Classification of learning outcomes: evidence from the computer games literature

From Harold F. O’Neila*, Richard Wainessa and Eva L. Bakerb. The Curriculum Journal Vol. 16, No. 4, December 2005, pp. 455 – 474

This article focuses on learning outcomes in the context of video games.

Learning outcomes are viewed from two theoretical frameworks:
- Kirkpatrick’s levels of evaluation
- CRESST model of learning

Several thousand articles pertaining to games have been published in the past 15 years,
however, only 19 studies are reviewed in this article as they met their standards for empirical research (i.e. either qualitative or quantitative data available).

Some difficulties about considering the research outcomes are:
- the educational benefits of games are mixed, and it is hypothesized that the positive findings can be attributed to instructional design and not to games per se
- many studies claiming positive outcomes appear to be making unsupported claims for the media
- most of the studies use a single measure to examine outcomes

Embodied Interaction: Exploring the Foundations of a New Approach to HCI

From Paul Dourish (Xerox Palo Alto Research Center) http://www.dourish.com/embodied/embodied99.pdf

The author concerned with the conceptual foundations for a new model of Human-Computer-Interaction, explores in this article the following aspects:
Embodiment:
- “reflects both a physical presence in the world and a social embedding in a web of practices and purposes”
- “is a central feature of how we think about interaction”

Virtual reality and augmented reality systems:
- are been the most significant model of interaction in recent years
- Immersive Virtual Reality technologies create virtual worlds rendered in three dimensions, and then present them to the user as if they were real, complete
with stereoscopic displays and movement in the virtual space correlated with the user’s own movement.
- Mimicking the reality allows users to transfer familiar skills from the real world to the virtual.

Social computing:
- social computing arose in the 1980s
- attempts to capitalise upon social skills and aspects of the social setting in which systems are used
- HCI has been increasingly influenced not just by psychology, but also by sociology
- the activity of the user sitting at a computer is not defined simply by the patterns of their immediate interactions, but by web of surrounding relationships, practices and activities in which they are each embedded

Tangible computing:
- is a a phenomenon of the middle 1990s
- is exploring ways to exploit our physical and tactile skills
- we can better exploit our natural skills if we focus on interacting with the physical objects themselves, indeed of interacting with computers through physical objects (such as keyboards, mice and displays).

Both of these lines of development—social computing and tangible computing—are based on the same idea, that of embodiment.
What turns out to be important about tangible computing, is not the physical
nature of the objects through which we interact, but with what they represent and how we use them. At the same time, social computing emphasises how context lends meaning, and places a primary emphasis on action rather than abstract representation.

Beyond Technology. Children's learning in the age of digital culture

by David Buckingham

Playing to learn? Rethinking the Educational Potential of Computer Games, capitol 6 del llibre " Beyond Technology. Children's learning in the age of digital culture " fa referència al debat actual en relació als jocs d'ordinador (computer games) i educació, així com a les publicacions d'autors tan rellevants com: James Paul Gee i Marc Prensky.

Buckingham destaca i compara les principals tesis d'aquests dos autors i també apunta que aquestes es basen més en correlacions que en evidències i causalitats. En aquest sentit apunta d'altres estudi més empirics i potser menys coneguts- Atkins, Carr, Juul, Newman, Wolf Copier and Raessens, BECTA, Egenfeldt-Nielsen-.

Alguns dels aspectes que Buckingham planteja a debat són:
- relacions entre l'aprenentage informal i l'aprenentatge situat
- la importància i límits de la transferència de competències
- el paper juga el plaer en l'aprenentatge
- les possibilitats dels diferents gèners de jocs

La majoria dels informes resultants dels estudis i recerques acaben fent recomenacions a la indústria dels videojocs tals com atendre a les necessitats educatives, però és poc clar el què es demana, caldria fer-ho de forma més específica.
Alguns aspectes dels videojocs, com ara el tema de la representació, les comunitats de jugadors, la dimenció comercial... podrien estudiar-se més.

El capítol 7 That's Edutainment, del mateix llibre, estudia la situació actual de les indústries mediàtiques (media industries) a Gran Bretanya, els motius dels seus èxits i les raons de la seva internacionalització.
Actualment les quatre companyies liders són:
- TLC
- Europress
- Havas
- Disney
En el capítol també s'apunten quines són les dificultats de la petita empresa per mantenir-se en el mercat de la producció educativa digital en formats tipus CD-ROM o DVD, descriu quines són les dificultats i els elements clau a l'hora de vendre un producte d'aquest tipus.
D'altre banda el on-line learning sembla tenir més avantatges. la indústria de la TV i la premsa estan entrant en aquest mercat, per exemple la BBC, Channel 4, Granada, Pearson, The Guardian...

Llibre disponible a la Biblioteca