Educational Gaming Commons - Press Start

The popularity and number of browser-based games is growing. Here's a recent article that discusses this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7591982.stm

The article made me pause to think about this. I have joys and concerns about web-based gaming, and some new questions about casual games that just occur as you browse the web.

Joys

1. Quick and easy. No downloads required.
2. Most are casual games. Duck in, play, duck out.

Concerns

1. Really tough to build something complex.
2. Even though we say "web-based," in many cases we mean Flash, Java, JavaScript, PHP, etc. Not for the average person that wants to create a game.

Note I haven't written anything about the pedagogical implications, either as a joy or concern. It seems to me the pedagogical "stuff" sits outside the delivery mechanism. But then one line from the above referenced article made me stop to reconsider that - "It's a natural extension of where he web is going." This line is in reference to the social aspect of the web, and how people are trying to change the isolated browsing expereince into a more social one.

So what does that mean for pedagogy? The cheese doesn't stand alone? If knowledge construction is mediated by social interaction, how do we attach pedagogy? Do we just drop it in, like cheese in water, do we try to make it like ice cubes in water - part of the whole, yet a bit different, or do we mix everything together into a educational social smoothie?