“I see my ancestors”: exploring tribal college student experiences playing When Rivers Were Trails

Author(s):  
Nichlas Emmons ◽  
Elizabeth LaPensee

The educational video game, When Rivers Were Trails, was launched in 2019. The purpose of the game is to teach players about Indigenous perspectives of history, US federal allotment policies affecting tribal nations, and some of the effects of these policies on Indigenous peoples. This article explores tribal college student experiences playing When Rivers Were Trails in hopes that it provides the basis for further research into how tribal college faculty may be able to teach the game within their own classrooms. Tribal colleges and universities were created by tribal nations to provide for the higher education needs of their citizens. Using phenomenological research methods, seven college students volunteered to participate in a brief study about their experiences playing the video game. Upon transcription and analysis of the interview data, three themes were developed that capture how these students define their experience with When Rivers Were Trails: feelings of representation, histories of land dispossession, and resilience of communities.

2013 ◽  
Vol 221 (2) ◽  
pp. 90-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
John L. Sherry

Millions in taxpayer and foundation euros and dollars have been spent building and testing educational video games, games for health, and serious games. What have been the fruits of this frenzy of activity? What educational video game has had the reach and impact of Sesame Street or Blues Clues television shows? By comparison, the Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) managed to get Sesame Street off the ground within a couple of years, writing the basic scientific literature on educational media design in the process. Not only is Sesame Street well known and proven, it laid the basis for every effective educational show to follow. This article explores the differences between the CTW scientific approach to educational media production and the mostly nonscientific approach consuming so many resources in the educational games, games for health, and serious games movements. Fundamental scientific questions that remain unanswered are outlined.


2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 1283-1297 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mido Chang ◽  
Michael A. Evans ◽  
Sunha Kim ◽  
Anderson Norton ◽  
Kirby Deater-Deckard ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Noah L. Schroeder ◽  
Alexandrea Oliver ◽  
Kenneth Deffet ◽  
James Morgan

The development of educational video games can be a challenging process. Typically, games are created for one content area and are designed to specifically facilitate learning in regards to that content. However, this approach inherently limits the utility of the game to specific content. In this chapter, the authors describe the development and systematic iterative playtesting of an educational game designed to be modified by end-users (e.g., teachers, researchers, students). Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through three phases of beta-testing, and the results from each test informed the subsequent version of the software. Overall, the results indicated that, aside from fixing software glitches, the addition of aesthetically pleasing graphical user interfaces and the integration of sound effects appear to have made the biggest contributions to players' perceptions of the game.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (6) ◽  
pp. 2283
Author(s):  
Félix Zurita Ortega ◽  
Nuria Medina Medina ◽  
Francisco Luis Gutiérrez Vela ◽  
Ramón Chacón Cuberos

The knowledge of evaluation instruments to determine the level of gameplay of schoolchildren is very important at this time. A systematic review has been carried out in this study. The aim of this paper is to investigate the psychometric properties of a study of a sample of Spanish gamers. Two hundred and thirty-seven children (mean age: 11.2± 1.17 years, range: 10-12 years, 59.5% female) completed the Gameplay-Scale to discover their opinions after a game session with a serious educational game. The final scale consisted of three factors. The fit for factor 1 (usability) was 0.712, the fit for factor 2 was 0.702 (satisfaction), the fit for factor 3 was 0.886 (empathy) and the overall fit was 0.868. A positive and direct relationship could be observed between all the dimensions of the developed scale. The greatest correlation strength is shown between satisfaction and empathy (r = 0.800; p < 0.005), followed by satisfaction and usability (r = 0.180; p < 0.05) and the association between empathy and usability (r = 0.140; p < 0.05). In summary, the results of the present study support the use of the Gameplay-Scale as a valid and reliable measure of the game experience of youth populations. These results demonstrate strong psychometric properties so that the Gameplay-Scale appears to be a valid instrument for children in different contexts where an educational video game is used, analyzing its usability/“playability” in terms of learning to use it, game satisfaction, and empathy.


Technologies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kimberly Hieftje ◽  
Tyra Pendergrass ◽  
Tassos Kyriakides ◽  
Walter Gilliam ◽  
Lynn Fiellin

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