The Role of Interactive Games and Entertainment in the Creation of Lasting Knowledge

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The paper discusses the importance of digital interactive games in education. People perform better in life when they are asked to do something that they enjoy. Similarly, educational interactive games play a major role in the creation of knowledge among students in elementary and secondary school. Recent studies have shown that students perform better in certain subject matters when the instructor associates a reward to the assessment. Also, one of our recent analyses showed that students who received rewards after performing well on an educational game became very interested in the subject matter. Review of a broad body of literature has led us to draw important conclusions on the role of entertainment in the creation of knowledge among children.

Stream: Curriculum and Pedagogy; Student Learning, Learner Experiences, Learner Diversity

Paper: Rethinking Adult Learning

Professor John Malala teaches New Media and Computer-Mediated Communication at the Nicholson School of Communication, University of Central Florida. He received his PhD from the School of Informatics within the department of Electronic Imaging and Media Communication (EIMC)at the University of Broadford. He also has a specialist degree in Computer Science Education from the Florida Institute of Technology. Professor Malala is a member of the Center for Research in Education, the Arts, Technology and Entertainment (CREATE) at the University of Central Florida. His research interests include emerging media communication, virtual learning environments, and interactive multimedia. He is also interested in mobile telephony, mobile, broadcast, mobile publishing and ubiquitous computing. He teaches computer-mediated communication and the production of interactive multimedia applications.