Designing and assessing digital games in a classroom: an emerging culture of critique

Abstract

This study explores situated practices of game design critique in a Swedish 4th grade classroom. The analyses are based on video recordings of peer feedback activities within the context of a project on computational thinking using the software Scratch. Drawing on ethnomethodology and conversation analysis, the interactional and collaborative accomplishment of design critique is examined, focusing on how the participants make relevant norms and values concerning what constitutes a ‘good’ game. The results of the study show that the children and their teacher orient to different themes that concern aesthetic, functional, and ethical aspects of the games and the design process, at the same time as a moral order in and for the conduct of critique is accomplished in interaction. The study sheds light on the emergence of a local culture of critique as the children learn to formulate and respond to peer feedback, thus negotiating and developing digital literacy.