Andrew Ravenscroft
London Metropolitan University, UK

Games and learning: evolving sociability, emotion and cognition in cyberspace?

A lot of e-learning researchers and developers are currently developing some enthusiasm for a 'gaming paradigm' in networked learning. This line of thinking is driven, in part, by the observed difficulties in motivating engagement and meaningful interaction with or around more 'conventional' knowledge-based online learning resources. The limited uptake and use of widely available online learning resources is often attributed to a lack of understanding about the social, emotional and cultural dimensions of learning and communication, that need to supplement the provision of knowledge in an effective learning milieu. Interaction in these cases seems somehow artificial and with an external artefact or person that is 'out there', rather than something that is a relatively natural process within a personalised, and yet, connected and culturally relevant network of learning possibilities. Thus, educational cyber-games have been proposed as one approach for raising the motivation, engagement and cultural relevance (e.g. through role playing in simulated situations) of learning interaction. But thus far, how many educational cyber-games have produced demonstrable improvements in the social and cognitive dimensions of learning? What social or conceptual skills do they actually improve? This paper will argue that we need to adopt a more sophisticated approach to games for e-learning through synthesising work on highly engaging and interactive games with more pedagogically focussed research into dialogue-games, to produce a framework for design and interaction that accepts the need to conjoin and interrelate the social, emotional and cognitive dimensions of learning in cyberspace.

The foundational steps in developing this approach involve differentiating the relevant concepts of a game, clearly distinguishing how they were derived and their common and varying features. Highly interactive educational games are typically inspired by the gaming industry, producing highly affective and often social experiences, with the motivation for interaction being supported by the desire to win, individually or as part of a team, when in competition with other real or artificial agents. In contrast educational dialogue-games are derived from the Wittgenstein's (1953) notion of a 'language game' and other empirical research that has identified and modelled particular types of discourse that occur in natural learning situations (e.g. Ravenscroft & Pilkington, 2000). The motivation or goal in the latter games is somewhat more complex than in the former, in that it is related to the development of individual and collaborative skills (e.g. of argumentation and debate), scaffolding reasoning and supporting improvements in the understanding of a subject. Common features of both approaches are: performances by a number of players; explicit goals of the game; distinct roles that may be adopted; the availability of strategies and tactics; and, rules for legitimate interaction and engagement. In synthesising these approaches in the context of cyber-learning we can combine the affective engagement and motivational force of highly interactive games with the social and cognitive emphasis of educational dialogue-games. This paper will present a design for realising this approach and some work towards an initial prototype. The operation of which will hopefully lead to relatively self-motivated, relevant and educationally valuable interactions, that will in turn lead to evolving sociability, emotion and cognition during education in cyberspace.

References

Ravenscroft, A. & Pilkington, R.M. (2000). 'Investigation by Design: Developing Dialogue Models to Support Reasoning and Conceptual Change', International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education: Special Issue on Analysing Educational Dialogue Interaction: From Analysis to Models that Support Learning, vol. 11, part 1, pp. 273-298.

Wittgenstein, L. (1953). Philosophical Investigations. Translated by G. E. M Anscombe, Blackwell. Oxford. UK.