Domesticating Digital Game-based Learning

Abstract

This paper analyses the use of digital game-based learning in schools in Norway. It investigates the types of games used in Norwegian schools and how pupils experience this practice. As a result of the increased focus on digital skills in Norwegian education digital game-based learning is widely employed throughout Norway. This paper analyses this usage by way of focus group interviews with a total of sixty-four pupils in four different schools. It draws upon domestication theory, actor-network theory, and the concept of script, and makes use of Latour's assemblage approach.

Norwegian schools employ a variety of digital games for learning. Games used at the primary school level seem somewhat simpler in structure than those used a secondary school level. The domestication of digital game-based learning occurs through the construction of complex game-based learning assemblages. Games are applied in school and at home, as group work and as individual assignments, played on PCs and iPads. Pupils generally appreciate this practice, although they point out that digital games may have some shortcomings as teaching tools, and at the same time acknowledge a social stigma. Digital games play several different roles as non-human agents and, while educational games are played by the script, commercial games undergo certain script changes when employed in school settings. The domestication of digital game-based learning is a collective kind of domestication whereby both teachers and pupils engage in a two-way process.