Ideas
Essays from the studio on game-based learning, game design, computational thinking, and what the research does and does not support.
-
The move you can hand to someone else
Computational thinking is often described so broadly that any puzzle qualifies. A stricter test, from Peter Denning, is whether the next step can be carried out by a model without a person deciding what the step means.
-
Publish chess. Leave the IQ claim out.
Chess is on HD Games because the rules are deep and already shared. Reviews of school chess lessons do not show that the game reliably lifts general ability, reading, or mathematics once the comparison is fair.
-
A finished round is not a course
A 2013 review found a modest learning gain from serious games, and no reliable rise in motivation. The larger gains came when play was repeated and joined to other teaching. A round on HD Games is that loop. It is not a syllabus.