Game-making as a pedagogical tool

• Grant number: 13/19275-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: January 03, 2014
• End date: July 02, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Education - Specific topics in Education
• Principal Investigator: José Armando Valente
• Grantee: Bruno Henrique de Paula
• Supervisor: Andrew Nicholas Burn
• Host Institution: Instituto de Artes (IA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of London, England
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/20226-0 - Digital games as pedagogical artefacts: game-making as an educational approach, BP.MS

Abstract

The pedagogical power of digital games is becoming increasingly accepted and a subject for investigation. There are many possible approaches to the use of these artifacts in education, one of which is the pedagogical use of game-making by students. Creating games in educational contexts can be seen as a stimulating and challenging activity, that is able to of improve digital fluency and autonomy in learning among students. This approach also allows students to be introduced to (and learn concepts from) many areas such as Mathematics, Computer Science, Natural Sciences, Literature and Languages. When this approach is adopted, useful game-authoring tools are employed that allow game-making to be undertaken by non-specialists. The objective of this project is to investigate the pedagogical uses of digital game-making by becoming closely involved with a research centre in this area, (the London Knowledge Lab), and acting as a member of the MissionMaker's Research and Development team, a software benchmark designing narrative games. (AU)