An Ecocentric Framework for Game-Enabled Impact: Lessons learned from the Q2T Project

This chapter draws from design work on a series of 3D immersive game curricula, Quest2Teach, designed specifically for teacher education using cutting-edge gaming technologies and the transformational play theory to inform its impact design. Quest2Teach is a series of bounded games, gamified professional network, lessons plans, and suite of professional development services designed specifically for teacher education to help bridge between educational theory and its application into the field. In the designed games, pre-service teacher candidates create their professional avatar, play out roles, solve realistic problems, fail safely, and reflect on the impact of their individual decisions and trajectories, while gaining experience and fluency in these theories-in-action. Game meters and other in-game analytics are pulled into a real-world network homepage, reflecting their growth over time and semester coursework.

Foremost in our work is a distinction between treating games for impact as ‘bounded products’ whose capacity for impact lies within the technical structures, from the more expansive ‘game-enabled impact” perspective being advanced here. In this manuscript, we argue that games for impact, or game-enabled impact, should not be thought of as product-centric innovations focused on developing specific student learning outcomes, but rather should be treated as one component of an ecosystem framework in which implementation partners (whether system administrators, classroom teachers, or the players themselves) are enabled to re-interpret core lessons in terms of their local needs.