gaming and learning

a new paper published on gaming habits and education:

Mozelius, P., Westin, T., Wiklund, M., & Norbert, L. (2016). Gaming habits, study habits and compulsive gaming among digital gaming natives. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/308947959_Gaming_habits_study_habits_and_compulsive_gaming_among_digital_gaming_natives

The aim of the study is to analyse and discuss digital native gamers’ gaming habits and how excessive gaming might have disturbed school studies or social activities.

Casual gamers often spend a lot of time gaming, but not with the long uninterrupted gaming sessions that characterise hardcore gamers. Casual gamers mainly play casual games and are quite reluctant to hardcore games and complex rule sets. Hardcore gamers like complex games and long game sessions, but they play all kind of games.

practically all students’ defend their gaming and claim that it has given them a richer life with several positive experiences worth the risk of addiction and displacement. One student wrote in the essay that: “Generally, gaming is a fantastic possibility to escape daily routines for a while to be immersed, to discover and to learn. At the same time this can lead to less pleasant states like compulsive gaming or addiction.”

 Future studies

This study tried to explore if excessive gaming might have disturbed school studies or social activities. An interesting idea discussed among the authors is to the flip perspective and get a dialog with the digital native gamers that find school to disturb their gaming activities.