

Electronic gaming has become an integral part of the everyday lives of children, and middle- and high-school-aged campers now devote much time to gaming activities. Children also spend a significant amount of time in school. Unfortunately, campers often find schoolwork uninteresting and disconnected from their lives. As a result, motivating campers remains a very difficult aspect of teaching. Our goal was to create a technology-rich environment in which campers can participate in a fun learning-rich program. We accomplished this by designing a summer camp experience that embeds academic content into the framework of designing video games. Campers engage in authentic designs that are then “pitched” to a panel of individuals, some of whom represent the gaming industry. The approach combines Learning by Design and taps into Generation R’s interest in games.