Abstract
We implemented a five-week family program called Family Quest where parents and children ages 9 to 13 played Quest Atlantis, a multiuser 3D educational computer game, at a local after-school club for 90-minute sessions. We used activity theory as a conceptual and an analytical framework to study the nature of intergenerational play, the collaborative activity between parents and children in the context of role-playing virtual game environment, and the opportunities and challenges of bringing parents and children together around an educational video game. Our analyses of five parent-child dyads revealed that the nature of intergenerational play is different for different parent-child dyads, but has positive outcomes. Implications of the study for supporting family learning and bonding through video games are discussed.
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Notes
See www.questatlantis.org for more information.
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Acknowledgments
This research was supported by grants from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation as part of their Digital Media and Learning initiative. We would like to thank Adam Ingram-Goble and Ellen Jameson for their design and technical support.
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Siyahhan, S., Barab, S.A. & Downton, M.P. Using activity theory to understand intergenerational play: The case of Family Quest. Computer Supported Learning 5, 415–432 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-010-9097-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11412-010-9097-1