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We advocate that the participatory design approach, which supports collaborative efforts of different stakeholders, is an effective framework for developing game-based learning tools for sex education. Our work provides preliminary findings that suggest game-based learning, preferably delivered through popular interactive platforms, can be effective in promoting sex education to teenagers.

Drawing together research on persuasion and text comprehension, two experiments test the effects of hedge placement (Experiment 1) and hedge type (Experiment 2) on attitudes, source evaluations, and perceptions of argument strength. Participants read an editorial in support of implementing comprehensive exams at their university. Experiment 1 shows that hedges placed on data statements (and not interpretation statements) lead to negative perceptions of the policy, source, and argument. This is especially pronounced on source evaluations among individuals with more scientific training. Experiment 2 reveals that colloquial, but not professional, hedges placed on interpretation statements lead to more negative evaluations relative to no hedges. Data related to perceptions of the source are moderated by individual differences in scientific reasoning. This research suggests that hedges describing data statements and/or that use colloquial language can, but do not always, undermine persuasive attempts.

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This research study investigates US middle school students’ collaborative information-seeking, sense-making and knowledge-building practices in a guided discovery-based programme of game design learning in which students and their teachers participate in a formal, in-school class daily, for credit and a grade for an entire year. The learning is supported by information affordances including a wiki learning management system (LMS) housing the curriculum, organized design activities, social media features, tutorials and informational assignments. Students engage in a Constructionist blended learning setting in their classroom, and work collaboratively in teams on game design. The study draws on qualitative video data from six team cases using a coding scheme of categories for the concepts of task, collaborative information seeking (CIS) Modality, and inquiry resolution outcomes. The study also considers linkages between processes and learning outcomes. Variation in engagement across the categories among students was charted, and certain patterns emerged. Findings indicate that some categories of task appear related to some categories of students’ chosen CIS Modality for solving problems. Further, CIS processes in support of tasks appear related to inquiry incident resolution (resolved/unresolved). For student completion of advanced programming tasks in particular, we observe more frequent uses of the wiki-based LMS resources, and greater levels of challenge in fulfilling tasks. Results support existing work on these theoretical constructs in the information sciences, and lead to questions on how naturalistic emergence of CIS practices result from greater task knowledge, and whether learned CIS practices (as tasks in and of themselves) can yield project task knowledge gains. Findings of the study and the ongoing questions the work invites hold instructional design implications, and show how social constructivist educational contexts involving collaborative and information seeking and knowledge building among youth game designers can contribute to scholarly understanding of these processes more broadly in related project-based work contexts occurring among both youth and adults.

This implementation study explores middle school, high school and community college student experiences in Globaloria, an educational pilot program of game design offered in schools within the U.S. state of West Virginia, supported by a non-profit organization based in New York City called the World Wide Workshop Foundation. This study reports on student engagement, meaning making and critique of the program, in their own words. The study's data source was a mid-program student feedback survey implemented in Pilot Year 2 (2008/2009) of the 5 year design-based research initiative, in which the researchers posed a set of open-ended questions in an online survey questionnaire answered by 199 students. Responses were analyzed using inductive textual analysis. While the initial purpose for data collection was to elicit actionable program improvements as part of a design-based research process, several themes emergent in the data tie into recent debates in the education literature around discovery-based learning. In this paper, we draw linkages from the categories of findings that emerged in student feedback to this literature, and identify new scholarly research questions that can be addressed in the ongoing pilot, the investigation of which might contribute new empirical insights related to recent critiques of discovery based learning, self-determination theory, and the productive failure phenomenon.

Participating in online social, cultural, and political activities requires digital skill and knowledge. This study investigates how sustained student engagement in game design and social media use can attenuate the relations between socioeconomic factors and digital inequality among youth. This study of 242 middle and high school students participating in the Globaloria project shows that participation eliminates gender effects, and reduces parent education effects in home computer use. Further, students from schools with lower parent education show greater increases in frequency of school technology engagement. Globaloria participation also weakens the link between prior school achievement and advanced technology activities. Results offer evidence that school-based digital literacy programs can attenuate digital divide effects known to occur crosssectionally in the general U.S. population.

after first online publication: The text "Anonymized" has been changed to Rutgers University and the tables are moved to relevant section.]