Matematiikan opetuksen toiminnallisuus varhaiskasvatuksessa ja alkuopetuksessa

Tutkielman aiheena oli toiminnallisuuden hyödyntäminen varhaiskasvatuksen ja alkuopetuksen matematiikassa. Lisäksi tutkittiin sitä, vaikuttiko varhaiskasvatukseen suunnattu Nallematikka-interventio varhaiskasvattajien tapoihin tukea lasten matemaattisia valmiuksia ja taitoja. Tutkielman avulla luokanopettajat ja varhaiskasvattajat saavat tietoa toistensa matematiikan opetuksen käytännöistä ja toimintatavoista, ja näin ollen he voivat tukea lapsen matemaattisten taitojen kehittymistä varhaiskasvatuksesta perusopetuksen pariin siirryttäessä. Tutkimus toteutettiin kahdella erillisellä kyselylomakkeella, jotka oli suunnattu varhaiskasvattajille ja alkuopettajille. Kyselylomakkeet sisälsivät määrällisiä ja laadullisia kysymyksiä, joita käsiteltiin tilastollisten menetelmien ja teemoittelun avulla. Tutkimus osoitti, että varhaiskasvattajat käyttivät toiminnallista matematiikkaa keskimäärin hieman enemmän kuin luokanopettajat. Suosituimpiin menetelmiin lukeutuivat varhaiskasvatuksessa lasten ohjaaminen esineiden lukumäärien havainnointiin sekä matematiikan huomiointi päiväkodin arjessa. Osa varhaiskasvattajista osallistui Nallematikka-interventioon, jossa he käsittelivät matemaattisia ilmiöitä toiminnallisesti yhdessä lasten kanssa. Kokonaisuudessaan interventio sai aikaan melko vähäisiä muutoksia varhaiskasvattajien toimintamalleissa, sillä tilastollisesti tarkasteltuna merkitseviä olivat muutokset ainoastaan kahden muuttujan kohdalla. Nämä muutokset koskivat lasten huomion ohjaamista esineiden lukumäärien havainnointiin ja ohjattujen matematiikkatuokioiden järjestämistä. Alkuopettajien kyselyn määrällisen aineiston tarkastelu osoitti, että välineiden käyttö oli suosituin toiminnallisuuden käytön menetelmä. Opettajien mainitsemia välineitä olivat esimerkiksi kymmenjärjestelmävälineet ja laskuhelmet. Myös pelit ja leikit olivat useasti käytettyjä. Myös laadullinen aineisto toi esiin välineiden käytön, pelien ja leikin suosion. Lisäksi liikunnallisuuden hyödyntämisen toi esiin moni vastaaja. Tutkimus osoitti, että varhaiskasvatuksessa ja alkuopetuksessa hyödynnetään osin yhtäläisiä toiminnallisia menetelmiä. Yhtäläisten menetelmien käyttö on tärkeää, jotta lapselle muodostuu eheä oppimisen polku varhaiskasvatuksesta perusopetukseen.

Härkätaistelua maskuliinisuuden kentällä

Kirjallisuusarvostelu

Adventures of Ludom: a Videogame Geneontology

Within the last few decades, the videogame has become an important media, economic, and cultural phenomenon. Along with the phenomenon’s proliferation the aspects that constitute its identity have become more and more challenging to determine, however. The persistent surfacing of novel ludic forms continues to expand the conceptual range of ‘games’ and ‘videogames,’ which has already lead to anxious generalizations within academic as well as popular discourses. Such generalizations make it increasingly difficult to comprehend how the instances of this phenomenon actually work, which in turn generates pragmatic problems: the lack of an applicable identification of the videogame hinders its study, play, and everyday conceptualization. To counteract these problems this dissertation establishes a geneontological research methodology that enables the identification of the videogame in relation to its cultural surroundings. Videogames are theorized as ‘games,’ ‘puzzles,’ ‘stories,’ and ‘aesthetic artifacts’ (or ‘artworks’), which produces a geneontological sequence of the videogame as a singular species of culture, Artefactum ludus ludus, or ludom for short. According to this sequence, the videogame’s position as a ‘game’ in the historicized evolution of culture is mainly metaphorical, while at the same time its artifactuality, dynamic system structure, time-critical strategic input requirements and aporetically rhematic aesthetics allow it to be discovered as a conceptually stable but empirically transient uniexistential phenomenon that currently thrivesbut may soon die out.

User Experience of Geocaching and Its Application to Tourism and Education

Advances in technology have provided new ways of using entertainment and game technology to foster human interaction. Games and playing with games have always been an important part of people’s everyday lives. Traditionally, human-computer interaction (HCI) research was seen as a psychological cognitive science focused on human factors, with engineering sciences as the computer science part of it. Although cognitive science has made significant progress over the past decade, the influence of people’s emotions on design networks is increasingly important, especially when the primary goal is to challenge and entertain users (Norman 2002). Game developers have explored the key issues in game design and identified that the driving force in the success of games is user experience. User-centered design integrates knowledge of users’ activity practices, needs, and preferences into the design process. Geocaching is a location-based treasure hunt game created by a community of players. Players use GPS (Global Position System) technology to find “treasures” and create their own geocaches; the game can be developed when the players invent caches and used more imagination to creations the caches. This doctoral dissertation explores user experience of geocaching and its applications in tourism and education. Globally, based on the Geocaching.com webpage, geocaching has been played about 180 countries and there are more than 10 million registered geocachers worldwide (Geocaching.com, 25.11.2014). This dissertation develops and presents an interaction model called the GameFlow Experience model that can be used to support the design of treasure hunt applications in tourism and education contexts. The GameFlow Model presents and clarifies various experiences; it provides such experiences in a real-life context, offers desirable design targets to be utilized in service design, and offers a perspective to consider when evaluating the success of adventure game concepts. User-centered game designs have adapted to human factor research in mainstream computing science. For many years, the user-centered design approach has been the most important research field in software development. Research has been focusing on user-centered design in software development such as office programs, but the same ideas and theories that will reflect the needs of a user-centered research are now also being applied to game design (Charles et al. 2005.) For several years, we have seen a growing interest in user experience design. Digital games are experience providers, and game developers need tools to better understand the user experience related to products and services they have created. This thesis aims to present what the user experience is in geocaching and treasure hunt games and how it can be used to develop new concepts for the treasure hunt. Engineers, designers, and researchers should have a clear understanding of what user experience is, what its parts are, and most importantly, how we can influence user satisfaction. In addition, we need to understand how users interact with electronic products and people, and how different elements synergize their experiences. This doctoral dissertation represents pioneering work on the user experience of geocaching and treasure hunt games in the context of tourism and education. The research also provides a model for game developers who are planning treasure hunt concepts.

Critical elements underpinning the emergence of the medical game ecosystem: gamifying traumatic brain injury rehabilitation in Finland

The healthcare sector is currently in the verge of a reform and thus, the medical game research provide an interesting area of research. The aim of this study is to explore the critical elements underpinning the emergence of the medical game ecosystem with three sub-objectives: (1) to seek who are the key actors involved in the medical game ecosystem and identify their needs, (2) to scrutinise what types of resources are required in medical game development and what types of relationships are needed to secure those resources, and (3) to identify the existing institutions (‘the rules of the game’) affecting the emergence of the medical game ecosystem. The theoretical background consists of service ecosystems literature. The empirical study conducted is based on the semi-structured theme interviews of 25 experts in three relevant fields: games and technology, health and funding. The data was analysed through a theoretical framework that was designed based upon service ecosystems literature. The study proposes that the key actors are divided into five groups: medical game companies, customers, funders, regulatory parties and complementors. Their needs are linked to improving patient motivation and enhancing the healthcare processes resulting in lower costs. Several types of resources, especially skills and knowledge, are required to create a medical game. To gain access to those resources, medical game companies need to build complex networks of relationships. Proficiency in managing those value networks is crucial. In addition, the company should take into account the underlying institutions in the healthcare sector affecting the medical game ecosystem. Three crucial institutions were identified: validation, lack of innovation supporting structures in healthcare and the rising consumerisation. Based on the findings, medical games cannot be made in isolation. A developmental trajectory model of the emerging medical game ecosystem was created based on the empirical data. The relevancy of relationships and resources is dependent on the trajectory that the medical game company at that time resides. Furthermore, creating an official and documented database for clinically valdated medical games was proposed to establish the medical game market and ensure an adequate status for the effective medical games. Finally, ecosystems approach provides interesting future opportunities for research on medical game ecosystems.

Critical elements underpinning the emergence of the medical game ecosystem:gamifying traumatic brain injury rehabilitation in Finland

The healthcare sector is currently in the verge of a reform and thus, the medical game research provide an interesting area of research. The aim of this study is to explore the critical elements underpinning the emergence of the medical game ecosystem with three sub-objectives: (1) to seek who are the key actors involved in the medical game ecosystem and identify their needs, (2) to scrutinise what types of resources are required in medical game development and what types of relationships are needed to secure those resources, and (3) to identify the existing institutions (‘the rules of the game’) affecting the emergence of the medical game ecosystem. The theoretical background consists of service ecosystems literature. The empirical study conducted is based on the semi-structured theme interviews of 25 experts in three relevant fields: games and technology, health and funding. The data was analysed through a theoretical framework that was designed based upon service ecosystems literature. The study proposes that the key actors are divided into five groups: medical game companies, customers, funders, regulatory parties and complementors. Their needs are linked to improving patient motivation and enhancing the healthcare processes resulting in lower costs. Several types of resources, especially skills and knowledge, are required to create a medical game. To gain access to those resources, medical game companies need to build complex networks of relationships. Proficiency in managing those value networks is crucial. In addition, the company should take into account the underlying institutions in the healthcare sector affecting the medical game ecosystem. Three crucial institutions were identified: validation, lack of innovation supporting structures in healthcare and the rising consumerisation. Based on the findings, medical games cannot be made in isolation. A developmental trajectory model of the emerging medical game ecosystem was created based on the empirical data. The relevancy of relationships and resources is dependent on the trajectory that the medical game company at that time resides. Furthermore, creating an official and documented database for clinically validated medical games was proposed to establish the medical game market and ensure an adequate status for the effective medical games. Finally, ecosystems approach provides interesting future opportunities for research on medical game ecosystems