Game Based Learning Initiative for Early Head Start in Oakland

Today, approximately 50% of kindergartners in the United States are from families with one or more risk factors for school failure. Lack of school readiness for children from disadvantaged backgrounds due to social, physical, or economic factors is related to inadequate language, literacy, and early math experiences in early childhood. Schools in Oakland California, with students’ diverse socioeconomic background, face such challenges.

Game-Based Learning is a promising new approach to education that combines Information Technology with advances in New Media. Berkeley's Center for New Media (BCNM) is uniquely positioned to investigate the ways that electronic games will change social and individual learning experiences in the 21st Century. Researchers will establish a new research initiative on Game-Based Learning for pre-K school readiness and lifelong learning. Faculty will be able to develop pilot projects, write proposals, and pursue funding at the national level, in particular the US Congressional Digital Promise: Digital Promise seeks to transform America’s education, pre-K school readiness, and lifelong learning through the development and use of revolutionary advanced information technologies.

Electronic games engage players in fictitious scenarios where they learn to respond to complex stimuli with sophisticated behaviors and strategies. Playing games is always a learning process. In video games. game designers have developed rich, media-specific methods for engaging and retaining the interest of players over hundreds of play hours. During this time, players develop a mastery of the game’s challenges. Players transfer this mastery to subsequent non-gaming situations in many ways. The idea to associate game dynamics with learning content is not new, as every game aims to teach something. However, with the emergence of networked online games, the potential for reaching underserved communities with highly adaptive and engaging learning materials at a very low cost is vast, and must be fully explored. Once we know more about which design strategies yield optimal learning experiences, we can publish these strategies and help address our society’s increasing need for both the breadth and quality of learning experiences at lower costs.