Review: Gadgets, Games, and Gizmos for Learning

Overall Rating: 2 Stars

"While it is good to provide system guidelines and goals from a central location, the transfer of knowledge needs to occur on a local basis."

I don't think you will find a book that is more comprehensive (and long) on the topic of learning games in the world than this one, so stop looking. This is it. I myself have never participated in a learning game at work, so I have no idea if they are successful. I hope they are because people such as author Karl M. Kapp have worked hard to improve the process of learning through games.

I do recall a simulation in my eighth-grade class that was fun, but since it took place during the Johnson administration, I can't give you lot of details. Details you can get from this book. It primarily is designed for the Gamer Generation, those people who grew up playing video games and then invented things such as UTube, MySpace, and FaceBook.

This book is an innovative platform for new methods of enhancing learning experiences that come from the computer game and electronics industries and a variety of other business settings. Although he wrote a book about games, author Kapp actually is targeting corporate recruiters who need to attract the best and the brightest from today's employment markets.
My personal favorite part of the book is Chapter 8: "Trust Me; You Don't Want to be the Boss." This is wisdom in the form of a book on games that takes the position of the gamer and provides some on=target material to inform managers how to manage them. This is way more than a book on games. If your company uses games and simulations, somebody there has to buy the book.

Buy Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning: Tools and Techniques for Transferring Know-How from Boomers to Gamers (Pfeiffer Essential Resources for Training and HR Professionals).

Skip Corsini is a consultant at Dale Carnegie Corporate Services, San Francisco.