What makes children and teenagers band together and spend hours fighting to defeat digital monsters? Or stay up all night building a new civilization in a computer strategy game? And could one design a computer game which kept the player motivated, while at the same time teaching the person concerned something about international conflicts, say, or improving their English?

These questions form the basis for a research project entitled 'Serious Games in a Global Marketplace'. With resources to the tune of DKK 30 million, this project will set out to discover how to combine the fascination of computer games with the latest findings on learning processes and the didactics of learning games.

Leading the project is Professor Birgitte Holm Sørensen from the Institute for Educational Anthropology at the Danish University of Education. She cites strategy and role-playing games as being of particular interest from a learning point of view.

"Children get really caught up in building things in a strategy game – a civilization, a hospital or whatever. They achieve something and they receive credit for it. The identity and collaboration aspects of role-playing games are very interesting. Players learn to communicate with each other to achieve a common goal."

But computer games also involve competing against oneself. Players are challenged intellectually by having to solve problems, and by having to set challenges for themselves. And all of these aspects of computer games are also good learning tools, Birgitte Holm Sørensen explains.

Play and learning
Learning games may represent a new way of combining play and learning, but this idea is by no means new, least of all in the Nordic countries.

"The traditional idea that children should be able to play on their own has been carried over into the project-oriented approach in school. The notion of independent play is reflected in independent project work. And just as children have to create new challenges for themselves in their play, so the project work requires them to formulate for themselves the problem to be solved in the project," says Birgitte Holm Sørensen.

The Nordic countries are, therefore, well-equipped to get the most out of learning games. But Birgitte Holm Sørensen does not want to build up our hopes too much. We should not imagine that by the year 2010, when the project is concluded, we will be able to run down to Toys'R'Us and pick up a learning game for our kids.

"Developments in learning games have shown that they don't work particularly well when used alone, they need to be employed within an educational context - in school, for example," says Birgitte Holm Sørensen, and she points out that 'Serious Games' is based on the latest international findings on learning games. The project will also be drawing on a broad base of theoretical information, including everything from didactic design theory to individual and social learning theories, as well as theories on play, games and learning.

Three actual games
Part of the 'Serious Games' project involves collaborating with private companies on the development of three actual learning games. Two of these are computer games, the third comes under the heading of exertainment, which is to say, it entails physical activity.

Mingoville – make your mark in English class
Mingoville has been developed by the Danish e-Learning Centre and is designed for the teaching of English in Danish state schools. The research project aims to develop game-based elements which can be introduced into Mingoville, and will examine the extent to which pupils should be free to add new elements to the game themselves.

Global Conflicts – a game for the international market
Is it possible to develop learning games which will transcend national and linguistic boundaries and can be adapted to suit different school systems and learning plans? That is the hope with the Global Conflicts game. This game, developed by the company Serious Games, focuses on international conflicts as exemplified by the Palestinian problem, and is designed for post-secondary education.

Digital playware – get yourself moving with the computer
The Kompan company designs play equipment with built-in electronics: they are, for example, currently working on interactive floor tiles which children themselves will be able to programme. The research project's objective is to introduce elements from computer games into children's play – with the emphasis on movement.

Facts about 'Serious Games'
The project will be conducted under the auspices of the Danish University of Education.

Researcher info

Visit the homepage of professor Birgitte Holm Sørensen