Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Possible worlds: why study video games? Aren't they a waste of time? : Designing experience, or That evasive "fun factor" ; Social gaming: possible identities ; Possible cultures ; Digital media and learning ; Theory and practice ; Feature: The most fun you can have with model railroads without sniffing glue -- 2. Ideological worlds: what makes a "good" educational game? : Interest-driven learning ; Worlds with bias ; Civilization as a geographical model ; Ideological worlds as frameworks for thinking ; Meaning-making in ideological worlds ; Participation in ideological worlds ; Theory and practice ; Feature: Cooperative game play -- 3. Teaching with games: learning through play : Before-school corpse retrievals ; From players to designers ; Interest-driven learning ; Open access ; The Montessori system: following the needs of the child ; Toward game-based pedagogies ; Theory and practice -- 4. Community organizing for participatory learning : Creating a community to learn with ; Inside online affinity spaces ; Education in a digital age: participatory education ; Learning through participation ; Theory and practice -- 5. Games-to-teach: designing games for learning : Broadening the discussion of education and games ; Games, popular media, science, and learning ; Creating a research agenda for games and education ; Designing games for learning ; Building an educational game from scratch ; Inventing new genres: Environmental detectives ; Theory and practice ; Feature: Learning to be a full-spectrum warrior --

6. Games in classrooms: replaying history : Teaching world history ; Introducing Civ3 ; Failure, trade offs, and just-in-time lectures ; "This game isn't so bad": frustration, failure, and appropriation ; The emergence of a game-playing culture ; Recursive play ; What students learned ; Civilization camp: developing expert gamers ; Creating a new gaming culture ; Developing gaming expertise ; Theory and practice -- 7. The aesthetics of play : Games, learning, society: building a program ; The aesthetics of game-based learning ; Aesthetics of being Viewtiful Joe ; Apolyton University: trajectories of participation ; During-action reports: cognitive artifacts that organize practice ; Design thinking ; Designing Civ4 ; Toward an aesthetics of game-based learning ; Theory and practice ; Feature: I love rock 'n' roll -- 8. Design literacy: productive play : Developing game expertise ; Developing game fluency ; Games as occasions of theory building and testing ; Competition and learning ; Organizing by competitions ; Trajectories of participation ; Centers of expertise ; What learning occurred? A community well played ; Theory and practice -- 9. Games go to school: situated learning, adaptable curricula : Place-based gaming ; Place-based learning ; Learning through design, or How to design an educational game ; From game designer to community organizer ; Community organizing as curriculum ; Ramping up ; Situating learning at South Beach ; Scientific citizenship ; Scaling ; Theory and practice -- 10. The future of games for learning : Creating education media ; Independent games ; Informal learning contexts ; Scientific citizenship ; Example: Citizen science ; Mobile media ; Creating the future of educational technology -- Coda: On researching the effectiveness of educational interventions : Gold standard research ; "Science" fetish ; Health care envy.