Reflective Blog #2 (2) Research in Educational Technology 2/5

Miller, D./Robertson, D. (2010). Using a game console in the

primary classroom: EFFECTS OF 'BRAIN TRAINING'

PROGRAMME ON COMPUTATION AND SELF-ESTEEM:

Article, 41(2), 242-255. Retrieved

February 20, 2010 from EBSCO Host Academic Search Complete.

Author, David J. Miller, is an Senior Lecturer in Eduction at the University of Dundee. Primary classroom practice and the effects on children's cognitive and affective development is is primary research interest. Author, Derek Robertson is New Technologies for Learning Development Officer, at Learning and Teaching Scotland, Dundee. The use of gaming technology in primary schools is his particular interest. The purpose of this study is to show that there is a growing interest in temptation for educators to use commercial off the shelf computer games for learning in the classroom. This article takes us into several primary classrooms, to support the fact that game consoles have academic significance in the classroom. The total students assessed were 71 students. School 1 used the game console for 20 minutes everyday. In school 2, 31 children used a technique called "Brain Gym" over the treatment period. School 3, were the no control class. The experiment lasted 10 weeks, and the comparison of the groups showed much detail. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether classroom use of a commercial off the shelf mental game could influence students learning and self perceptions. The authors lead to this investigation by detecting that children have very high expectations of computer games. Although there are many advocates for game-based learning, there is also a need for more concrete evidence of the learning advantages from the use of commercial off the shelf computer games. The students in the games console room was enthusiastic about the learning possibilities. They would play the Brain Training games for 20 minutes each day, four days a week. On the fifth day the student participated in a 'Brain Age Check', which provided feedback about how well they did. The classes that were identified as no treatment control, and the game console class were also tested on the fifth day. The scores were calculated, and investigated to find the performance of the three classes. The results showed that the games console class, and the no treatment control group both showed significant gains in the number of correct answers from the test taken on the fifth day. However, the game console class gained twice those of the control. The study also showed that the slight gain in scores for the Brain Gym class did not achieve significant gain.