CONCLUSIONS AND MAIN FINDINGS EXTRACTED FROM THE REPORT ON SUCCESS STORIES – COMPILATION OF GAME– BASED LEARNING INITIATIVES IN ADULTS´ EDUCATION
•
1 like•2,389 views
CONCLUSIONS AND MAIN FINDINGS EXTRACTED FROM THE REPORT ON SUCCESS STORIES – COMPILATION OF GAME– BASED LEARNING INITIATIVES IN ADULTS´ EDUCATION, PRESENTED AT ICERI2012 CONFERENCE, MADRID, 19/11/2012
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to CONCLUSIONS AND MAIN FINDINGS EXTRACTED FROM THE REPORT ON SUCCESS STORIES – COMPILATION OF GAME– BASED LEARNING INITIATIVES IN ADULTS´ EDUCATION
Similar to CONCLUSIONS AND MAIN FINDINGS EXTRACTED FROM THE REPORT ON SUCCESS STORIES – COMPILATION OF GAME– BASED LEARNING INITIATIVES IN ADULTS´ EDUCATION (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
CONCLUSIONS AND MAIN FINDINGS EXTRACTED FROM THE REPORT ON SUCCESS STORIES – COMPILATION OF GAME– BASED LEARNING INITIATIVES IN ADULTS´ EDUCATION
- 1. SOCIAL GAMING AND LEARNING IN INFORMAL AND NON-FORMAL ENVIRONMENTS ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 2. REPORT ON SUCCESS STORIES – COMPILATION OF GAME– BASED LEARNING INITIATIVES IN ADULTS´EDUCATION 2 WP2 “Analysis on the use of game-based learning initiatives”. It aims at analysing the pedagogical potential of games (especially social games) applied to competences development, identifying those variables that influence the successful implementation of game- based learning initiatives, as well as gathering success examples and good practices on EU and international levels to be used as inspirations for adults training practitioners. ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 3. INTRODUCTON TO PROJECT 3 P4I-Play for Interculturality is a Grundtvig Multilateral project, funded by the European Commission, ref. 518475-LLP-1-2011-1-ES-GRUNDTVIG-GMP. The project has been approved in 2011 and will be implemented within the 2 years. The project consortium consists of 7 partners, representing different EU territorial contexts and fields of expertise: → INVESLAN (ES) – Project promoter and coordinator → Instituto Europeo para la Gestión de la Diversidad (European Institute for Managing Diversity) (ES) → SQLearn (EL) → C.N.I.P.A. Puglia (IT) → Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação (PT) → National Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection (RO) → LEARNit3D Ltd (UK) THIRD COUNTRY PARTNER: Twin Learning LLC (TL LLC) ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 4. WHERE WE COME FROM 4 ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 5. BACKGROUND AND RATIONAL OF THE PROJECT 5 While the latest tendencies point at a rather low level of adult population participation in lifelong learning initiatives, despite the increasing efforts in promotions and diversity of programmes, the project partners believe that the use of social games can positively influence the access of European adults to lifelong learning experiences, increasing the access rates, offering innovative and attractive means to develop key competences. P4I seeks to take step forward and create an innovative social game that promotes apprenticeship of intercultural competences of European adults, motivating them to take an active role and interact with other users, boosting key competences, such as digital socialization and media literacy in parallel. ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 6. METHODOLOGICAL NOTE 6 All national reports have been elaborated according to the “Guidelines and working methodology for carrying out the analysis”. All the data and findings have been collected according the mix – based methodology: a combination of desk research and qualitative research methods has been applied. ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 7. COMPLETE REPORT AVAILABLE AT WWW.P4I-PROJECT.EU 7 ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 8. COUNTRIES STUDIED 8 In each of the countries studied (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Romania, the UK and the US) the use of game-based learning is a rapidly growing trend that is pervading different areas of knowledge. It has gained considerable traction and we can observe a significant qualitative change, nevertheless there is still prevailing gap in usage, in part due to negative stereotypes of gamers, limited expertise in ICT and in games among trainers, and a shortage of good educational games. ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 9. PEDAGOGICAL POTENTIAL AND SKILLS SUPPORTED BY GAME – BASED LEARNING 9 The pedagogical potential of social games to achieve the objectives and promote competences derives from: immersive and interactive engagement; self-paced, non-linear and branching activities with multiple outcomes; collaboration and competition; contextual learning that can simulate real life situations, such as solving problems socially; integrated precise performance measurement and feedback. Fun and engaging games capture curiosity and encourage players to work and play together for their mutual growth and success. ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 10. SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF GAME BASED INITIATIVES 10 Successful implementation of a game-based learning initiative depends on a number of variables, not all of which are under the control of the creators. Online gamers often suffer from slow internet connections, glitches in the platform functioning, technical literacy, even finding friends and foes with whom to play. Since the most important variable is engagement, that the player suspends disbelief and becomes immersed in the activities of the game which, if well designed, result in the change in attitude and behaviour that is sought the game design, development and deployment needs to avoid as many obstacles to this engagement as possible. ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 11. PROFILE OF SOCIAL GAMER 11 While there is often a lack of pedagogical design behind current social games, the profile of social game players and gamers is increasingly broad, covering a wide demographic across gender, age and social status that offers an opportunity for game-based learning. Assuming the target audience to be adults, there is significant growth in their use of social media such as Facebook and of social games at this time. The gap between access and participation has closed significantly so that the platform on which the game would be made available is critical to determining who would likely use it and whom else they might recruit to participate. ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 12. INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCES (4) 12 A wide range of intercultural competences surfaced in the research on effective games. Those that seemed most appropriate as learning objectives for a social game for adults were self- awareness of prejudices and stereotypes, the diversity of communication styles, suspending judgment and empathy. In addition, successfully engaging players will likely promote a number of related competences, including digital competences, collaboration, lateral and strategic thinking, and new forms of literacy, including problem solving, analysis and creative reconstruction of content, multitasking, critical judgment, trans-media navigation, and social interactions and negotiation. ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 13. GOOD PRACTICES (28) 13 A wide range of success examples surfaced in the search and conversations. Each of the national reports lists a select few that should be played for inspiration. From wildly popular commercial games such as The Sims and Farmville, to effective transformational games such as Darfur is Dying, Peacemaker, Global Conflicts – Palestine, and PING (Poverty is Not a Game), all share designs that bring players back, encourage them to involve others, and promote envisioning the real world in a different way. ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 14. CONCLUSION REMARKS 14 Although we could find an emerging number of initiatives and certain developments and can observe a significant qualitative change around the games, game based learning is a field with still much to do. As we could learn during our investigation stage, research and interest in gaming on learning has increased considerably, nevertheless a list of obstacles is significative, social perception and acceptance above all. Despite prevailing conservative trends by applying the educational software that presents an imitation of the texts books and with a main focus on the contents, the potential itself of games for education is promising: participation, motivation, flow status, strategic decision taking, active participation, engagement and concentration – can be identified as key aspects in the educational success of the games application. ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 15. CONTACT AND MORE INFORMATION ABOUT P4I PROJECT 15 p4i@inveslan.com +34 944 703 670 ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
- 16. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION! 16 Lina Klemkaite INVESLAN l.klemkaite@inveslan.com ICERI 2012, Madrid 19/11/2012
Editor's Notes
- In each of the countries studied (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Romania, the UK and the US) the use of game-based learning is a rapidly growing trend that is pervading different areas of knowledge. A wide range of success examples surfaced in the search and conversations. Each of the national reports lists a select few that should be played for inspiration. From wildly popular commercial games such as The Sims and Farmville, to effective transformational games such as Darfur is Dying, Peacemaker, Global Conflicts – Palestine, and PING (Poverty is Not a Game), all share designs that bring players back, encourage them to involve others, and promote envisioning the real world in a different way. From them designers should learn to define very specifically what they want to achieve, provide for a variety of contexts for play (including traditional classrooms), and find both a compelling story and engaging activities to advance it. Taken together, the national reports are a rich collection of experience and intelligence that should be re-visited regularly in any design, development, and deployment process involving games to promote adult competences.
- TL LLC has a broad experience in designing and developing learning environments, with diverse teams of designers, architects, engineers, artists, media mavens, project and product managers, teachers and scholars, as well as an extensive experience in research on game – based initiatives.
- In order to explore in detail the pedagogical potential of game based learning, as well as the barriers to uptake of games in learning practices and skills supported by game based learning approaches, a combination of 2 qualitative methods have been chosen: expert interviews and group discussions with practitioners. The combination of the two chosen methods allowed us to investigate the game based initiatives from two different perspectives. Each partner has been asked to involve minimum 6 experts on the use of innovative teaching and training methodologies (especially those linked to games and video games), from different educational sectors. On the other hand, as far as group discussion, is concerned, the discussions have been organized in semi – structured form, with the direct target group - adult training practitioners as a second method that allowed us to explore the game based initiatives. Group discussion as a technique provided us with significant insights from the adult training practitioners’ perspective and at the same time, brought some added–value for the validation of the expert interviews results. The participants of the focus groups had been asked to test two games: 1. Facebook sample of story generation and 2. Irish example (3D game sample) as well as, to fill in the Self-check intercultural sensitivity test. Trial version of the Facebook game of story generation has been provided by SQLearn partner. 3D game sample has been provided by Learnit3D partner.
- Looking for an answer what makes games enjoyable; Alklind (2009) refers to the Sweetser & Wyeth theory and defines a GameFlow model that contains eight elements: concentration, challenge, skills control, clear goals, feedback, immersion and social interaction. Concentration means that a game should capture the player´s attention and hold it throughout the whole game; challenge means that a game should have tasks that match the players´ kill level; players´ skills capture aspects related to how players should learn, develop and master game skills; control covers aspects that players should a sense of control over the game shell, the characters and actions they take; clear goal means that the game as well as sections of the game, i.e. levels, should have goals that are made clear to the player; feedback means that the player should get immediate response to their actions and they should be informed on their progress towards the goal; immersion relates to the players involvement in the game and social interaction means the game should support social interaction s through the game, such as competitions, collaboration, as well as social communities [5].
- It can be argued that one of the barriers of games in learning practice application lies also in the design process, while the design of effective educational game implies taking into account a balance between the entertainment and educational value. “For this reason, involving domain experts in game creation (from inception to design and from initial development to testing) becomes crucial. Achieving this effective integration can be very complicated as different problems arise, such as the use of different vocabularies and differing short and long-term goals for the game” (Serrano et at.: 2012) [10].
- The “gamer” concept is widely used and is commonly understood to represent a person who plays games and contains aspects of gaming behaviour (e.g. types of games, amount of play), motivation to play (e.g. profit, enjoyment, social interaction), generational, as well as cultural dimension (Alklind et al.: 2009) [5]. “An established distinction is made between hardcore gamers, who are dedicated and spend much of their time playing and casual gamers who enjoy gaming, but are less concerned with the type of game and may not be willing to sacrifice too much time on it, at the expense of other activities” (Alklind et al.: 2009). In addition to that, we can identify other type of gamers, such as: power games, social gamers, leisure gamer, dormant gamers, cyber athletes, incidental gamers, as well as occasional gamers. What drives players to play are the desire to meet new people, to cooperate, to try new games, find new forms of self-expression, to relieve stress, widen networks, experiment with new identities, and the desire to compete and challenge the others. Players tend to feel secure, respected, esteemed, empowered, in charge; they are likely to make an investment in it. Defining the key motivations for playing games, Burn and Carr (2006) distinguish three main motivations: ludic, representation and communal, that are suggested as a way of categorizing types of gamers´ motivation (Crawford et al.) [12].
- Taken together, the national reports are a rich collection of experience and intelligence that should be re-visited regularly in any design, development, and deployment process involving games to promote adult competences.