Created 19.04.2011 19:33 by SIEN
Serious games on a global market place is coming towards its ends. At this point one always ask - so was it worth it. This is always triggy to answer, and I am usually probably a bit too sceptic. On one hand you always have a lot of ambitions when you start such a project, but as it develops the people involved, the realities met and unexpected constraints influence things. 

My hopes were that we had positioned Denmark even more aggressively on the serious games market that is bursting these years. While this may not be the case that is also becuase things have accelarated extremely. So while we may not have improved Denmarks position we have helped keep Denmark afloat in a area where the investments are rapidly increasing in France, England, Germany, United States, Singapore and Korea. All of these countries have realised the potential of the area and are through investments and support trying to become the major hub. 

At this point a small overview of the companies working with this in Denmark might be in place. This is some-what triggy as its a fragmented space, but I believe that some of the key players can at least be identified. 

Not bad for a population of 5,5 mio. people, but always room for improvements. 

 One of challenges of working with and researching serious games is to understand and predict how serious games can be developed for a global market. Responding to this challenge has been one of the significant aspects of our research in the Serious Games on a Global Market Place project. The challenge lies both in establishing how games can be designed for various national educational traditions including curricula, and how games can become a part of teaching and learning in different local contexts (that vary within national cultures).

In the Serious Games project we have done a number of interviews with policy makers in order to understand how national strategies for education can affect and define how serious games are distributed and integrated into teaching and learning in a number of national contexts, among them Finland, Norway, UK, Portugal, Singapore, Vietnam and Hong Kong. In some of these countries we have done fieldwork in schools as well as interviews with policy makers, in order countries we have done policy interviews only (due to constraints in time and funding).

In December 2010 two researchers from the Serious Games project attended the Second East Asian Conference on Teacher Education Research in Hong Kong http://www.ied.edu.hk/eai-conference2010/ . As the conference had a global perspective on teacher education we presented aspects of our research in the educational design of (global) serious games with a focus on how teachers and teacher roles can be integrated into serious games design. In the paper we argued on the basis of our analyses of specific game platforms and related fieldwork that often teachers and teacher roles are only marginally included in game design, for instance through teacher guides. Also, teachers often fail to take an active role when games are used in the classroom, though the teacher’s role can be imperative to the students’ benefits from learning. In the paper we give examples of how teachers can be included in game design.

In connection with the EAI conference we visited The Chinese University of Hong Hong and spoke with policy makers at The Education Bureau in Hong Kong. Hong Kong has a highly developed strategy for the integration of ICT in schools, and games are used for teaching and learning purposes, for instance in language education. This spring we are working on a comparative study of our policy interviews, which includes our data from the Hong Kong visit.


European conference on Games Based Learning

21. - 22. October 2010, the fourth European conference on 'Games Based Learning' and a PhD Master Class on 'The Educational Potential of Computer Games',  was held at the Danisch Scool of Education, Aarhus University.

Video streaming from the conference:

Download presentation from PhD Master Class:

For links to other online resources related to ECGBL 2010 please visit Mikala's Klumme (A researcher's blog) and our Game-Based Teaching NING


During the last years a fair amount of attention has been given to the role of games in teaching and learning. Games are understood to appeal to new generations of learners, and as challenging traditional ways of schooling. However, research in the use of games in the classroom is new, and we still lack experience in using different forms of ICT-based and ICT-supported games in schools and educational contexts.

The research project Serious Games on a Global Market Place (2007-2011) attempts to address the current need for more theoretically and empirically based knowledge about game based learning in a global context. The project explores the potential for game-based learning in a variety of locations such as schools and homes by uniting the experiences of game developers, educationalists and researchers. In the project researchers explore, build and implement prototypes of learning games and games for promoting play in collaboration with companies, using their products and experience to develop knowledge about game challenges, design, and assessment. The aim of the project is twofold: it is to create and develop learning games for a global market. And it is to explore the conditions for and contexts in which game-based learning can emerge and develop as an educational practice.

The project consists of three interrelated sub-projects that focus on respectively language learning (primarily English as foreign language), history and social studies and exertainment (i.e. physical play and learning).

Games and language learning: This project studies the potential of games in language learning, both in and out of school. The project’s focus is a game based for English language learning targeted at primary school children www.mingoville.com. The platform consists of two learning zones: a Mingoville School that offers comprehensive lessons in English spelling, vocabulary acquisition and pronunciation as well as a Mingoville Virtual World, developed in 2009, in which children can chat and play games together, using the vocabulary they have learned in the Mingoville School. Preliminary findings indicate that Mingoville can be used in a number of different ways in and out of schools, but that teachers are sometimes reluctant to use game based teaching in class, as teachers are sometimes insecure about their role in game based teaching.

Global Conflicts for history and social studies: This part of the project focuses on the use of games for encouraging thoughts, discussions and involvement about central issues in social studies, citizenship education and history. Through the games www.globalconflicts.eu, learners experience and navigate in global conflicts in for instance Palestine and Latin America, where the user, cast in the role of a journalist, has to decide and argue for what should be done. The research related to the Global Conflicts games focuses on increasing our understanding of a number of challenges related to making game-based learning a more natural part of the teacher’s tool box. Therefore, research and innovation focuses on developing a game didactics based on different teacher roles.

Ambient playware and exertainment: This project aims to identify and explore the possibilities afforded by pervasive computing and mobile technologies to develop games that can stimulate children and youths to engage in physical play and learning. The project assesses physical play and learning and how to utilize pervasive and mobile technology to develop new types of play and learning products. The specific focus is on studies in pervasive gaming and play cultures, in order to obtain practical knowledge about the creation and maintenance of playful experiences among users, which previous research has shown to be a critical aspect of exertainment products.