When a game supports prevocational math education but integrated reflection does not

The present study addressed the effectiveness of an educational math game for improving proportional reasoning in prevocational education, and examined the added value of support in the form of reflection. The study compared four conditions: the game with reflection prompts, the game with reflection prompts plus procedural information, the game with procedural information only and the game without additional support. It was found that students' proportional reasoning skill improved after playing the game. The game managed to target prevocational students with low prior knowledge, a group that has the potential to understand proportional reasoning but has not yet encountered the right learning situation to live up to their potential. However, it was also found that students need to be computational fluent to profit from the game. Furthermore, no added value of the support was found. The way the support was structured may have been too demanding for most of the students. The fact that the prevocational students (and specifically those with low prior knowledge) improved by playing the game is noteworthy, because the topic of proportional reasoning is demanding for this group of students who often have lower abilities as well as in some cases a high resistance to learning.     

Matching and mismatching between the pedagogical design principles of a math game and the actual practices of play

The article reports and discusses a long‐term qualitative study of forty 8–10‐year‐old students who regularly played a math game during math lessons for 9 weeks. The goal was to explore the relations between (i) some of the pedagogical principles that underlie the game and (ii) the playing practice in terms of what actually takes place when students play the math game during regular math lessons. The article discusses indications of matches and mismatches between pedagogical principles and playing practice as they appear in analyses of observations and video recordings. The result highlights the difficulty of predicting areas in which possible mismatches appear between the intentions of the pedagogues and designers of educational technology and the actual use of the technology by the students. This also applies to educational materials that have already been pilot tested and used on a smaller scale. We emphasize the need to observe actual use for extensive periods of time, i.e. to go beyond short‐time user testing.     

Technology uses and student achievement: A longitudinal study

Based on data collected from a middle school, this study investigates how the quantity and quality of technology use affect student learning outcomes. Specifically, this study examines how technologies are used by students, what technology uses are popular among students, and what technology uses are effective for increasing student academic achievement. Results suggest that the quantity of technology use alone is not critical to student learning. “How much” matters when “how” is identified. Moreover, when the quality of technology use is not ensured, more time on computers may cause more harm than benefit. With students’ change in GPA as an indicator, technology uses that had positive impact on students were those related to specific subject areas and focused on student construction. In addition, analysis of the frequency of technology uses found that, in general, technology uses that had positive impact were not popular; on the contrary, some of these technology uses were the least frequently used. Implications for practice and future research are discussed in this paper.     

How the ICT development level and usage influence student achievement in reading,mathematics, and science

The main purpose of this study is to investigate how national ICT development level and individual ICT usage will influence achievements in reading, mathematics, and science for 4th and 8th grade school students. Large-scale international databases, including TIMSS 2011, PIRLS 2011, and PISA 2012, were employed in the current study. Hierarchical linear models (HLM) were applied to examine both country- and individual-level variables. According to the findings of this study, the national ICT development level is a significant positive predictor for individual academic performance in all three subjects for both 4th grade and 8th grade students, while the national economic development level was controlled for. Such finding indicates a similar trend of the ICT influences for both groups, although there exists a difference in terms of the extent of the relationships. In addition, individual-level ICT use is a significant predictor, even if students' gender and socioeconomic status are controlled for; however, its influence is mixed across different student groups and subjects depending on the ICT usage type.     

The development of a formative scenario-based computer assisted assessment tool in psychology for teachers: The PePCAA project

Formative computer assisted assessment has become increasingly attractive in Higher Education where providing useful feedback to large numbers of students can be difficult. However, the nature of such assessments has often been limited to objective questions such as multiple-choice. This paper reports on the development and initial trialling of a more innovative, formative use of computer assisted assessment in a Higher Education context. The European funded PePCAA (Pedagogical Psychology Computer Assisted Assessment) project developed a series of scenario-based computer-delivered formative assessments of pedagogical psychology for teachers and trainee teachers, using a range of software features, including the addition of confidence measurement. The project had a two-fold aim: to provide a tool to improve understanding of pedagogical psychology and to explore the potential of more innovative techniques of computer assisted assessment to motivate students and to assess deeper learning. The combination of computer-delivered formative assessment with innovative question styles and confidence ratings is believed to be unique for pedagogical psychology. Scenarios were based on realistic classroom situations and focused on problem solving or on utilising best practice. The PePCAA Learning Assessment Circle (PLAC) provided a framework for indexing the kinds of processes required of users. In the UK, small scale trialling involved a total of 23 teacher trainees such that each assessment was attempted by about seven participants. Participants completed evaluation questionnaires after each assessment. Responses from learners indicated that the UK scenarios were generally very well received and had at least partly achieved the aim of stimulating deeper learning. Transfer of assessments between countries proved more difficult than expected. The next stage of development should be to conduct a larger pilot, thus allowing full investigation of the reliability and validity of the assessments. There is also scope for further development of the PePCAA approach and for its application in other subjects.     

Individual characteristics and computer self-efficacy in secondary education teachers to integrate technology in educational practice

The development of modern technologies and their extension to every domain of our daily life nowadays is an indisputable fact. The widespread use of computers renders training in these technologies necessary. Consequently, computers were soon introduced into the Greek educational system. Factors related to the nature of the teacher’s personality, such as computer self-efficacy, self-concept, attitudes, motivation and needs are considered crucial to the integration and development of modern technologies in education. This study examines the relationship between individual characteristics of secondary school teachers and computer self-efficacy as well as teacher prospects with regard to modern technologies.     

Unreal PowerPoint: Immersing PowerPoint presentations in a virtual computer game engine world

At a recent conference on games in education, we made a radical decision to transform our standard presentation of PowerPoint slides and computer game demonstrations into a unified whole, inserting the PowerPoint presentation to the computer game. This opened up various questions relating to learning and teaching theories, which were debated by the conference delegates. In this paper, we reflect on these discussions, we present our initial experiment, and relate this to various theories of learning and teaching. In particular, we consider the applicability of “concept maps” to inform the construction of educational materials, especially their topological, geometrical and pedagogical significance. We supplement this “spatial” dimension with a theory of the dynamic, temporal dimension, grounded in a context of learning processes, such as Kolb’s learning cycle. Finally, we address the multi-player aspects of computer games, and relate this to the theories of social and collaborative learning. This paper attempts to explore various theoretical bases, and so support the development of a new learning and teaching virtual reality approach.     

Peer modeling and innovation adoption among teachers in online professional development

This paper draws on three years of data from an online course on educational technology for practicing teachers, in which a goal was for teachers to develop a web-based application they could use in their own teaching. Based on analyses of discussion forums and teachers' course projects, we found that iterations of the course evolved over the years from being a loose association of peers involved in vastly different development projects with different tools, to a community of designers involved in a common endeavor, as more and more students chose the same open-source learning management system for their course projects. We tracked what factors seemed to affect how many and which teachers chose which development technologies, and how the process of making these choices evolved with the increased role of designed and emergent forms of peer modeling. We situate these findings in the literature on teacher professional development and technology use, arguing that existing conversations need to attend to the important role that peers play in teachers' learning and innovation adoption, particularly in online learning environments.     

A case study of the in-class use of a video game for teaching high school history

This study examines the case of a sophomore high school history class where Making History, a video game designed with educational purposes in mind, is used in the classroom to teach about World War II. Data was gathered using observation, focus group and individual interviews, and document analysis. The high school was a rural school located in a small town in the Midwestern United States. The teacher had been teaching with the game for several years and spent one school week teaching World War II, with students playing the game in class for three days of that week. The purpose of this study was to understand teacher and student experiences with and perspectives on the in-class use of an educational video game. Results showed that the use of the video game resulted in a shift from a traditional teacher-centered learning environment to a student-centered environment where the students were much more active and engaged. Also, the teacher had evolved implementation strategies based on his past experiences using the game to maximize the focus on learning.     

Effects of constructing versus playing an educational game on student motivation and deep learning strategy use

In this study the effects of two different interactive learning tasks, in which simple games were included were described with respect to student motivation and deep strategy use. The research involved 235 students from four elementary schools in The Netherlands. One group of students (N = 128) constructed their own memory ‘drag and drop’ game, whereas the other group (N = 107) played an existing ‘drag and drop’ memory game. Analyses of covariance demonstrated a significant difference between the two conditions both on intrinsic motivation and deep strategy use. The large effect sizes for both motivation and deep strategy use were in favour of the construction condition. The results suggest that constructing a game might be a better way to enhance student motivation and deep learning than playing an existing game. Despite the promising results, the low level of complexity of the games used is a study limitation.     

The effects of computer games on primary school students’ achievement and motivation in geography learning

The implementation of a computer game for learning about geography by primary school students is the focus of this article. Researchers designed and developed a three-dimensional educational computer game. Twenty four students in fourth and fifth grades in a private school in Ankara, Turkey learnt about world continents and countries through this game for three weeks. The effects of the game environment on students’ achievement and motivation and related implementation issues were examined through both quantitative and qualitative methods. An analysis of pre and post achievement tests showed that students made significant learning gains by participating in the game-based learning environment. When comparing their motivations while learning in the game-based learning environment and in their traditional school environment, it was found that students demonstrated statistically significant higher intrinsic motivations and statistically significant lower extrinsic motivations learning in the game-based environment. In addition, they had decreased focus on getting grades and they were more independent while participating in the game-based activities. These positive effects on learning and motivation, and the positive attitudes of students and teachers suggest that computer games can be used as an ICT tool in formal learning environments to support students in effective geography learning.     

The effectiveness of adaptive difficulty adjustments on students' motivation and learning in an educational computer game

Computer games that adaptively adjust difficulty are used to continuously challenge players according to their abilities. The adjustment of difficulty occurs automatically in response to a game's ongoing assessment of a player's performance. This approach to difficulty adjustment is likely to be of value in educational computer games as a means of scaffolding learning for students. However, there is limited research evaluating the effectiveness of educational computer games with adaptive difficulty adjustment when compared to non-adaptive difficulty adjustment. To expand on this research a quasi-experimental study was designed to isolate the impact of the difficulty adjustment game element on motivation and learning. A total of 234 secondary school students were allocated to one of three activities involving learning about Spanish cognates: an adaptive difficulty adjustment game, an incremental difficulty adjustment game that was non-adaptive, and a written activity. The three learning activities were designed following the same learning and motivation theories. The two games were identical apart from the difficulty adjustment mechanism. The results for motivation indicated that all students experienced high levels and there was no significant difference between the three learning activities. The pre- and post-tests results for learning indicated that significantly higher learning outcomes were achieved by students who played the adaptive game. Analysis of a game log recording the correctness of students' responses indicated that the adaptive difficulty adjustment game, in contrast to the non-adaptive incremental difficulty adjustment game, provided a scaffolding structure to enhance student learning.     

Common needs and different agendas: How trainee teachers make progress in their ability to use ICT in subject teaching. Some lessons from the UK

The paper reports on the outcomes of a British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTa) funded study which explored the views of teacher trainees and their mentors in two different school subjects on what strategies, interventions and resources had a positive impact on their ability to use ICT effectively in their subject teaching.The research aimed to explore both commonalities in trainees’ views of which strategies and interventions had a positive influence on their ability to use ICT effectively in subject teaching, and subject discipline dimensions of ICT use, i.e. the ways in which training needs might vary between trainees in different school subjects.The study focused on the views of two successive cohorts of science and history trainees (133 trainees in all), and 21 of their supervising mentors. The outcomes showed that some important determinants of progression in the ability to deploy ICT confidently and effectively in subject teaching were common to both subject groups, but that there were differing views on which ICT applications offered most potential for enhancing teaching and learning in their subject and differences in their preferred priorities for investment in ICT. The study also revealed that trainees felt that many of the experiences and resources which they had encountered in the course of their training had not been helpful.A follow up survey was undertaken of 114 trainees across six subject areas to further explore some of the findings from the initial survey. The concluding section of the paper suggests ways in which trainee teachers might be prepared more effectively for using ICT in their subject teaching.     

Exploring the influence of game design on learning and voluntary use in an online vascular anatomy study aid

This research explores the educational impact of an online study aid-game for studying human vascular anatomy (n = 24) versus a similar non-game study aid (n = 22) and how it relates to medical students' demographic traits and voluntary use over a 35-day period. Hierarchical linear regression models revealed that study aid success rate (a metric for assessing performance through the study aids) was a significant predictor of anatomy test improvement with the game (β = 0.41, p = 0.05), but not for the non-game (β = 0.14, p = 0.56). Our analyses suggest that game mechanics encouraged more specific problem-solving strategies than did the control study aid, leading to greater predictability of learning outcomes. There was a non-significant trend among game treatment participants, who were more likely to complete study tasks than those assigned to the control treatment (p = 0.11). It would appear that students' studying habits had the greatest influence (though opposite in both tools) on level of engagement in study aid use. However, contrary to expectations, self-reported gaming habits did not impact participation. Overall, these findings support the integration of game design into undergraduate study aids as a means of increasing use of supplementary educational tools and assessing knowledge.     

Putting yourself in someone else's shoes: The impact of a location-based,collaborative role-playing game on behaviour

The goal of this study was to probe the effectiveness of a mobile game-based learning approach in modifying behavioural outcomes and competence. The experiment was set against the background of low rates of laymen providing CPR during sudden cardiac arrests. A post-test control group design was used to contrast and evaluate the effects of the two different types of learning. Two hundred two students were randomly assigned to two conditions, a game-based variant simulating an emergency situation (experimental group), and an instruction-based approach (control group). After the intervention participants completed a questionnaire assessing self-prediction, self-efficacy, attitude, subjective norm, empathy and competence. The largest arguably significant difference between the two groups showed in self-prediction and capacity beliefs. Results further revealed a positive relationship between self-prediction and the variables attitude and self-efficacy. The type of scenario did not translate into the other concepts we assessed, though, and results were inconclusive regarding the effectiveness of the type of learning scenario and CPR knowledge. We explain the small effect size partly by the experimental procedure and the design of the game intervention, which is discussed in the course of this article.     

Using multimedia to teach inservice teachers: Impacts on learning, application, and retention

This study investigated teachers’ ability to learn, apply in lesson plans, and retain knowledge of classroom discourse from a single module of a multimedia professional development program, used with 39 K-12 teachers enrolled in two graduate courses. Data collection and analysis included: (a) teacher development of – and panel review of – lesson plans integrating discourse, and (b) follow-up teacher interviews one year later. The study found: (a) the video modeling in the module was effective in helping teachers learn, and (b) discourse strategies were learned, applied, and retained. Implications for professional development with multimedia to teach classroom discourse include: (a) recursive use, (b) reflection, (c) multiple examples, (d) counter examples, and (e) prompts for observation.     

The use of computer technology in university teaching and learning: a critical perspective

Abstract  Despite huge efforts to position information and communication technology (ICT) as a central tenet of university teaching and learning, the fact remains that many university students and faculty make only limited formal academic use of computer technology. Whilst this is usually attributed to a variety of operational deficits on the part of students, faculty, and universities, this paper considers the wider social relations underpinning the relatively modest use of technology in higher education. The paper explores how university use of computer technology is shaped into marginalized and curtailed positions by a variety of actors. From the 'writing' of ICT at a national policy level through to the marginalization of ICT within the lived 'student experience', a consistent theme emerges where computer technology use is constructed in limited, linear, and rigid terms far removed from the creative, productive, and empowering uses which are often celebrated by educational technologists. In the light of such constraints, the paper considers how these dominant constructions of a peripheral and limited use of ICT may be challenged by the higher education community. In particular, it concludes by reflecting on current critical thinking about how educational technologists can foster a more expansive and empowered use of computer technology within university settings.