Early Childhood Post-Educated Teachers' Views and Intentions About Using Digital Games in the Classroom.

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	Early Childhood Post-Educated Teachers' Views and Intentions About Using Digital Games in the Classroom.
Authors:	Manessis, Dionissios¹ manesisd@yahoo.com
Source:	Proceedings of the European Conference on Games Based Learning. 2011, p753-758. 6p. 2 Charts, 4 Graphs.
Subject Terms:	Video games, Educational games, *Classroom environment, Electronic games, Digital computer simulation
Abstract:	The increasing use of digital games as an entertainment medium provides a great opportunity to adapt games to educational purposes. Especially in pre-school education this adaptation depends directly on the pre-school teachers' attitudes towards Games-Based Learning. Negative attitudes will influence their decision about using digital games in the classroom, while positive views will help them embody the use of digital games in their teaching methods more easily. This paper investigates 50 early childhood post educated teachers' views and intentions about using Digital Games Based Learning in the classroom. Questionnaires were given to the participants at the end of a 10-week introductory level, Information and Communication Technologies course. Results showed that the pre-school teachers had generally very positive views and intentions. The majority of the sample agreed that digital games work as a useful education tool, which can contribute to the learning process of infant pupils. They also express intention to use computer games in their school, so long as their role is not limited. The use of educational digital games may provide models of good learning practices and that by playing games infants will develop practical competencies and social practices. Additionally, from the perspective of the narrative and thematic aspects of computer games, children with special needs such as learning difficulties and specific disabilities will improve their social lives. Intentions were affected by the variables: "years of service", "previous experience in computers", "owning a computer at home", and "self-efficacy in the ability of using computer games". Fewer years of service, greater previous experience in computer usage, the introductory course, owning a computer at home and the self-efficacy in using digital games are related with more positive views and intentions. Further education can assist the pre-school teachers to investigate the potential of the exploitation of the Digital Games in the early childhood education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database:	Education Research Complete

Description
Abstract:	The increasing use of digital games as an entertainment medium provides a great opportunity to adapt games to educational purposes. Especially in pre-school education this adaptation depends directly on the pre-school teachers' attitudes towards Games-Based Learning. Negative attitudes will influence their decision about using digital games in the classroom, while positive views will help them embody the use of digital games in their teaching methods more easily. This paper investigates 50 early childhood post educated teachers' views and intentions about using Digital Games Based Learning in the classroom. Questionnaires were given to the participants at the end of a 10-week introductory level, Information and Communication Technologies course. Results showed that the pre-school teachers had generally very positive views and intentions. The majority of the sample agreed that digital games work as a useful education tool, which can contribute to the learning process of infant pupils. They also express intention to use computer games in their school, so long as their role is not limited. The use of educational digital games may provide models of good learning practices and that by playing games infants will develop practical competencies and social practices. Additionally, from the perspective of the narrative and thematic aspects of computer games, children with special needs such as learning difficulties and specific disabilities will improve their social lives. Intentions were affected by the variables: "years of service", "previous experience in computers", "owning a computer at home", and "self-efficacy in the ability of using computer games". Fewer years of service, greater previous experience in computer usage, the introductory course, owning a computer at home and the self-efficacy in using digital games are related with more positive views and intentions. Further education can assist the pre-school teachers to investigate the potential of the exploitation of the Digital Games in the early childhood education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:	20490992