Designing for identity in game-based learning

ABSTRACT

Games for learning often aim to change players’ identities (e.g., helping students be more like scientists, urban planners, or empowered problem solvers). An alternative approach to changing player identity is to design games that better account for the nested identities of students as players. We use a “nexus of identification” framework to interpret student gameplay and suggest an alternative approach to educational game design that accounts for identity, rather than transforms it.

Acknowledgments

This work could not have been accomplished without the efforts and coordination of three teachers in Singapore, whose dedication to their work contributed greatly to the project’s success, a very patient Wei Leng, and the generous feedback of three anonymous reviewers. This work was supported by the Office of Educational Research [OER 4/15 MJG].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.