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

Leveraging the Use of Mobile Applications to Increase Knowledge Retention in a Classroom Lecture

This research sought to determine if the use of mobile applications (e.g., iPhone® apps) had an impact on students’ ability to learn new material. A control group was compared against a group of students who used mobile devices during a statistics lecture. Students participated separately in a lecture followed by a period of either pencil and paper only or technology-assisted examples. They then took a quiz over the material. The data collected shows that the app group outperformed the control group on every question and scored 16% higher overall. A post-experimental survey found that participants in the app group felt strongly that mobile applications helped them understand the new concepts more clearly and were more confident in their ability to quickly learn this new material than the control group. Overall, this research demonstrates that technology-assisted learning positively impacts students’ learning. It also suggests that technology is changing the way people think and learn.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline

Time-based personalised mobile game downloading

Mobile device is an important gadget for many people today, regardless whether it is used for communication, entertainment or keeping up to date. With the advancement of mobile Internet, mobile devices are also used for many conventional PC based Internet applications. One such example is downloading games. Downloading mobile games via mobile device seems to be one of the more favorite activities for many mobile devices today. However, users may have different preferences in what genres of games they will be more interested in at different time of the day. In this paper, a personalised mobile game recommendation system which takes into consideration the time-of-day and time-of-week is used to provide a more personalised experience. From the data collected, it can be seen that at different time periods users may download different games and from different game genres

A Framework for Adopting Educational Computer Games in the Undergraduate Courses in Thai Universities for Learning and Teaching

Computer and video games have been developed into effective tools for educational programmes. However, the question which follows is “Can computer games really become an effective educational tool in the classroom?” Debates and discussions regarding the best methodology for classroom education have gone on for decades. Researchers in many countries are slowly gaining acceptance to the use of educational games for educational purposes in schools and colleges. However the use of Educational Computer Games (ECG) is still not popular in schools and universities in Thailand. Thus, the research on the use of ECG for educational purposes in Thailand is scarce. This may be due to the negative impression of computer games from the community. Nevertheless, according to the Thailand Reform Education Act 1999, Thai universities should adopt student-centred learning as the main focus in teaching. It is therefore important to examine the possibilities of using ECG to support this type of learning environment. It is the purpose of this thesis to investigate the feasibility of adopting ECG in undergraduate courses in Thailand. The objectives of this thesis are: 1) to investigate the factors affecting the use of ECG in the classrooms by Thai lecturers and students, 2) to examine the learning and teaching styles that benefit the use of ECG, and 3) to determine the genre of computer games which are appropriate and effective as educational computer games. In order to study the adoption of ECG for teaching and learning in Thai undergraduate courses, three main theoretical frameworks have been investigated. There are technology acceptance theories, ECG concepts and pedagogical theories. The research strategy for this study is survey research. Questionnaires and interviews are instruments used for data collections. The thesis combined both qualitative and quantitative research. A sample size of 400 students and 40 lecturers were selected from four Thai universities. As for the interview survey, there were 18 interviewees participated voluntarily. The results from the literature review on the theoretical frameworks have the effect in formulating the five research propositions of the study and the 20 hypotheses. The major findings from this study are as follows: 1) every ECG acceptance factor namely Perceived Usefulness (PU), Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU), Attitude towards Use (AU), Subjective Norms (SN), Perceived Entertainment (PE) and University Environment Support Factors (UESF) have positive influence on the behavioural intent to use ECG in teaching and learning; 2) nearly half of the Thai students have a Pragmatist Style of learning (43.5%) and a reasonable share of Thai lecturers have a Facilitators Style of teaching (41.4%); 3) when the learning style is used as a predictor of ECG adoption, every style of learning has a positive influence on the behavioural intent to use. After Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) testing, it was found that there is no statistical significant difference between each learning style. However, when using regression analysis with “enter” method to each learning style; it can be found that the Activist Style has the most positive influence on the behavioural intent to use ECG. In contrast, with ANOVA testing, different teaching styles have different intent to use ECG. By a comparison of teaching styles using Fisher’s Least Significant Difference (LSD) method, it shows that there were two pairs of teaching styles that have a statistical significant difference at .011 and .013. The first pair is Facilitator and Personal, and the second pair is Facilitator and Delegator; 4) when the respondents were asked “What is Your Opinion If the University Has a Policy of Employing ECG into the Curriculum as a Learning Tool in the classrooms?”, most respondents have positive comments on accepting this type of education technology. 82.4% of students and 65.4% of lecturers agreed with this policy; 5) there are a variety of comments from the interviewees on the game genres they think could be appropriate for an education environment. Most of them think that all game genres can be applied to ECG (52.6%). 26.3% think that it depends on the content and subject areas. The rest recommended some other game genres such as adventure, puzzle, role-playing, simulation, and sport games. However, in order to support the research finding, further studies have been carried out based on previous research papers relating with game genre and learning theories. The papers have been reviewed, analyzed, matched, used to bridge the gap, synthesised and, subsequently the three new conceptual frameworks are proposed: 1) conceptual model of relationships between learning styles, learning activities and possible game genres; 2) conceptual model of relationships between game genre and three learning theories; and 3) three stages of adopting digital game platforms for learning in the classroom. This study provides some useful insights into the ECG adoption in the Thai undergraduate classroo

Personalised mobile game recommendation system

The mobile games sector seems to be one of the fast growing industries due to the rising of mobile market. With the advancement of mobile technology, mobile devices can now be used as a mobile media centre. One of the emerging areas is also in using it for gaming, like a portable game console. However, players may have different preferences in what genres of games they will be more interested in at different time of the day. Furthermore, it can sometimes be difficult to use mobile internet to download the interested games at different time of the day. In this paper, a personalised mobile game recommendation system which takes into consideration the time-of-day and time-of-week is proposed. From the data collected, it can be seen that at different time periods users may download different games and from different game genres

A comparative study of digital game platforms for educational purposes

Digital games have gradually been accepted as learning tools in schools and colleges. They can be run or distributed on several platforms including DVD-ROMs or CDROMs for personal computers; consoles for television-based systems; game specific handheld consoles; and, handheld units such as personal digital assistance (PDA), portable computers or mobile phones. This paper reports the features, components, and advantages of these digital platforms for educational uses. It is expected that this comparative study will be useful for digital game manufacturers, educators and users who are interested in the development and use of this digital media for education purposes

Educational use of handheld game consoles – PSP and NDS in Thai colleges

Today’s students are fascinated by computer and console video games. Computer game-based learning has gained increasing acceptance and has been applied as an option to classroom lecturing. Educational use of handheld game consoles such as Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) and Nintendo Dual Screen (NDS) also gain much attention in many places. However, research on the use of these applications in Thai colleges is scarce. This paper aims to examine the features, characteristics, advantages and educational use of PSP and NDS consoles, and to examine the learning and teaching with technology in Thai colleges. This paper also proposes a conceptual model of the adopting of these two kinds of handheld game consoles in Thai college learning environment

Similarities and differences between "learn through play" and "edutainment"

The idea of integrating education and entertainment can be widely observed over the last few decades. Recently, two commonly known terms when referring to combining learning and entertainment are "learn through play" and "edutainment". The objective of this paper is to present an investigation into the similarities and differences of these two terms. This includes definitions, applications, and discussions from different point of views. The results of the study found that "learn through play" and "edutainment" are important areas that both use entertainment activity for learning. Learn through play is a much broader term in fun activity while edutainment relies heavily on technology, especially computer games. They are effective teaching strategy both inside and outside school. This paper also shows their success so far and could provide some guidelines in future research in this field