Games in the Classroom: Using Games as a Motivator for Studying Computing: Part 1

By Andrew M. Phelps, Christopher A. Egert, and Jessica D. Bayliss

This article, the first in a two-part series that explores using games as a gateway to studying computing in the classroom, explores the need for a motivator in today's educational environment and places games in the context of constructivist learning approaches. In addition, it provides an overview of several recent approaches and looks at issues associated with student perception, exploring how existing paradigms relate to these perceptions.

Read more ►

Share this article

What else is new?

The Promises of Functional Programming
Adopting a functional programming style could make your programs more robust, more compact, and more easily parallelizable. However, mastering it requires some effort.

Not on the Shelves
Sometimes, the best way to figure out where you'd like to go is to imagine what you'll have when you get there.

Making Augmented Reality Practical on Mobile Phones, Part 1
The Studierstube ES (Embedded System) software framework allows fast development of augmented-reality applications for mobile phones.

Beyond X 2.0: Where Should We Go?
Editor in Chief Fei-Yue Wang considers the impact of Web science and technology—X 2.0—on society's future.

Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste
How can CIOs use today's negative economic climate, corporate cost-cutting measures, and general anti-CEO, anti-business sentiment to their advantage?

Games in the Classroom: Using Games as a Motivator for Studying Computing: Part 1
Learn about a parallel effort to use gaming as a way to improve learning and to demonstrate to students that computer science is indeed exciting and cool.

Related tutorials

Managing and Leading Software Projects
by Richard E. (Dick) Fairley
$89.95 Buy ►

The Affinity Research Group Model
by Ann Q. Gates, Steve Roach, Elsa Villa, Kerrie Kephart, Connie Della-Piana, and Gabriel Della-Piana
$24.95 Buy ►