Game creation to promote media and information literacy (MIL) skills in basic education teachers

Abstract

Within the scope of GamiLearning (2015GamiLearning ( -2018, an action-research project with the aim of promoting the critical and participative dimensions of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) through collaborative experiences involving digital games, a workshop was conducted with Basic Education teachers in Portugal. The main goal of the workshop was to develop MIL skills, through the collaborative creation of digital games. To document this practice, a questionnaire was designed for teachers' self-evaluation of their levels of MIL, their motivation to integrate the training activity, their attitudes towards videogames and their position on media education in the formal teaching context. A group of 21 Basic Education teachers attended the face-to-face training, supported by an online collaborative platform -SAPO Campus. The quantitative results showed statistically significant increases (p < .05) in the self-perception of the teachers' media literacy skills, especially in media creation and digital identity management. The qualitative results frame a reflection on the relevance of creating digital media in students' motivation and in the promotion of media literacy competences. The barriers to the adoption of pedagogical practices which include media creation were also object of teachers' reflection.

The use of Digital Game-Based Learning (DGBL) in teachers’ training: a scoping review

“…Concerning the type of study, 10 studies can be defined as mixed-method studies (Charlier and De Fraine, 2012;Allsop and Jessel, 2015;Karadag, 2015;Cózar-Gutiérrez and Sáez-López, 2016;Meletiou-Mavrotheris and Prodromou, 2016;Marques and Pombo, 2019;Sousa and Costa, 2020;Casanoves et al, 2022;Dashtestani, 2022;Mystakidis and Christopoulos, 2022), 3 studies are quantitative (Hsu et al, 2017;Sánchez-Mena et al, 2019;Gordillo et al, 2021), and 4 are qualitative (Pauschenwein et al, 2013;Kamışlı, 2019;Kelleci and Aksoy, 2021;Pflaumer et al, 2021).…”

“…Although the studies presented very homogenous outcomes in terms of the positive effects of DGBL on learning processes and positive teachers' attitudes toward this innovative methodology, they are very heterogeneous in terms of methodological features. Many of the screened studies (Charlier and De Fraine, 2012;Allsop and Jessel, 2015;Cózar-Gutiérrez and Sáez-López, 2016;Meletiou-Mavrotheris and Prodromou, 2016;Marques and Pombo, 2019;Sousa and Costa, 2020;Kelleci and Aksoy, 2021;Pflaumer et al, 2021;Mystakidis and Christopoulos, 2022) included very small samples (<100 participants), and most of the studies presented a cross-sectional design. Only four studies (Cózar-Gutiérrez and Sáez-López, 2016;Sousa and Costa, 2020;Gordillo et al, 2021;Pflaumer et al, 2021) included a pre-and post-test research design.…”

“…Many of the screened studies (Charlier and De Fraine, 2012;Allsop and Jessel, 2015;Cózar-Gutiérrez and Sáez-López, 2016;Meletiou-Mavrotheris and Prodromou, 2016;Marques and Pombo, 2019;Sousa and Costa, 2020;Kelleci and Aksoy, 2021;Pflaumer et al, 2021;Mystakidis and Christopoulos, 2022) included very small samples (<100 participants), and most of the studies presented a cross-sectional design. Only four studies (Cózar-Gutiérrez and Sáez-López, 2016;Sousa and Costa, 2020;Gordillo et al, 2021;Pflaumer et al, 2021) included a pre-and post-test research design. Measures were generally both quantitative (self-report questionnaires) and qualitative (open-ended questions, interviews, focus groups); however, the statistical analyses performed were, in most cases, item analyses (descriptive statistics reported in terms of means, frequencies, and percentages) and content analysis for the qualitative explorations.…”

“…Eight studies (Lameras et al, 2014;Meletiou-Mavrotheris and Prodromou, 2016;Sousa and Costa, 2020;Gordillo et al, 2021;Kelleci and Aksoy, 2021;Zetzmann et al, 2021;Casanoves et al, 2022;Sica et al, 2022) proposed training programs that used DGBL to improve and foster teachers' and pre-service teachers' skills in different fields: e-safety area (Gordillo et al, 2021), teaching skills and classroom management (Lameras et al, 2014;Kelleci and Aksoy, 2021;Zetzmann et al, 2021;Sica et al, 2022), TPACK on game-enhanced mathematics learning (Meletiou-Mavrotheris and Prodromou, 2016), Media and Information Literacy (MIL) skills (Sousa and Costa, 2020), Science and genetics (Casanoves et al, 2022). Sousa and Costa (2020), for example, proposed a 36-h training program to foster teachers' MIL competencies. The main goal was to provide teachers with the appropriate skills to create digital games for their students, working in groups.…”

“…The training courses implemented in these studies resulted effective in improving teachers' and pre-service teachers' skills. Furthermore, all the teachers who participated in studies in which the videogames have been implemented (Meletiou-Mavrotheris and Prodromou, 2016;Sousa and Costa, 2020;Gordillo et al, 2021;Kelleci and Aksoy, 2021;Casanoves et al, 2022) perceived DGBL as a valuable tool to use in their teaching practice.…”