Editorial: Play and learn: potentials of game‐based learning

Abstract

Games and learning: an introductionMany of us have grown up playing games, and in primary education games have a high presence in nonformal and informal segments of our learning. Unfortunately, in formal education, games are still often seen just as an unserious activity, and the potentials of games for learning often stay undiscovered. Digital game-based learning is a novel approach in the area of universities and lifelong learning, and the search for new positioning of the universities in the changing setting of education; gaming is becoming a new form of interactive content, worthy of exploration.As early as the 1980s and 1990s, many scientists stated that computers, and later, hypermedia could be used as a cognitive tool for learning. More recently, Brown (2002) suggested that learning comes as the result of the framework or environment that fosters learning rather than as a result of teaching. He maintains that today's students look upon technology as an integral part of life and a tool that they take for granted; for many of them computing has been part of their learning since early childhood. Hence there is a need to offer a variety of different knowledge presentations and to create opportunities to apply this knowledge within a virtual world, thus supporting and facilitating the learning process. To achieve that, it is necessary to provide a complex level of interactivity stimulating the users' engagement, and to apply different interactivity concepts such as object, linear, construct or hyperlinked interactivity, nonimmersive contextual interactivity as well as immersive virtual interactivity.Despite many decades of research, the present e-learning solutions still focus on technology instead on instructional support and support of learners'; needs. Educators often compare video games to the act of teaching and do not always embrace the cognitive learning that modern commercial computer games can offer. Yet being an e-learner means often being confronted with boring and poorly structured learning materials in the form of pdf files and PowerPoint, learning within learning management systems where interactions prove to be complicated, and where the entire e-learning process is, in most cases, still focused on the replication of facts and data instead of challenging the learner and enabling active interaction with the knowledge. So, do modern e-learning technologies really support learning or does game-based learning provide a more appropriate platform?Digital game-based learning can also be applied as an additional option to classroom lecturing. The intention of digital game-based learning is to address new ways of

Oyun temelli çevre etkinliklerinin okul öncesi çocukların çevresel farkındalıklarına etkisinin incelenmesi

“…Birçok araştırma okul öncesi dönemde oyunun, çocukların deneyim kazanarak öğrenmeleri için en iyi araçtan biri olduğunu göstermektedir (Kaytez ve Durualp, 2014;Pivec, 2007;Wu, Hsiao ve diğerleri, 2012;Pellegrini, 1980;Stagnitti, Bailey ve diğerleri, 2017, Trawick-Smith, ve diğerleri, 2015. Yapılan çeşitli araştırmalar okul öncesi dönemde verilecek çevresel farkındalık ve çevreyi korumaya yönelik temel tutum geliştirme eğitimlerinin uzun soluklu etkilerinin olduğu noktasında birleşmektedir (Kiziroğlu, 2000;Smith 2001;Taşkın ve Şahin, 2008) …”

“…Research shows that play is one of the best methods for learning in preschool period (Kaytez and Durualp 2014, Pivec 2007, Wu, Hsiao et al, 2012, Pellegrini 1980, Stagnitti, Bailey et al, 2017, Trawick-Smith, et al, 2015.…”

Mobile Learning and Games in Special Education

“…Pivec (2007) highlights the ability of games to engage the learner voluntarily in sufficient repetitions of the activities to ensure learning takes place (Pivec, 2007). This is what Garris, Ahlers and Driskell (2002) termed persistent reengagement, where the player returns to the task unprompted.…”

“…Williamson went on to say "yet they have also become increasingly sophisticated and celebrated as a cultural form; they have shaken up the world of entertainment, and they have entered into educational debates and practices" (p. 9). Play and games had been recognised as having an important role in early learning, but Pivec (2007) makes the point that, as education becomes more formal, games tend to be seen as just an "unserious activity" (p. 387).…”

“…A second characteristic to be exploited in serious games is the immediate feedback they can provide so that an activity is easily linked with a learning outcome, in Pivec's (2007) words: "the debriefing process between the game cycle and the achievement of the learning outcomes" (p. 388). Finally, games can be structured with different levels of challenge which makes them flexible enough to appeal to users with a wide range of ability or skill and to learners from their first attempt through to increasing levels of familiarity.…”