Game development as a pedagogical methodology in learning related ICT skills: Perspectives of freshmen from FEU Institute of Technology

• Main Authors: Garcia, Manuel B., Revano, Teodoro F., Jr., Habal, Beau Gray M., Contreras, Jennifer O., Enriquez, John Benedict R., De Angel, Roman M., Lagman, Ace C.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2019
• Subjects: Video games—Design; Active learning; Computer Sciences; Higher Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/11622
• Institution: De La Salle University

Video games have been long established to be an effective educational tool to engage learners in the process of active learning. However, few studies have been performed to investigate the outcomes of employing game development, rather than video games per se, in the classroom. This posed a large gap in the existing body of literature of integrating the game industry into the education sector. Thus, this study served to address this gap, and argued that game development could serve as a pedagogical methodology much like video games for introducing related Information and Communications Technology (ICT) skills such as programming and multimedia topics, among other things. Conducted over three consecutive trimesters, this study explores game development as an educational tool in promoting the development of related ICT literacy skills among freshmen students in addition to the learning acquisition of the game development itself. More specifically, this exploratory-descriptive study sought to investigate how game development fits within the realm of learning ICT topics, and which of the following do freshmen find essential in developing their own original 2D web game. The findings show that game development, when used as a pedagogical methodology, poses the same potential just like any other educational tool used in a learning environment. While it warrants for more validation, the results of this study should be enough to give educational leaders and educators something to consider as to whether integrating game development in learning ICT concepts is worth the try or not.