Previous research shows that digital game-based learning (DGBL) can have positive effects on engagement, motivation and learning, and that using narratives may reinforce these effects. A systematic review identified 15 DGBL systems that report effects from their use of narratives. A gap in the field, however, is the lack of a common model to…

This paper will explore how game-play in video games as well as game centered approaches in physical education (PE) such as Teaching Games for Understanding (TGfU) can draw on complexity thinking to inform the learning process in physical education. Using the video game concept of game-as-teacher (Gee, 2007), ideas such as enabling constraints…

Video games are a significant cultural and creative force, often involving a number of art forms, including narrative, design and audio composition. They have been the subject of a large-scale exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museums in London and Dundee, while the British Games Institute (BGI) was set up to support video game culture in…

The purpose of this research was to describe the impact of digital game building on fourth grade gifted and talented students' problem-solving, creativity, and collaboration skills. Increasingly, there has been a call to involve students in real-world experiences through projects that explore authentic issues using technology. Game design-based…

Two eleven-year-old boys face a bulletin board, arranging silver thumbtacks into shapes of fighter planes. The boys' play revolves around the action video game, its language, strategies, heroes, villains, obstacles, and continual updates. As an after-school art teacher and student-teacher supervisor, the contact the author has with young artists…

Video games, such as the popularized game Minecraft, have been used in a variety of educational settings and learning contexts. Though academic findings of video game usage are mixed, increases in learning competencies, skills and engagement were apparent. While faced with creating an alternative learning plan for teaching kaikua?ana and kaikaina…

Purpose: Videogames are complex, meaningful and multimodal texts. This study aims to explore how students could learn about narratives from, and be engaged by, playing a videogame and how a teacher adapted their pedagogy to incorporate the young adult videogame (YA game) "What Remains of Edith Finch" into an English Language Arts…

This narrative self-study explores an elementary school teacher's curriculum-making during a critical incident in their career (March 2020-May 2020 and August 2020-December 2020) teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using narrative inquiry and memory-work, I consider the tensions within curricular forces and identity and the ways in which my…

This is an exploratory design study of a novel system for learning programming and 3D role-playing game design as tools for social change. This study was conducted at two sites. Participants in the study were ages 9-14 and worked for up to 15 hours with the platform to learn how to program and design video games with personally or socially…

This study focuses on an educational game titled "Cellverse," a two-player cross-platform VR project intended to teach high school biology students about cell structure and function. In "Cellverse," players work in pairs to explore a human lung cell and diagnose and treat a dangerous genetic disorder. "Cellverse" is…

This study designed a digital teaching game named Kitties' Magic Journey (KMJ). The principle of leveraging in the course of natural technology and life was used as the teaching subject. The game combined design items included animation, narrative story, fun and usability, which integrated ARCS learning motivation theory. The experimental group…

Drawing on usage-based approaches to the study of language learning--including recent research on mobility in interaction, embodied approaches to cognition and communicative action, and innovations in place-based language learning in the wild--this article uses methods from ethnomethodological conversation analysis to investigate video recordings…

Research into educational technology has evaluated new computer-based systems as tools for improving students' academic performance and engagement. Serious games should also be considered as an alternative pedagogical medium for attracting students with different needs and expectations. In this field study, we empirically examined different forms…

This study investigates how digital game co-creation promotes Computational Thinking (CT) skills among children in sub-urban primary schools. Understanding how CT skills can be fostered in learning programming concepts through co-creating digital games is crucial to determine instructional strategies that match the young students' interests and…

When we give meanings to a physical space, we engage in place-making. With technologies, the place-making activities can be extended to virtual and hybrid spaces. In games, actual or virtual space can gain narrative and meaning transforming into a playce (i.e., a place for play). We suggest that playce-making (i.e., transforming a space into a…