The Bicycle Helmets of “Amsterdam”

Shaffer, D.W. (2010). The Bicycle Helmets of “Amsterdam”: Computer games and the problem of transfer. (Epistemic Games Group Working Paper No. 2010-01): University of Wisconsin-Madison.
http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/technical-report-Bikehelmet2.pdf

This paper looks at a central question in educational games: how do the things players do in a game help them do other things in the world outside of the game? The paper frames the problem in both personal and literary terms, and then proposes a particular theoretical perspective on the issue. Empirical data and studies of computer games that use, explore, and expand this theory are presented; but the larger goal of the chapter is not to argue for one particular theory. Rather, the paper provides an example of a broader class of theories that examine learning as simultaneously symbolic and situated, and makes the case that theories of this kind are needed to develop to study learning that happens in games.