Game-based teaching - dimensions of analysis

Abstract

Games are often classified as if they were entities with only objective characteristics. Games thus seem to consist of rules, goals, options etc. However these characteristics do not make sense independently from playing persons. The player's perception of the game is rather added as an external super-characteristic. Particularly concerning educational games this approach is not satisfactory. The focus on learning requires even stronger to take account of the player/learner and the kind of his immersion into the game. There are of course less objectivist approaches to games which differentiate games according the basic playful experiences they provide. Differentiations are also not sufficient to analyze games regarding the implied learning processes. Thus it is necessary to find an integrative way to describe games between the basic affective/motivational experiences they provide, their seemingly objective outlooks, and their educational function. For this purpose we distinguish four dimensions of meaningful interaction with games: fact, time, social and education. The fact dimension of interaction relates to the 'objective' characteristics of the game, i.e. its rules, the roles, goals etc. This dimension includes learning because game experience is dependent on the level of learning/understanding of the rules etc. The time dimension relates to temporal aspects like the representation or story or an action in a game, which gives a certain meaning to roles, goals etc. To understand this meaning cultural/social learning is involved. The dimension of social interaction implies where, when, how ... to cooperate or to compete with potential other players, i.e. processes and decisions which are cognitively demanding. Concerning educational games there is a crucial fourth dimension which has to be taken into account: The educational dimension of the transfer from inside of the game to its outside. What is transferred (skills, knowledge, social competences) is part of the game and then of the outside. However in relation to this fourth dimension there is also an occasional paradox which refers to the possible contradiction of the two goals inherent in educational games: playing and learning. The player/learner knows that he ought to learn while playing or vice versa.