Game-Based Learning in Future School

Game-based learning is becoming increasingly popular worldwide in recent years. With the value of games being recognized, researchers and educational practitioners are working on how to make use of educational games to have positive effect on students, and to promote a new way of learning. In this chapter, we review literature on game-based learning and provide examples. Exemplary games for game-based learning are FoldIt, MineCraft, and GraphoGame. Two cases of game-based learning from the United States and China are also described. One is Mad City Mystery, a place-based augmented reality game developed by University of Wisconsin-Madison for middle school students to learn environmental science and to develop scientific literacy, particularly the argumentation skills. The other is EduVenture, developed by researchers from Chinese University of Hong Kong as a learning system for mobile learning, by which teachers can facilitate students conducting social inquiry learning in social and humanities education. Then two exemplary game-based learning schools, Quest to Learn Middle School in New York and Yang Zhen Central Primary School in Beijing are also introduced, both of which are famous for its innovative educational practices. In the concluding part, the significance and development tendency of game-based learning are summarized, followed with suggestions for implementing game-based learning in future school, and a diagram for holistic game-based learning in future school is proposed.