This paper presents the results of a literature search and review focused on the integration of digital games into educational processes, specifically in primary schools. It briefly analyses around 78 papers reporting research carried out in a range of different countries and with a variety of educational objectives. The study confirms the increasing wealth of scientific studies dealing with game based learning and its implementation in formal educational contexts. This also holds true for primary education, which is at the core of this study. The review reveals that in this sector there is a predominance of papers that could be classified as theoretical or as position papers; only 78 out of more than 700 published papers surveyed actually reported concrete school experiences of any kind. Detailed analysis of this sub-group has highlighted some clues that may prove useful for interpreting the data as a whole and for reflecting on the current and future trends that they may indicate.
This case study draws on a pilot experience investigating learners' digital game making as an educational strategy for adoption in schools. It was one of a series of classroom pilots run within an EC project called MAGICAL-Making Games in Collaboration for Learning 1. The main research aim of MAGICAL and of the reported pilot was to investigate the viability and educational added value of digital game making, especially for supporting transversal 21 st century skills such as collaboration, creativity, problem solving and ICT literacy.
Dementia is one of the main causes of dependency for old people in the world, and, according to several studies, the number of people affected by such a problem is bound to grow significantly in future. This represents a high social cost. Memory loss and disorientation to space and time are among the most common problems in the early stages of dementia, causing worry in caregivers and consequently social isolation for the people involved. A mobile system in support of the autonomous mobility around town would offer a double advantage: allowing for more independence of the dementia affected people and reassuring caregivers. In this paper, we discuss the possibility of adapting an existing mobile system, developed for intellectually impaired young adults, to these specific target users. We identify in the errorless learning approach a possible method to support the learning of a new, technologically based system accessible to people with mild dementia, highlighting some potential issues that still need further investigation, in particular learning transfer and spontaneous use. 2 SETTING THE SCENE Dementia is not a specific disease, but rather an overall term that describes a wide range of
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