Isaac - Third Journal Review

Playful Constructivism: Making Sense of Digital Games for Learning and Creativity Through Play, Design, and Participation

Vittorio Marone

Aims

The goal of this article is to provide a conceptual framework to better understand digital games in learning and creative contexts through the dimensions of play, design, and participation.

"The conceptual framework and theoretical model put forth in this article is defined as Playful Constructivism. Its purpose is to provide an interpretative and actionable tool for scholars, practitioners, and students to better understand digital games in learning and creative contexts through the dimensions of play, design, and participation." (p. 12).

Intro

In my previous journal review, I spoke about how I didn't understand what Constructivism meant. According to Marone (2016), Constructivism is a theory of learning where individuals construct knowledge through experience and interaction with people, objects, and situations, rather than receiving their knowledge through instruction. 

Some of these journal articles tend to repeat the same findings, e.g. the idea of "failure space" being an important part of gaming that has implications in education, because it encourages learning through experimentation and is facilitated through instant feedback. Also the idea that players connect with their avatars (sometimes, even with other players), becoming immersed in the gaming environment, and being motivated to work through complex problems (individually if playing alone, collectively if playing with others). The opportunities that games allow in terms of creating your own narrative is also commonly cited 'advantage' in scholarship.

Digital Games as Playable Artifacts

Marone (2016, p. 6) offers a perspective of digital games as being systems, models and microworlds. Games are systems in that they are comprised of a multitude of elements interacting with one another - e.g. the different classes in World of Warcraft working together to defeat a boss. Games are models in that they represent imaginary or real world experiences with various levels of abstraction; since models are often simplified, they can be more useful in terms of instruction. Games are also microworlds in that they have their own rules and affordances, allowing players to assume different identities and have novel experiences; thus games are like sandboxes or playgrounds.

Digital Games as Designable Artifacts

Games may be programmed, modded, or edited by players. They allow for players to become game designers, adding to the number of learnable skills available to them.

Simplified programming languages have been developed (such as Logo) to teach children and non-experts basic coding principles, utilizing the theory of Constructionism (not Constructvism), that knowledge is gained through building and sharing "knowledge structures". By "knowledge structure", he means digital artifact, or code. One programming environment that seems popular is Scratch. It allows users to upload, download, and edit each other's objects.

Many games are modifiable by experts, and may come with editors to allow players to create their own in-game experiences.

Digital Games as Affinity Spaces

Games facilitate something known as 'participatory culture'; a culture whereby participants can easily create and share user-made objects, mentor each other, and provide meaningful contributions to a community. Participatory cultures are comprised of affinity spaces.

Affinity spaces are interest-driven places where people meet because of their common interests. Here, people explore their identities, share ideas, opinions, creations, and knowledge. Their interactions may be driven by a desire to discuss the game itself (playful participation), or by the desire to discuss user-created materials (design-oriented participation).

Affinity spaces are also knowledge resources, because they become repositories of shared knowledge, critique, discussion, etc.

Affinity spaces are collaborative hubs. Newbies and experts alike may work together, contributing ideas and resources. Participants may be motivated by the prospect of becoming an expert and gaining some standing in their community. Mastery over the game then becomes a vehicle by which to increase one's social status.

Digital Games as Playful Constructivism

The article outlines a framework grounded on the theories of Situated Cognition, Social Constructivism, and Constructionism. 

Thus games enable playful activity (which contributes to creativity, problem solving, lateral thinking, etc) and participatory culture (through the construction and sharing of digital artifacts; through learning from others in the community and the sharing of expertise).

This model may be useful in comparing digital games to educational contexts. It can open up the possibility space of games as being more than just places to play, but also places to participate in a community.

Marone, V. (2016). Playful Constructivism: Making Sense of Digital Games for Learning and Creativity Through Play, Design, and Participation. Journal For Virtual Worlds Research, 9(3). doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.4101/jvwr.v9i3.7244