The artifacts (instructional games) created by a class of fourth-grade students engaged in designing educational games are analyzed. To facilitate the analysis, these artifacts were compared with products created by students in a similar design context who were creating instructional software. In both situations, inner-city fourth graders were…

Considers the instructional potential of computer adventure games to develop text-processing skills. Design improvements to increase metacognitive skills are discussed, a prototype adventure game utilizing intact prose is described, and a study using the game with sixth-grade readers of varying ability is reported. (LRW)