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Summary
Technology has made major advancements in society and those advancements have also
made their way into the classrooms. With the influx of use in the classroom this can cause
curiosity and confusion as to what the best method may be for introducing and utilizing the
technology within the classroom in the best way possible for the students. In the article
“Challenges with measuring learning through digital gameplay in K-12 classrooms” Herbert
investigated how playing digital games can play a role in learning. This article focuses on two
parts, the importance of professional development to help develop classrooms that encourage
game play learning, and how the students relate to and improve in their learning journey using
this method. (Herbert, et al., 2018). This was referred to the Sprite’s Quest throughout the article.
In this study there were 795 students, 32 teachers/classrooms from 24 different schools. Of these
24 schools, 13 were suburban, 6 urban, and 5 rural schools. Grade levels of the students ranged
from 6th to 9th grade. (Herbert, et al., 2018). The 32 classrooms were a diverse bunch as well. 22
of the 32 classrooms were singular grades. 14 were 7th grade classes, 7 were 8th grade and 1 was
9th grade. 10 of the 32 were split grades. 1 class was a mix of 6th, 7th, and 9th grade. 1 class was a
mix of 6th & 7th grade, and the final 8 classes were a mix of 7th and 8th grade. (Herbert, et al.,
2018).
The study consisted of data that was gathered through questionaries from before and after
the conduction of the study. The questions within the questionnaire focused on the learning from
and media use through the games. The teachers of each classroom were the ones that presented
the questionaries to their students. The questionnaires given were divided into three different
categories that were looked at individually: media/device usage, multiple choice, and short
answer questions. The short answer, and multiple-choice questions were only taken into
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consideration if the student completed both the pre and post questionnaire. The first category of
device/media usage was based on a 5-point Likert scale, the multiple choice was based upon
things like the phases of a water cycle, while the short answer was more student dependent. The
student was asked to answer at least 2-3 of the five questions on a prequestionnaire and asked to
complete 3-4 of the seven questions on the post questionnaire. The first questionnaire was given
to the students prior to the first lesson and when researchers conducted the classroom visits, they
collected them at that time while the questionnaire from the end of the study was mailed into the
researchers (Herbert, et al., 2018).
Analysis
The results of this study were not surprising, considering the fact that the concepts being
relatively commonly used to help children with learning. Digital games used for learning have
been on a increase not only in the classroom, but it is also advertised for parents to use in their
homes for younger children as well. Therefore, it is a concept that children are fairly used to once
they get into a classroom. We know that technology is becoming a more common aspect of life
and children are exposed to a younger age than ever before. I think that if the study compared the
learning growth of students using primarily digital games verses the growth of those that used
more formal methods of learning we could get a more accurate result of the effectiveness.
Without the data to compare to how formal methods work vs digital methods it lacks solid
evidence that students are more likely to excel with the use of digital learning for their primary
learning resources. The authors didn’t seem to go over the concerns found with the
questionnaires either. They hinted but no highlights were given. It seemed that the same
questions were also given on both pre and post questionaries. This may impact the results of the
data being compared if the students are not given a discussion as to why these questions are
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being asked and may just answer the same which would result in an ineffective data poll. The
overall study seems to be a great starting point to start researching the impacts on how gaming
and media is used in the classroom and its benefits or even negative points for students learning
success.
