PRP - Fourth Artefact, can games be motivational?

The issue with artefact three was that the children had to be continuously encouraged and praised in order for any progression to occur. A reason why I chose the subject of games and learning was because I genially believe that gaming could be the key to the support of some pupils. Everyone has different methods and I think this could be a possibility.

I came across the 'consolarium' whilst writing my research document and this company has the same theory as myself. Searching the website I came across a page describing reasons why gaming could help students.

The piece below has been taken from the page.

To develop successful learners the Consolarium argues that computer games can:

* act as a powerful motivational context
* provide powerful contexts for challenging and demanding problem solving
* implicitly develop the science model of enquiry in terms of developing learners ability to observe hypothesise, test, evaluate, conclude and refine ideas
* allow other curricular areas to be explored, enriched and excited by using the context within the game or by using the game as a context to jump into the more traditional curriculum
* provide contexts in which metacognitive awareness and development are essential for success. This means that the player must think about their thinking and understand they are a complex individual who can develop an awareness of how they think and learn and in so doing become an equal partner with the ‘more informed teacher’ in terms of the learning relationship.

As you can see I have highlighted the top quote. This was the problem which occurred when testing artefact three.

What I would like to find out however is what draws the child to play the game. From what I can see the consolarium tests the games on children, but do they actually know which components of a game keeps the child interested? Results from artefact three showed that encouragement is needed (prizes, incentives, levels etc), without any encouragement would the child actually play the game/? My results say that they would not.

Full details of the article can be found here