Browsing by Subject "kytkeytynyt oppiminen"

Even though it is well-known that creative use of socio-digital technology enables adolescents’ learning and the development of twenty-first century skills, adolescents are not offered enough structured support for developing these advanced digital competences. In an effort to bridge this creative participation gap and to support the innovation equity, Innokas Network organized a game making project called Game it now!. Teams of comprehensive school students from all over Finland participated in the project designing and making digital games. The purpose was that students make all the elements of the game themselves using Scratch or GDevelop as game development platforms. I examined, what working in the game making project was like, how students’ socio-digital competences developed and how the game making project supported connecting informal and formal learning. Theoretically this study relied on the understanding of learning as collaborative knowledge-creating activity, as well as maker culture, which both focus on inspiring students making tangible artifacts with digital fabrication tools. Furthermore, this study relied on the understanding of connecting formal learning with students’ informal learning so that it is interest powered and peer supported, students share the same purpose and learning supports their academic orientation. The study relied on a mixed-methods approach combining statistical analyses and qualitative content analysis. The data was collected with two different self-report questionnaires. At the beginning of the game making project in winter 2019 students were asked to evaluate their socio-digital competences and at the end of the project in May 2019 students re-evaluated their socio-digital competences as well as answered questions regarding the nature and the effects of the game making project which were based on connected learning measures. In addition, the students were asked to describe their roles in the game making project and what kinds of games they made. After combining the data, it consisted of 98 students’ (32 girls, 66 boys and 29 primary school, 69 secondary school students with varying player backgrounds) answers. The results revealed that by working in the game making project the students were participating in challenging and collaborative knowledge-creation. Students supported each other and offered help and ideas when developing digital games. Moreover, working in the project improved students’ socio-digital competences. The game making project had positive effects on students’ participation at school, as well as outside of school. Some of the students reported discovering an interest they did not know they had, and some had started making a digital game on their own. The game-making project appeared to be a pedagogically meaningful way of connecting students’ informal and formal learning as the project inspired and challenged students whilst taught them knowledge-creating competences and other essential competences needed in the twenty-first century. This study indicated that extending creative maker culture into schools enriches the school as a learning environment and also impacts positively on students’ learning.