Conclusions
The strong motivational influence of computer games on children can be used positively within education. This paper looks beyond the educational benefits which children can gain asconsumers of computer games to explore the additional benefits which could be gleaned from enabling children toproduce their own computer games. In the domain of literacy and narrative development, creating an interactive audio-visual computer game to tell a story has many potential benefits. The Game Maker workshop described in the paper confirms that creating stories within computer games is a task which young people find highly enjoyable, engaging and rewarding. Additionally, the workshop experience suggests that sophisticated game design is well within reach of 12–15 year olds. These motivational advantages indicate that it is well worth exploring how computer game authoring can be used in the classroom to raise both literacy standards and children’s enjoyment of story making activities
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bruckman, A. (1997).Moose Crossing: Construction, community, and learning in a networked virtual world for kids. PhD Dissertation, MIT Media Lab.
Bruckman A., and De Bonte, A. (1997). MOOSE goes to school: A comparison of three classrooms using a CSCL environment.Proceedings of CSCL 97.
Bruner, J. (1987).Actual Minds, Possible Worlds. Harvard: Harvard University Press.
DfES, (2003).Pupil performance data: Autumn package 2003. Department for Education and Skills. Retrieved on 17/11/03 from http://www. standards.dfee.gov.uk/performance/ap/
Elliott, J., Adams, L, Bruckman, B. (2002). “No Magic Bullet: 3D Video Games in Education”Proceedings of ICLS 2002, International Conference of the Learning Sciences, Seattle, WA, October 23–26, 2002.
ELSPA (2003). Computer and video games: A British phenomenon around the world.Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association White Paper. Retrieved on 17/11/03 from http://www. elspa.com/about/pr/elspawhitepaper 1.pdf
Gee, J. P. (2003).What Video Games Have to Teach us About Learning and Literacy. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Good, J. and Robertson, J. (2003). Children’s contributions to new technology: The design of AdventureAuthor.Proceedings of the Interaction Design and Children 2003 Conference, p. 153, New York, NY: ACM Press.
Gunter, B. (1998).The Effects of Video Games on Children: The Myth Unmasked. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.
Guterl, F. (2003). Bionic youth: Too much information?Newsweek, August 25, 2003.
Kafai, Y.B. (1995a). Learning design by making games: Children’s development of design strategies in the creation of a complex computational artifact. In Y.B. Kafai and and M. Resnick (Eds.),Constructionism in Practice: Designing, Thinking and Learning in a Digital World. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 71–96.
Kafai, Y.B. (1995b). Electronic play worlds: Gender differences in children’s construction of video games. In Y.B. Kafai and and M. Resnick (Eds.),Constructionism in Practice: Designing, Thinking and Learning in a Digital World. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 71–96.
Kafai, Y.B. (1996). Gender Differences in Children’s Construction of Video Games. In P.M. Greenfield and R.R. Cocking (Eds.),Interacting with Video. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing, 39–66.
McFarlane, A., Sparrowhawk, A. and Heald Y. (2002).Report on the educational use of games. Teachers Evaluating Educational Multimedia report. Retrieved on 27/09/05 from http://www.teem. org.uk/publications/teem_gamesined_full.pdf
McNamee, S. (1999). Computer and video games: special objects or everyday artefacts in children’s worlds? Presented atEuropean Sociological Association 1999 Will Europe Work Conference, Stream V.2. Sociology of Childhood.
Mulholland, C. and Robertson, J. (2001).Storymakers pilot project report —Pictures of the present, visions for the future. Edinburgh: Scottish Storytelling Centre. Available at: http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/ judyr/publications/storymakers.pdf.
Oldham, J.(1999) The book of the film: enhancing print literacy at KS3.English in Education 33(1), 36–46.
Parker, D. (2002). Show us a story: an overview of recent research and recourse development work at the British Film Institute.English in Education, 36, 38–45.
Robertson, J. (2001).The effectiveness of a virtual role-play environment as a story preparation activity. PhD thesis, Edinburgh University. Available at http://www.cogsci.ed.ac.uk/~judyr/publications/corrections6.pdf.
Robertson, J. and Oberlander, J. (2002). Ghostwriter: drama in a virtual environment.Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 8(1) Available at http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol8/issuel/robertson/ robertson.html.
Robertson, J., and Good, J. (2003). Using a collaborative virtual role-play environment to foster characterisation in stories.Journal of Interactive Learning Research 14(1), 5–29.
Sharpies, M. (1985)Cognition, Computers and Creative Writing. Chichester: Ellis Horwood.
Subrahmanyam, K. and Greenfield, P.M. (1998) Computer games for girls: What makes them play? In J. Cassell and H. Jenkins (Eds.)From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 46–71.
Surgeon General (2001).Youth violence: A report of the Surgeon General. Available at www.surgeongeneral.gov/library/youthviolence
Williamson, B. and Facer, K. (2003)More than ‘just a game’: the implications for schools of children’s computer games communities. NESTA FutureLab Research Report. Available at http://www.nestafuturelab. org/research/draft/02draft01.htm.
Williamson, B., Dillon, T. and Owen, M. (2003).Appropriating educational new media: ventriloquism in Virtual Puppeteers and parody in Tableaux. Draft NESTA Futurelab report. Available at http://www. nestafuturelab.org/research/draft_articles.htm.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Robertson, J., Good, J. Children’s narrative development through computer game authoring. TECHTRENDS TECH TRENDS 49, 43–59 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02763689
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02763689