Videogames, Libraries, and the Feedback Loop

Reviews / Votes

Abrams and Gerber masterfully illustrate it is no longer a question of whether gaming-driven learning practices should be included in literacy learning spaces such as libraries, but rather what's taking us so long to provide these opportunities to all youth. The Feedback Loop Framework and the multi-iterative ways learners evaluate and reflect on their own learning experiences has tremendous implications not only for the fields of gaming and libraries, but also the very ways we consider youth meaning making in traditional learning spaces. The youth will show us the way, they always do; we just need to be prepared to trust and follow. Abrams and Gerber show us how. -- Shelbie Witte, Ph.D., Kim and Chuck Watson Endowed Chair in Education, Oklahoma State University, USA, author of Text to Epitext: Expanding Students' Comprehension, Engagement, and Media Literacy Videogames, Libraries, and the Feedback Loop, by Sandra Schamroth Abrams and Hannah Gerber, is an extremely useful and revelatory read that describes how libraries and librarians can foster learning and discovery through videogame play. It's useful in the sense that librarians and, actually, educators, in general, can take lessons learned from the authors' examination of what sorts of learning and meaning making come from the use of videogames in supported learning spaces. Central to how the learning is examined is this concept of the feedback loop--a set of real-time indicators and signifiers that players interact with that helps them understand their place in a game and make strategic decisions on how to proceed. Chapter 2, which covers the feedback loop is crucial reading for anyone designing learning spaces that focus on iterative and interest-driven experiences (aka the I2 approach covered in Chapter 5). Indeed, the book and the feedback loop lens are a revelation for me (an instructional game designer turned professor) as I think about engaging course design and my role as a co-learner/explorer with my students in a higher education environment that was forced to shift to online instruction! This detailed account of how learners engage with videogames with collaborative support is very timely and I cannot recommend this book enough. -- Mark Danger Chen, Ph.D., Lecturer, Interactive Media Design, University of Washington Bothell, USA, author of Leet Noobs: The Life and Death of an Expert Player Group in World of Warcraft. Drs. Sandra Abrams and Hannah Gerber provided a detailed look at implementing videogames programming in libraries. Drs. Abrams and Gerber bring extensive experience in research on videogames and youth. This book offers insights to both researchers and practitioners for how to implement a videogame program but also what those programs can provide to youth who are participating, beyond just playing a videogame. The framework of a feedback loop that Drs. Abrams and Gerber present, although a well-known concept within videogames, provides those offering videogame programming in libraries a much needed way to assess their programs and determine success. Whether you are offering your first videogame program or you are a seasoned pro, this book offers new insights for everyone. -- Crystle Martin, Ph.D., Director of Library and Learning Resources, El Camino College, California, USA, author of Voyage across a Constellation of Information: Information Literacy in Interest-Driven Learning Communities.