Creating an educational app rubric for teachers of students who are deaf and hard of hearing

The focus of this study was to analyze literature and existing educational rubrics and adapt an evaluating rubric to meet the needs of teachers of students who are deaf and hard of hearing

Aprendizaje basado en videojuegos con eAdventure

Videogames are social and interactive tools which enable users to play, participate, communicate and learn. With the aim to test the effectiveness of the use of videogames in the classroom as teaching tools, this paper presents a case study of videogames adoption in Primary School, where eAdventure was used in a real classroom to teach Natural Science to a group of seven years old students. The case study concludes that videogames may be used as teaching tools and their main strengths are: (i) time reduction when teaching content and (ii) increase of student engagement

Videojuegos como herramienta en Educación Primaria: caso de estudio con eAdventure

Los videojuegos son herramientas interactivas y sociales de aprendizaje de la Web 2.0, con las que los usuarios pueden jugar, participar, comunicarse y aprender, creando y sacando partido de los contenidos. No obstante el profesorado necesita formación para exprimir de forma eficaz estas herramientas. Con el ánimo de comprobar la eficacia del videojuego como herramienta de enseñanza en el aula, en este artículo se presenta un estudio de caso de la adopción de los videojuegos en Educación Primaria, donde la herramienta eAdventure se ha utilizado para impartir una Unidad Didáctica de la asignatura Ciencias de la Naturaleza a alumnos de siete años. La conclusión a la que se ha llegado tras su realización es que los videojuegos pueden ser utilizados como herramientas educativas y las principales fortalezas de su uso en clase son: (i) la reducción en la temporalización a la hora de impartir un contenido y (ii) el incremento en la atención de los alumnos.Videogames are social and interactive learning tools of Web 2.0 which enable users to play, participate, communicate and learn, creating and taking advantages out of content. However, teachers need training to effectively squeeze these tools. With the aim to test the effectiveness of the use of videogames in the classroom as teaching tools, this paper presents a case study of videogames adoption in Primary School, where eAdventure tool was used in a real classroom to teach Natural Science to a group of seven year old students. The case study concludes that videogames may be used as teaching tools and their main strengths are: (i) time reduction when teaching content and (ii) increase of student engagement.Facultad de Informátic

Videojuegos como herramienta en Educación Primaria: caso de estudio con eAdventure

Los videojuegos son herramientas interactivas y sociales de aprendizaje de la Web 2.0, con las que los usuarios pueden jugar, participar, comunicarse y aprender, creando y sacando partido de los contenidos. No obstante el profesorado necesita formación para exprimir de forma eficaz estas herramientas. Con el ánimo de comprobar la eficacia del videojuego como herramienta de enseñanza en el aula, en este artículo se presenta un estudio de caso de la adopción de los videojuegos en Educación Primaria, donde la herramienta eAdventure se ha utilizado para impartir una Unidad Didáctica de la asignatura Ciencias de la Naturaleza a alumnos de siete años. La conclusión a la que se ha llegado tras su realización es que los videojuegos pueden ser utilizados como herramientas educativas y las principales fortalezas de su uso en clase son: (i) la reducción en la temporalización a la hora de impartir un contenido y (ii) el incremento en la atención de los alumnos.Videogames are social and interactive learning tools of Web 2.0 which enable users to play, participate, communicate and learn, creating and taking advantages out of content. However, teachers need training to effectively squeeze these tools. With the aim to test the effectiveness of the use of videogames in the classroom as teaching tools, this paper presents a case study of videogames adoption in Primary School, where eAdventure tool was used in a real classroom to teach Natural Science to a group of seven year old students. The case study concludes that videogames may be used as teaching tools and their main strengths are: (i) time reduction when teaching content and (ii) increase of student engagement.Facultad de Informátic

From Legos and Logos to Lambda: A Hypothetical Learning Trajectory for Computational Thinking

This thesis utilizes design-based research to examine the integration of computational thinking and computer science into the Finnish elementary mathematics syllabus. Although its focus is on elementary mathematics, its scope includes the perspectives of students, teachers and curriculum planners at all levels of the Finnish school curriculum. The studied artifacts are the 2014 Finnish National Curriculum and respective learning solutions for computer science education. The design-based research (DBR) mandates educators, developers and researchers to be involved in the cyclic development of these learning solutions. Much of the work is based on an in-service training MOOC for Finnish mathematics teachers, which was developed in close operation with the instructors and researchers. During the study period, the MOOC has been through several iterative design cycles, while the enactment and analysis stages of the 2014 Finnish National Curriculum are still proceeding.The original contributions of this thesis lie in the proposed model for teaching computational thinking (CT), and the clarification of the most crucial concepts in computer science (CS) and their integration into a school mathematics syllabus. The CT model comprises the successive phases of abstraction, automation and analysis interleaved with the threads of algorithmic and logical thinking as well as creativity. Abstraction implies modeling and dividing the problem into smaller sub-problems, and automation making the actual implementation. Preferably, the process iterates in cycles, i.e., the analysis feeds back such data that assists in optimizing and evaluating the efficiency and elegance of the solution. Thus, the process largely resembles the DBR design cycles. Test-driven development is also recommended in order to instill good coding practices.The CS fundamentals are function, variable, and type. In addition, the control flow of execution necessitates control structures, such as selection and iteration. These structures are positioned in the learning trajectories of the corresponding mathematics syllabus areas of algebra, arithmetic, or geometry. During the transition phase to the new syllabus, in-service mathematics teachers can utilize their prior mathematical knowledge to reap the benefits of ‘near transfer’. Successful transfer requires close conceptual analogies, such as those that exist between algebra and the functional programming paradigm.However, the integration with mathematics and the utilization of the functional paradigm are far from being the only approaches to teaching computing, and it might turn out that they are perhaps too exclusive. Instead of the grounded mathematics metaphor, computing may be perceived as basic literacy for the 21st century, and as such it could be taught as a separate subject in its own right

On the Cultural Inaccessibility of Gaming: Invading, Creating, and Reclaiming the Cultural Clubhouse

This dissertation uses intersectional feminist theory and Autoethnography to develop the concept of “cultural inaccessibility”. Cultural inaccessibility is a concept I’ve created to describe the ways that women are made to feel unwelcome in spaces of game play and games culture, both offline and online. Although there are few formal barriers preventing women from purchasing games, playing games, or acquiring jobs in the games industry, this dissertation explores the formidable cultural barriers which define women as “space invaders” and outsiders in games culture. Women are routinely subjected to gendered harassment while playing games, and in physical spaces of games culture, such as conventions, stores, and tournaments. This harassment and abuse is intensified toward female journalists, developers and academics who choose to speak publicly about sexism within the culture, particularly since the 2014 rise of Gamergate. This dissertation illustrates the parallel development of games culture and women’s continued exclusion from it, from the exclusionary sexism of J. R. R. Tolkien’s writing to the development of the “Gamer” as a fixed (and stereotypically cis-male) identity in the pages of video game magazines of the 1980s and ‘90s, to the online “Gamer activism” of today. At the same time, I also explore my own experiences as a female gamer and academic in the 2010s, using projects I have been a part of as a means of reflecting on developments in the broader culture. I first discuss a short machinima (a film made within a video game) that Elise Vist and I created within the 2007 Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game Lord of the Rings Online entitled Lady Hobbits. Lady Hobbits becomes an entry point to consider the historical cultural inaccessibility of women’s representations in seminal male-dominated media such as The Lord of the Rings. I then discuss the gender and games advocacy group that I co-founded at the University of Waterloo, The Games Institute Janes (GI Janes), and the many gaming events that we ran, comparing the experience of our gender-integrated and women-only game nights. The challenges I experienced organizing GI Janes fuels my analysis of the cultural inaccessibility of game play for girls and women, as demonstrated by the tangled gender dynamics at play in the eSports community and Super Smash Brothers fandom. Lastly, I discuss my experiences as a staff member, and eventual first female editor-in-chief, of game studies publication First Person Scholar (FPS). This chapter interrogates the cultural inaccessibility of writing and publishing about games for women in the academic field of game studies, and the ways in which game studies’ links to gamer identity replicate games culture’s troubling sexism. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the more recent connections between games culture, Gamergate, and conservative political groups such as the Alt-right. The conclusion asks how women can study games culture and the politically-motivated violence with which it is has recently been linked if doing so puts us at risk of becoming a target of harassment and abuse. It underscores the importance of future social justice-oriented work in academia and at large. In summary this dissertation moves from examining the historical inaccessibility of representation and participation (chapter 2), to the inaccessibility of game play (chapter 3), to the inaccessibility of participation in the discourse of games culture (chapter 4), before finally moving to a conclusion about Gamergate and politics in 2018 and how cultural inaccessibility has become a problem that is much larger than just games culture (chapter 5)