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Although most of the schools have implemented Digital Game-Base Learning, administrators of
schools should consider the negative effects of DGBL to students.
Digital Game Based Learning (DGBL) is an instructional method that uses video games
integrated with educational contents and learning principles with the goal of engaging learners.
DGBL provides learning opportunities through interactive instructional games and help prepare
the learners to participate in the globalized technological society.
According to Van Eck (2007), in the 1960s and 1970s, audio and video (and later,
television) were touted as technologies that would revolutionize learning. During the 1970s,
many studies were conducted to compare media-based classrooms to traditional classrooms,
which brought modern technologies into publics attention. By the 1980s, there was an
argument between the qualities of the instruction in media versus traditional classrooms, and the
effectiveness of technologies was wrongly valued at this period. Finally in the 1990s, educators
started to integrate technologies with curriculum. By this time, Digital Game-based learning
(DGBL) started its growth. It became prevalent in the latter decades of the 21st century when
there was a global technology development. Through the years of development of DGBL, many
features had been included in it. Digital games includes most of these features: a game format,
educational objectives, multimodal representations feedback mechanisms information provided
to users, tools to track users' knowledge and proficiency, adaptive pedagogical mechanisms, and
link to an existing Learning Management System (LMS). Digital games for learning usually
employ visual representations; however, some also account for people with impaired vision,
auditory impairment, learning disabilities, or physical disabilities. For example, to accommodate
people with impaired vision, several commercial video games employ non-visual cues to
transmit information including force-feedback or audio. For people with auditory impairment,
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closed captioning can be employed to display text onscreen including non-speech elements.
Game based learning has evolved from the traditional use of paper and pencil or card and board
games to the use of digital game based learning which includes like training simulation games,
and serious games where the primary purpose is education, not entertainment, though the
challenge of the game itself is engaging. (Van Eck, 2006). According to Prensky (2001), the
digital natives process information significantly differently compared to previous generations;
they multi-task, are used to non-sequential information, and play video games frequently. In
contrast, the digital immigrants may not have embraced 21st century literacies, and therefore
may find it difficult to reach this new generation of students who speak a rather different
language. There is a gap between these two generations that ought to be bridged. The idea that
there could be a cultural and technological divide between these two generations had already
been mentioned by other researchers, including Tapscott (1999) and Howe & Strauss (2000) who
refer to this generation as the Net generation or the millenials generation (respectively).
According to Tapscott (1999), youths who belong to the Net generation are computer savvy and
ICT (Information and Communication Technology) literate. As a result, instructional settings
should be modified and include a non-linear format, instruction based on discovery, studentcentered classes, pedagogical methodologies that encourage the development of meta-cognitive
skills rather than asking students to regurgitate information, support for lifelong learning, and
personalized teaching strategies.
DGBL has been used to teach, train and raise students' awareness. In schools, it is
employed as an adjunct to traditional methodologies to teach mathematics, science, engineering
history, or languages. Teachers may use this medium to illustrate concepts and ideas introduced
in formal classes, and give students the opportunity to further their knowledge, obtain a deeper
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understanding of the topic, and practice skills repeatedly until they become proficient. In ideal
situations, DGBL interventions include briefing and debriefing sessions conducted by teachers.
The latter was proven to increase educational benefits as it makes implicit links between the
learning objectives and the game, requiring students to relate to their experience, link their
findings to the curriculum, and contextualize their experience (Watson et al., 2011). DGBL is
also employed in settings where students are required to create an educational video game. This
usually implies that students gather, analyze and synthesize facts and other relevant information.
In this particular case, DGBL does not only increase knowledge of the topic, but it also improves
students' digital (or 21st century) skills such as media production, literacy as well as other highly
transferrable skills including collaboration or communication (Beavis & O'Mara, 2010). But
despite its goal to improve the quality of education, DGBL has been criticized to have negative
effects on students.
Critics object to the use of educational games or DGBL. They are concerned with the
addictive nature of computer games and the violence that children are exposed to while playing
games. Educational videogames normalise the media and therefore can act as a "gateway drug"
to extreme violence. Okan (2003) suggests that computer games are not culturally neutral. Some
educators fear that technology is advancing rapidly through all levels of education without
adequate design inputs or consideration to cultural sensitivity. There is a deep seated fear that if
students are playing or being entertained they are not learning. Parents and educators fear that
technology can actually undermine learning processes, while at the same time absorbing
resources and funding for education.
Other concerns are that DGBL can dilute learning discipline and teaches students that
learning does not require perseverance, critical reading, simiotic connections and collaborative
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peer learning maybe redundant. In other words, "in addition to teaching the curriculum,
technology has an unintended effect of discouraging serious learning" (Okan, 2003). Skeptics
also insist that technology is being rushed into the classroom for the sake of technological
advancement rather than for any learning outcomes. It can also be more distracting than a
typical learning tool and the goals of the games sometime dont align with the learning goals of
the classroom. Some of the games features might affect the students cognitively and
psychologically. If instructors use DGBL as a default activity it may cause students to overlook
opportunities to apply learning in real life.
For example, why make students participate in Wii bowling when you could book at
class trip to the bowling alley and do the actual activity. Critics also suggest that it shortens the
attention span of students. This is the criticism of all modern media, and probably was a criticism
of books when Guttenberg first started mass producing them. New technologies necessitate new
ways of viewing the world and the nature of knowledge. Computer games are no different. The
often rapid pace of action and the immediate feedback can make people expect the same kinds of
fast-paced, instantaneous response of all things. While that may not translate to every context, it
certainly is a direction in which our hyper-connected, global society is headed. However, with
average completion times of 40 hours of intense concentration and problem solving, games do
promote sustained focus, just in non-traditional ways. Most current games also involve sitting at
a computer or console rather than being active. A study by He, Piche, Beynon and Harris (2010)
reported that Canadian children spend an average of 3.3 hours per day in screen-related
activities, which may contribute to the growing problem of childhood obesity.
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References:
18 digital game based learning - learning and teaching through having fun. (n.d.). 18 digital
game based learning. Retrieved March 1, 2014, from http://www.slideshare.net/citehku/18digital-game-based-learning-learning-and-teaching-through-having-fun
Debates about Gamification and Game-Based Learning(#GBL) in Education. (n.d.). Classroom
Aid. Retrieved March 19, 2014, from http://classroom-aid.com/2013/04/07/debates-aboutgamification-and-game-based-learninggbl-in-education/
He, M., Piche, L., Beynon, C., & Harris, S. (2010). Screen-related sedentary behaviors:
children's and parents' attitudes, motivations, and practices. Journal of Nutrition Education
and Behavior, 42(1), 17-25. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Heather Coffey.(2009). Digital game-based learning. Retrieved Feb. 25, 2014, from
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/4970
Howe, N. & Strauss, B., (2000). Millenials rising: the next great generation, New York: Vintage.
Okan, Z. (2003). Edutainment: is learning a nrisk? British Journal of Educational Technology,
34(3), 255- 264.
Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Game-Based Learning. New York: McGraw-Hill.
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Tapscott, D., 1999. Education the next generation. Educational Leadership, 56(5), 6-11.
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