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21st century skills and serious games: Preparing the N generation

Ensuring that all students have the opportunity to participate fully in society is a daunting challenge for educators. Central to this challenge in the 21st century is changing how we view learning. Serious games, an area that is gaining momentum in education, has potential to transform how we view learning as we meet the fast- paced, ever-changing demands of modern life and work.  Forging a conceptual bridge between serious games and 21st century workplace skills, this chapter: 1) defines evolving characteristics of the 21st century learner, 2) synthesizes proposed 21st century skills from different disciplines, and 3) analyzes how certain features of serious games can promote the highly valued 21st century skills of expert problem-solving and complex communication. The chapter closes with a call for more thoughtful empirical studies in order to establish a research base that ultimately will affect policies around the use of serious games in school settings.

Citation

Spires, H.A. (2008). 21st century skills and serious games: Preparing the N generation. In L.A. Annetta (Ed.), Serious educational games (pps. 13-23). Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense Publishing.

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