Becker

Katrin Becker's work on serious game theory is noteworthy.  She began this body of work by asking these questions:

1. What is it about games that makes them so engaging?
2. How can we transform that into games for learning?
3. How can we design GOOD games for learning?
4. How important is it to know how the technology works, if you want to design artifacts that use it?

http://www.minkhollow.ca/becker/doku.php?id=serious_games

I am interested in exploring a broader sense of student engagement through games.  However, meeting the needs of boys is ultimately where I see this taking me.  To get to the crux of what it means to engage 21st century learners and the digital literacy skills required to navigate this terrain, it will be important to explore both genders and their unique sets of needs.

This is a link off of Becker's website to Christine Daviault's work, Look Who's Pulling the Trigger Now: A Study of Girls'/Women's Relationship With Video Games.

http://www.nlc-bnc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp01/MQ54260.pdf

I am drawn to outliers, what occurs in the margins.  Female hardcore gamers interest me because they challenges my assumptions about the interests of boys and girls.  Let's crack this open.