Emerging practice with games-based learning - Teaching with Technologies: The Essential Guide - page 76

instructional paradigm and addressed the limitations of 'one-way information dis-
pensing methods', which promoted interactivity, collaboration and peer learning.
However, despite this alternative paradigm, the dominance (and limitations) of the
classic knowledge-transfer model are still evident in schools today and remain largely
unresolved (Prensky 2006; Ruben 1999). Consequently, many teaching environments
remain 'too predictable, static, unchallenging and boring' (Ruben 1999: 503).
It is in this context that Prensky (2006) and Van Eck (2006) highlight issues with
contemporary learner disengagement and how games-based learning can re-engage
and motivate those previously disaffected. Problems with disengagement can be
understood when referring to arousal theories, where psychologists argue that bore-
dom sets in, resulting from too little stimulation and low levels of arousal, when an
optimum level is required for engagement (Berlyne 1960), because children seek that
which is novel and complex (Piaget 1951). What has excited proponents of radical
pedagogies more recently is how developments in technology have advanced gaming
in the twenty-first century. It should be noted that the problem with large-scale disaf-
fection from learning is not new. Indeed, in the 1960s the Humanities Curriculum
Project (1967-1972) was established to address this very issue and, in common with a
digital-games-based learning ethos, the focus was on learning as inquiry rather than
traditional instruction-based pedagogy (Hammond et al. 2009).
Developing a 'transformative' pedagogy with games
The term 'transformative' learning (also referred to as 'critical pedagogy') describes
education that provides opportunities for personal and social change, which rejects
dry, didactic methods and favours active learning over passivity. Learners are encour-
aged to become personally involved in the learning process, and through engen-
dering a positive attitude and confidence it becomes easier to implement personal
change. As learners experience negative and positive emotions in games, so they
learn to manage themselves. Through the exploration of different identities when
role playing, learners also develop social skills alongside psychological resilience.
For example, massively multiplayer online games using virtual media-scapes
allow self-created digital characters or 'avatars' to interact. Through the social nature
of the design, learning through simulation and interactivity, this can encourage col-
laboration and cooperation. The safety of a virtual identity can lend new-found con-
fidence to learners, allowing shy children a voice. Meadows (2008: 36) in 'I, Avatar'
argues that '75 percent of Internet users feel safer speaking their mind when they use
an avatar'. Alongside this, however, critical consideration needs to highlight potential
risks and how extreme immersion can lead to addiction (Delwiche 2006) although
this is very rare (Byron 2008: 11). Similarly, there are tensions between 'social usage'
and the possibility of 'reduced socialisation'. For a further discussion of the negative
effects of gaming see the Byron Review (2008).
In schools both the positive and negative can be explored through the peda-
gogical framing of gaming with a teacher. The open-ended, challenge-based games,
which occur in MMOs, draw on skills of research, collaboration, problem-solving,
leadership and digital literacy (Johnson et al. 2011). In generating more holistic