4. Do players believe they can learn through digital games?

Authors

  • Manuela Eliane Anna Cantoia Università Cattolica
  • Luca Milani Università Cattolica
  • Lorenzo Romeo

Abstract

In the last two decades digital games (DG) have acquired more and morerelevance in everyday life. Today the effects of the wide diffusion of digital games among laypersons represent a main fi eld of interest in the study of education and learning in a long life perspective.Literature provides evidences in conceiving DG as optimal learningenvironments, instead of being a simple leisure providing no special cognitive, emotional or social advantage. This paper focuses on the players' implicit theories on DGs, and how these theories impact on the learning process. Our main question concerns the degree of awareness of the players: do they perceive DGs as a learning opportunity? Are they aware of which soft skills they develop in their experience? Finally, are such skills perceived as transferable?A semi-structured questionnaire, specifi cally designed for this study wasadministered to a sample of 160 participants: 70 Adults (18-30 yrs. old) and 90 Children (8-15 yrs. old).

Published

2012-10-03