A Study Of The Mechanism For The Integration Of Digital Games In Formal Classroom

In recent years, digital games have assumed an important place in the lives of children. As the rapid development of digital games, more and more researchers have tried to use the power of games to construct a new learning paradigm called Digital Game-Based Learning. They hope, aligned with this paradigm, learning would be as interesting, engaging, and effective as gaming. However, while the benefits and values on use of DGBL have increasingly been proved, the obstacles and challenges of implementing DGBL are significant. Furthermore, the attitude toward DGBL of the Chinese practitioners in the real educational context is still ambiguous, so DGBL has not successfully entered into the practical field. Therefore, this study explored the mechanism of integration DGBL into formal classroom, which plays a significant role on promoting the research of digital games and formal education.Based on literature analysis and practical case studies domestically and internationally, this study firstly introduces and analyses the theoretical basis, pathways, models, challenges, and experiences of integration of digital games and formal learning. Four classic learning theories, behaviorism, cognitivism, humanism, and constructivism support the implementation of DGBL respectively; There are four pathways for the integration at the macro-level:government-based, industry-based, research-based and school-based; As we can find a lot of instruction models of DGBL at the intermediate level, while using games, the model we apply to should depend on real situation; the barriers and challenges can be divided into two categories:"operational" and "teaching", mutually influent and interact with each other; Fortunately, there are lots of successful experiences and suggestions at both intermediate and micro-levels.Second, this study fully analyzes one of the classic cases (use Civilization III for history class) to present and learn how to design and implement DGBL with commercial games. According to literature review and case study, the author proposes seven successful factors for the effectiveness use of DGBL:(1) ensure that teachers and students are extensively familiar with the game;(2) have clear learning objectives and link the game with learning content;(3) Externalize the learning outcome in time;(4) Closely integrate with the traditional learning activities;(5) Make the time for summary and reflection;(6) Take a good advantage of the expertise of students’;(7) Prepare the alternative teaching plans.Finally, this study explores and constructs a mechanism of integrating DGBL into formal education. Considering the main obstacles which hold back the application of DGBL in China, the author put forward a mechanism can be described as "Under the joint forces of five stakeholders in DGBL, use research-based project to generate typical models, then cultivate school-based project towards the real practice." To achieve this goal, we need government, industry, researchers, schools, teachers and all the stakeholders involved work cooperatively. Subsequently, this report gives some suggestions to promote the integration of DGBL and formal learning.