1. Introduction - Games for a Read-Write world.
- Introduction - “Games for a Read / Write
World.”
- A study of the cultural and interpersonal dimensions and evolving tool use of an emerging community of families coding digital games together.
- Research Questions - July 2024
- 1. Background to the thesis
- 2. Context
- 3. Research objectives and questions
- 4. Introduction to theoretical framework
- 5. The significance of the thesis and its limitations
- 6. Chapter outline of the study
Introduction - “Games for a Read / Write World.”
A study of the cultural and interpersonal dimensions and evolving tool use of an emerging community of families coding digital games together.
Research Questions - July 2024
- What contradictions arose in participation in this research’s game coding processes and what pedagogical tools and processes are available to address these contradictions?
- How can game design patterns support the development of computational fluency in novices?
- How can learners build agency in an evolving community of game makers?
1. Background to the thesis
We live in a society where digital technology is increasingly used in work and home life, providing diverse opportunities. However, these opportunities come with costs. Convenience and automation of tasks in the form of commercial software services and AI can diminish critical thinking skills and make individuals overly reliant on technology. In particular, sophisticated media production and delivery systems, often driven by algorithmically generated suggestions can foster a passive consumption of media. These concerns have led many to call for a broader approach to digital education that includes media literacy, hands-on coding experiences and creative digital projects. This would therefore encourage a more active and critical engagement with technology in a way that would potentially benefit wider society.
An introduction to research on digital game making
While much research on digital game making focuses on its educational benefits for subjects like mathematics and science, as well as enhancing coding skills [@kafai_constructionist_2015], there is also a diverse range of motivations behind game making, including critical making and empowerment. This study stands as a small contribution to a more inclusive approach to technology development, moving beyond a future dictated by a technological elite to one shaped by a broadly informed society.
In this thesis, I explore digital game making as a vehicle to develop to computational fluency and participation in coding community practices. The participants in this study are small groups of home educating families undertaking short, informally-structured game making courses. While this thesis covers the practical process of learning to code, it also addresses aspects of game making that are more to do with the overall expressive value of digital media. To serve this exploration the concept of computational fluency is used as a guiding principle throughout the thesis. The term communicates ‘not only an understanding of computational concepts and problem-solving strategies, but also the ability to create and express oneself with digital technologies’ [@resnick_computational_2018]. For Resnick, fluency, whether with writing or coding, helps develop your thinking, voice, and identity [@resnick_lifelong_2017]. Resnick’s aim here is to critique formulaic and instruction-based computing education [@resnick_coding_2020].
The refocusing of the UK curriculum and supporting exams in the area of digital education towards a more abstract approach to computer science concepts over a skills-based production has raised concerns. Kemp and colleagues’[@kemp_future_2024] recent report on the future of computing education notes the decreasing take up of computing by girls and those in lower socio-economic areas and an increasingly unequal offer of digital-based exams to students. One of the recommendations of this report is to offer more informal digital making and project work involving coding as an inclusive practice.
Game-playing practices and the opportunities provided by participation in wider communities continue to evolve. For example, casual and retro games played by both adults and children are increasingly available via smartphones and home consoles. The nostalgia around such games and the associated aesthetics of cuteness create a potential for connection between younger and older players [@boyle_retro-futurism_2017]. The sustained popularity of retro games together with easy-to-use game making tools and code frameworks, provides an entry point for game players into game making cultures which is reflected in the success of amateur game-publishing websites like itch.io [@garda_nostalgia_2014].
Thus, the process of making retro games with families lies at a confluence of diverse contexts, motivations, and possibilities. My study, in part, asks how the motivational and navigational affordances of enthusiast game making communities can be brought into more structured educational environments. To answer this question, theoretical and practical understandings of the development of agency in the participation in informal community-based projects are of value. The next section begins to explain my personal interest in this dimension of the study through a brief exploration of my involvement in project-based approaches in digital media education and campaigning contexts.
Personal context and motivation for undertaking this study
My journey into the world of technology and education began in the 1990s, when I was actively involved in organizing and promoting unlicensed music events and festivals. Email and websites became important tools in this process, and I was an enthusiast early adopter of these technologies. In in the mid-nineties, when I first started publishing websites, the internet appeared almost free of corporate messages. It was a space for oddballs, niche enthusiasts and activists. In the 2000s, my focus shifted towards environmental activism, migrant rights and left-libertarian protests against unaccountable global institutions like the WTO, IMF, and G8. I used film screenings and music events for outreach and email lists, websites and wikis as organising tools. My work with Undercurrents, a video activism magasine, involved digitising their VHS content for online distribution [@heritage2008video]. Through Undercurrents, I connected with a broader network of media and internet activists associated with the Indymedia project [@pickard_united_2006]. These experiences exposed me to non-hierarchical organising approaches and the decentralised organising principles, which are also an important guidelines for the free software and free culture movements [@lessig_free_2004]. Inspired by these potential of the tools and organising processes, I began to share relevant approaches with local organisations by specialising in internet and media creation training and community development.
In 2011, it was revealed that an undercover police officer named Mark Kennedy, operating under the alias Mark Stone, had infiltrated several activist groups I had been part of [@lewis_undercover_2013]. My role in outreach for this movement became very uncomfortable, as it became clear to the extent to which our participation in this movement came with hidden risks. Our attempts to create systemic change were being countered with a response from the state who were far better resourced than our movement. The momentum of this movement had been in part driven by new uses of technology and grassroots organising processes. However, the open web’s potential for egalitarian and non-corporate publishing was undermined through the “embrace, extend, and extinguish” tactic [@jason_strategic_2011]. Concurrently, the open-posting Indymedia news network suffered from extensive publishing of misinformation and ad hominem attacks from suspicious sources targeting community activism on social media.
In response to growing discomfort around involvement in political and environmental activism and the need to support myself financially, I shifted my focus increasingly towards community development. I concentrated on my work with FLOSS Manuals, writing and promoting documentation and online learning resources for media creation and collaborative processes using Free Software. This work allowed me to document and advocate for low-cost media and web production methods and co-author A Open Web [^5], a book which celebrated the opportunities provided by open source and decentralised web technology to create a more egalitarian environment of digital participation. The FLOSS Manuals project also connected me to diverse international networks whose work was informed by participatory production and decision-making methods. A key network was the Mozilla community where I created documentation, workshop guides and other learning resources with networks of informal educators. This avenue offered a reconnection to discussing the politics of independent communications in line with an empowerment agenda.
Discussion around the launch of a new UK computing curriculum in 2013 championed the possibilities of creative digital production within the classroom [@livingstone2010next]. In that year I undertook a Masters in Computing and in the following year a PGCE in Computing. As part of my PGCE dissertation, I designed and delivered a pilot scheme to teach JavaScript in playful ways. The learning materials were made available as an OER as part of Mozilla’s online teaching resources 1. Unfortunately, the constraints of the school context and the new curriculum hindered the kind of authentic activities that first attracted me to teaching in Computing in schools. Instead, after completing my PGCE, I joined Manchester Metropolitan University in a role focusing on community education partnerships as part of the EdLab project 2. This work provided opportunities to pursue creative, project based approaches to teaching technology to young people and families. Building on the success of this work, I applied to undertake this PhD study with the Education and Social Research Institute of Manchester Metropolitan University (ESRI).
Connecting my experience to broader research themes
In this section, I outline how these experiences connect to broader research issues on PBL, media and game creation within informal learning environments. Drawing on learners’ interests and creating authentic products is a foundational approach of PBL and is explored in game-making context in convincing research. My past aims surrounding empowerment and freedom of expression through DIY music events and protest culture align with broader movements that advocate equality of access to digital participatory culture. However, my experiences highlight the barriers to undertaking practical project-based learning (PBL) projects, particularly in a UK computing context, a theme which is explored further in the literature review. The process of being involved in short-term systemic change only to suffer later backlash has guided me to help others explore a more critical understanding of their own place within wider systems. This may seem tangential to the activities of participants studied in this research, however such processes of building agency in a fledgling community can be seen as important acts of community participation.
Improvisational and messy approaches in my previous work may seem chaotic, however, the process builds a collective understanding of the problem area among participants. This communal experience of transformative agency also has the potential to mitigate the unintended and unwelcome consequences through rapid, responsive adjustment in the course of a project. In addition, I find Rogoff’s reflection that initial first impressions of a ‘chaotic’ environment of learning in a community of learners are false impressions that stem from a lack of understanding of the underlying structure of activity [-@rogoff_developing_nodate, p. 219] useful. These aspects are explored in later chapters in reflections on design-based research.
2. Context
This introduction begins an exploration of key contextual factors. The immediate context of the core activities of this research was a new learning community involving of home-educating families attending a series of game-making sessions in the setting of my University campus. Sessions involved families, myself (as both a researcher and teaching facilitator), and for most sessions, volunteer student helpers. This section begins to situate this research within key contextual themes. A more detailed exploration continues in the literature review of Chapter 2.
Context of game making within school-based computing education
The changing shape of provision on UK digital-focused education in schools can be profitably examined through several key developments. The first is Google leader Eric Schmidt’s speech as a MacTaggart lecture in Edinburgh in 2011, critiquing current computing provision, “Your IT curriculum focuses on teaching how to use software, but gives no insight into how it’s made” [@schmidt_eric_2011, p.8]. The second was a report “Shut Down or Restart?” by the Royal Society (RSA) [the_royal_society_shut_2012] released in early 2012. The report recommended steering the ICT curriculum towards computer science and programming, providing funding professional development and a greater inclusivity in computing education, and increased partnership work with computing professionals. In the same week Michael Gove [@-gove_michael_2012] announced the scrapping the ICT curriclum. Finally, the new computing curriculum was released in 2013 to a mixed response [@dfe2013national]. However, while community responses were collected via a consultation, a clear consensus to avoid removal of too much digital literacy and creative project work was ignored in the final curriculum [@twining_we_2013]. Preston [@preston_re-engineering_2013] shares Twining’s perspective that Gove and Schmidt’s critique of previous ICT provision was misjudged, sharing a perspective that the ICT had been given a good kicking in part as a political football.
A recent report by Kemp and colleagues [@kemp_considerations_2024] on the future of computing education confirms some of these initial concerns about the 2013 computing curriculum and related exams. The report outlines the disparity and dropping numbers in the uptake of digital-related qualifications. A previous report, “After the Reboot” [@waite_pedagogy_2017], found that girls, ethnic minorities, and students of lower socio-economic status were all less likely to take computing as a subject at the GCSE level, in part due to cultural barriers and the relative difficulty of the subject. The review highlighted several areas of promise that needed more research that are relevant to this study including: game making as a way of increasing engagement in coding, use of design patterns to scaffold coding processes, and a greater focus on social and cultural aspects of coding. However, despite the report’s advocacy for game making and other digital projects to mitigate issues of exclusion, the structural limitations of the curriculum and computing exams remain. These factors have led may practitioners and researchers to investigate game making in more informal settings.
Context of game making and wider digital making and culture home and informal settings
The contextual challenges in UK computing education outline above contrast with the positive developments in digital making, specifically through new software and hardware. The decline in participation in digital qualifications after curriculum changes highlights a mismatch between the curriculum and the opportunities provided by recent advancements. The affordable, compact, and hackable Raspberry Pi computer has opened new avenues for physical computing using the accessible Python language. In early 2013, MIT released Scratch 2.0, a block-coding tool for beginners, featuring an online editor and enhanced community interaction, including project remixing. Educators have adapted creative ‘sandbox’ games like Minecraft to develop design skills in a playful environment. Other accessible hardware, such as Makey Makey and Microbit, combine web-based block coding with simple physical computing. For more advanced learners, free web-based courses on authentic, text-based programming languages like Python and JavaScript added interactive elements to scaffold and motivate the acquisition of coding concepts and practical coding skills. A notable example is Code Academy.
These tools and practices were mostly free both in terms of cost and through the use of open copyright licences, a characteristic that contributed to their widespread success adoption. The engagement of many teachers and enthusiastic volunteers in these initiatives these is documented the proliferation of videos, blog posts, and other resources sharing novel practice. This ground swell of community activity contributed to the already active Maker Movement ,as illustrated by events like Liverpool MakeFest which and Raspberry Jam events. These grassroots events brought together teachers, professionals, young people and their families to engage with diverse new technologies in playful, empowering and technically challenging ways.
Home education settings as a site of research
While home education is not a core focus of this thesis, it is a significant contextual factor in the research process. As such, I address key contextual factors that impact this study here. Research in schools settings is sometimes hampered by practical issues such as timetable considerations and lack of time for project work outside of the subject curriculum. These factors are largely absent when working with home educating families. An alignment with the needs of participants was also a relevant factor in this work with home educators, allowing for reciprocity in the research process. My engagement with game creation via coding stemmed a consultation with home educators as part of my university outreach and partnership work. To align with the interests of parents and children at the consultation asked if we could lead activities which drew on interest their children’s interest in digital games, Minecraft being a name example, to promote computer coding. Home educators’ motivations are explored more broadly in Chapter 2,
Overview of barriers to game making which apply to both formal and non-formal environments
While the previous sections have addressed some of the opportunities and benefits of engaging in digital game making, there are significant barriers that affect both formal and informal contexts to varying extents. This section gives an overview of key issues related to the scope of this study. Technical barriers include the inherent complexity of coding and can be compounded by economic barriers that can prevent access to the software, hardware, or social environments needed to develop as a game maker. Identity-related barriers such as those related to gender, race, and class have been shown to negatively impact participation in digital making and more specifically game making. This research addresses each of these concerns at different stages of this thesis.
Existing responses to challenges
Several reports have produced recommendation for school practice. Some of which are particularly relevant to this study’s focus on supporting a project-based approach to making a digital game. These recommendations and evaluation of their uptake is integrated in the following sections.
Digital projects as an inclusive pedaogogy - MOVE TO INTRODUCTION
Livingstone’s [@livingstone_next_2011] report focused on providing the UK games and animation industry with new talent, recommended that to implement well-supported use of games and visual animation in the school curriculum as a way to attract more young people to take digital-related subjects.
The After the Reboot report [@waite_pedagogy_2017], suggested game making as a way of increasing engagement in the process of coding. The review highlighted several areas of promise which needed more research: using games for engagement, use of design patterns - a term explored later in this chapter - and the involvement of girls in coding and social and cultural aspects of coding.
Research on inclusive approaches to digital media production explored, highlights the value of authentic projects, end products which incorporate personal creativity, and processes which incorporate a building of sense of community participation. While there is a broad consensus on how to address these issue of exclusion from computing cultures which align with the techniques of project-based learning (PBL) project work, there are contextual challenges to applying these in schools contexts. Resnick and Rusk outline key significant challenges [-@resnick_coding_2020] including the lack of meaningful contexts, lack of time allocated preventing project approaches, and an over-reliance on rote instruction. ADD ANOTHER SOURCE HERE.
Resource provision and CPD
The benefits of game making aligns with those of wider creative computing projects. There has been extensive publication on computing education and techniques aimed to support teachers often new to the subject. These include a new website with materials, including quick guides and writing around a set of 12 computing principles. A lot of this literature is aimed at helping teachers in a classroom context and with a focus of explaining and exploring computing context.
MORE ON THIS - OTHER TIPS FROM NCCE AND LINKS TO RESOURCES. BUT NOT TOO MUCH
While projects are mentioned as a principle that allows learners to deepen their understanding on computing concepts by putting them into practice. There is less on specifics of how teachers can support project work or indeed how to best develop resources to support project work in schools.
Computing at schools
While based on formal education. It is worth returning to this community and the challenge of computing in schools.
Coding, new for many teachers, a great response from those involved.
Open source, online responses to the challenge
The promise of Connected Learning - See work of Ito and partners.
This was part of the narrative of Gove in 2014, it’s all online, and while he was right in part, access to these resources addresses few of the key barriers to participation.
Mozilla, an open source toolset
One of the challenges of a foundation-based approach is the sustainability of the programs involved. One counter to this is using open source toolsets and a community based, and decentralised approach to creating resources.
Mozilla, acted as a broker between the open source community, and community educators who all chipped in to create teach the web.
A Mozilla white paper [@mozilla_foundation_webmaker_2014] outlines the power of exploring web technology as an empowering activity. As part of their teach the web and web literacy programme, Mozilla created internet browser based tools to support of novices investigate and to remix HTML pages. They also created several online and real-life communities sharing activities drawing on home interests to explore authentic web technologies, and the digital literacy elements needed to be an effective citizen. [@thorne_clubs_2015].
In 2015 I contributed a short line course called Quacking Javascript to this webmaker curriclum. In my report on the underlying pedagogical approaches [@chesterman_webmaking_2015], I outlined the following possibilities to increase participant engagement; playful approaches, use of games, and the ability for participants to incorporate popular culture and home interests into their work.
There were limits to the take up of the curriclum but the Thimble community was active while it lasted and created some good resources.
3. Research objectives and questions
Research objectives & Recap of motivation
Despite the many studies published on the benefits of game making for learning, particularly in the years 2013 to 2020, few contain detailed specifics of pedagogies or tool use when supporting learners in initial stages of game design. Additionally, many of the technologies used in past studies are no longer practical to use. This study aims to evaluate and build on relevant research, detailed in Chapter 2, and to update practices to use open-source, industry standard, web-technologies (HTML and JavaScript) with an aim to add longevity, authenticity, and extensibility to the game making toolset. In addition, this research proposes a clear but flexible pedagogy based around the use of gameplay design patterns, that has emerged from a responsive design process. These themes are continued in the design narrative of Chapter 4.
A personal motivation driving this research is to better understand my practice as an activist, community worker and practice-focused educator. As a practitioner, while I had a sense of what success felt like in creative media project work, I lacked clear language to communicate this either in the academic or practice based settings. This motivation has guided me towards existing research reflect on experiences of developing agency within a non-formal communities. In my past community training practice, I used terms like empowerment and promoting learners choice. As I used these terms in an academic context there was push back from colleagues - seeing choice as a term tainted by market driven trends in education. Instead, to help reflect on this issue, this thesis engages with a complex and dynamic picture of participant agency. This complexity is important to this thesis as it allows a full exploration of contextual factors at play, especially initial and emerging barriers to participation to undertaking project work. One research question of thesis addresses the process of developing agency within a community. While agency and autonomy have disputed, often inter-related definitions [@huang_autonomy_2013; @matusov_mapping_2016]. In chapter 3, this study explores the following terms to guide later analysis: instrumental agency; relational agency ; and authorial agency.
Research Questions - July 2024
- What contradictions arose in participation in this research’s game coding processes and what pedagogical tools and processes are available to address these contradictions?
- How can game design patterns support the development of computational fluency in novices?
- How can learners build agency in an evolving community of game makers?
Wider implications and applications of the research
To further understand research objectives it is important to situate the potential relevance of the outcomes of this research by exploring its potential audience and impact. Given the overall direction of this thesis, there are several possible audiences to which this is relevant. These include home educating families, teachers and facilitators, researchers in computing, and media production areas. To address this potential a concrete and detailed approach to describing the research is taken to allow for the communication of specifics of workshop practices and pedagogical approaches. Practitioners may find the narrative description of the design in Chapter 4 an accessible starting point for this work.
Educational researchers may find the exploration of agency in this study of particular value. In Chapter 7 I employ recent advances in sociocultural interpretations of collective agency, transformative agency in particular, to analyse this community game making context. As such, while not theoretically novel, this work may form a useful, situated contribution to emerging work in this area.
To return to the pedagogical outputs, to find out who may benefit from the proposed inclusive game making pedagogy it is of use to ask who benefits from the success of the Game Making Movement? The term Game Making Movement has not been widely applied, but its use by some writers indicates that a significant amount of research has been carried out as part of funded programs, not to mention extensive and creative efforts by professionals and volunteers alike to incorporate this game making into educational experiences. There are diverse motivations to encourage in game making for learning. Examples are explore in more depth in Chapter 2, but include: supporting a stem-pipeline into industry, aims to develop digital literacy, to learning other school subjects or exploring ethical issues. When commercially or institutionally sponsored, some of the sponsors’ expectations may negatively impact the inclusivity of the learning environments in which game making happens. For examples, see Vossoughi and colleagues [@vossoughi_making_2016] critique of maker movement and the potentially negative impact of the positivist, industry-focused STEM agenda on inclusive practice. This study aims to lean in the other direction and prioritise learner agency. However, the developing of computational fluency in learners is of broad utility to varied streams and motivations. As such, the pedagogy and toolset to facilitate game making should be used broadly.
4. Introduction to theoretical framework
Choosing a theoretical framework which aligns with the goals of the research questions is an important decision in undertaking a PhD study. In my role as both a practitioner and a researcher, it was vital to select a framework that could incorporate potential complications within the research process. The focus of the research required a framework containing concepts able to the following: analyse the evolution of participant agency in the learning process, accommodate authentic learning contexts, conceptualise barriers to participation, and support a mutual approach to involving the community in design changes. To meet these needs I have chosen cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) and supplemented it with specific techniques of design-based research (DBR). The following sections give a short overview of these frameworks in relation to these needs. They are explored in depth in Chapter 3.
(Why not use constructionism)
Constructionism is a popular guiding theory in game making studies, illustrated in particular, by Kafai and colleagues outlining the value of making constructionist games [kafai_constructionist_2015]. Despite the value of these contributions to this domain of research, this section explains why I have chosen activity theory as a better fit for the aims of this thesis. I have been inspired by Papert and colleagues celebration of concrete approaches to creating digital project bricolage approaches and pioneering work of the resulting constructionist school, centred around MIT media lab, in design software and tools for students to learn in exploratory, project oriented ways.
While constructionism has been used as a “epistemological paradigm, a learning theory and a design framework” [@kynigos_constructionism:_2015], it is the latter that I find most productive due to its comparative weakness as a more general theoretical framework.
Instead, Activity theory as a theoretical framework provides tools to study the impact of past cultural activity of participants on present, emergent activity. CHAT also provides powerful concepts to explore a complex and dynamic picture of participant agency. Key characteristics of constructionist design principles are explored in Chapter 2 where I acknowledge their significant contribution to the evolution of the learning design outlined in Chapter 4. In these chapters, I also compare these principles with similar concepts used by sociocultural research in HCI studies, for example Nardi and Kaptelin’s interpretation of affordances as a from of mediated action [@kaptelinin_affordances_2012].
(Cultural historical activity theory)
In the interests of evaluation the pedagogical possibilities of new software, hardware and coding environments, researchers frequently adopt a position as a practitioner or co-facilitator of a novel learning design a researcher of the process. Thus a concept of learning or processes that is dynamic and open to change is needed. In addition, this study, in part, explores ways in which how the motivational characteristics and navigational affordances of enthusiast and home based game making can be brought into more structured educational environments. CHAT provides an appropriate means to achieve this through its perspective of interacting systems of activity where the values and actions of one system can impact activity in another.
CHAT’s rich vocabulary to describe barriers, resolutions and online going tensions in on-going project work is potentially productive in this study. The focus of barriers to participation and strategies to address them is covered by RQ1 using the phrase ‘what contradictions arose in participation’. The term contradiction is a significant in the school of research known as cultural historical activity theory (CHAT), encompassing a variety of concepts including barriers, contextual drivers and drags, interventions for change, and tensions which emerge between different elements of the activity in question.
CHAT is optimistic but realistic in its focus on change. It approaches activity in a systemic way and contains tools to address and discuss issues of unintended consequences and push back against interventions. This is of particular relevance to the domain of technology use which is a feature of this study. As these new technologies can provide communities with tools to leverage new opportunities in a way which gives participants greater agency, a research framework which contains a toolset of concepts to describe and analyse varied dimensions of agency is beneficial. As agency and autonomy have disputed, often inter-related definitions [@huang_autonomy_2013; @matusov_mapping_2016], in Chapter 3 I explore dimensions and terms related to agency more precisely within the wider framework of activity theory.
In addition, due to value of and importance of participants home use of technologies and experiences of learning, it is useful to adopt a research process in which involves participants in the evolving learning design then are engaging with and in turn the overall direction of the research process. This study outlines ways in which working with participants has yielded important contributions of novel ideas. To achieve this, I have supplemented the use of activity theory with the use of design based research (DBR) techniques.
(On Design-based research (DBR))
Design based research is not a uniform practice with set methodology but there is a general consensus in guiding principles. For Sandoval [-@sandoval_conjecture_2014], these involve joint work on a project and theoretical refinement, iterative design process involving phases of planning delivery, evaluation working towards outcomes of interest. While DBR is explored in a more nuanced way in Chapter 3, it is worth noting at this stage that it provides practical tools which are complementary with CHAT, to undertake and to represent complex learning designs taking place in authentic learning environments. In particular, DBR provides means to fulfil a key motivation of this research, to guide and to represent the evolution of a useful game making pedagogy. As remarked earlier, the format of academic research papers, even those focused on practice, often eschews methodological detail in favour of analysis and results. Hoadley notes “the usual study presents a technology fully formed as if it had risen from the oceans like Venus herself” [@hoadley_creating_2002]. To address this issue Chapter 4 of this thesis incorporates a design narrative, a process adopted from DBR, which I explain and justify in Chapters 3.
5. The scope of the thesis and what it does not try to address
The challenge of maintaining focus in this PhD process
Creating a design experiment with several iterations created not only large amounts of research materials. This presented not only challenges of how to prioritise data gathered (Chapter 4), but in addition the rich set of experiences and educational tools created made it difficult to disentangle the interplay of contributing elements to choose a focus suitable for a targeted PhD dissertation.
Beyond this chapter however I do prioritise key elements of the experience and disregard large amounts of the data gathered. I focus on two main sessions out of twelve recorded, putting to one side completely comparative data using a different coding tool. I have also put to one side a line of inquiry exploring a drama process introduced in the third phase of the design. Instead, the main prioritisation is represented in the research questions: that being, the use of gameplay design patterns, and their relationship with emerging participant agency. Even this more limited focus, still contains a rich interplay of diverse tool use, varied of and a study of different dimensions of agency shown by participants. While, at times, this diversity may ask a lot of the reader to follow, it is justifiable due to the complex nature of the learning experiences involved.
Contribution to knowledge of this thesis
While there has been a large body of research on the value and practice of game making for educational purposes, it is a dynamic landscape which has many areas which merit additional research. This study is novel in its approach of using a JavaScript game library in a code playground coding environment as a tool for novices.
While the theme of collaborative pedagogies and social practices are well explore in literature on game making, the process of creating a game making community are under-represented. Few addressing an explicit intention to nurture a community of game makers or details how the process of community formation occurred. While this wider community formation is not the main focus of this study, it is a thread which is explored here through the lens of collective agency. In order to capture and analyse the process of social and cultural development happening in the fledgling community I have used methods of data collection and analysis which I feel may be useful to share as a contribution to the field. Chapter 4 details the methodology of recording a dynamic picture of cultural interactions. Of particular novel interest may be the use of concurrent, side-by-side analysis of capture of what was happening on participants computer screens and 360 video recordings of the room interactions.
Turning to the issue of dissemination, the process of sharing details of pedagogical practice for and audience of researchers and practitioners is complicated. As previously described, many game making studies mentioned also omit descriptions of pedagogies used. Illingworth’s review [@illingworth_review_2017] of Kafai and Burke’s influential book on game making for learning [-@kafai_connected_2016], notes the lacks of specific details of the pedagogical approaches involved. Even when processes are described, results are often too abstract to be useful or easily understood by practitioners or too bound up with contextual factors to be replicable [@hoadley_creating_2002 CHECK]. This is a grand problem in education which this work cannot resolve, but can only seek to mitigate against. To this end, this study is guided by research processes which share, design heuristics in a format that is accessible by researchers and practitioners. An example of which is the work of Brennan and Silverman [@resnick_reflections_2005], and Brennan and Petrich in tinkering studios. As a result, my research proposes as a design heuristic, the use of a collection of game design patterns. While some existing research on this approach exists [@holopainen2007teaching], this work contributes significantly to this area in the following ways: specifically by researching the use of a GDP collection by novice coders to make games using code, and through the an analysis of emerging pedagogical uses of gameplay design patterns which are explored in detail in chapter 5. The research process has created numerous practical outputs for practitioners in the form of free-software and educational materials created under an open-licence.
How much of this research is applicable beyond the domain of game making for educational purposes? The promise of computational thinking was in part based on such claims that it was a powerful way of thinking that could be transfered from the domain of computing to other subjects [@wing_computational_2006-1; @the_royal_society_shut_2012]. Sociocultural and situated understandings of learning view such transmission of knowledge as problematic, a view indeed shared by many advocates of computational thinking [@tedre_long_2016; @guzdial_learner-centered_2015-1]. Thus, I am cautions of making claims about transfer of the value of developing computational fluency of participants to other areas. In addition, the specific pedagogy which emerged centred around participants flexible use of game design patterns. On the other hand, the process which surfaced guiding design heuristics has greater potential for more diverse application. This theme is explored, along with other avenues of future potential in the concluding chapter.
6. Chapter outline of the study
This introduction has covered key contextual, motivational and theoretical considerations relevant to this study. This section now outlines the structure and indicative content of the chapters of this thesis. The literature review begins the exploration of the key themes and threads that are integral to the findings of this study. One of the challenges of this work is to explore the details to a non-expert audience. While the literature review will begin to disambiguate some of the terms used in the thesis there is in addition a glossary which outlines short definitions of technical terms used. The glossary is included as an appendix to this study and as summary table is in the literature review. Key strand of the literature review include: a review of existing studies on game making; a comparative analysis of the claims of these studies with project-based learning approaches; a summary of the context of informal settings; and a detail exploration of varied game making pedagogies relevant to developing computational fluency. The chapter end by revisiting the problem statement of this thesis in line with gaps in existing research.
Chapter 3 details the theoretical framework used for this study, taking as its base the use of activity theory. I also explain how the design based research (DBR) aligns well with the aims of the research questions and the use of concepts and the leading approach of third generation activity theory (3GAT). This separate chapter allows for discussion of concepts aligned with the theoretical framework including: the iterative, mutual, and emergent nature of the resources and processes; the process of identifying units of analysis; and transformative conceptions of agency.
Chapter 4 describes the methodology of the study. I describe and justify the process of data gathering using computer screen capture and 360 cameras and other varied means. I explore the challenge of processing and analysing large amounts of research data and justify the resulting prioritisation of data. I also begin to describe the phases of learning delivery.
Chapter 5 takes the form of a process from design-based research, a design narrative, to provide a detailed description of the tools and pedagogies that that emerged from development process. To explore emerging tensions in design in a way which communicates relevant context, I outline key conflicts in interrelated activity systems using the terminology of third generation activity theory (3GAT). The chapter discussion begins explores themes of authenticity of tool use, the mutual nature of the evolution of the design, and initial barriers and corresponding interventions.
Chapter 6 focuses on the implementation of individual game design patterns (GDPs) and in doing so addresses how data gathered informs thinking on the research question - How can game design patterns support the development of computational fluency in novices?? This chapter begins by re-examining of game design patterns and game play design patterns in the context of a community of novice coders. Following this a vignette of parent child interaction in game making process introduces an overview of interactions of that pair to help contextualise findings. The chapter then undertakes a systematic analysis of the use of game design patterns by participants drawing on detailed observations of practice. A discussion section explores implications and observations from these findings in relation to existing research and concepts.
Chapter 7 discusses the characteristics of an inclusive pedagogical environment that helped participants become part of an emerging community of game makers. Its focus on emerging agency of participants to answer the third research question: How can learners build agency in an evolving community of game makers? To do this, it explores in particular the role of design interventions to support and nurture the expression learner identities, particular the role of playtesting.
Chapter 8 concludes the thesis with a final discussion on the significance of my findings in line with other research and discusses the limitations of this research and identifies areas for future work.
7. Link to next chapter
This introduction has outlined the core motivations for this study and summarised key, relevant contextual domains. The introduction also highlighted the complexities of and introduced the structure of the thesis, including a focus on key themes such as authenticity, barriers to participation, and inclusive pedagogical strategies. The next chapter will provide a detailed examination of relevant research on effective pedagogies and relevant theoretical concepts that are needed to follow this study. This review, in particular, clarifies key frameworks which contribute to understanding the study’s first research question. Chapter 2 also prepares the reader for a later exploration of how design-based research and third-generation activity theory are used in this study to answer the research questions.