Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
tionnaires, all students rated applications high (~4, scale 1 to 5) for fun, enjoyable,
focused, and for wanting to play/read again. Male students' ratings were slightly
higher than female students for mixed classes (M, F). Students' self-report ratings for
learning show mid-to-high ratings. Table 1 below shows examples of the issues, con-
cerns and recommendations identified in studies
:
(i)
Set-up, Integration & Tutorial:
relating to support, guidance and tutorials
1
students should be made aware and guided in the use of features through hand-
out/tutorial provided by teachers before gameplay
2
minimize technical issues associated with sound-levels and microphone input
3
encourage acceptance/sustained use by student collaboration in-game and off-
game in classroom; implement blended learning in-game / off-game
(ii) Re-Design / Re-development:
generally more critical recommendations:
4
deter students from continuously skipping through the reading/speaking tasks in
V.A.S.T. and encourage more reading/speaking challenges
ensure
students understand speech assessment feedback to make improvements
to their speaking e.g. “awesome”, “try again” corresponding to AFWT
5
6
introduce arrows, breadcrumbs, waypoints to aid navigation
7
incorporate short in-game tutorial on V.A.S.T's complex recording function
shift students engaged in wandering around/exploring the gaming environment
to engage in missions associated with reading/speaking and learning
8
V.A.S.T.'s in-game analytics should provide clear, accurate and reliable assess-
ments and feedback on students' speech and performance
9
3
Discussion and Conclusion
Studies show V.A.S.T. and Reading Champs provide appealing automated reading
and speaking practice environments that are highly effective for motivating students
to improve their oral EL skills in an engaging and entertaining manner.
A number of
recommendations have been made for their effective implementation and use towards
rollout in primary and secondary schools across Singapore.
References
[1]
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[2]
Prensky, M.: Fun, play and games: what makes games engaging. In: Digital Game-Based
Learning. McGraw-Hill (2001)
[3]
Marsh, T., Zhiqang, N.L., Klopfer, E., Chuang, X., Osterweil, S., Haas, J.: Fun and Learn-
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and Characters. In: Serious Games and Edutainment Applications. Springer (2011)
[4]
Dorneyi, Z., Otto, I.: Motivation in action: a process model of L2 motivation. In: Working
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[5]
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