Ce titre provient d’un article de First Monday qui s’intitule « The impact of digital games in education« . L’auteur base ses propos sur l’idée que les apprentissages par le « virtuel » occupent une place centrale dans notre société et que l’élément clé n’est pas la technologie, mais l’interaction entre l’apprenant et la technologie.
« However, there is another domain with tremendous potential for reaching, motivating, and fully involving learners: The world of games. We believe that games constitute the most interactive multimedia resource in our culture today. Children gain access to the world of digital culture via digital games. Our main hypothesis is that children acquire digital literacy informally, through play, and that neither schools nor other educational institutions take sufficient account of this important aspect. We consider that multimedia design for training and education should combine the most powerful features of interactive multimedia design with the most effective principles of technologically-mediated learning. »
Faire le résumé de ce long papier me semble pertinent en même temps que très astreignant. Je me lance quand même vers quelques idées qui se dégagent d’une première lecture qui méritera un retour certain; c’est un article de fond qui est sérieux, basé sur des recherches qui le sont tout autant et qui aident à voir plus clair dans ce secteur de l’importance des jeux dans l’acte d’apprendre.
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Les résistances des enseignants à utiliser le potentiel des jeux vidéos à des fins d’apprentissage seraient reliées aux difficultés que les enseignants ont à introduire un nouveau média dans la classe s’il n’est pas parfaitement adapté à sa pratique de tous les jours. Aussi, dix facteurs prédisposent l’enseignant à l’utilisation des technologies (et des jeux vidéos) en classe.
Voici la liste de ces facteurs, mais la lecture du texte est essentielle pour apprécier totalement la pertinence de ces items:
1- La vitesse
2- Le traitement parallèle de l’information versus le traitement linéaire
3- Le texte qui illustre l’image et non l’image qui illustre le texte
4- La fin de l’accès linéaire à l’information
5- La connectivité
6- Être actif plutôt que passif
7- S’orienter vers des problèmes à résoudre
8- Récompense immédiate
9- L’importance de la fantaisie
10- Une vision positive des technologies
Ensuite, l’auteur élabore sur la pertinence des jeux dans les apprentissages: « Play does not take the same shape in informal contexts as in formal ones. Games are transformed when they are used for educational purposes: They are still games but they are used for a specific aim, to learn particular things, and to develop certain strategies and/or abilities. The game is integrated in a context that establishes its own rules as to how it should be used in order to derive maximum educational benefit. In this respect, as Bishop says, « there are more forms of playing than there are games ». » Une section du texte porte même sur les applications au sein du curriculum scolaire (mathémathiques, sciences, langues, etc.).
Enfin, de belles perspectives sont offertes par la recherche sur le domaine des jeux vidéos. « Many of the existing theories have explained games on the basis of their function, that is, on what underlies the immediate experience of the game, both individually and socially. Calvo (1997) maintains that games can enhance the following functions:
1- Motor development. Games often involve movement; they stimulate precision, coordination of movements, and speed.
2- Intellectual development. As well as movement, games may also involve understanding how things work, resolving problems, devising strategies, etc.
3- Affective development. The fictional nature of games, the opportunity to act out a role means that they have a key function in the affective development of the individual. Games stimulate students to understand their life experiences and help them to mature.
4- Social development. Games are also ways of relating to others. In addition to their socializing dimension, their capacity to symbolically generate roles makes them effective transmitters of society’s predominant values and attitudes. »
Autre extrait: « One of these studies was by Greenfield (2000) who analysed children between the age of 12 and 16 years, using for the most part adventure games. The main conclusions she reached are listed here:
1- Video games aid the development of strategies for reading three-dimensional images;
2- They help to develop learning through observation and hypothesis-testing;
3- They broaden the understanding of scientific simulations; and,
4- They increase strategies for parallel attention.
…
Video games are useful instruments for learning specific strategies and for acquiring knowledge; they also develop the learning that is characteristic of the culture of the information society, and this learning is likely to have long-term consequences. Games can be used to learn a particular content, but they may leave an impression (Salomon’s « cognitive residue ») on the learners as well. Researchers are now investigating the types of learning that derives from the use of the video games and their possible applications in other areas of study. »
