Digital games as pedagogical artefacts: game-making as an educational approach

Abstract

In recent years, it is possible to notice an increase in the interest towards the usage of digital games in Education. This relationship can be seen as an effort to modify the educational process, trying to connect it to the digital technologies, which are ubiquitous nowadays. However, we cannot assume this integration between videogames and Education to be trivial: we must know the specificities of these artefacts before exploring their educational power totally. In the same way, this integration can be done in many ways, in traditional ones, using educational or commercial games in educational contexts, or using a new approach, which still not very developed in Brazil. This approach proposes game-making by students as a means to foster knowledge construction and the development of competences needed for nowadays life. In this project, I am going investigate the specific features of a digital game, as well as the ways to integrate digital games and Education, remarking the potentialities and difficulties of each approach, with special attention to game-making as a pedagogical strategy. By doing so, I hope to develop theoretical references to help educators interested in using digital games, as well as to disseminate game-making as a pedagogical strategy.