Digital Games In Classroom Research Articles

The Effect of Digital Game-Based Learning on Motivation for EFL

This paper elaborates the meaningful appearance and educational development of digital game-based learning and summarizes how digital game-based learning assists with learning strategies for English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Previous research highlights the importance of applications of digital games in classrooms and emphasize its essential functions for developing learning strategies. It is pointed out that digital game-based learning has its potential for young generations to improve their English learning and produce the further educational methods. Digital game-based learning is regarded as an instrumental and motivational subsystem to provide interactive learning contexts, increase learner’s satisfactions and promote English proficiency if it can be utilized in an appropriate way. Based on its benefits, learner’s attitudes to digital games cannot be ignored, and there shall be enough instructions and regulations of applying digital game-based learning. This paper concludes that digital game-based learning is expected to be more efficient to promote language competence and be more motivating for language acquisition.

Pre-Service Science Teachers’ Learning and Teaching Experiences with Digital Games: KODU Game Lab

The aim of this paper is to introduce Kodu Game Lab to pre-service science teachers through a method course based on MAGDAIRE framework and prepare them to design their own digital games. In accordance with this purpose, key factors towards using digital games in classroom are also observed. Convergent parallel design that is a type of mix method research design was used in this study. This study is performed with a total of 18 pre-service teachers (PSTs) who were senior students in a teacher education program of a public university in Turkey. PSTs voluntarily formed six groups and designed their own digital games collaboratively based on DGBL-ID Model. Technical Proficiency of Kodu Skills Test (TPKS-T), rubrics for group and personal assessment and observation form were used to collect data. According to analyses of data collected with TPKS-T, post-test mean of PSTs is significantly higher than their pre-test means. Findings of rubrics showed that PSTs’ determined performance levels are directly proportionate to practices. Also, findings obtained with observation form are promoted this result. It can be suggested that knowledge and skills, pedagogical beliefs and culture have an effect on integrating digital games into learning process.

A professional development model to facilitate teacher adoption of interactive, immersive digital games for classroom learning

AbstractThe benefits of using digital games in the curriculum are well documented in literature. Most teachers who use digital games use short‐form drill‐and‐practice learning games rather than the kinds of games most students would choose to play in their free time. The use of more interactive, immersive digital games (IDGs) in classrooms tends to be sporadic, dependent upon the enthusiasm and ingenuity of individual teachers. Previous studies have indicated that many teachers have concerns about using digital games in classrooms and have difficulties knowing how to best use digital games. This qualitative study presents a professional development model for teachers that was inductively derived through analysing in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews with 13 educators who have used digital games in the classroom. Implementing this model can help teachers develop attitudes and skills necessary to meaningfully use interactive, IDGs in their classrooms. Evidence suggests that a mentor should have a strong understanding of how to use digital games effectively in classrooms, work with small cohorts of teachers to collegially plan the use of digital games within a unit of class work, trial the unit of work with a small number of enthusiastic teachers, and then implement it with the remaining teachers. This approach is based on interviews with educators who have successfully mentored teachers in their schools to use interactive, IDGs in their classrooms. These educators encountered little resistance from their teaching colleagues. Their approach further supported teachers who were open to the possibilities of using digital games in their classrooms.

Feeling alienated – teachers using immersive digital games in classrooms

Significant barriers to using digital games in classrooms exist despite evidence to indicate digital games can enhance academic achievement. This qualitative, grounded theory study purports an interpretive understanding of the experiences of 13 Australian teachers who have used immersive digital games (IDGs) in the classroom. These teachers participated in in-depth, semi-structured interviews that were one to two hours in duration. A key finding of this study is that teachers who use IDGs in the classroom can experience varying degrees of alienation from their teaching colleagues. This paper presents a model of the process of ‘Feeling Alienated’ experienced by some educators using IDGs in their classrooms. It begins with ‘the lone believer’ teacher who has strong beliefs in the value of using IDGs for student learning. Resentment by some colleagues, curriculum and classroom concerns, and insufficient advocacy contribute to the lone believer feeling alienated. This leads the lone believer to minimise the impact of their use of IDGs. The study concludes that, whilst negative teacher attitudes towards the use of IDGs in the classroom persist, the potential impact of IDGs in the classroom will not be fully realised.

Teachers' Beliefs about the Possibilities and Limitations of Digital Games in Classrooms

Teachers' beliefs about what it is (or is not) possible to achieve with digital games in educational contexts will inevitably influence the decisions that they make about how, when, and for what specific purposes they will bring these games into their classrooms. They play a crucial role in both shaping and responding to the complex contextual factors which influence how games are understood and experienced in educational settings. Throughout this article the authors draw upon data collected for a large-scale, mixed-methods research project focusing on literacy, learning and teaching with digital games in Australian classrooms, to focus explicitly on the attitudes, understandings and expectations held about digital games by diverse teachers at the beginning of the project. They seek to identify the beliefs about games that motivated teachers' participation in a digital games research project while focusing, as well, on concerns that teachers express about risks or limitations of such a project. The authors' aim is to develop a detailed picture of the mindsets that teachers bring to games-based learning environments, and the relevance of these mindsets to broader debates about the relationship between games, learning and school.

Digital games and learning: a study of preservice teachers' perceptions

This study aims to enhance understanding of enactivism, an emergent theory, through the exploration of preservice teachers' thinking about digital games. Focusing on two important enactivist concepts, affordances and constraints, this study is guided by the following research questions: What are preservice teachers' perceived affordances of digital games, teacher designed digital games, and student designed digital games in classrooms? What constraints are perceived by preservice teachers for adapting digital game design in schools? This research adopts a mixed method approach [Creswell, 1998. Qualitative inquiry and research design; Choosing among five traditions. London: Sage] to investigate preservice teachers' perceptions. A convenient sampling method is used with 73 preservice teachers. Data collected include open-ended surveys and teacher discussion notes. Results show that a vast majority of preservice teachers have perceived that game design and building, either by teachers themselves or by learners, affords great educational potential. Additional affordances and constraints of digital games are also discussed in the article.