Children?s Rights Education via Game-based Activities: An Intervention in Kindergarten

This paper presents an effort for introducing children rights to preschool students transcending conventional methods. An educational intervention was designed and developed for the introduction of preschoolers to issues of survival, development, non-discrimination and protection rights through digital games. The latter were used in online sessions, due to Covid-19 constraints. Educational effectiveness was studied through qualitative analysis of interviews with children before and after the intervention, through questionnaires regarding their degree of fun, and through the projects and the comments they produced during online sessions. Results showed that, following the intervention, individual rights occupied a more central place in the children's self-awareness. All children approached the issues of rights in relation to the improvement of the quality of life and demonstrated an ethical reasoning regarding the reciprocity of social rules. Digital games mobilized children's creative thinking, dialogue and social reflection through role-playing in distant instructional scenarios. They became useful tools as an asynchronous activity for the creative expression of social messages as well as for the interaction between children and parents. This study highlights the potential of promoting a critical approach to rights-based social issues through digital games at preschool education, as well as the need for developing serious games explicitly focused on children rights education. At the same time, further research is necessary to explore and cross-reference the views of students and parents on children rights for, and through, the use of digital games.

Digital games in engineering education: systematic review and future trends

The application of digital games in higher education is on the rise in engineering. With the recent COVID-19 restrictions and the move to virtual learning, the interest in and the need for virtual laboratories and technology-enhanced experiential learning tools like digital games are expected to rise. This paper presents a review of the current practices in digital game-based learning for engineering education. Most importantly, it provides insight into the application of digital game-based learning across diverse engineering disciplines. It also provides researchers and practitioners with insights into relevant journals and conferences, available games, research designs and assessment methods being used in digital game-based learning in the context of engineering. Based on predefined inclusion criteria, a total of 51 articles published within the last decade were analysed in detail. Software engineering education was found to evaluate the educational use of games most extensively. Eighteen empirical studies also reported some learning gains with digital games using different assessment methods. The findings of this review indicate increase in the dissemination of games research and possibly in the use of games for engineering education. This paper closes by highlighting future trends in digital game-based learning for engineering education.

Games as Mediating Platforms in an Open and Digital World

The complexity of social interactions has been pointed out as challenges in studies on social development, education, cultural diversity, behavior change, and innovation. The COVID-19 pandemics highlighted important issues of our modern society, especially regarding emotional and psychological issues: humans as artificial beings disconnected from the planet, anxious for socialization, mainly through virtual worlds. Stress, anxiety, hopelessness and depression are sources of concern, while pleasure - a fundamental aspect for human life - loses space. We argue that our society needs to recover the pleasure which relies on the learning aspects of life situations as well as to rebuild the way we interact for social or work purposes. In this chapter, we propose as a challenge for the games research community, to face the sophistication that encompasses how to conceptualize, model, design, evaluate, and play games which can turn our actions in the world more playful. We primarily approach games as enablers and agents for work relations, social change and innovation in organizations, with a special look to the Brazilian context. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Playing and Socializing—Adults' Perceptions of the FIFA Digital Game

Gamers' perceptions of using competitive digital games, especially concerning anxiety and socialization, have raised doubts about the benefits of playing such games. Since different studies highlight different results, this research aims to explore these differences by analyzing the perceptions of adults involved in playing a competitive digital game, in this case, FIFA, considering data that were collected during the COVID-19 pandemic period. The main question is ‘How do adults perceive anxiety, stress, and socialization when playing the FIFA digital game?'. The research comprises two studies involving volunteer participants: In the first part, which adopts a qualitative approach, the participants' perceptions of what they think and feel when playing FIFA were analyzed and interpreted using text mining analysis. In the second, a quantitative study, FIFA users' perceptions of the gaming experience were statistically analyzed. The results show that adult users tend to refer to positive perceived stress and socialization. The fact that participants identified manipulations and interference in the game and no longer allowed its use to influence their mood reveals that perceptions of attacks of rage were considered possible reactions to the use of the game, interpreted from the interface, and leading to the creation of knowledge. © 2022 by the authors.

Games as Mediating Platforms in an Open and Digital World

The complexity of social interactions has been pointed out as challenges in studies on social development, education, cultural diversity, behavior change, and innovation. The COVID-19 pandemics highlighted important issues of our modern society, especially regarding emotional and psychological issues: humans as artificial beings disconnected from the planet, anxious for socialization, mainly through virtual worlds. Stress, anxiety, hopelessness and depression are sources of concern, while pleasure - a fundamental aspect for human life - loses space. We argue that our society needs to recover the pleasure which relies on the learning aspects of life situations as well as to rebuild the way we interact for social or work purposes. In this chapter, we propose as a challenge for the games research community, to face the sophistication that encompasses how to conceptualize, model, design, evaluate, and play games which can turn our actions in the world more playful. We primarily approach games as enablers and agents for work relations, social change and innovation in organizations, with a special look to the Brazilian context. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Stimulation of the Executive Functions Mediated by Digital Games: Current Challenges in the School Context

Executive Functions are a group of cognitive abilities that guide the behavior of individuals towards achieving goals, regulation and control of thoughts, emotions, and inhibition of behavioral tendencies. The healthy development of the executive components are predictors of several aspects in the life of individuals, such as success in professional life, academic performance, and socio-affective relationships. Studies indicate that impairments in the Executive Functions are directly related to several known clinical conditions, e.g., depression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Investigations show that it is possible to foster the components of Executive Functions, so that individuals can obtain cognitive gains, promoting benefits in several aspects of one's life, especially when it occurs during childhood and adolescenthood. Digital games are a cultural artifact present in the lives of children and adolescents and have been increasingly used in educational settings. Therefore, investigations based on robust evidence are needed about cognitive stimulation using digital games in the school context. This chapter presents five challenges in the field, and how to evaluate them: (I) Development of Digital Games for Cognitive Stimulation and Assessment;(II) Methodologies using Digital Games;(III) Applications within the School Environment and Brazilian Scope;(IV) Difficulty Curves in Digital Games;(V) Cognitive Stimulation in the School Context after Social Isolation by COVID-19. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Gaming for Better Psychological Health: A Solution Based on the FPGA Zynq 7000

Anxiety and depression are the two most prevalent mental health problems throughout the globe. They may present either suddenly or persistently, with a broad range of symptoms, many of which are often asymptomatic. This need is a direct outcome of the mental illness-related economic and healthcare insurance service burden. The expansion of the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting increase in the incidence of mental health concerns have both contributed to the rising need for mental health care. In response to these demands, a substantial amount of research is examining alternatives to the usual methods used to treat mental health issues. According to research, digital games include cognitive benefits such as attention management, cognitive flexibility, and information processing. This study dissects and analyses the game 'Space Invaders' in terms of its design and implementation. The game has enormous potential as a resource for the mitigation of some mental health issues in lieu of or in addition to established therapeutic therapies. The resource is inexpensive, readily accessible, globally accessible, beneficial, and not connected with shame. © 2022 IEEE.

Perception of the Higher Education in Digital Games by Slovak High School Students

The gaming sector is currently, with about 3 billion gamers worldwide, one of the best developing segments in society, not negatively affected even by the COVID-19 pandemic. As the interest in working in this sector increases, so does the interest in higher education in this field. Although the first steps in establishing game studies on the academic grounds date back to the 1980s, this study field institutionalization beginnings can be talked about since 2000 with occurring the ludology definition and the emergence of the first game-oriented scientific journals. Despite the difficult start, in the present, studying digital games is not so limited, partial as well as full degree study programs appear at universities all around the world, but high school graduates are often not aware of these options, even in their nearest surroundings. The study aims to identify the level of awareness of the possibilities within higher education in the field of digital game studies and to determine the attitudes of potential future university students to this field of education in Slovakia that in recent years has significantly eliminated the gap between the level of the Slovak and the Western (or world) gaming sector after the fall of the Iron Curtain. In the study, the authors respond to the three main problems via research completed with a representative sample of respondents. Data show that the level of awareness about these study options if is insufficient, but not lower than the awareness about other study programs. The discovered attitudes are of little consistence and their valency tends from neutral to slightly negative. However, statistics show that respondents perceive the study program of digital gaming as potentially pleasant and at the same time, there is a significant correlation between playing digital games and displaying positive attitudes towards potential studying of the field in the target group.

Attitudes toward the Integration of Digital Games into Instruction in Teacher Education Colleges during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Aim/Purpose This paper examines how senior academic staff from a large sample of teacher education colleges regard the integration of digital games into teacher instruction. These colleges serve general or religious populations, and we examine what, in practice, their policy and vision were in this regard in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Background The sudden adoption of online teaching-learning due to the pandemic has been termed disruptive in that it drastically disturbed higher education in Israel and worldwide. The senior academic staff of Israel's colleges of education was responsible for leading policy decision-making during this period. The use of digital games for pedagogic purposes may be direct when used for knowledge acquisition and reinforcement and student development or indirect. Methodology Using semi-structured interviews, the current study applied an interpretive-constructivist approach to examine how senior academic staff from several teacher education colleges perceived the integration of digital games into teacher instruction and elicit their policy and vision in this regard, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Contribution The findings suggest that discussions surrounding technology-related vision and policy and their translation into practice should relate to the specific cultural needs and academic preparedness of the population(s) served by the college. Findings Half the participants expressed a desire to integrate digital games into teaching and learning but acknowledged that in practice this was uncommon. Only a small minority considered themselves to have achieved successful integration in practice, with doubt and skepticism expressed by some of the religious colleges. Most colleges had policies to encourage the integration of technology in general into teaching, with these, in turn, supported by ongoing funding. Although a considerable gap between policy and implementation remained, the COVID-19 pandemic was viewed as having considerably accelerated the integration of digital games into preservice teacher instruction. Recommendations for Practitioners Discussions pertaining to technology-related vision and policy and their translation into practice should relate to the specific cultural needs and academic preparedness of the population(s) served by the college. Recommendations for Researchers The findings reflect the spectrum of challenges faced by the different populations the colleges employ and serve and the outcomes of the colleges' ongoing attempts to negotiate and reconcile different concerns. Impact on Society The findings have implications wherever colleges serve other socially and culturally conservative populations that are interested in or compelled to adopt techno-pedagogies. Future Research We call for further research into whether continued pandemic-related restrictions have increased the practical integration of techno-pedagogical tools such as into the curricula of teacher education

Game Popularity Level During Covid-19 Pandemic Using Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering

During the COVID-19 pandemic, various activities of people outside the home were disrupted and made people move more indoors. For some companies take advantage of this pandemic period as their advantage, especially digital game industry companies. Various games have been released and promoted, these games are published on various game platforms. Currently, Steam is one of the biggest gaming platforms. On this platform, there are a lot of games offered by game developers and provide game pages that are currently popular. However, the website does not provide the popularity level of the currently popular games. This causes ambiguity in determining which games have high, medium, or low popularity. This study tries to create a machine learning model to cluster these games into groups using Agglomerative Hierarchical Clusterin. The distance measure used is euclidean, cosine and manhattan/cityblock and uses single, average, complete and ward linkage. Based on the evaluation results, the best cluster results are the silhouette value of 0.639 and the calinski-harabasz value of 90.192. © 2022 IEEE.

Game Design for Covertly Combating Covid-19 Vaccination Hesitancy

Digital games have over the past few years have become increasingly important, particularly during Covid-19 lockdowns, not just as a way to spend free time but also in many more serious fields. One such area is healthcare, where applied games are increasingly utilized to educate individuals and encourage compliance with health measures, such as vaccination. This paper analyses several techniques for developing persuasive games that help change people’s attitudes and therefore their behaviours, in this case focussed on Covid-19 vaccination. These techniques are based on a covert approach to persuasion to avoid triggering individuals’ reactance and hence reaching a wider audience. Evaluation of the designed game shows promising results in terms of the impact of emotional engagement on attitudes toward vaccine uptake. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Migration of an Escape Room-Style Educational Game to an Online Environment: Design Thinking Methodology.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has led to a sudden change in education, closing schools and shifting to online teaching, which has become an enormous challenge for teachers and students. Implementing adequate online pedagogical approaches and integrating different digital tools in the teaching process have become a priority in educational systems. Finding a way to keep students' interest and persistence in learning is an important issue that online education is facing. One possible way to establish engaging and interactive learning environments, using the energy and enthusiasm of students for educational purposes, is the use of game-based learning activities and gamification of different parts of the educational process. OBJECTIVE: This paper presents a use case of migrating an escape room-style educational game to an online environment by using the design thinking methodology. We wanted to show that the design thinking methodology is useful to create engaging and motivating online games that provide educational value. METHODS: Starting from students' perspective, we created a simple digital escape room-style game where students got an opportunity to self-assess their knowledge in computer science at their own pace. Students tested this prototype game, and their opinions about the game were collected through an online survey. The test's goal was to evaluate the students' perceptions about the implemented digital escape room-style educational game and gather information about whether it could achieve students' engagement in learning computer science during online teaching. RESULTS: In total, 117 students from sixth and seventh grades completed the survey regarding the achieved student engagement. Despite the differences in students' answers about game complexity and puzzle difficulty, most students liked the activity (mean 4.75, SD 0.67, on a scale from 1 to 5). They enjoyed the game, and they would like to participate in this kind of activity again (mean 4.74, SD 0.68). All (n=117, 100%) students found the digital escape room-style educational game interesting for playing and learning. CONCLUSIONS: The results confirmed that digital escape room-style games could be used as an educational tool to engage students in the learning process and achieve learning outcomes. Furthermore, the design thinking methodology proved to be a useful tool in the process of adding novel educational value to the digital escape room-style game.

Anxiety and Depression Detection using Machine Learning

Anxiety and Depression are among the extremely crucial mental health issues. Every year, millions of individuals suffer from depression and anxiety, yet only a small percentage of them receive timely treatment. Throughout the last few decades, the evolution of machine learning methods has considerably aided in the development of technologies that assist clinicians in predicting various sorts of mental illnesses. As the Covid-19 pandemic rapidly spreads over the world, the global gaming industry is booming. Youth is increasingly focused on digital games due to lockdown and social distancing policies. This work presents a system for predicting if a player suffers from psychological illnesses such as anxiety and depression by combining game and player information with a selfesteem measure. The game and player's data has been gathered from two questionnaires namely, GAD and SWL, and multiple state-of-the-art simulations have been conducted. Four different machine learning classifiers were tested using 10-fold cross-validation approach on data set of internet gamers. Among the four algorithms, Decision Tree classifier showed the best accuracy for all predicted parameters. For GAD and SWL questionnaires, decision tree obtains accuracy of 100% and 84.71% respectively. © 2022 IEEE.

Augmented Reality and Gamification in Education: A Systematic Literature Review of Research, Applications, and Empirical Studies

This study scrutinizes the existing literature regarding the use of augmented reality and gamification in education to establish its theoretical basis. A systematic literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement was conducted. To provide complete and valid information, all types of related studies for all educational stages and subjects throughout the years were investigated. In total, 670 articles from 5 databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, IEEE, and ERIC) were examined. Based on the results, using augmented reality and gamification in education can yield several benefits for students, assist educators, improve the educational process, and facilitate the transition toward technology-enhanced learning when used in a student-centered manner, following proper educational approaches and strategies and taking students’ knowledge, interests, unique characteristics, and personality traits into consideration. Students demonstrated positive behavioral, attitudinal, and psychological changes and increased engagement, motivation, active participation, knowledge acquisition, focus, curiosity, interest, enjoyment, academic performance, and learning outcomes. Teachers also assessed them positively. Virtual rewards were crucial for improving learning motivation. The need to develop appropriate validation tools, design techniques, and theories was apparent. Finally, their potential to create collaborative and personalized learning experiences and to promote and enhance students’ cognitive and social–emotional development was evident.

Exploring the Impacts of COVID-19 on Digital and Metaverse Games

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has markedly changed the ways we live and the ways we play games. This is because the situations disrupted by the virus have forced so many people to quarantine and self-isolate. These can lead to many serious problems such as mental and physical health. At the same time, the metaverse, particularly virtual reality and augmented reality, has been very popular in the fields of human-computer interaction and computer science in recent years. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a new research work for exploring recent digital games inspired during the virus outbreak to support people in various aspects, such as entertaining people during the pandemic period, enhancing awareness among people about the virus, suggesting preventive measures against the spread of the virus. Next, more specifically, the impacts of COVID-19 on recent games from virtual and augmented realities are examined. We investigate metaverse games to support people during COVID-19 and the post-pandemic period, including enhancing the healthcare education toolkit, simulating health protection protocols, and supporting healthcare workers. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Digital games in engineering education: systematic review and future trends

The application of digital games in higher education is on the rise in engineering. With the recent COVID-19 restrictions and the move to virtual learning, the interest in and the need for virtual laboratories and technology-enhanced experiential learning tools like digital games are expected to rise. This paper presents a review of the current practices in digital game-based learning for engineering education. Most importantly, it provides insight into the application of digital game-based learning across diverse engineering disciplines. It also provides researchers and practitioners with insights into relevant journals and conferences, available games, research designs and assessment methods being used in digital game-based learning in the context of engineering. Based on predefined inclusion criteria, a total of 51 articles published within the last decade were analysed in detail. Software engineering education was found to evaluate the educational use of games most extensively. Eighteen empirical studies also reported some learning gains with digital games using different assessment methods. The findings of this review indicate increase in the dissemination of games research and possibly in the use of games for engineering education. This paper closes by highlighting future trends in digital game-based learning for engineering education. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of European Journal of Engineering Education is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Gaming My Way to Recovery: A Systematic Scoping Review of Digital Game Interventions for Young People's Mental Health Treatment and Promotion.

Nearly all young people use the internet daily. Many youth with mental health concerns, especially since the Covid-19 pandemic, are using this route to seek help, whether through digital mental health treatment, illness prevention tools, or supports for mental wellbeing. Videogames also have wide appeal among young people, including those who receive mental health services. This review identifies the literature on videogame interventions for young people, ages 12-29, and maps the data on game use by those with mental health and substance use problems, focusing on evidence for the capacity of games to support treatment in youth mental health services; how stakeholders are involved in developing or evaluating games; and any potential harms and ethical remedies identified. A systematic scoping review methodology was used to identify and assess relevant studies. A search of multiple databases identified a total of 8,733 articles. They were screened, and 49 studies testing 32 digital games retained. An adapted stepped care model, including four levels, or steps, based on illness manifestation and severity, was used as a conceptual framework for organizing target populations, mental health conditions and corresponding digital games, and study results. The 49 selected studies included: 10 studies (20.4%) on mental health promotion/prevention or education for undiagnosed youth (Step 0: 7 games); 6 studies (12.2%) on at-risk groups or suspected mental problems (Step 1: 5 games); 24 studies (49.0%) on mild to moderate mental conditions (Steps 2-3: 16 games); and 9 studies (18.4%) focused on severe and complex mental conditions (Step 4: 7 games). Two interventions were played by youth at more than one level of illness severity: the SPARX game (Steps 1, 2-3, 4) and Dojo (Steps 2-3 and 4), bringing the total game count to 35 with these repetitions. Findings support the potential integration of digital games in youth services based on study outcomes, user satisfaction, relatively high program retention rates and the potential usefulness of most games for mental health treatment or promotion/prevention. Most studies included stakeholder feedback, and involvement ratings were very high for seven games. Potential harms were not addressed in this body of research. This review provides an important initial repository and evaluation of videogames for use in clinical settings concerned with youth mental health.

Media Use and the Level of New Media Literacy of the Prospective Chinese Language Teachers in the Post COVID-19 Epidemic Era

In this research, new media literacy skills of prospective Chinese language teachers have been examined and analyzed based on Jenkins' 12 New Media Literacy Skills. The quantitative means, i.e. the investigation model was used in the study. The sample comprises 177 prospective Chinese language teachers was chosen by convenient sampling. According to the findings, it can be said that students' new media literacy skills are at a satisfactory level without significance difference of gender. Skills in which the students got the highest score are respectively trans-media navigation, judgment, play, collective intelligence. When they cannot resolve a problem, they effectively make use of printed media and new media that based on the latest new information technology. Except TV and social media, the more time the students spend on the printed media, digital game, learning APP, course portal or SPOC, the higher level of students' play, appropriation, simulation, distributed cognition, multitasking, collective intelligence, judgment, networking, visualization are. These findings are of great significance for the appropriate integration of information technology into the Chinese language teaching in higher education in the post COVID-19 epidemic era. © 2022 IEEE.

Preservice Teachers’ Knowledge and Attitudes toward Digital-Game-Based Language Learning

There is a good body of literature about digital-game-based language learning (DGBL), but research has mainly focused on students as game players rather than as future educators. This paper reports on a research conducted among 154 teacher candidates at a higher-education institution in Spain regarding the adoption of digital games in education. It analyzes the participants’ knowledge of and attitudes toward digital games in foreign language learning. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through a pre/post-test, digital game presentations, and student blog posts. The research comprised five stages associated with critical thinking skills (definition, selection, demonstration, discussion, and reflection), including a game learning module. In the first two stages, preservice teachers completed the module activities and selected different games aimed at teaching English to children in preschool and elementary education. In the last two, they illustrated, discussed, and evaluated the digital games in class following a rubric and reflected on their perception in blog posts. In this four-week research based on a mixed method and convenience sampling, quantitative and qualitative data were gathered through a pre- and post-test survey about student perceptions toward the use of video game in the classroom, class discussion, and blog posts. Statistical data analysis unveiled gender-based differences related to gameplay frequency and genre preferences. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used as a nonparametric statistical hypothesis test to compare the two sets of scores resulting from the same participants, and it showed a significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) after the treatment in two of the five dimensions in the survey about teacher candidates’ attitudes toward game usage in education, namely, usefulness (U) and preference for video games (PVG). Research findings revealed preservice teachers’ positive attitudes but lack of practical knowledge about the use of digital games in foreign-language learning.

Supporting teachers adopting game-based learning in formal education: A systematic literature review

The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the significance of adopting a technological-approach for advancing the future of education, underscoring the need to bring transformational changes in teaching methods by making them more technology-centric. In this context, Digital game-based learning (DGBL) is an efficacious educational tool to improve the quality of education in future classrooms. According to extant academic literature, digital video games entail myriad benefits, such as enhancing students' learning motivation and boosting their involvement in the learning mechanism. In spite of the constructive characteristics of DGBL, digital games' utilization in formal education remains very limited. Additionally, the uptake for meaningfully embedding these games into everyday classroom practice or the curriculum at large has failed to meet expectations. Given the immense contribution of teachers towards the educational framework, their views on the potential accomplishments of digital games will inevitably affect decisions concerning how, when, and the purposes for which they would be coalesced with the learning process. Consequently, game designers and developers have taken commendable measures to encourage teachers to adopt game-centric learning in formal education. This paper conducted a systematic study of scientific literature using Grounded Theory to shed light on the various techniques utilized to shape teachers' acceptance for digital games and their implementation across formal settings. The study's findings suggest that it is possible to positively change teachers' attitudes towards DGBL by engaging them in game design, provided that it is done in a cost and time-effective manner. © The Authors, 2021. All Rights Reserved.