Quest Atlantis (QA), built upon the Active Worlds platform, is a 3D MUVE designed for children between the ages of 9-12. that is founded upon experiential learning, inquiry-based learning, and portfolio assessment. The goal was to advance “the social agenda of empowering individuals and communities” (p. 88). The designers made use of design-based research techniques to evaluate the challenges and risks of implementing such a technology that intersects education, entertainment, and social commitment.

In this book, Bogost (an academic researcher and a videogame designer) cites examples from politics, education, and advertising and argues that video games are both an expressive medium and a persuasive medium; they represent how real and imagined systems work, and they invite players to interact with those systems and form judgments about them. In this innovative analysis, Ian Bogost examines the way videogames mount arguments and influence players. Drawing on the 2,500-year history of rhetoric, the study of persuasive expression, Bogost analyzes rhetoric’s unique function in software in general and videogames in particular. The field of media studies already analyzes visual rhetoric, the art of using imagery and visual representation persuasively. Bogost argues that videogames, thanks to their basic representational mode of procedurality (rule-based representations and interactions), open a new domain for persuasion; they realize a new form of rhetoric.

Bogost points out that videogame learning is divided between both modes – videogames simulate activities conducted in the real world and they also cultivate higher order learning, including “going meta,” which is a good skill to have in business settings (p. 240). He also makes use of learning theories including those of Piaget, Dewey, Vygostsky, and others.

An article that discusses distance education and the implemention of games as virtual learning environments that are “unique and immersive place[s] for students to learn” (p. 220). The authors discuss a conceptual framework with five assumptions: (1) learning is participatory (communities of practice); (2) knowledge is social (situated); (3) learning leads development through predictable stages via shared activity with others (engaging with others); and (4) learners develop dispositions relative to the communities in which they practice (attitudes, beliefs, and values). (p. 221)

In this paper, Brown argues five points: (1) that today’s students learn differently from those in previous generations; (2) the public is less enthusiastic about paying for education; (3) students will have multiple careers after they graduate from college; (4) students who enter the workforce will likely become members of teams; and (5) higher education institutions must evolve into learning institutions. This paper pushes for a hybrid model of learning that combines the “power of passion-based participation in niche communities of practice with a limited core curriculum for teaching” (p. 4.52). Brown introduces the concept of “learning-to-be,” a general concept that is related to situated cognition and Lave and Wenger’s notion of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP). The author discusses findings based on cell phone and MMORPG use, and argues that the skills needed to compete in a games-based environment like WoW are similar to those required of CEOs and leaders of non-profit organizations. The author then examines the role of informal tinkering (e.g. blogging, pro-amateur movement) and the way it is similar to gaming and open source software development. The “demand-pull” model, as opposed to the more traditional “supply-push”, is one where the emphasis is placed on “enabling participation in flows of action, where the learning is on both learning-to-be through enculturation into a practice and on collateral learning” rather than “learning-about)” (p. 4.46). This leads to Brown’s final comments in support of a model that recognizes Anderson’s notion of the “long tail.” In sum, Brown asserts that a hybrid model that fosters the “rise of the creative, always learning class” (p. 4.51) is the key to creating learning environments for the 21st century.

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