seminar
Human-Centred Development of Games-Based Learning Environments
This seminar is co-organized by CITE & the Faculty of Education
In recent years, research on digital games has emerged as an intriguing and challenging area of scientific inquiry. The earliest research literature in the area centered on the negative effects of gaming. However, recent emphasis has shifted towards examining also the positive effects and educational potential of games on human development and learning. The aim of the seminar is to present the research and development work conducted by the multi-disciplinary research group "Human-Centred Development of Games-Based Learning Environments". This group focuses on the development and the analysis of the use of digital learning games in different educational contexts. The research project applies and further develops human-centred development research as its methodological approach. It investigates the principles and features of games-based learning. The goal of this research is to enhance the quality of games-based learning and more generally the pedagogical practices supported by information and communication technologies. The research group has developed several learning game prototypes e.g. GameWorld in close collaboration with Nancy Law from the University of Hong Kong.
Dr. Marja Kankaanranta is as a senior researcher at the Institute for Educational Research (IER) and she leads the Agora Game Lab at the Agora Center, University of Jyvaskyla. Currently she is involved in research projects varying from large-scale international evaluation studies on the use of ICT (IEA Second Information Technology in Education Study, SITES) to long-term action research studies concerning the development of authentic assessment methods and games-based learning environments.
Tiina Nevanpaa is a PhD student at the Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyvaskyla. She is a member of a research group that conducts the international and national assessment of learning outcomes and learning environments in Finland. Nevanpaa has a background in biology (M.Sc.), and has been working mainly on assessing learning outcomes in science. Since 2004 she has also been involved in the development of a learning game in science. Her doctoral thesis examines pupils's conceptions of global warming and the development of their conceptual understanding.