How It Looks From Their Side: Student Experience of School Use of Digital Games

• In Event: Literacy, Learning, and Digital Games: Situated Learning, Imagination, and Play

Abstract

The potential for digital games to transform learning has been the focus of increasing interest and research (Gee 2007, Perrotta et al 2013). However, while there is considerable interest in the potential of games, more information is needed about what this actually means in the classroom and in the everyday lives of ordinary students and teachers. While a number of studies exist of work undertaken in various sites where those undertaking the research are passionate and knowledgeable about games, (eg Abrams & Russo 2015), the study reported in here explored the experiences of teachers and students in a range of schools, year levels and curriculum areas who did not necessarily have such prior knowledge or commitment. This paper reports on one aspect of that research - students’ experience of the use of games in the classroom, in the course of the project, and previously.

The objectives of the project were to explore a range of issues surfaced for teachers, students and schools when digital games were introduced into the classroom. Important amongst these were the ways in which young people’s knowledge of and participation in games in their out of school worlds shaped their expectations and orientations towards curriculum utilizing digital games, and their experience of, and attitudes towards the use of games in the classroom Calling on multimodal and new literacies frameworks (Street, Pahl and Rowsell 2009) and sociocultural perspectives on digital games and literacy constructed as design (Gee 2007), together with games and learning scholarship that foregrounds issues of agency, ownership and the realities of school contexts (Bourgonjon et al 2010; 2013 Perrotta et al. 2013), the aspect of the project discussed in this paper set out to explore student views.

The project was comprised of multiple case studies, which included classroom based observations, interviews with teachers and students, and participatory research, together with two large scale surveys in the first and third years of the project. This paper reports on student perspectives across the nine schools, as represented in the survey in the third year. Findings show students’ observations, preferences and experiences of the use of digital games in (and out) of school, with implications of relevance for schools and teachers exploring the possibilities of working with digital games in school

Abrams, S. & Russo, M. (2015) Layering Literacies and Contemporary Learning. Journal of Adult and Adolescent Literacy 59 (2) pp.1-5
Bourgonjon, J., Valke, M., Soetaert, R. & Schellens, T. (2010) Students’ perceptions about the use of videogames in the classroom. Computers & Education 54 pp 1145-1156
Street, B., Pahl, K, & Rowsell, J. (2009) Multimodality and New Literacy Studies in Carey Jewitt (Ed) The Routledge Book of Multimodal Analysis, Routledge, London
Gee, J.P. 2007. What Video Games Can Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. 2nd Edition, New York: Palgrave.
Perrotta, C., G. Featherstone, H. Aston, and E. Houghton. 2013. Games-based Learning: Latest Evidence and Future Directions. Slough, UK: NFER

Author

• Catherine Beavis, Griffith University