Learning by Video Game

From UCSD via Science Daily, a self-motivating educational experience: Computer scientists develop video game that teaches how to program in Java

CodeSpells' story line is simple: the player is a wizard arriving in a land populated by gnomes.... The wizard must help them. She (or he) writes spells in Java. ...
Players can also earn badges by undertaking simple quests, which help them master the game's spells. One quest entails crossing a river. Another entails rescuing a gnome from the roof of his cottage... By the time players complete the game's first level, they have learned the main components of the Java programming language, such as parameters, for if statements, for loops and while loops, among other skills.
Researchers tested the game on a group of 40 girls ages 10 to 12 in San Diego...."We were purposefully vague," they wrote, "as we hoped to encourage a largely unstructured learning environment."
The students were disappointed when they had to stop playing because the test was over.

And there ain't no maybe not about it.