Serious play

Abstract

Preliminary results from a planned three year Australian study into the use of computer games in F-12 classrooms. This study is exploring the processes used by schools seeking to use games to improve student outcomes across subject areas, and aims to generate new knowledge about how students and teachers approach computer games, how games foster new literacies, and what happens with curriculum, pedagogy and assessment when computer games are introduced into a school to support teaching and learning. Initial findings show that teachers as a population may have less awareness of computer games than the general population and their students, teachers have a need for a model for the selection of games for use in the classroom, and the reframing of computer games as a genre within digital literacy may be sidelining their place in computer studies.