Transactions on Edutainment III

With great pleasure we would like to present the third volume of the journal Trans- tions on Edutainment. This journal, part of the Springer series Lecture Notes in C- puter Science, is devoted to research and development in the field of edutainment. Edutainment, also known as educational entertainment or entertainment-education, denotes all forms of entertainment designed to educate as well as to provide fun. This approach is motivated by the growing demands on individuals for life-long learning and the need to integrate effective learning opportunities throughout life. As such, edutainment has attracted increasing interest in the last few years. The first 12 articles of this issue represent a selection of outstanding contributions from Edutainment 2009, the 4th International Conference on E-Learning and Games held in Canada, in August 2009. The main purpose of the Edutainment conferences is the discussion, presentation, and information exchange of scientific and technological developments in the new community. These 12 papers cover mainly the topic of using games to stimulate learners’ learning motivation, i. e.

This journal subline serves as a forum for stimulating and disseminating innovative research ideas, theories, emerging technologies, empirical investigations, state-of-the-art methods, and tools in all different genres of edutainment, such as game-based learning and serious games, interactive storytelling, virtual learning environments, VR-based education, and related fields. It covers aspects from educational and game theories, human-computer interaction, computer graphics, artificial intelligence, and systems design.

The third volume in this series contains a selection of 12 outstanding contributions from Edutainment 2009, the 4th International Conference on E-Learning and Games, held in Canada in August 2009. The main focus of these papers is on the use of games to stimulate learners. In addition, 10 regular papers are included, presenting a wide range of edutainment tools and applications.