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The issue of the educational role of video games is relatively new (more or less 20 years of literature), and more and more present in the debate concerning education, pedagogical choices, and the cognitive bases of learning.
At the opposite, the role of playing and games in learning general is not new at all, since it is not limited to new technologies. Constructivist and constructionnist approaches to learning and ‘enactive’ approaches to cognition affirm since long that playing has a positive role in learning, for different reasons : because playing is a natural activity for young learners, because playing stimulates motivation and involvement, because playing implies learning by doing.
Before them, efforts have been done to define the place of playing and games in the life and cognition of human beings, and also of animals.
However, evidence is still required in order to prove (or disprove) the effective role of games, and in particular of video or digital games, in education.
This evidence is part of the investigation about the place of games inside and outside scholar curricula, for formal and informal learning.
Other issues that are raised at the same time concern the way a place for games and playing in education can change education itself, and specifically the role of teachers and the ways of lifelong, out-of-school learning.
But also, potential, negative effects of video gaming activity, and mainly: the effects of violent video games on behavior and the effects of a ‘diet’ rich in video games on physical and mental health (video games addiction).
Finally, it is worth considering that video games are strongly ‘gendered’: not only boys play more than girls, but they play different games. Games can hence become at risk for both genre digital divide and for genre stereotypes.
The present Dossier aims at collecting materials for reflection about these issues, and the interdisciplinary domain of Game-Based Learning (GBL).
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POSTS COMPAS
Tag GBL
