Collaborative Inquiry-Supported Game Design as a Context for Cultivating “Constructionist Digital Literacy”

• In Event: Literacy, Expertise, and Experience in Gaming

Abstract

We propose a 6-dimensional practice framework as an instructional design to cultivate digital skills, centering on (a) student engagement in a central computational and creative technology task with software, and (b) students’ task-driven supplementary inquiry activity and collaborative practices with web-based information and social media resources. The proposed framework offers an instructional theory of “constructionist digital literacy.” Empirical support indicates how student engagement in each integrated activity contributes to the others, and how at-school design activity extends to voluntary at-home activity. Results offer support for the effectiveness of integrating collaborative inquiry, with creative design tasks, in instructional designs for digital literacy development, and can be built upon by other scholars of instructional design who are interested in pursuing this outcome

Authors

• Rebecca Reynolds, Rutgers University

• John Wolf, New Jersey Institute of Technology