@inproceedings{Aurava2020,

title = {Teacher Views on Game Jamming in Formal General Education},

author = {Riikka Aurava and Mikko Meriläinen and Jaakko Stenros},

editor = {Panagiotis Fotaris},

doi = {10.34190/GBL.20.073},

isbn = {978-1-912764-70-9},

year  = {2020},

date = {2020-09-24},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the 14th European Conference on Games Based Learning},

pages = {31-38},

publisher = {ACI},

abstract = {In game jam events games are created in collaboration and within design constraints, e.g. time limits and themes. Game jamming is a relatively novel pedagogical method, comparable to hackathons and other accelerated collaborative creation events. Earlier research suggests that game jams have a wide range of potential positive outcomes, such as learning in STEAM skills, working skills, and collaboration, as well as increasing participants' learning motivation and self-efficacy (Meriläinen et al. 2020). Still, game jams have not been widely used in general formal education. In general education jamming faces a variety of challenges, stemming from limitations in curricula, rigid school structures, assessment difficulties as well as potentially negative attitudes. Adoption depends largely on teachers: they are unlikely to use or endorse a method they do not view as valuable or practical. In this qualitative survey study of Finnish expert teachers, we map the pedagogical soundness of organizing game jam events in schools and the practical possibilities and obstacles to wider adoption of game jams in formal learning. The respondents, who had no previous game jam experience, participated in a pedagogical and reflective two-day game jam and completed a survey afterwards. This paper explores their views on both the pedagogical and the practical aspects of game jamming in classrooms as expressed in the survey. In an educational system where teachers choose their own methods and materials, as is usual in Finland, teacher views are especially important when introducing a new method. Game jamming was seen as a pedagogically suitable tool for teaching several 21st century skills, of which co-operational and communication skills were seen as most prominent. Most participants saw game jams as compatible with everyday school routines, albeit with caveats. The most important obstacle the teachers identified related to actual praxis: time restrictions regarding daily schedules. As with any new method, game jams require extra effort, and the practicalities related to the organization of jams add to the workload of teachers. As a solution, several participants suggested organizing game jams in conjunction with special themed days or weeks, as parts of learning projects or as a voluntary course or club.},

keywords = {Education, Game jam, Game pedagogy, Game-based learning, Game-based pedagogy, Pedagogy, Teacher attitudes},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Aurava2019,

title = {Why Won’t They Jam?: The Reasons for General Upper Secondary School Students for Not Attending a Game Jam},

author = {Riikka Aurava and John Murray and Ville Kankainen},

editor = {Patrick Felicia},

url = {https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202102091985},

isbn = {9798649025898},

year  = {2019},

date = {2019-06-27},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the 9th irish Conference on Game-Based Learning: iGBL2019},

pages = {26-36},

publisher = {iGBL},

abstract = {This short paper charts why potential participants decide not to participate in game jams. Specifically, we aim at finding reasons for adolescents, specifically Finnish general upper secondary school students, for not attending game jam events. In November 2018, we arranged a game jam in Tampere, at the University of Tampere, where the participants were students from three schools. From the possible pool of over 800 pupils, we had measly twelve registrations and due to cancellations, we only had eight participants, aged 17 and 18, in the jam. Although the jam event itself was successful, we wanted to know why only a fraction of invitees participated. Furthermore, we wanted to map the possible barriers to entry that prevented students from getting involved. To address this we conducted an online survey of all invitees in December 2018. Of the all possible participants 218 replied. This paper analyzes those results and discusses the implications of the results to future educational use of game jamming in formal education. Educators have in recent years tried to better teach the so called 21st century skills and competencies, which have been deemed essential for the new era (see e.g. Dede, 2007; Ananiadou & Claro, 2009). An increasing number of studies has shown that the skills acquired in game jam events closely resemble the 21st century skills: STEAM/STEM related and inter- and intrapersonal skills. Thus, it is also important to see if the game jam method could be applied to formal learning in schools. With this end in mind, we have organized several game jams in Finnish schools, namely in general upper secondary schools. The results are promising, showing that the benefits of game jams can indeed be transferred to formal learning. The number of the involved students has been small, which affects both the research and the goal we are trying to reach: spreading the benefits of game jamming to a larger audience. In this article, we aim at finding reasons for non-attendance.},

keywords = {Adolescents, Attendance, Education, Game jam, General education, Non-attendance},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}

@inproceedings{Majuri2018,

title = {Gamification of Education and Learning: A Review of Empirical Literature},

author = {Jenni Majuri and Jonna Koivisto and Juho Hamari},

url = {http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2186/paper2.pdf},

issn = {16130073},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-05-23},

urldate = {2018-05-23},

booktitle = {Proceedings of the 2nd International GamiFIN Conference, GamiFIN 2018},

pages = {11–19},

abstract = {Gamification has become one of the most notable technological developments for human engagement. Therefore, it is not surprising that gamification has especially been addressed and implemented in the realm of education where supporting and retaining engagement is a constant challenge. However, while the volume of research on the topic has increased, synthesizing the consequent knowledge has remained modest and narrow. Therefore, in this literature review we catalogue 128 empirical research papers in the field of gamification of education and learning. The results indicate that gamification in education and learning most commonly utilizes affordances signaling achievement and progression, while social and immersion-oriented affordances are much less common; the outcomes examined in the studies are mainly focused on quantifiable performance metrics; and the results reported in the reviewed studies are strongly positively oriented. The findings imply that future research on gamification in education should increasingly put emphasis on varying the affordances in the implementations and the pursued goals of the gamification solutions. We encourage also increased attention on contextual factors of the solutions as well as on study designs in future research endeavors.},

keywords = {Education, Gamification},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}