telecollaborative games for youngsters: impact on motivation
TRANSCRIPT
Telecollaborative games for
youngsters: impact on motivation
Kristi Jauregi
Video Games & Virtual Worlds
• Are viewed as relevant educational tools not just for their potential for entertainment, but also for promoting learning (Prensky, 2007)
• Mostly due to game techniques that seem to promote user engagement and motivation.
• These techniques are increasingly being employed in serious games: games whose main purpose is to educate while entertaining their users.
• Recently a growing awareness of the learning potential of games and virtual worlds has been observed in the CALL field (Cornillie et al., 2012; Reinders, 2012; Sykes & Reinhardt, 2012, Panichi & Deutschmann, 2012; Jauregi et al. 2011).
TILA
3
TelecollaborationInterculturalLanguageAcquisition
“Internet-based intercultural exchange
between groups of learners of different cultural / national
backgrounds set up in an institutional blended-learning
context with the aim of developing both language skills and intercultural
communicative competence”
(Guth & Helm, 2012: 42)
Funded by the European Commission
Telecollaborative Game
In OpenSim
4
With an intercultural dimension in the interaction
Game & Gamification elements: points & time
Research question
• How do telecollaborative games played cross-culturally in OpenSim influence learners’ motivation?
© 2015 TILA
Ashcombe College (UK)
Pleincollege Nuenen (NL)
6 pupils from a Dutch school
Participants
6 pupils from a British school
All learning German (A1/A2)
© 2015 TILA
3 cross-cultural teams were created consisting of:
The 3 teams played the German cultural game at the same time. For each team a separate game space was created. Ashcombe College (UK)
Pleincollege Nuenen (NL)
Participants
2 British pupils2 Dutch pupils
Game task characteristics• Each team has its own game environment consisting of 5 areas• Different tasks were created for two game sessions• Gamification elements: points for right answer + time measurement
Area 1: They exchange personal information and collaborate to find out the name of a German city.
When sitting on the chair each pupil got a different hint (in German) (The placement… It has 4 letters… Carnaval is celebrated here…)
They have to write down the name of the city in the chat box. If it is right the access to the second game area gets open.
Examples of game session 1
Game task characteristicsAreas 1 y 2
Area 3
Area 2: They have to collaborate to find out the name of a river (5 letters).
The hints appear on the wall when standing on the yellow spots. (First day of the week… The opposite of west… The opposite of north… No right hand…)
They write down the name in the chat box. If it is right the access to the third game area gets open.
Videoclip game area 1 & 2
Game task characteristics:
Area 3: They have to build a bridge by positioning the blocks in the right order. They have to collaborate in two dyads.
One dyad offers information about the location of blocks and how they need to be moved.
The other dyad clicks on the wall in order to move the blocks behind the wall.
The bridge will facilitate access to the game space 4.
Area 3
Videoclip game area 3
Game task characteristics
Area 4: It is a quiz. Each team member receives 5 questions of multiple choice when sitting on the chairs. As they answer correctly the chair goes up and scores one point.
(In which country is German no official language? In which city was the wall? How many inhabitants has Germany?...)
Together they have to score enough points to get the door opened and access the final game space.
14
Area 5 There are two typical German recipes on the wall. They have to buy the ingredients in the shortests timespan possible. But if they click on the wrong ingredient they get a point reduction.
Game task characteristics
Áreas 4 y 5
Game task characteristics
Final. The game ends up when all team members stand on the yellow spot on the floor to stop the ever ticking clock. Once finalised, each team gets out of the gaming environment meet the other teams and see which team has won the game contest.
Videoclip game area 4 & 5
Data gatheredSeveral surveys were developed and administered: •A background survey gathering biographic information & language learning experience among others and was filled in prior to playing the games. •The user experience survey gathered information about the game and was filled in after each game session.•A post survey, measuring learning experience was filled in after finalizing the game sessions.RecordingsFocus groups were held after conclusion of games.
Results
• Technical concerns• Preferences & likes• Co-presence and self-awareness• Overall evaluation
(5 point Likert-scale: 1 non agreement – 5 complete agreement)
Technical concerns
Preferences & Likes
Co-presence, ease & self-awareness
Overall evaluation
Conclusions• The pupils greatly enjoyed the telecollaborative German
cultural game being played cross-culturally.• They found it easy to play the game and the sound and
video quality were good particularly in the second game session. They liked the game environment and being an avatar.
• They felt co-present in the game. They would recommend other pupils this kind of telecollaborative games.
• The scores of the British pupils in the second game were higher than in the first game session (they seem to have gained in self-confidence), while the Dutch ones remained very high in both sessions (some items scored a little bit lower though)
Conclusions
The initial results indicate that telecollaborative games have a positive impact on learners’ motivation but many more studies of this kind and undertaking multimodal analysis are needed in order to corroborate these initial findings.
> TeCoLa: Next European project (Erasmus+, 2016-2019).
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank: •the pupils at both schools (Ashcombe School, Dorking & Pleincollege Nuenen), •the teachers (H. Meyers & B. Pardoel), •the OpenSim expert, N. Zwart, •and the TILA project