RUNNING HEAD: QUALITATIVE ARTICLE REVIEW Page 2
Summary
Digital Games in the classroom have become more popular over the years, and a way that seems
to be more popular amongst students with technology increasing in everyday life. Michele
Dickey conducted a study that focused on how teachers’ perception can impact how digital
games are used in the classroom and their efficiency. Dickey used 4 female teachers in the study
ranging from elementary school to high school, and even included a homeschool mom. Each
teacher enrolled in a two-week game-based learning course voluntarily. Dickey used a qualitative
research method. She felt that there were already plenty of quantitative studies in regard to game-
based learning, however not many were found on how a teacher’s perspective can affect how
game-based learning in used in the classroom. Dickey used data comprised of activity
observations, reflective journals, interviews, emails, and student work. The data was recovered
during a two-week study. The first week the teachers were asked to focus on more popular
games. They completed their data collection by game type, preparation for the game being
implemented in the classroom, and how the students played the games. The second week
teachers were asked to shift their focus to more educational games which allowed for a “walk-
through of the beginning of an educational game designed for an immersive environment,”
(Dickey, 2015). Teachers had some sort of resistance to the inclusion of game-based learning, but
they also participated in the games used in the study for better understanding. Dickey concluded
with how greatly a teacher’s perception impacts how technology is viewed by students. “For
games to be effective and have long-range impact, teachers must see the value beyond that being
touted by researchers,” (Dickey,2015).
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Analysis
The research that was conducted and presented throughout the study gave a good insight as to
how a teacher’s perception about technology can affect how it is used in the classroom. Dickey
understood that the study was on a smaller scale. Due to this it was expected that the importance
of technology-based games would be important among the teachers. Dickey felt this would be
the response because the teachers voluntarily took part in the study to discover ways to include
games. (Dickey, 2015). Dickey mentioned that the teachers did not seem to be interested in most
of the games that were chosen for the study, and this played a key role in the continuance of how
the games were included in the classroom. (Dickey, 2015). The teachers showed worry about if
the students would struggle to understand the line between reality and make believe. This is
something becoming more prevalent with our technologically filled world. Students are
surrounded by technology in the classroom and at home. Many students even have the virtual
reality experience technology which could help students struggle more to find that line.
Personally, I think that learning games can be a great benefit in the classroom when used as a
resource or in combination with the lesson being presented. The teacher needs to be prevalent on
how much time is allowed to use these games to ensure that students are also engaging with one
another and learning how to interact with others in person. Games can be used as a great resource
for students that need extra help understanding specific methods. Games can provide an extra
visual experience for students to look at the lesson given to help them understand and retain the
information from an additional point of view. However, those types of games to back up the
curriculum can be hard to find. Therefore, the easily accessible games can make it difficult to
incorporate into the classroom without leaving the teacher to worry about the student’s ability to
keep the line between reality and make believe solid. I think that Dickey did a great job on this
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Resources:
Dickey, M. D. (2015). K-12 teachers encounter digital games: a qualitative investigation of
teachers' perceptions of the potential of digital games for K-12 education. Interactive Learning
Environments, 23(4), 485-495.
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