Emergent design: Serendipity in digital educational games

Abstract

Using computer games for educational purposes is a fascinating idea that is getting increasingly popular amongst educators, researchers, and developers. From a technical as well as psycho-pedagogical viewpoint, today's educational games are at an early stage. Most products cannot compete with non-educational, commercial games and not with conventional educational software. Research must address fundamental challenges such as methods for convincing learning-game design or individualization of gaming experiences. An important key factor is development costs. To enter the market successfully requires reducing development costs significantly, however, without reducing gaming or learning quality. In this paper we introduce an approach of using existing methods for educational adaptation and personalization together with ideas of emergent game design. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.