Digital Game-Based Learning [Hardcover]

Marc Prensky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 12, 2000

A mixture of fast-paced video games and serious business content, game-based learning is being used to create more engaging training programs. Using case studies, this guide explains what digital game-based learning is, where it can be used and how to implement it.

Editorial Reviews

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.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 442 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies; 1st edition (December 12, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071363440
• ISBN-13: 978-0071363440
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6.4 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,424,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Too evangelical, September 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Digital Game-Based Learning (Hardcover)

This book reads like a wired magazine article. Its envagelical tone betrays a decidely unacademic agenda. At times it feels like you are reading a brochure for Prensky's company rather than an objective evaluation of the capabilities and possiblities of Game-Based Learning. It rarely considers contrarian points of view and when it does, only in passing. That being said, it does contains some interesting ideas. Unfortunately, there are not enough ideas to warrant the book's heft, and the few ideas that it does contain are elaborated and repeated ad naseum. Prensky is unabashed by this and readily admits it in the intro: "You will find thoughout this book that many of the key ideas are repepated and illustrated in different ways and examples. This repetition is deliberate. Winston Churchhill counseled that "if you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time-- a tremendous whack ". It appears that this quote is more of a justification though than a reason because he later ironically criticizes such reduncacy in corporate training materials: "There was at one time a company that specialized in reducing the length of corporate tapes so they could be listened to more easily. They were typically able to get an hour's lecture or speech down to 10 or even 5 minutes of real content." I feel that the same could easily be said for this book through more aggressive editing. Furthermore, the various chapters often feel disjointed as if they were constructed as atomic articles (or pieced together from such), rather than as parts of an integrated whole. And I am generous in attributing the original source to articles. My suspicion, based on Prensky's copious overuse of bullet-lists, are that many of the chapters had their odious origins within powerpoint slides. He also too often relies on quotations as support for his views when the people being quoted are not credible academic authorities but rather people running companies with a similar agenda to Prensky.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Hidden message in the book, October 2, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Digital Game-Based Learning (Hardcover)

The content would make a good magazine article because the author does make some good observations and recommendations -- but there isn't nearly enough content here for 400+ pages. I hope the games the author writes/produces aren't as boring and repetitious as parts of his book.

There are only a few poorly done illustrations, which I found puzzling given the visual nature of games. Instead of a lot of verbal hand-wringing about all the unwashed who "just don't get it" when it comes to the teaching power of games, a few compelling examples would have more impact.

Having built games for teaching and research in the corporate world, I wish the author had spent more time on how to build and maintain good games for really complicated topics. There are a few examples in the book of multi-million dollar military simulation games, but a lot of the other examples seem trivial when applied to genuine corporate needs.

Most striking about the examples from the corporate world, however, is the small number of successes and miniscule number of repeated successes. Those few souls who have built successful, non-trivial corporate training games appear to have a hard time repeating that success. This is not a good sign, but it's the hidden (and certainly unintended) message in the book.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A book that, attempting to be about digital games and their learning value, is about neither., December 4, 2005

By 

I. Games "algames" (Austin, Tx) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Digital Game-Based Learning (Hardcover)

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.