Practising Arithmetic Using Educational Video Games with an Interpersonal Computer

Studies show the positive effects that video games can have on student performance and attitude towards learning. In the past few years, strategies have been generated to optimize the use of technological resources with the aim of facilitating widespread adoption of technology in the classroom. Given its low acquisition and maintenance costs, the interpersonal computer allows individual interaction and simultaneous learning with large groups of students. The purpose of this work was to compare arithmetical knowledge acquired by third-grade students through the use of game-based activities and non-game-based activities using an interpersonal computer, with knowledge acquired through the use of traditional paper-and-pencil activities, and to analyze their impact in various socio-cultural contexts. To do this, a quasi-experimental study was conducted with 271 students in three different countries (Brazil, Chile, and Costa Rica), in both rural and urban schools. A set of educational games for practising arithmetic was developed and tested in six schools within these three countries. Results show that there were no significant differences (ANCOVA) in the learning acquired from game-based vs. non-game-based activities. However, both showed a significant difference when compared with the traditional method. Additionally, both groups using the interpersonal computer showed higher levels of student interest than the traditional method group, and these technological methods were seen to be especially effective in increasing learning among weaker students.

Education for Energy Efficiency through an Educational Game

This paper presents an assessment of an educational game for teaching the efficient use of electricity. Developed with Adobe Flash (R), it is a virtual board game where participants choose a car that starts the path and reaches the same final goal, going through a number of track steps defined in terms of a dice that each player rolls in turn. The car moves if the participant is able to correctly answer a question that is randomly generated by the software. The objective of the game is to answer questions related to energy efficiency promoting a healthy and attractive learning process for participants on concepts related to energy efficiency such as: the rational use of energy, the basic concepts of forms of energy generation, among others. The main objective of this paper is to assess the impact of the application of this virtual game in the teaching and learning process of high school students. Therefore, the game was applied in the discipline of physics in a class of junior high public school in the state of Sao Paulo. Initially, the class that had 43 students was divided into 10 groups of 4 students, and 1 group of 3 students. Each student group competed with one another. The idea was that each of them should indicate a student who was the representative of this group until only 4 group leaders were selected for the finals. At this stage, each student could interact with a group of up to ten students that acted as advisers. The adopted assessment process is based on the model proposed by Savi [7]. Then, at the end of the game, the students answered a prepared questionnaire based on the model proposed by Savi. According to Savi, although there are significant studies that show the importance of educational games for the process of cognitive development and learning concepts of students, there are few papers that present forms of assessing the potential of these resources. Thus, the assessment criteria proposed by Savi are based on the model of training evaluation by Kirkpatrick [3], taken as a reference to measure the efficiency of processes of continuing education courses for professionals. The authors assert that the metric of the evaluation proposed to assess the game is based on the first level of the model proposed by Kirkpatrick.

O Design nos jogos geométricos aplicados ao ensino infantil

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

O módulo de jogos no Colégio de Aplicação João XXIII: um estudo de caso

Pós-graduação em Educação - FCT

A utilização de jogos lúdico-didáticos no ensino de língua inglesa

Nowadays the accelerated development arising from globalization and the interrelation of the nations, the great increase in communication between different countries and the necessity for knowledge in different linguistic structures, the interest in learning a foreign language is crescent, and thinking about it, this work has the scope to verify how young and adult learners of a foreign language, in this case English, behave, that is, how best to develop the four language skills of the language: listening, writing, speaking, and reading and how the use of recreational and educational games can help this dichotomy between teaching-learning. The present research, theoretical and analytical basis, aims to make a study on how fun games can influence the teaching and learning of English in an audience of young and adult people and that includes a study of how human history has evolved, more precisely, as history of education was influenced by the playful and how the human mind also becomes over time. Nowadays, the playful is a tool that has been widely used pedagogically in teaching foreign languages and every day opens new manners and ways of teaching languages, always with its array of spaced more possibilities. Under this assumption, the focus of this research is discover how the use of recreational and educational games may influence grammar greater understanding and language development of young and adults students in learning English, and also what better way to introduce these games, that is, a contextualized content being discussed each time during the school way, so that the games may be, of course, used for relaxation of the students, but also (and especially) for their intellectual growth and language development

Estratégias de aplicação de softwares educativos como instrumentos para o ensino de física

The technological advances of recent decades combined with digital inc1usion in Brazil sparked the country's population to the constant use of computers to perform tasks in many different natures. Whether it's for communication, entertainment, work or school, computers are tools with increasing numbers in Brazilian homes. Along with this evolution the Brazilian Physics teaching should be aware of the use of teaching tools that relate directly to the computer to student learning. Highlighting in this work we have scanned the contents of the Wikipedia community, a wide variety of educational videos placed on YouTube, educational games that try to teach the player in a fun way and a variety educational softwares placed on the World Wide Web. It is with special attention to educational softwares as tools for teaching physics, which describe some strategies for use of these software, combined with the textbooks, to illustrate some ways to introduce the use of educational softwares directly in the classroom

O ensino de informática para crianças: um estímulo à aprendizagem

The use of computers in childhood education makes it possible for them to acquire knowledge in a fun way through games. This paper describes the experience of implementing the course “Computers for Children”, which is part of a University Extension Program at the School of Dentistry at UNESP - Araraquara. This course is offered to children aged 5-7 years old and it aims, not only, to offer children, via computer, a direct contact with new teaching technologies, but also, to help them develop both their motor and logical thinking abilities through educational games. The children that participated in this course are from the Children’s Center “Casinha de Abelha” at the UNESP -Araraquara and also from the Municipal Recreation and Educational Centers also in Araraquara, SP, Brazil. The software resources used in this course to teach computer skills are the educational games “Coelho Sabido Maternal”, “A Estrela Cintilante” and “Festa dos Dentinhos”. The children’s learning and the level of difficulty in using the computer as a tool were evaluated. It was possible to conclude that the course has been contributing to the digital inclusion of children aged 5-7 years old, in addition to training their visual and audio perception, their motor coordination and memorization, hence developing skills that are essential to the children’s literacy process.

Avaliação de um curso de informática para crianças

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

O design e o produto: parâmetros projetuais para o planejamento de jogos geométricos pré-escolares

Educational games are responsible for part of the information assimilated by the child, because these games respect the individual learning time, enabling experimentation and, consequently, being an accessory to retain the acquired knowledge spontaneously. However, the analogy between stimulus and reception/result is not always the expected. On the one hand, there are the pedagogues, bearing the knowledge necessary to the children’s development. On the other hand, are the children, who cannot completely assimilate the concept, commonly because of lack of planning on the product. After all, the children become not interested in the game, without developing the expected cognitive abilities planned for the product. Whereas the importance of the games on children’s development, this work aimed to analyze and select educational games presented on the preschool, based on the language exploration from the Design’s knowledge and skills. Specifically, the research intends to investigate games targeted to stimulate geometric concepts, and so, to describe parameters that must be observed during the product planning.

O jogo como recurso viabilizador da aprendizagem no processo de alfabetização na educação básica

This work's aim was to verify the contributions of educational games usage as a teaching resource in alphabetization and literacy process during elementary school initial years. For this, there was a bibliographical survey on the topic, identifying Brazilian publishing on articles, dissertations and theses over the last ten years and what were the possibilities to use this feature of offering a more meaningful and playful learning to students, ensuring their learning processes. The results indicate that, although there are several themes that address the game and learning, there is little published concerning game and literacy. Overall, it is possible to affirm that games are features that enable the learning of reading and writing in early literacy process. Therefore, it is reiterated that games constitute resources that enable learning in the early literacy process and constitutes in a different activity, which mobilizes the child in a playful dimension to learning

Educative games and expositive lesson: Comparison of educational techniques on sitting posture

Introduction: Studies on education in health are important for the concretion of action of promotion of the health. Objective: To verify the changes of theoretical knowledge on sitting posture, evaluated at two moments (initial and final,) considering two programs of education (expositive lesson and operative groups). Methods: 75 pupils had been citizens, of both the sexes, three 4as series of a public school, evaluated previously (A1) on seated position; group 1 was submitted to a procedure of expositive education, the 2 educative games in the 2 and, the 3 to no intervention. After one week they had been reevaluated (A2). For the moments the test of Wilcoxon was applied and between the Kruskal groups Wallis. Results: In the comparison inside of the groups, of 2 and 3 they had presented increase in the number of rightness on position seated in the after-test, with statistical significant difference, whereas in the group has controlled, such fact did not occur. In the comparison between groups, at the first moment (A1), 2 groups e 3 had not presented significant difference statistical (p > 0,05), however, in as moment notices that it had difference statistics between the three groups (p < 0,01), being that the G3 presented minor frequency of errors (md = 5) in relation to the g2 (md = 8) and g1 (md = 10). Conclusions: It can be affirmed that educative techniques that supply information and promote debates and exchanges of experiences between the participants increase the possibilities of incorporation of the contents related to the sitting posture.

The use of software Mapavox for teaching graphics and games to blind and low vision students: a development through practices

Current policies on education to visually impaired point for a growing trend of including students with special educational needs in regular schools. However, most often this inclusion is not accompanied by an appropriate professional trained or infrastructure, which has been presented as a big problem for regular school teachers who have students with visual impairments in their classroom. Based on this situation, the Group of Extension in Tactile Cartography from UNESP - University of the State of São Paulo - Campus de Rio Claro - SP - Brazil has been developing educational material of geography and cartography to blind students at a special school. Among the materials developed in this study highlight the development of graphics and board games provided with sound capabilities through MAPAVOX, software developed in partnership with UFRJ - Federal University from Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil. Through this software, sound capabilities can be inserted into built materials, giving them a multi-sensory character. In most cases the necessary conditions for building specific materials to students with visual impairments is expensive and beyond the reach of features from a regular school, so the survey sought to use easy access and low cost materials like Cork, leaf aluminum, material for fixing and others. The development of these materials was supported by preparation in laboratory and its subsequent test through practices involving blind students. The methodology used on the survey is based on qualitative research and non comparative analysis of the results. In other words, the material is built based on the special students perception and reality construction, not being mere adaptations of visual materials, but a construction focused on the reality of the visually impaired. The results proved were quite successful as the materials prepared were effective on mediating the learning process of students with disabilities. Geographical and cartographic concepts were seized by the students through the technology used, associated with the use of materials that took into account in its building process the perception of the students.

Artemídia preferente: fenômeno jogar & ler nas histórias em quadrinhos interativas (HQI) com os games de RPG

This artistic-scientific process aims to innovate the concept of Interactive Comics by adding them into the concept of RPG games and Single-Adventures. To make it properly done, there will be some issues about Interactivity, history of the Comic Strip and Mangas, and their techniques of use. Also, there will be other issues involving Electronic Comics and Interactive Comics, in addition to the concept of the RPG games and Single-Adventures, so that the reader of this paper could understand the practical result of every issue combined into one. The identification of these issues is made from a bibliographic and iconographic research, and it will also be displayed throughout the content. Some decisions will be thrown along this paper for the reader to decide and, therefore, understand the Interactivity process in a better way. The combined issues’ result will be presented in my interactive website, http://a3studios.com.br/iss/home (address not final) or http://amstarproductions.net (final address), where the readers will have to experience the “Play&Read” phenomenon. Furthermore, this work is inserted in the line of the research Artistic Processes and Procedures of the Department of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of UNESP, whose methodology used was the Freinet Educational Cybernetics, developed in the research group Media Arts and Videoclip leaded by the leading advisor for this Final Course Work. The result and discussion of artistic and scientific research were reported in monographs such as this that I present, with the following versions: PDF version for dissemination in the virtual repository of the Institute of Arts’ Library; hardcover version for physical collection at the Library of Institute of Arts; The Printed Version for the board of examiners; and an appropriated template version for submission to International Scientific Congress in the area of Arts.

O papel dos games na construção de conteúdos midiáticos educativos

The goal of our article is build – including universes to support empirical research in communication – an educational matrix for a different order of analysis, incorporating new possibilities available for the advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). For this goal we use the game, as a source of playful learning and formation of being. Introducing the interaction from game plataform as middle convergent, where it is possible the diffusion and expansion of knowled in constant way that enables education and information exchanges oustide the status quo of schools, increasing the e effectiveness of knowledge fixing and interest to acquire it.