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Technology
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
The importance of information and communication technology (ICT) in our daily lives is growing. To prepare future employees to this evolving environment, technology should play a role in education. Furthermore, computer technology serves as a valuable and supportive tool to improve teaching and learning and allows new types of teaching and learning experiences to evolve. For instance, the concept of digital games-based learning (DGBL) has been growing for many years now. In order to prepare the next generation of teachers according to the image of society, teachers must be adequately trained.In this article, the authors describe the design, implementation and evaluation of two courses on digital games-based learning (DGBL) developed for the pre-service teacher training programme in health education in Flanders (the Dutch speaking part of Belgium). Both courses were set up as an introduction to digital games and gaming for learning and instruction. The objective was to provide an opportunity for students to explore (i) the possibilities, considerations and constraints related to the design of digital instructional games, and (ii) the practical design and try-out of a game in classroom settings using standard or free software (such as Excel, Hot Potatoes, JClic). Results show that the games' inclusion in the formal curriculum encouraged them in using GBL in their future teaching activities and enables them to engage their supervising teachers into using games in their classrooms.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
With the proliferation of hedonic information systems, understanding users' acceptance of hedonic information systems has become a new topic for practitioners and academics. While perceived playfulness or perceived enjoyment has been found to have a significant influence on the behavioral intention to use hedonic information systems, little research has been conducted to Investigate empirically the antecedents of perceived playfulness and the mediating role that perceived playfulness has in user acceptance of hedonic information systems. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to explore the mediating role of perceived playfulness in the psychological process of user acceptance of hedonic online game systems. Based on previous literature, two individual difference variables (i.e., computer self-efficacy and computer anxiety) and three system characteristics variables (i.e., challenge, feedback, and speed) were proposed as potential antecedents of perceived playfulness in the context of massive multiplayer online games. The results indicate that perceived playfulness plays a partial mediating role in the relationship of system characteristics and individual differences to behavioral intention. Both challenge and computer self-efficacy were found to have a significant influence on behavioral intention via perceived playfulness, with computer self-efficacy also having a direct influence on behavioral intention. Computer anxiety, however, was only found to have a direct influence on behavioral intention. Also, neither feedback nor speed was found to have a significant effect on perceived playfulness. The results of this study provide several important implications for research and practices of hedonic information systems/online game design and promotion.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Video games are virtual worlds, each with its own, distinctive spatiality. This paper suggests that there are two interrelated conceptual dimensions to the study of video games. First, there are the representational issues concerning the worlds depicted in video games, such as those portraying hypersexualized women or Orientalist depictions of Arab enemies. We suggest, however, that these cultural, sexual, and political representations are not the only forces doing work on the player within the virtual world of a video game. This paper complements a purely representational approach by considering 'affect' as a precognitive force which disrupts and delights the player with reactions ranging from fear to joy. We argue that, as the spatiality of video games has evolved from simple two-dimensional to complex three-dimensional worlds; the importance of an affective experience to the player has become paramount. Exploiting and manipulating the player's sensory experience is now the central strategy for many game designers. The paper is divided in two interrelated sections: the first tackles representational issues from culture to violence, while the second section contributes to our understanding of video games as 'worlds of affect'.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
This study integrates research on problematic Internet use to explore the cognitive and psychological predictors of negative consequences associated with playing massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs). Participants recruited from online discussion boards completed self-report measures on their online game-related cognitions and psychological condition, social skills, psychological well-being, and negative life outcomes associated with game playing. The results demonstrated the important roles that psychological dependency and deficient self-regulation play in negative consequences associated with online gaming. The results also indicated that psychological dependency on MMOGs was predicted by cognitive preference for a virtual life-a construct that is negatively related to social control skills. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
As value-added services oil mobile devices are developing rapidly, text messaging, multi-media messaging, music. video, games, GPS navigation, RFID, and mobile TV are all accessible from a single device. Mobile,allies that combine mobile communication With computer games are all emerging industry. The purpose of this research is to explore What situation factors may at feet the intention to play mobile game. We propose a research model to fit the nature of mobile games and Conducted an online survey to examine the effect of situational factors. The model integrates constructs in TAM and TRA. The findings are as follows. First, Subjective norm affects a user's intention ill using mobile games when a user has no other task,. Second, perceived playfulness affects a user's intention to use mobile games when the user has another task.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
In this article, we provide the results of our examination of the range of multiliteracy activities that engage boys' time and attention, and the types of literacy skills and understandings they learn through their engagement with alternative texts. We focus particularly on video game play and creation/composition as a learning activity that consumes a great deal of their out-of-school time. Our observations and conversations with adolescent boys suggest that significant, powerful learning is happening through video game play and creation, and calls into question claims that boys are not succeeding at literacy, instead suggesting the potential for critical engagement with new literacies.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
This study examines how individual differences in the consumption of computer games intersect with gender and how games and gender mutually constitute each other. The study focused on adult women with particular attention to differences in level of play, as well as genre preferences. Three levels of game consumption were identified. For power gamers, technology and gender are most highly integrated. These women enjoy multiple pleasures from the gaming experience, including mastery of game-based skills and competition. Moderate gamers play games in order to cope with their real lives. These women reported taking pleasure in controlling the gaming environment, or alternately that games provide a needed distraction from the pressures of their daily lives. Finally, the non-gamers who participated in the study expressed strong criticisms about game-playing and gaming culture. For these women, games are a waste of time, a limited commodity better spent on other activities.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
When pundits-and some researchers-proclaim electronic games,either altogether good or altogether bad for society, they often miss theoretical subtleties that if considered would allow us to see both the boon and the burden of the emerging technology and point to important future possibilities. Most important, these critics often jail to recognize that variability exists at different levels of analysis and in the interactions: between players, between games, between contexts, and so forth. The simultaneous existence of both positive and negative consequences of electronic games can be elaborated and reconciled in part through a multilevel perspective on electronic game effects whereby important variables exist at the levels of the individual, game content, and societal time or space. This article illustrates this idea by reviewing some recent findings in this arena and pointing to common threads that relate to the likely multilevel structure of human interaction with electronic games.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Certain interventions that ameliorate impairments in reading and attention disorders operate on the physiological level and, therefore, lend themselves to technology-based applications. This study investigates the effects of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR)—a consumer-oriented, multimedia game—on the reading disorders of sixth-grade students with ADHD. It was hypothesized that by matching movements to visual and rhythmic auditory cues, DDR may strengthen neural networks involved in reading and attention and thereby improve student outcomes. Sixty-two students, randomly assigned to treatment and control groups, participated in the test-retest study using the Process Assessment of the Learner: Testing Battery for Reading and Writing as a measure of reading impairment. The results suggest that the treatment may have had an effect on participants’ ability to perform on the Receptive Coding subtest. Furthermore, the results suggest a positive relationship between the number of treatment sessions a student completed and gains made on Receptive Coding and Finger Sense Recognition subtests.
New entry in Digiplay games research bibliography:
Born between 1977 and 1997, Net-generation is the first generation to grow up surrounded by home computers, video games, and the Internet. As children of the Baby Boomers, the Internet is the medium of choice for the Net-geners. Based on the assumption that Net-generation has unique characteristics, this study examined (1) how Net-geners addicted to the Internet differ from the non-addicted and (2) how these attributes, together with the seductive properties of the Internet, are related to Internet addiction. Data were gathered from a probability sample of 699 Net-geners between the ages of 16 and 24. Results show that Net-geners addicted to the Internet tend to be young female students. Being emotionally open on the Net and a heavy user of ICQ were most influential in predicting Net-geners' problematic use of the Internet. Addicted Net-geners are also strongly linked to the pleasure of being able to control the simulated world in online games. The finding reinforces previous research that "dependents" of the Internet spend most of their time in the synchronous communication environment engaging in interactive online games, chat rooms, and ICQ for pleasure-seeking or escape, while "non-dependents" use information-gathering functions available on the Internet. Furthermore, Internet addicts tend to watch television significantly less, indicating a displacement effect on traditional media use for the Net-generation.
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