Games engage students with authentic leisure experiences while reinforcing a variety of social, literary and curricular skills. When an educational concept is introduced and reinforced during a game, it is internalized as part of an enjoyable experience and further utilized as one aspect of a strategy to attain success.

I wanted to take a few minutes to show that gaming also strongly corresponds to the many of the Common Beliefs laid out by the AASL.

Inquiry provides a framework for learning.
Games not only introduce basic skills which are applicable away from the table, they also provide the motivation to explore and refine those skills.

Ethical Behavior in the use of information must be taught.
Through positive experiences in gaming, students come to appreciate the validity of varying approaches to problems and the importance of ethical choices.

The American Association of School Librarians' Standards for the 21st-Century Learner define student interactions with information in terms of an inquiry-based experience. 21st-Century learners need to explore information; to see what more they can find by building connections and trying different searches. Another word for this might be play.

The new AASL standards are very supportive of the ideas and skills that make up gaming as can be seen in the gaming alignment below. This, document, created by the member libraries of the School Library System of Genesee Valley BOCES provides support for the use of games as a learning resource in school libraries.

The School Library System of Genesee Valley BOCES has developed a collection of games appropriate for use in school libraries. While these are not “educational games” all of the games are linked to New York State curriculum standards including math, ELA, and social studies standards. Based on the available research about gaming, we strongly believe that games are an important part of development. They provide a learning environment that presents a variety of new challenges, supports creative problem solving, and provides support for overcoming failure.