Games for Education and Social Change

Mary Flanagan, a professor of film and media studies at Dartmouth College, believes that video games can be used in the classroom. At present, Flanagan is involved with the Games for Learning Institute to examine ways to effectively use video games to teach math and science to middle school children. If that isn't enough, she is also the director and founder of a research group at Dartmouth that designs social activist games - Tiltfactor.

While there are substantial barriers to the adoption of games for educational purposes - the steep learning curve being a big one - Flanagan contends that there are benefits to the students. She notes that games enable players to make decisions, engage in exploration activities, and experiment with novel approaches to problem-solving in a "safe" environment. The work Flanagan does is also attempting to capitalize on what young people do when using technology - searching and socializing. Overall, Flanagan and the Games for Learning Institute hope to better understand what makes video games engaging and what aspects of them players like.