Towards a Framework for Understanding Electronic Educational Gaming

Games and gaming have always been an influential part of society and culture. Within the last 35 years, due to numerous technology innovations, electronic games in many formats have become ubiquitous in everyday life. This ubiquity has meant that games and gaming have permeated into many fields and disciplines for multiple purposes including teaching and learning. Past research has examined the use of both electronic and non-electronic games, but the field of education still lacks a comprehensive framework for exploring the role of the games for teaching and learning, the relationship of educational games to other fields, and a synthesis of best practice for current and future design, implementation, and research. The purpose of this article is to set a framework for understanding past, current, and future research in educational gaming. In doing so, we also hope to continue a conversation within education as well as with other fields that advance research, development and practice within a common framework. (Contains 2 figures.)