Kurt Squire

University of California, Irvine | UCI · Department of Informatics

Games, including video games have long been associated with both rhetorics of progress and frivolity, simultaneously recruiting efforts to employ games toward furthering cognitive skills, while also eliciting concerns about the decadence of players. Casual games, defined as games with a low barrier to entry and quick play sessions often focus on co...

Esports offer a new and unique opportunity for fans. Not only can fans watch professional players, but they can experience the game directly as players themselves. In this paper, we explore esports fan identity at the intersection of viewer and player in Overwatch, League of Legends and FIFA forums, considering a spectrum and influence of geek to s...

Educators embracing technology to promote social-emotional learning (SEL) are rising in discourse. Successful SEL programs struggle to scale. Such technologies seek to broaden reach and improve quality through feedback, tracking, and guided practice. Despite generating behavioral and neurological changes, previous interventions have been based on p...

Purpose This paper aims to describe innovations at the Games + Learning + Society Center to explore the future of education. Design/methodology/approach This paper is an overview of several published studies and design interventions. Findings Commercial partnerships, particularly generating copyrightable materials can maximize impact and diver...

Purpose This two-part paper (published in two consecutive issues of On the Horizon) contextualizes research on games for learning by describing the current drivers of innovation in learning technologies situated within broader trends in open educational publishing. Design/methodology/approach The paper begins with an overview of changes, driven...

In this article we utilize three case studies from the US as models for structuring historical inquiry in museum education programs focused on local immigration history. We focus on how models of practice from museums can be utilized as part of authentic history education pedagogy – in particular conducting historical inquiry with archival material...

What if every part of our everyday life was turned into a game? The implications of “gamification.” What if our whole life were turned into a game? What sounds like the premise of a science fiction novel is today becoming reality as “gamification.” As more and more organizations, practices, products, and services are infused with elements from game...

Smartphones and other mobile devices like the iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire, and iPad have boosted educators' interest in using mobile media for education. Applications from games to augmented reality are thriving in research settings, and in some cases schools and universities, but relatively little is known about how such devices may be used for e...

The proliferation of broadband mobile devices, which many students bring to school with them as mobile phones, makes the widespread adoption of AR pedagogies a possibility, but pedagogical, distribution, and training models are needed to make this innovation an integrated part of education, This paper employs Social Construction of Technology (SCOT...

Smartphones and other mobile devices like the iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire, and iPad have boosted educators' interest in using mobile media for education. Applications from games to augmented reality are thriving in research settings, and in some cases schools and universities, but relatively little is known about how such devices may be used for e...

The videogames industry has been flourishing. In 2010 in America alone, total consumer spending on the games industry totaled $25.1 billion (Siwek, 2010), surpassing both the music industry ($15.0 billion) and box office movies ($10.5 billion). It is also one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S. economy. From 2005 to 2010, for example, the...

This paper describes the process of rapid iterative prototyping used by a research team developing a training video game for the Sirius program funded by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). Described are three stages of development, including a paper prototype, and builds for alpha and beta testing. Game development is doc...

This article explores how learning biological concepts can be facilitated by playing a video game that depicts interactions and processes at the subcellular level. Particularly, this article reviews the effects of a real-time strategy game that requires players to control the behavior of a virus and interact with cell structures in a way that resem...

In 2011, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker introduced a budget repair bill that removed the rights of public sector unions to collectively bargain and inspired mass protests at the Wisconsin State Capitol and beyond. This article provides a first-hand account of these struggles from the perspective of online activists who designed DefendWisconsin.org...

Smartphones and other mobile devices like the iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire, and iPad have boosted educa- tors’ interest in using mobile media for education. Applications from games to augmented reality are thriving in research settings, and in some cases schools and universities, but relatively little is known about how such devices may be used for...

Research has shown that video games can be good for learning, particularly for STEM topics. However, in order for games to be scalable and sustainable, associated research must move beyond considerations of efficacy towards theories that account for classroom ecologies of students and teachers. This study asks how a digital game called Citizen Scie...

Smart mobile devices like the iPhone, Android, Kindle Fire, and iPad have energized educators’ interest in using mobile media for education. Applications from clickers to games to augmented reality game creation software are thriving in research settings, and in some cases schools, but relatively little is known about how youth use such devices for...

This volume is the first reader on videogames and learning of its kind. Covering game design, game culture, and games as 21st century pedagogy, it demonstrates the depth and breadth of scholarship on games and learning to date. The chapters represent some of the most influential thinkers, designers, and writers in the emerging field of games and le...

As educators investigate the power of games for learning, much attention has been paid to the learning principles underlying video games (Gee, 2003/2007), their design features (also called formal abstract design tools; Church, 2005), such as the use of narrative for creating investment (Davidson, 2009), or rhythmic immersion (see Squire, 2011). An...

This section, “Games as Designed Experience,” is the result of years of conversation among game developers, educators, media theorists, and indeed most of the authors (at times all three) at venues such as the Games+Learning+Society (GLS) Conference. This section features game developers theorizing about their practice and the social changes sugges...

The following interview between Kurt Squire and Greg LoPiccolo of Harmonix Games (on June 22, 2010) tries to get at how Harmonix thinks about designing games to elicit particularly musical experiences. Harmonix, developers of FreQuency, Amplitude, Karaoke Revolution, Guitar Hero I and II, and now the Rock Band series, is known for its pioneering wo...

This chapter discusses the selection and potential use of electronic games and simulations in distance learning supported by an operational model called AIDLET. After analyzing the different approaches to the use of games and simulations in education, and discussing their benefits and shortcomings, a framework was developed to facilitate the select...

Background/Context New information technologies make information available just-in-time and on demand and are reshaping how we interact with information, but schools remain in a print-based culture, and a growing number of students are disaffiliating from traditional school. New methods of instruction are needed that are suited to the digital age....

Methodology: Comparative Case Study Preliminary Review Results: Cases of Game-Based Learning Findings: A Situated Framework for Understanding Game-Based Learning Intellectual and Emotional Engagement: Inviting Participation from the user Challenges that Confront and Build on users' Preexisting Knowledge and Beliefs Implications: Going Digital Ackno...

This chapter discusses emerging trends in games and learning. It argues for an approach that examines games as a new medium. With the increased attention being given to games, critiques about the instructional efficacy of games will emerge, and that educators must truly take advantage of the unique capacities of the medium, as well as keep in mind...

Computer and video games are a maturing medium and industry and have caught the attention of scholars across a variety of disciplines. By and large, computer and video games have been ignored by educators. When educators have discussed games, they have focused on the social consequences of game play, ignoring important educational potentials of gam...