Investigating the relationships between informal learning and player involvement in digital games

Abstract

In the last few years, digital games have become increasingly popular with both 'hardcore' and 'casual' audiences. At the same time, it has been argued that games can be powerful learning environments, since they are seen to encourage active and critical learning through participation in affinity groups and semiotic domains but there is a need for further empirical evidence to explore how this participation occurs and how prevalent it actually is. In addition the effectiveness of games within education indicates mixed results, though it has been suggested that this may indicate that learning through immersive worlds involves a more complex understanding of learning, one that is not so easy to tie to specified learning outcomes. It would seem the area would benefit from research that seeks to develop our understanding of how player involvement and learning come together in this context. This paper presents the preliminary results of a survey carried out in order to explore these issues. The initial findings suggest that how a player identifies as a gamer relates to what they think they gain from their gaming experiences with respect to learning.

Creating Coherent Incidental Learning Journeys on Smartphones Using Feedback and Progress Indicators

“…Some studies have investigated motivation and/or engagement in game-based contexts, notably Schwabe and Goth (2005), Huizenga et al (2009) and Iacovides et al (2012). Hurd, writing in the context of online distance learning, notes that "Motivation is the factor most frequently cited as critical to successful learning by distance learners themselves" (Hurd, 2008, p.227).…”

City Ville: collaborative game play, communication and skill development in social networks

“…It is a new formula of communication between people from all over the world with similar tastes who converge on the same ludic environment where the development of game play makes it possible to establish relationships, encouraging collaboration as well as the transfer of strategies and knowledge linked with demands and executions specific to the game (Camilleri, Busuttil & Montebello, 2011;Iacovides, Aczel, Scanlon & Woods, 2012).…”

“…Similarly, within a ludic context, networked games favor communication between gamers and encourage them to exchange experiences (Altamimi & Skinner, 2012;Ducheneaut, Yee, Nickell & Moore, 2006;Iacovides et al, 2012). In the case of games integrated into social networks, users can enjoy and amuse themselves, have a feeling of self-satisfaction after achieving the proposed aims and see how their needs are met through the implementation of their missions or activities -and they can share games as well.…”

“…Jeon (2011) analyzes how interactions in social networks have contributed to increase the social capital which converges on them, since these virtual platforms are used because of the interest and flexibility that they offer when it comes to communication with one another (Iacovides et al, 2012). The studies by Cole & Griffiths (2007) seek to check the extent to which the social interactions derived from ludic activities shared in networks can favor collaborative construction as well as the development of certain skills.…”

“…As a matter of fact, virtual ludic scenarios generate some peculiar bonds between gamers from the common interests that bring them together (Choi, Choi & Song, 2012;Iacovides et al, 2012). This has led to the spontaneous creation of virtual videogamer communities, some of them conceived as ideal spaces to help the transfer of both strategies and knowledge, generating learning outcomes and even improving them through mutual collaboration (Suthers, 2001;Zhang et al, 2012); and others oriented to problemsolving or to the completion of the tasks proposed by the videogame (Sharritt & Suthers, 2009).…”