Digital games: Providing unique digital literacy challenges in childhood

Digital games are capturing the interest of children from an early age, and provide a unique environment for learning, blurring boundaries between formal and informal learning. Gaming is a dynamic, active process of knowledge construction, requiring learners to constantly strive to make sense of new information within the game. Digital games offer an active process of meta-cognitive engagement and decision making within creative action, requiring a form of unique, expanding, new literacies at home and in school. This chapter highlights the issues and considerations of digital games, and the need to understand how game and gaming as a dynamic, active process of knowledge construction needs to inform expanding understandings of digital literacy challenges in game environments.