Issues for consideration to adopt educational computer games for learning and teaching

Computer games have started to gain attention in the domain of learning and teaching. The integration of computer games for education in the classroom has starting to gain acceptance in some countries. However, for schools which have never used computer games in the classroom, study still need to be conducted to investigate the teachers' belief and attitude toward the usage. The purpose of this paper is to examine issues for consideration when adopting educational computer games for learning and teaching. This paper also examines the concepts that related to educational computer games and aspects of learning and teaching. In addition, the theories of technology acceptance which use to assess the perception, belief and attitude of teachers and students have also been investigated

Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Abstracts 2004

Proceedings of the Advances in Teaching & Learning Day Regional Conference held at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 2004

Revisión tecnológica del aprendizaje de idiomas asistido por ordenador: una perspectiva cronológica

El presente artículo aborda la evolución y el avance de las tecnologías del aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por ordenador (CALL por sus siglas en inglés, que corresponden a Computer- Assisted Language Learning) desde una perspectiva histórica. Esta revisión de la literatura sobre tecnologías del aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por ordenador comienza con la definición del concepto de CALL y otros términos relacionados, entre los que podemos destacar CAI, CAL, CALI, CALICO, CALT, CAT, CBT, CMC o CMI, para posteriormente analizar las primeras iniciativas de implementación del aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por ordenador en las décadas de 1950 y 1960, avanzando posteriormente a las décadas de las computadoras centrales y las microcomputadoras. En última instancia, se revisan las tecnologías emergentes en el siglo XXI, especialmente tras la irrupción de Internet, donde se presentan el impacto del e-learning, b-learning, las tecnologías de la Web 2.0, las redes sociales e incluso el aprendizaje de lenguas asistido por robots.The main focus of this paper is on the advancement of technologies in Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) from a historical perspective. The review starts by defining CALL and its related terminology, highlighting the first CALL attempts in 1950s and 1960s, and then moving to other decades of mainframes and microcomputers. At the final step, emerging technologies in 21st century will be reviewed

'Breaking the glass': preserving social history in virtual environments

New media technologies play an important role in the evolution of our society. Traditional museums and heritage sites have evolved from the ‘cabinets of curiosity’ that focused mainly on the authority of the voice organising content, to the places that offer interactivity as a means to experience historical and cultural events of the past. They attempt to break down the division between visitors and historical artefacts, employing modern technologies that allow the audience to perceive a range of perspectives of the historical event. In this paper, we discuss virtual reconstruction and interactive storytelling techniques as a research methodology and educational and presentation practices for cultural heritage sites. We present the Narrating the Past project as a case study, in order to illustrate recent changes in the preservation of social history and guided tourist trails that aim to make the visitor’s experience more than just an architectural walk through

Reviews

Researching into Teaching Methods in Colleges and Universities by Clinton Bennett, Lorraine Foreman‐Peck and Chris Higgins, London: Kogan Page, 1996. ISBN: 0–7494–1768–4, 136 (+ vii) pages, paperback. £14.99

Development of Adventure Multimedia Game Based on Mobile Learning in Pyramid Topic for Junior High School

Mathematics is a difficult subject for students, causing low motivation, interest and student learning outcomes. To attract students to be more interested in learning mathematics, they must use interactive learning media so that learning is not boring and fun. This study aims to develop a multimedia adventure game in pyramid topic based on mobile learning in grade eight. This study uses the 4-D development model, however, at the stage of dissemination only limited distribution is carried out. The subjects in this study were grade eight students of one of junior school in Gorontalo District, Gorontalo Province, Indonesia. The results of the study based on the validation of topic and media experts showed that the quality of multimedia was good. Meanwhile, based on the teacher's ability for managerial to learn is also categorized as good, the activities of students during the learning process reach the ideal time criteria, the responses of all students are classified as very positive of 90.56% and learning tests show that 72.5% of students achieve completeness. This shows that the adventure multimedia game based on mobile learning in pyramid topic is valid, practise, and effective

Coming Out of the Dungeon: Mathematics and Role-Playing Games

After hiding it for many years, I have a confession to make. Throughout middle school and high school my friends and I would gather almost every weekend, spending hours using numbers, probability, and optimization to build models that we could use to simulate almost anything. That’s right. My big secret is simple. I was a high school mathematical modeler. Of course, our weekend mathematical models didn’t bear any direct relationship to the models we explored in our mathematics and science classes. You would probably not even recognize our regular gatherings as mathematical exercises. If you looked into the room, you’d see a group of us gathered around a table, scribbling on sheets of paper, rolling dice, eating pizza, and talking about dragons, magical spells, and sword fighting. So while I claim we were engaged in mathematical modeling, I suspect that very few math classes built models like ours. After all, how many math teachers have constructed or had their students construct a mathematical representation of a dragon, a magical spell, or a swordfight? And yet, our role-playing games (RPGs) were very much mathematical models of reality — certainly not the reality of our everyday experience, but a reality nonetheless, one intended to simulate a particular kind of world. Most often for us this was the medieval, high-fantasy world of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), but we also played games with science fiction or modern-day espionage settings. We learned a lot about math, mythology, medieval history, teamwork, storytelling, and imagination in the process. And, when existing games were inadequate vehicles for our imagination, we modified them or created new ones. In doing so, we learned even more about math. Now that I am a mathematics professor, I find myself reflecting on those days as a “fantasy modeler” and considering various questions. What is the relationship between my two interests of fantasy games and mathematics? Does having been a gamer make me a better mathematician or modeler? Does my mathematical experience make me a better gamer? These different aspects of my life may seem mostly unconnected; indeed, the “nerd” stereotype is associated with both activities, but despite public perception, the community of role-players includes many people who are not scientifically-minded. So we cannot say that role-players like math, or math-lovers role-play, because “that is simply what nerds do.” To get at the deeper question of how mathematics and role-playing are related, we first need to look at the processes of gaming, game designing, and modeling

Location-based and contextual mobile learning. A STELLAR Small-Scale Study

This study starts from several inputs that the partners have collected from previous and current running research projects and a workshop organised at the STELLAR Alpine Rendevous 2010. In the study, several steps have been taken, firstly a literature review and analysis of existing systems; secondly, mobile learning experts have been involved in a concept mapping study to identify the main challenges that can be solved via mobile learning; and thirdly, an identification of educational patterns based on these examples has been done. Out of this study the partners aim to develop an educational framework for contextual learning as a unifying approach in the field. Therefore one of our central research questions is: how can we investigate, theorise, model and support contextual learning

Using "tangibles" to promote novel forms of playful learning

Tangibles, in the form of physical artefacts that are electronically augmented and enhanced to trigger various digital events to happen, have the potential for providing innovative ways for children to play and learn, through novel forms of interacting and discovering. They offer, too, the scope for bringing playfulness back into learning. To this end, we designed an adventure game, where pairs of children have to discover as much as they can about a virtual imaginary creature called the Snark, through collaboratively interacting with a suite of tangibles. Underlying the design of the tangibles is a variety of transforms, which the children have to understand and reflect upon in order to make the Snark come alive and show itself in a variety of morphological and synaesthesic forms. The paper also reports on the findings of a study of the Snark game and discusses what it means to be engrossed in playful learning

Giving games a day job: developing a digital game-based resource for journalism training

Computer simulations have been commonplace in some industries such as the military, medicine and science and educators are now actively exploring their potential application to a range of disciplines. Educators and trainers have looked to the multi-billion dollar computer and video game industry for inspiration, and Marc Prensky (2001) has used the phrase digital game-based learning to describe this emerging learning and teaching framework. The purpose of this research project is to produce an Internet-delivered newsgathering/newswriting training package that can be used for an expanding, and increasingly visually literate, tertiary journalism eduction field. This thesis comprises two parts: a) the written component which describes the production of the hypertext-based journalism training scenario and, b) a prototype copy of the training scenario on CD-ROM. The Flood scenario depicts the flooding of a fictional city called Lagoon, and is based on real news stories, media releases and audio-visual material gathered during major floods in the Central West of NSW in August 1990. In its present form Flood is designed as a multi-path learning narrative, which participants must pursue and unravel in their search for news stories. My intention has been to develop a more engaging activity than is currently the case for many traditional, paper-based, approaches to journalism training exercises. Flood is also specifically designed for flexible delivery via the Internet or CD-ROM. This approach makes it especially well suited for both on-campus and distance education students. The Flood resource is at this stage a limited prototype designed as a teaching aid. A theoretical framework combining the roles of researchers and producer is discussed in the thesis. An overview of the use of simulations in journalism education contextualises the practical project, and the place of Web-based scenario simulation within an emerging teaching framework digital game-based learning is considered. There is also an examination of historical precedents for the application of technology in Australian journalism classrooms. The Flood prototype has been trailed at Charles Sturt University with on-campus undergraduate students in 2001 and 2002, and with distance education postgraduate students in 2002. Descriptions of these trials, and details of the student feedback, are provided. This project also includes an experimental narrative element, the use of a software artificial intelligence character known as a chatterbox to explore possibilities for providing a more personal and engaging experience. One of the key design intentions of this project has been consideration of ways to allow participants to develop their own lines of questioning, rather than forcing them to simply follow pre-determined paths. The thesis concludes that digital materials such as the Flood package are worthy of future development to complement the face-to-face instruction in reporting tasks, internships and classroom simulations traditionally used in journalism education and training. Computer simulations are a means for providing students with a controlled exposure to the journalistic process. However, simulation and reality are clearly two different experiences, and digital game-based learning in its present form does not provide a complete substitute for journalism as it is practised in the workplace