Serious computer games as instructional technology

Serious computer games usually refer to games used for training, advertising, simulation, or education that are designed to run on personal computers. They allow learners to experience situations that are impossible in the real world for different reasons, such as safety, cost or time. They are supposed to have defined learning outcomes and are claimed to have positive impacts on the players´ development of new knowledge or different skills. To design good serious games we need to be able to design and produce good software. But they are more than software. We also need to be able to design and produce good instruction. The potential value of serious computer games for learning seems high, but there remains resistance to the use of games in the classroom. A reasonable way to convince more teachers to try games is through pedagogy, connecting elements of existing games designs with accepted learning and instructional theories. At the Faculty of Education of the University of Ljubljana we have been developing serious game TimeMesh in the framework of the Comenius programme. The game is intended to be used for learning history in primary and secondary schools, but at the same time pupils learn about different cultures and social relations in Europe in different historical periods.