How Students Learn From Games - James M. Lang, Chronicle of Higher Ed

Kurt Squire, director of the Games+Learning+Society Center at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery, says "Games are a good model for introducing a topic and raising interest," he said, "because they situate content for learners so that they understand why it’s relevant." The games accomplish that by establishing immediate goals that students can attain only by learning and applying course content. We often spend weeks throwing content at our students, and perhaps by the end of the semester we hope to have convinced them that what they have learned is relevant beyond the classroom. In a simulation game, by contrast, you are confronted immediately with the realization that what you are learning will help achieve a goal, one usually based on a real-world scenario. http://chronicle.com/article/How-Students-Learn-From-Games/148445/