| Abstrakt: |
In game jam events games are created in collaboration and within design constraints, e.g. time limits and themes. Game jamming is a relatively novel pedagogical method, comparable to hackathons and other accelerated collaborative creation events. Earlier research suggests that game jams have a wide range of potential positive outcomes, such as learning in STEAM skills, working skills, and collaboration, as well as increasing participants’ learning motivation and self-efficacy (Meriläinen et al. 2020). Still, game jams have not been widely used in general formal education. In general education jamming faces a variety of challenges, stemming from limitations in curricula, rigid school structures, assessment difficulties as well as potentially negative attitudes. Adoption depends largely on teachers: they are unlikely to use or endorse a method they do not view as valuable or practical. In this qualitative survey study of Finnish expert teachers, we map the pedagogical soundness of organizing game jam events in schools and the practical possibilities and obstacles to wider adoption of game jams in formal learning. The respondents, who had no previous game jam experience, participated in a pedagogical and reflective two-day game jam and completed a survey afterwards. This paper explores their views on both the pedagogical and the practical aspects of game jamming in classrooms as expressed in the survey. In an educational system where teachers choose their own methods and materials, as is usual in Finland, teacher views are especially important when introducing a new method. Game jamming was seen as a pedagogically suitable tool for teaching several 21st century skills, of which co-operational and communication skills were seen as most prominent. Most participants saw game jams as compatible with everyday school routines, albeit with caveats. The most important obstacle the teachers identified related to actual praxis: time restrictions regarding daily schedules. As a solution, several participants suggested organizing game jams in conjunction with special themed days or weeks, as parts of learning projects or as a voluntary course or club. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
