Levelling Up Your Pedagogy: Understanding Game Construction in the School Library

Abstract

As a teacher and technology coach I have experienced firsthand the wonder of students playing and constructing video games, as games facilitate incredibly good learning experiences (Egenfeldt-Nielsen, Smith, & Tosca, 2012; Papert, 1980; Salen, 2007; Shaffer, 2006; Squire, 2006, 2011). Student based game construction has the potential to transform the learner and further meet the participatory demands of 21st century learning. This paper will provide teacherlibrarians with a detailed account of my own experiences with video game construction in school environments. As a guiding framework, both Miller, Shell, Khandaker and Soh’s (2010) input-process-outcome game cycle and Koehler and Mishra’s (2008; 2009) Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework will be applied to support this video game construction exploration.