Abstract
This article highlights and discusses potential opportunities, limitations and problems related to using games and game technologies (such as gamification) in education. For the purpose of the study, games are seen ontologically as conditional realities. The world-of-work and world-of-play concept, which stems from the ideas of social phenomenology about lifeworld and multiple realities, forms a methodological basis for the analysis and differentiation between game and non-game activities, thus underlying the scientific novelty of our study. The following conclusions were inferred: By turning learning into a game we may prompt students to perceive the world-of-work (duties, responsibilities) as the world-of-play (desires, freedom); then, either the school will lose its socializing role in preparing students for life, which is a world of work and commitments rather than a world of game, or students will become bored with the game that will lose its appeal (or suggest manipulations). Thus, despite all its advantages, game-based and gamified education should not be seen as a panacea.
Highlights
The game as modeling of situations, as a problem-solving technique, as an approach to scientific and philosophical discussions (Plato’s dialogues; debates between nominalists and realists resorting to humorous and facetious examples in their arguments, etc.) as well as a method to get people engaged in a certain, seemingly boring activity by turning it into fun has been used since ancient times
While initially scholarly and popular literature focused on the most negative aspects of the above games – incitement to violence, inadequate behavior, and addiction – later on, these games were studied in the context of their educational capabilities. We explore these educational capabilities of games by the example of video games, live Action Role-Playing Game and Alternate Reality Games
McGonigal (2011) laments, in contrast to the actual reality where failures are more frequently noticed than successes, the game reality is fairer: It has immediate feedback between the action and the outcome; the person feels that his accomplishment is appreciated
Summary
The game as modeling of situations (the war game), as a problem-solving technique, as an approach to scientific and philosophical discussions (Plato’s dialogues; debates between nominalists and realists resorting to humorous and facetious examples in their arguments, etc.) as well as a method to get people engaged in a certain, seemingly boring activity by turning it into fun has been used since ancient times It is connected with “one of the main aspects of play, which is the simple fact that it is enjoyable in itself. Note that the world-of-play should not be narrowed down to leisure (or solely to game activities) and the world-of-work should not be limited to work activities Instead, their differentiation should be based on the following dichotomies: Freedom – Constraint, Want – Must. We will try to consider them in the context of education
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