By Michael Hilkemeijer
Understanding Digital Games in ECE
There has been much debate in the literature about the use of digital games in education, particularly in the early years. Authors have raised concerns to do with playing computer games and the harmful exposure of their content. And there are issues with the use of digital technology in early childhood education displacing other important learning and play activities.
Such researchers often stick to the belief that digital technology or ICT in early childhood education “encourages children to be passive recipients, solitary computer game players isolated from social interactions in learning and play, deprived of movement, role playing, building things and other active experiences” (UNESCO, 2010, p. 25).
However, as you will see, in the real ECE settings the truth is the opposite to all that is said with digital technology integrating into early childhood learning experiences alongside with many other kinds of activities.
What are the benefits of digital games in ECE?
Not all computer games contain violence and there is ample literature that argues that their immersive and interactive environment will actually provide learning benefits such as the development of reasoning and problem-solving abilities, skills in making inferences, and dealing with multiple sets of layers of information.
According to Shapiro et al. (2016, p.5 as cited in Savage and Barnett, 2017, p.25) there is evidence that shows “preschoolers randomly assigned to change from inappropriate or violent content to high-quality prosocial programming were found to have significant improvements in their externalising and internalising behaviour”.
What are the features that make them worth trying in early education?
There are three main types of games that have game-like qualities which give them considerable educational potential and also give rise to possibilities for progression and skill development. Interactive stories, simulated environments and adventure games are typically aimed at the domestic market so it is important to understand these characteristics if you are to provide good quality games and a selection of games that offer a variety of opportunities within your early childhood learning environment.
Games in early childhood education require three educationally important characteristics and in each of these there are significant variations which offer opportunities for progression and development.
The first thing that you need to look for is that they need to be set within a powerful story context so that they engage the interest of young children and inspire their imaginations. Variations range from the familiar and domestic to the fantastic and magical. For example, some have interactive versions of well-loved stories.
Dorling Kindersely’s ‘The Three Little Pigs Interactive Storybook’ is a good example of this as young children will need build a house of bricks, help the pigs across the river, and view the story from two different perspectives – the pig’s or the wolf’s.
Another example would be Broderbund’s ‘Just Grandma and Me’.
Other ones develop children’s love of rhymes such as Sherston’s ‘Ridiculous Ryhmes’ that is narrated by Tony Robinson.
The second important feature that you need to look for when integrating digital game playing is that they need to offer alternatives and opportunities for children to choose and make decisions. One of the guiding DATEC principles when integrating digital technology in early childhood education is that they need to give the child full control. Doing so will also make them intrinsically playful while stimulating thinking, discussion and trial and error learning.
You will find that even some of the simplest programs offer a fixed ‘route’ through the adventure or story. However, in interactive stories there would be ‘buttons’ or hot spots which produce an animated effect when the child clicks on them, or even passes the cursor over them (Siraj-Blatchford & Whitebread, 2009).
An example would be Tivola’s ‘Snow White and the Seven Hansels’ where the child can choose which fairy tale to begin with. From here, the story can develop in all kinds of entertaining and novel ways. So Little Red Riding Hood may end up sewing red hoods for the seven dwarfs!
Today, in many of the games that are available children are free to explore the environment in whichever way they wish. They can decide to go wherever they like, play whichever game they like, and even rearrange the environment by moving items around. Some even allow the principal characters to be changed.
For example, in ‘Babyz’ with the aid of a microphone young children can teach the baby to talk and it will learn the words that you teach it.
The third feature that you need to look for when integrating digital games in early childhood education is that they “vividly illustrate to young children in very direct ways the nature of cause and effect” (Siraj-Blatchford & Whitebread, 2009, p. 63). This means that it helps children understand that their decisions and choices have consequences. For example, if they click on a hot spot the child might have to watch the resulting animation.
In such games, the play becomes more sophisticated with the chains of cause and effect lengthening and this results in the child having to become ever more strategic and planful which is at the very heart of problem-solving.
Examples of such games include ‘Pirate Ship’ and ‘Max and the Secret Formula’. There are even more sophisticated games such as ‘Granny’s Garden’.
Throughout all these developments in such games, the children have control and make choices. They also prompt the child to gradually plan and allows a very supportive and constructive progression throughout the game itself.
By looking for such characteristics in digital games in early childhood education you will ensure that all children will find the games appealing.
In my next article, I will show how adventure games help to learn in the early childhood learning environment today.
How to find the Education Potential of Games in ECE
There are many benefits that digital games in early childhood learning environments can bring. This was something that I discussed in my last video.
For example, adventure games in early childhood education bring with them educational potential such as:
- An environment in which high levels of motivation exist to encourage playful problem-solving;
- An opportunity to clearly represent a problem and to identify the types of information relevant to its solution;
- An environment in which it is possible to collect and organise the relevant information;
- To facilitate the development of a strategic approach;
- To support the development of reasoning by encouraging the development and testing of hypothesis using a range of approaches.
(Morgan & Siraj-Blatchford, 2009, p.19)
However, there are still things that we as early childhood practitioners need to avoid such as any action-type games that do not provide opportunities for young children to problem-solve, create and collaborate. You also want to avoid any programs that promote gender bias and contain excessive violence.
In this video, I will show you how adventure games can promote early childhood learning and development by focusing on the role of play in learning in meaningful contexts.
There is no doubt that the computer games of today do entertain children. However, the question that many still want to be answered relates to their educational potential and ability to help young children learn.
Fortunately, there is plenty of evidence that suggests that there are many features that make them ideally suited to helping children learn the skills of applying their knowledge and solving problems.
Adventure games for example:
- Encourage a playful approach to learning;
- Place problems in meaningful contexts;
- Lend themselves to collaborative work and discussion and;
- Involve children in many of the significant skills and processes involved in problem-solving.
(Siraj-Blatchford & Whitebread, 2009).
Let’s dive into these elements to further examine their potential for learning.
The Importance of Play in Learning
As I discussed in another article, the importance of learning through play in early childhood education. Play is one of the most powerful and effective mediums for children’s learning and this is something that has been universally understood by many. However, many still dismiss digital games in early childhood education and just believe that they merely engage young children in play. Yet, play is supported in the literature (Bruner et al., 1976) as being fundamental to human learning.
The connection between digital games and what the literature states is very clear then as play provides many opportunities to try out new possibilities, to combine elements of a problem, to see what would happen if all within complete safety. Digital computer games, therefore, do provide young children with playful opportunities for trying out new possibilities and developing flexible thinking as with traditional play scenarios.
To add to this, there is also structured play within these digital computer games that enhances intellectual development, and unstructured play that is valuable in enhancing social and emotional development in young children.
Meaningful integration
This brings to my next point in relation to the importance of meaningful contexts. In the past, I have highlighted how this further develops a young child’s ICT capability. However, this also relates to how young child can further develop their reasoning powers.
When they are given a task that is placed in contexts that are meaningful to them they are able to demonstrate their reasoning skills that are very similar evidenced by adults. On the other hand, if they are given a task that has no connection to something that they already know and understand, then young children will be unable to make sense of it. They will be unable to see whether it is relevant or irrelevant to them.
I have been writing and discussing a lot in the past also about just how important it is to integrate digital technology in early childhood education within meaningful contexts. For example, when ICT is integrated in an imaginative way throughout the curriculum then the quality of what is taught and learned is further developed.
Additionally, young children will learn key technical skills and an understanding of the processes to decide when it might be appropriate to use a computer for a task when they use digital technology in purposeful activities in meaningful contexts. More importantly, ICT capability like other key skills shows in its application to a meaningful task. Digital computer games are now also being used to improve children’s understanding and performance by teachers in a number of curriculum areas. Providing meaningful contexts in computer games also helps it to be quite motivating for young children too
Collaborative learning in early childhood education
The power of collaborative learning has already been highlighted in a previous article. However, it has specific implications for the development of language amongst young children. Firstly, you need to understand that people come to understand ideas better through the process of articulating them in social or group problem-solving situations. Also, language is used in social contexts to ‘scaffold’, support, and guide problem-solving processes and procedures. Many primary classrooms these days encourage collaborative groupwork for these various reasons.
Coming back to computer games when you think it more deeply, computers themselves have been used for many years to foster groupwork in classrooms with many teachers of the view that learning to work in groups is the main advantage of computers in schools.Taking a closer look at adventure games will indicate there an also research that suggests that the richest discussions have also been found around them (Crook, 1987 as cited in Siraj-Blatchford & Whitebread, 2009).
And to top this off, there is also research that shows that children’s development of effective problem-solving strategies is enhanced by working in pairs whilst working on computer-related tasks (Blaye et al., 1991 as cited in Siraj-Blatchford & Whitebread, 2009).