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Gender Differences When School Children Develop Digital Game-Based Designs: A Case Study

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HCI in Games (HCII 2020)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 12211))

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Abstract

With the increased emergence of digital technology in the school context it is important to be aware of the fact that children’s use of digital technologies is conditioned by gender. In this paper we investigate how gender differences emerge in collaborative interactions between 9 to 10-year-old school children while collaboratively working on developing digital game-based designs. The unit of analysis is game design activities with a focus on children’s gendered actions, positionings and agency while collaborating and working with problem solving activities. The research questions posed in the study are: (1) What gender-related patterns emerges in collaborative interaction exhibited by 9 to 10-year-old school children while collaboratively engaged in a digital game-based design workshop involving problem solving activities? (2) How do 9 to 10-year-old girls and boys position themselves while collaboratively engaged in a digital game-based design workshop involving problem solving activities? (3) How do 9 to 10 year-old girls and boys employ their agency while collaboratively engaged in a digital game-based design workshop involving problem solving activities? The results of this study imply that children’s agency oscillate between individual freedom and the constraint of traditional gender patterns while collaboratively engaged in a digital game-based design workshop involving problem solving activities. As a consequence, this tends to affect the children’s participation and contribution to the given task.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Halmstad University, Kristian IVs väg 3, 301 18, Halmstad, Sweden

    Jeanette Sjöberg

  2. Aalborg University, Kroghstæde 3, 9220, Aalborg, Denmark

    Eva Brooks

Authors
  1. Jeanette Sjöberg
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  2. Eva Brooks
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Correspondence to Jeanette Sjöberg .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. DePaul University, Chicago, IL, USA

    Xiaowen Fang

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Sjöberg, J., Brooks, E. (2020). Gender Differences When School Children Develop Digital Game-Based Designs: A Case Study. In: Fang, X. (eds) HCI in Games. HCII 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12211. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50164-8_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50164-8_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-50163-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-50164-8

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