Abstract
Games have been considered as an important part of child development and can roughly be defined as fictional structures with certain rules to be followed to achieve certain goals. Modern games (ex. Minecraft) sometimes require quite sophisticated skills to move on, and these skills mostly match up with 21st century skills. From this perspective, this chapter tries to explain the relationship between 21st century skills and game playing skills, the design thinking approach where students are game designers, coders, and players.
TopIntroduction
Games have been considered as entertainment activities of any age in addition to being an important tool for child development. Games can roughly be defined as fictional structures with certain rules, which are required to be followed in order to achieve certain goals within various settings. Games sometimes can serve as formal or informal tools of learning. The ways games are integrated into educational context vary. Such integrations might refer to either an instructional methodology (such as game-based learning) or an instructional material (such as a digital game with curriculum-based goals) or just a cognitive tool (such as interdisciplinary activities embedded into games). Serious games, educational games, game-based pedagogy, gamification, and many other terms have emerged in the literature related to the subject of games in education. Games within the scope of education might not be defined in a unidimensional way, because there are many aspects to be considered. From a broader perspective, the learning outcomes, the sequence of content, the construction of content with game elements, and the relatedness of the cover story can be listed as the main dimensions of adopting games for educational purposes. Although there is not a universal definition of educational games, the following features can be listed to define the term (Shute, Rieber, & van Eck, 2014; Whitton, 2014):
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Conflict or challenge
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Rules of engagement
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Particular goals or outcomes to achieve
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Progression and rewards
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Continuous feedback
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Interaction within the environment
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Compelling storyline
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Separate from the real world
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Played with or against others.
The main aspects of game theory remain the same with complementary educational tools such as well-defined instructional goals based on curricular needs. In the learner-centered paradigm of instruction, games may serve as the main tools of formal learning in addition to being complementary ones. The construction of knowledge and skills through the active involvement is one of the main notions of constructivist paradigm. Since games and active involvement are closely related, this relationship can make the computer science education stronger. Having its motivation from this assumption, the power of digital games will be discussed within the integration boundaries as well as providing the historical evolution of games in education. The potential benefits of digital games while designing, coding, and playing them will be explained in relation to computer science.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Game-Based Learning: Learning by playing games which are developed to reach predefined learning outcomes.
Game Designing: Process to decide on elements of games including rules, objectives, level of interaction, visualization, and other design elements.
Educational Games: Games produced to be used within learning environments.
Game Coding: Process to develop a digital game by using a computer-based programing language.
Digital Game: Games integrated into and played in digital environments.
Computer Science: The study about computers and any other information processors including hardware, software, algorithms and any other data and information modeling processes.
Coding: Process to develop a computer program by using a computer-based programing language.