Paper Information
| Title | Playful Learning Experiences. Meaningful learning patterns in players' biographies |
| Presenter(s) | Konstantin Mitgutsch |
| Session | Player Literacy, player biographies, & player criticism |
| Time | Thursday, October 21, 3:00p-4:00p |
| Location | Green Room |
| Format | Paper Presentation |
| Description | Player use digital games as intermediate playgrounds for their interests, passions, values and beliefs. Computer games entertain us, please our needs, challenge our abilities, make us engage with other players and provide us with novel experiences. But, do mediated experiences achieved in digital games, transform the way we understand ourselves and others? Are computer games tools for meaningful transformation? Today we have evidence that players learn through play, but we lack data on how players learn in meaningful ways. To answer these questions, the following paper outlines research that focuses on deep, meaningful and circular learning in games. It develops basic theoretical assumption on playful learning experiences and gives insights in novel findings based on a narrative study on learning biographies in games. It will be shown how today's generation experiences deep and meaningful learning in their playful biographies. Finally, it will argued that meaningful learning patterns are related to specific biographical settings and that their transformation appears an crucial educational task. |
| Top Paper Award | This paper was selected by the program committee as a Meaningful Play 2010 Top Paper. It will be submitted to the Meaningful Play 2010 Special Issue of the International Journal of Gaming and Computer-Mediated Simulations (IJGCMS). Due to the copyright requirements of the journal, only the abstract is available in the conference proceedings. |
| More | View PDF of extended abstract |