‘But this isn’t school’: exploring tensions in the intersection between school and leisure activities in classroom game design

ABSTRACT

While there are several positive outcomes from implementing game design in a formal learning context, there are also challenges that have to be considered in order to improve game-based learning. This is explored in the article, using the concepts of activity frames and stancetaking, focusing on the social organization of the game design activity. Building on video data from one 6th grade class and one 7th grade class designing computer games based on their social studies curriculum, this article shows that tensions arise when students fail to agree on what the activity they are doing is really about: The academic content and what students commonly perceive as school activities, or a game design activity informed by their leisure time. The main argument is that the students position themselves as students, game designers or characters, and that this may cause tensions in the students’ social interactions.

KEYWORDS:

• Classroom game design
• game-based learning
• activity frames
• stancetaking

Acknowledgements

The author would particularly like to thank Pål Aarsand for valuable comments and support in all stages of writing this article. Also, thanks to Alf Inge Wang for comments on the later drafts of the article. Participants at the Child and Youth Seminar and Discourse Seminar, organized by the SiPP research group, have provided insightful comments on the analysis in an early stage of writing the article. The author would also like to thank two anonymous reviewers for valuable suggestions and comments contributing to strengthening the argument and improving the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Kristine Øygardslia is a final year PhD candidate at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, focusing on computer games and learning. She has a broad interest in computer games for other purposes than entertainment.

ORCID

Kristine Øygardslia http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5779-541X