How Digital Gaming Enhances Non-Formal and Informal Learning

2011 ◽  
pp. 395-412 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Aranda ◽  
Jordi Sánchez-Navarro
Keyword(s):  
Public School ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Leisure Activities ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Social Significance ◽  
Digital Gaming ◽  
Formal And Informal Learning

This study presents the results of three investigations on the use of digital gaming in non-formal (leisure institutions) and informal (household context) education. These are: (1) an empirical enquiry on the uses and perceptions of Spanish teenagers in relation to digital technologies as tools for leisure and socialization, (2) an intervention in a public school in Barcelona, in which this chapter analyzes the introduction of video games in the context of leisure activities, and (3) a workshop for families to discuss the cultural and social significance of the use of video games in the household. The results of these experiences have allowed for observation of the youth in their environment and verification that their uses of technology and attitudes towards digital gaming have a great potential for non-formal and informal learning.

Digital Technologies for a Quality School

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 44-58
Author(s):  
Orlando De Pietro ◽  
Maurizio De Rose ◽  
Antonella Valenti
Keyword(s):  
Informal Learning ◽  
Reference Model ◽  
School Context ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
Learning Contexts ◽  
Formal And Informal Learning ◽  
Web Forums ◽  
Teachers And Parents ◽  
Quality School

The work focuses on the use of digital technologies for a quality school, through the description of a significant educational experience carried out in a school context and supported by web forums. The aim of the present work is to verify whether through digital technologies, both in school and extra-school moments, it is possible to foster meaningful learning experiences. The reference model is based on the integration among the formal, non-formal and informal learning contexts and on the participation of all actors involved in the educational process: students, teachers and parents. At the end of the experience the authors, referring to the methodology of sentiment analysis, have analysed the process of communication in web forums, and we present the results.

scholarly journals Playing with Complex Systems? The Potential to Gain Geographical System Competence through Digital Gaming

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joelle-Denise Lux ◽  
Alexandra Budke
Keyword(s):  
Complex Systems ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Geography Education ◽  
Simulation Games ◽  
Digital Gaming ◽  
System Complexity ◽  
Learning Contexts ◽  
Formal And Informal Learning ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Selection Of

The current socio-ecological challenges and phenomena that are major topics of geography education, like climate change and migration, are highly complex. Maturity in these contexts requires a networked way of thinking, and a systemic competence that is difficult to develop in geography classes alone. Digital games that simulate complex systems which include the pressing issues of today’s challenges may be a useful supplement to foster systems thinking. In this study, we develop a framework to assess the complexity of in-game systems. A subsequent analysis of a selection of current commercial strategy and simulation games shows how system complexity is designed differently in the various games. Based on these results, we make recommendations for the selection and use of different games in formal and informal learning contexts.

scholarly journals The Animation of Gamers and the Gamers as Animators in Sierra On-Line’s Adventure Games

Animation ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 83-95
Author(s):  
Raz Greenberg
Keyword(s):  
Video Games ◽  
Digital Games ◽  
Free Play ◽  
Digital Gaming ◽  
Adventure Game ◽  
Adventure Games ◽  
Software Publisher ◽  
On Line ◽  
The Relationship

Produced throughout the 1980s using the company’s Adventure Game Interpreter engine, the digital adventure games created by American software publisher Sierra On-Line played an important and largely overlooked role in the development of animation as an integral part of the digital gaming experience. While the little historical and theoretical discussion of the company’s games of the era focuses on their genre, it ignores these games’ contribution to the relationship between the animated avatars and the gamers that control them – a relationship that, as argued in this article, in essence turns gamers into animators. If we consider Chris Pallant’s (2019) argument in ‘Video games and animation’ that animation is essential to the sense of immersion within a digital game, then the great freedom provided to the gamers in animating their avatars within Sierra On-Line’s adventure games paved the way to the same sense of immersion in digital. And, if we refer to Gonzalo Frasca’s (1999) divide of digital games to narrative-led or free-play (ludus versus paidea) in ‘Ludology meets narratology: Similitude and differences between (video) games and narrative’, then the company’s adventure games served as an important early example of balance between the two elements through the gamers’ ability to animate their avatars. Furthermore, Sierra On-Line’s adventure games have tapped into the traditional tension between the animator and the character it animated, as observed by Scott Bukatman in ‘The poetics of Slumberland: Animated spirits and the animated spirit (2012), when he challenged the traditional divide between animators, the characters they animate and the audience. All these contributions, as this articles aims to demonstrate, continue to influence the role of animation in digital games to this very day.

Undergraduate Students Engagement in Formal and Informal Learning: Applying the Community of Inquiry Framework

2021 ◽  
pp. 004723952110625
Author(s):  
Suparna Chatterjee ◽  
Julia Parra
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Educational Technology ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Social Presence ◽  
Community Of Inquiry ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Formal And Informal Learning ◽  
Community Of Inquiry Framework ◽  
Technology Course

The purpose of this qualitative case study is to examine the evidence of formal and informal learning of students in an undergraduate educational technology course for preservice teachers. The research question was, “How do undergraduate students in an educational technology course bridge formal and informal learning using Twitter?” The framework for this study was the Community of Inquiry. Directed content analysis was used on data extracted from Twitter. Key findings included, (1) evidence of cognitive, social, and teaching presence for students completing course activities using Twitter, that is, for their formal learning; and that (2) students developed competencies during formal course activities using Twitter that supported cognitive and social presence beyond the course requirements, that is, for their informal learning.

Negotiating the boundaries between the formal and the informal: An experienced teacher's reflective adaptations of informal learning in a keyboard class for at-risk students

2016 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pamela Costes-Onishi
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Informal Learning ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
At Risk Students ◽  
Experienced Teachers ◽  
Formal And Informal Learning ◽  
Pedagogical Approaches

The objective of this study is to address the important questions raised in literature on the intersections between formal and informal learning. Specifically, this will be discussed within the concept of ‘productive dissonance’ and the pedagogical tensions that arise in the effort of experienced teachers to transition from the formal to the informal. This case study discusses the issues that ensue when strict demarcations between formal and informal are perceived, and demonstrates that the former is vital to the facilitation of the latter. The blurring of formal and informal pedagogical approaches has shown that the concept of ‘critical musicality’ becomes more apparent in student learning and that engagement increases especially among at-risk students.

scholarly journals Someone Like Us: Trades identities and support for work/learning

2011 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34
Author(s):  
Chris Holland
Keyword(s):  
Informal Learning ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Learning Support ◽  
Family Status ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Formal And Informal Learning ◽  
Emerging Themes ◽  
Language Literacy ◽  
Vocational Learning ◽  
Learning Connections

This paper reflects on specific findings from a 2009 study of on and off-job learning that explored apprentices’ learning experiences, formal and informal learning connections, and implications for language, literacy and numeracy in vocational learning. The study was conducted in the glazing industry in New Zealandi, and as part of that study, apprentice profiles were developed. This discussion focuses on three of those profiles and reflects on two emerging themes. The first theme is employer and apprentice perceptions of the value of apprentices coming from a ‘trades family’. The second theme is the range of inclusions and exclusions, advantages and disadvantages that apprentices experience depending on their ‘trades family’ status in both on and off-job learning. The paper then considers what kind of learning support might help integrate the different identities required within an apprenticeship.

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