Designing Learning with Digital Play

Lim and Toh provide updates on recent research on digital play and learning, and unite game-based learning with multimodal and social semiotic theories. They adopt the position that teachers’ or caregivers’ scaffolding is required when games are used in a pedagogical context such as the classroom. The book offers a nuanced view of the nature and properties of games beyond ‘motivation’, including the students’ interest and use of digital play. The chapters explore the varied ways in which games are designed to promote critical thinking and reflection. It expands on the teachers’ or caregivers’ scaffolding of students’ digital play in pedagogical contexts such as in a classroom setting where students are guided to reflect on how they perceive the representations in the game world. With this openness and interest towards digital play, the authors argue that it is timely for us to examine the value of digital play for learning; that it can foster literacy development as well as promote growth in the affective domain. They echo the call for design principles in digital play to inform the design of students’ learning experiences and explore ways in which digital play can be integrated into teaching and learning. This book covers a topic which is both relevant and urgent in today’s digital age. Of interest to anyone involved in designing learning with digital play, this volume will be of particular value to students and scholars in education, curriculum design, pedagogy, as well as multimodality.