Reflections on Personalized Games-Based Learning: How Automation Is Shaped Within Everyday School Practices

Digital games for primary education are often designed to foster children’s learning through motivated practice with core subjects, such as literacy and math. Over the years, and accelerated by the pandemic, these games have become an embedded part of the primary school classroom. Many of them rely on AI and thus automation to adapt children’s learning game tasks and personalize the learning to the child’s learning needs. While removing the requirement for the teacher to plan what students do with the technology, children’s engagement with digital learning tasks, and the digital reports generated as a result have also been proposed to be a critical way to help teachers deliver targeted and time-efficient teaching interventions to those who need them the most [6], [9]

Comparing different serious games strategies for teaching the SCRUM Framework

Access to new technologies is slowly changing classrooms and theirdynamics. Gamification has been a widely used approach, and its benefits are still being studied. This paper aims to present a serious game which assists in teaching the SCRUM (software development) framework in higher education disciplines. For this, a virtual game has been created containing two different ways of playing, and its performance as a support tool to traditional teaching methodologies has been analyzed. Through a planned experiment, it was possible to identify a direct positive impact on students Learning Gain

Enhancing math learning with the new digital device “MagiCal”: a pilot study

The present pilot study aims to develop and evaluate the effects of a new digital device – the calculator MagiCal – in enhancing children’s math learning. MagiCal is designed to integrate the symbolic and non-symbolic representation of numbers, as well as motor activity Twenty-nine children from second grade were randomly assigned to a training group with MagiCal or to an active control group (literacy training). Children’s math abilities (math fluency, written computation, and number comparison), math anxiety and test anxiety were measured before and after the training. Compared to the active control group, the children of the MagiCal group demonstrated a significant improvement in math fluency and written computation. However, no differences were observed in comparing numbers, math anxiety and text anxiety in the two groups.Nel presente studio pilota si è sviluppato un nuovo dispositivo digitale – la calcolatrice MagiCal – volto a promuovere l’apprendimento matematico. MagiCal integra la rappresentazione numerica simbolica e non simbolica, nonché l’esperienza motoria. Ventinove bambini frequentanti la seconda classe della Scuola primaria sono stati divisi in gruppo training con MagiCal o gruppo di controllo attivo (training sulla lettura). Prima e dopo il training, si sono misurate le abilità matematiche dei bambini (fluenza del calcolo, calcolo scritto e confronto numerico), l’ansia per la matematica e l’ansia da test. Rispetto al gruppo di controllo attivo, i bambini del gruppo training hanno dimostrato un miglioramento significativo nelle prove di fluenza del calcolo e del calcolo scritto. Non si sono osservate differenze per il confronto numerico, l’ansia per la matematica e da test

It’s not whether you win or lose: investigating the use of serious games and L2 reading development

Màster de Lingüística Aplicada i Adquisició de Llengües en Contextos Multilingües, Departament de Filologia Anglesa i Alemanya, Universitat de Barcelona, Curs: 2019-2020, Tutor: Roger Gilabert GuerreroWith the reliance on technology becoming increasingly prevalent in the classroom, educational administrators and educators have begun to consider how to effectively incorporate serious games into their curriculums and lessons. Published research supports that early mathematics and reading development are areas in which serious games have proven to be beneficial in both the short and long-term. This longitudinal study investigates the effectiveness and mechanisms involved in the development of L2 reading skills through the use of the novel serious game iRead. Hoover and Gough’s (1990) simple view of reading demonstrates that the dual components of word reading accuracy and fluency form a measure of word recognition, which, along with listening comprehension is responsible for explaining differences in reading comprehension. iRead is a EU-funded project that seeks to create adaptive technologies that will contribute to improvements in reading skills. By collecting measures of word reading accuracy and fluency from 72 ESL learners prior to and following four months of iRead use, this study sought to tie overall accuracy and fluency gains to game use and performance. We also consider differences in game use and performance based on initial proficiency measures in listening, reading, and vocabulary. We link gains in word reading accuracy to the use and performance of a specific iRead feature and also show evidence of iRead’s adaptivity, drawing conclusions about its role in overall gains and gameplay. Finally, we tie gains in fluency to number of books read and number of tricky words saved during iRead use. This study contributes to the body of existing research investigating the effectiveness of personalized and adaptive serous games and provides evidence for their efficacy when used in conjunction with traditional methods of L2 reading development

Can Maths Apps Add Value to Young Children's Learning? A Systematic Review and Content Analysis

Educational maths applications (apps) are an emerging trend in children’s learning environments aiming to raise their mathematical attainment. However, with over 200,000 educational apps available within the App Store (Apple, 2014), deciding which apps to use poses a significant challenge to teachers, parents, and policy makers. The current study aimed to advance our understandings of whether and how educational maths apps can support children’s learning, as well as outline gaps in current research evidence and practice. In doing so, the current study included: / • A systematic review (Part 1) to synthesise the current evidence on educational maths apps for young children in the first three years of compulsory school (e.g., ages 4-7 years in England; ages 5-8 years in the USA). / • A content analysis (Part 2) to examine the content and design features of different educational maths apps and how they may support children’s learning

To ψηφιακό παιχνίδι ως εργαλείο μάθησης σε περιβάλλοντα εξ αποστάσεως εκπαίδευσης στην πρωτοβάθμια εκπαίδευση. Μία μελέτη περίπτωσης.

Η εποχή της πανδημίας του COVID-19 έχει αλλάξει την ανθρώπινη ζωή στον κόσμο. Από την πλευρά της εκπαίδευσης, η μαθησιακή διαδικασία έχει πάρει τη μορφή της εξ αποστάσεως διδασκαλίας, όπου η συνάντηση των μαθητών και των δασκάλων πραγματώνεται σε διαδικτυακές πλέον τάξεις. Οι τάξεις αυτές, πέρα από τις προκλήσεις που μπορεί να συνεπάγεται η εμφάνισή τους, μπορούν να υποστηρίξουν αποτελεσματικές μεθόδους διδασκαλίας, που προηγουμένως δεν ήταν τόσο γνωστές. Μια από αυτές είναι το ψηφιακό παιχνίδι, που λειτουργεί ως ένα από τα πιο σημαντικά εργαλεία μάθησης, και ειδικά στην πρωτοβάθμια εκπαίδευση είναι ιδιαίτερα ελκυστικό. Η παρούσα έρευνα, είχε σκοπό να διερευνήσει κατά πόσο το ψηφιακό παιχνίδι χρησιμοποιήθηκε για την διδασκαλία μαθησιακών αντικειμένων στις εξ αποστάσεως ψηφιακές τάξεις την χρονιά της πανδημίας στα ελληνικά δεδομένα. Τα δεδομένα συλλέχθηκαν μέσω ερωτηματολογίων που μοιράστηκαν σε δείγμα 66 εκπαιδευτικών Πρωτοβάθμιας εκπαίδευσης γενικής παιδείας και λοιπών ειδικοτήτων οι οποίοι εργάστηκαν κατά την περίοδο 2020 σε δημόσια σχολεία της περιοχής του Ν. Πέλλας. Τα αποτελέσματα ήταν ενθαρρυντικά, καθώς οι περισσότεροι δάσκαλοι, χρησιμοποιούν στην διαδικτυακή καθημερινή τους εκπαιδευτική πρακτική ψηφιακά παιχνίδια, για διαφορετικούς λόγους ανάλογα τα μαθησιακά αντικείμενα και τους στόχους των μαθητών. Σημαντικό επίσης, είναι το εύρημα πως οι δάσκαλοι μπορούν και αντιλαμβάνονται ίσως τις ελλείψεις της όλης ξαφνικής αλλαγής στην εκπαίδευση και προτείνουν πιθανές παρεμβάσεις. Τα ευρήματα αυτά, παρουσιάζουν μια συνάφεια με την βιβλιογραφική παρακαταθήκη και συγκρίνονται στο τέλος της εργασίας. Ωστόσο λόγω της αξιοποίησης της βολικής δειγματοληψίας που εφαρμόστηκε σε μια μικρή περιοχή της Ελλάδας, τα αποτελέσματα δεν μπορούν να γενικευθούν αφήνοντας ανοιχτό το ενδεχόμενο για περεταίρω μελέτη.The era of the COVID-19 pandemic has changed human life in the world. In terms of education, the learning process has taken the form of distance learning, where the meeting of students and teachers takes place in online classrooms. These classes, in addition to the challenges that may arise, can support effective teaching methods that were not previously well known. One of them is the digital game, which functions as one of the most important learning tools, and especially in primary education is particularly attractive. The present research aimed to investigate whether the digital game was used for the teaching of learning objects in the remote digital classrooms during the year of the pandemic in the Greek data. The data were collected through questionnaires that were distributed to a sample of 66 teachers of Primary education of general education and other specialties who worked during the period 2020 in public schools in the prefecture of Pella. The results were encouraging, as most teachers use digital games in their daily online training practice, for different reasons depending on the learning objects and the students' goals. Also important is the finding that teachers can and do perhaps realize the shortcomings of all the sudden change in education and suggest possible interventions. These findings are related to the bibliographic record and are compared at the end of the work. However, due to the selective sampling that being used only in a prefecture of Greece, the results cannot be generalized, leaving a possibility for further studies

Investigation of the Effects of a Situated Learning Digital Game on Mathematics Education at the Primary School Level

Previous research suggests games can improve learning outcomesand students’ motivation. However, there still exists insufficient clarity on the design principles and pedagogical approach that should underpinmathematics educational games. This thesis is aimed at evaluating the effects of an educationalgame on the learningperformance and levels of anxiety promoted by mathematics activities of primary school students. The game was designed based on theprinciples of situated learning, following acombination of an in-depth literature review, a collection of teachers’ perceptions about educational games, and features ofclassroom games. Empirical evaluation of the game was performed through a 5-weeks experiment carried out in three Irish schools, with the participationof 88 students. The investigationhad a pre-post-test designand aimed to evaluate the effects of the gameon students’ mathematics performance and anxiety. In the first week, students answered the Learning Outcomes on Mathematics for Children (LOMC), a questionnaire that measured students’ knowledge ofmathematics. The same studentsalso answered the Modified Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (mAMAS), a validated self-report questionnaire to assess maths anxiety ofprimary school children. During the following three weeks, students had weekly gameplay sessions of 45-60 minutes