Facilitating an Educational Board Game Jam:Analysing Different Game Design Strategies

There is a long tradition of using board games for educational purposes. Moreover, the growth of the game jam events where participants typically gather at physical locations with an aim of creating new games, has expanded over the last decades. This paper is based on an exploratory study, where we wanted to create a game jam for teachers, student teachers, facilitators, and consultants interested in designing and redesigning board games to enhance learning for different target groups. With a point of departure in design thinking, the game jam was framed through three phases: ideation, build a board, and playtesting. The participants were given the challenge of designing a board game incorporating co-op elements such as collaboration, problem-solving in teams, collective efforts towards a mutual enemy, etc. The game jam was held in a university college where the participants had access to a variety of materials such as pens, papers, cardboards, and discarded board games. The empirical data consisted of observations of participants, who were divided into groups of 2-4 persons based on their prior game experiences and game interests. The analysis presents preliminary findings in relation to the participants’ different strategies for developing board games. The empirical data showed how the groups struggled to balance simplicity vs. complexity in their designs in relation to both time frame and target group of their board games. The playtesting session fostered discussions around the essential game mechanics and elements of each board game prototype. Furthermore, the ongoing feedback and playtesting created a joyful and curious bridge between the groups. Based on the analysis, the paper presents a series of design principles aimed at facilitating educational board game jams

Introducing the play activity wheel: Designing social, physical and playful learning activities from digital game universes

This article introduces and describes the play activity wheel, developed bythe authors. It was created through looking back at 19 years of personal experiences of transforming television shows, board games and digital games into pedagogical activities, and has a focus on social, physical and playful learning. The idea of developing computer games, television series and board games into physical activities arose from observing children’s interests in transforming these universes into games and activities. The play activity wheel was developed in various settings with different participants, such as children aged 1–15, students in higher education, educators, researchers and other stakeholders. For the purpose of this study, the play activity wheel wastested as a tool for preservice teachers. A researcher/educator collaborated on designing a process to achieve common learning goals in a playful learning space. In this study, we present the theoretical background for the play activity wheel and demonstrate how it can be used to design playful learning

Interplay between playful learning, digital materials and physical activity in higher education: A systematic review of qualitative studies using meta-aggregation and GRADE-CERQual

The aim was to conduct a meta-aggregation of qualitative studies on the interplay between playful learning, digital materials and physical activity in higher education. A literature search was performed across multiple databases and web pages up until May 2022. A critical appraisal following the JBI checklist for qualitative studies was conducted, and the GRADE-CERQual tool was used to evaluate confidence in the cumulative evidence. Three eligible studies were identified. We extracted 81 findings and 44 illustrations and synthesised them into six categories: (1) experience of playful approaches to learning; (2) interplay between play and learning; (3) experience with digital materials; (4) experience of collaboration; (5) experience with space significance; and (6) experience of getting a reward for participating in the activity. The synthesis showed that the benefits of interplay between playful learning, digital materials and physical activity in higher education were that students were motivated by gamified learning activities, including themes such as competitive spirits, receiving rewards, collaboration and creativity. Both students and educators experience that game-based learning strategies provide meaningful practice because they may facilitate the learning and retention of information by highlighting key information and breaking down information. The synthesis showed that the constraints of the interplay were time as a resource, frustration with using digital materials and that it challenges traditional learning strategies and learning spaces. Confidence in the evidence is low due to moderate concerns regarding methodological limitations and serious concerns regarding the adequacy of the data. Therefore, we highlight the need to expand the field both in practice and research

Digital competences in Nordic teacher education: an expanding agenda

We investigate how digital competences are being integrated into teacher education (TE) across the Nordic countries - Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland in this article. We make the case that there has been an expansion of the agenda for digital competences in education. Digital competences have developed from an information and communication technology perspective to also include a critical, social, and creative understanding of digital technologies and computing competences. Methodologically, we make use of doc-ument analyses, qualitative questionnaires, and interviews with participants in the field. With an emphasis on Danish TE, we explore how TE in the Nordic countries has responded to this agenda on policy and institutional levels. We suggest that the Danish approach to the expanded agenda can augment tendencies and challenges in Nordic responses to digitalisation in TE. A key finding is that Nordic countries respond to the expanded agenda in different ways regarding policy regulation, content areas, and how digital com-petences are organised and distributed on a local level. Tendencies and challenges identified across Nordic countries are valuable to ensure the continual development of teachers’ digital competences