Minds In Play
Computer Game Design
as a Context
for Children's Learning
Yasmin B. Kafai
Video games more than any other
media have become an essential part of contemporary children's
culture. Whereas most research efforts have concentrated on discussing
the effects of game playing, Minds in Play takes a close look
at games as a context for learning by placing children in the
roles of producers rather than consumers of games. Kafai follows
a class of sixteen fourth-grade students from an inner-city public
elementary school as they were programming games in Logo to teach
fractions to third graders. In this context, programming became
a medium for children's personal and creative expression: in the
design of their games children engaged their fantasies and built
relationships with other pockets of reality that went beyond traditional
school approaches.
Advance Praise:
A MUST for anyone who
wants to have an opinion about children using computers. A mine
of ideas for teachers in search of computer projects for their
students or themselves. An enrichment of the idea of constructionism.
Seymour Papert, Massachusetts
Institute of Technology
Compelling. That's the one word summary of Kafai's tour de force
effort in documenting the impact of a constructionist, technology-enriched,
environment on the learning of young children. While there will
always be those that take cheap shots, Kafai's work, in concert
with that of Harel's, establishes a systematic set of studies
on the significant advantage that results from having children
learn through designing and implementing computational artifacts.
Elliot Soloway, University
of Michigan
Instructional design has always been in the hands of teachers
and textbook authors. In her Minds in Play, Yasmin Kafai shows
how children designing instructional games can be a powerful vehicle
for their own learning.
David Perkins, Harvard
University
The children of the 90's have strong personal experiences with
interactive video games; home edutainment and multimedia software
is becoming just as engaging as video games. We must encourage
related adventures in schools, since we know the benefits of creating
connections among children's homes and school experiences. By
telling compelling stories on children's development as makers
of video games, Kafai is proposing constructionist adventures
for learning, socializing, and cognitive development.
Idit Harel, Pixel Multimedia
Order Information:
LAWRENCE ERLBAUM ASSOCIATES
10 Industrial Avenue
Mahwah, NJ 07430-2262
phone: 201.236.9500
fax: 201.236.0072
e-mail:orders@erlbaum.com
(1512-0) cloth copy: $59.95
(1513-9) paper copy: $24.95
Return
to Main Page