Computer games and language aims
|Authors:||Kyle Mawer, Graham Stanley|
|Series:||Delta Teacher Development Series|
Digital Play is available as both paperback and e-book. The e-book is available in the Kindle store where you can download the free Kindle reading app for every major smartphone, tablet, and computer.
Digital Play was winner in the Innovation in Teacher Resources category at the 2012 ELTons!
Digital Play is a pioneering book on the use of computer games in language teaching, in which the authors share their expertise in training teachers in innovative classroom practice with their excitement for teaching with technology. It offers:
- guidance on taking on the challenge of the digital revolution
- insight into how learners engage with gaming outside the classroom
- advice and activities for effectively bringing the world of gaming inside the classroom
Digital Play contains three distinctive parts which focus in turn on theory, practice and development:
Part A examines the role of computer games in society, in education in general and in language teaching in particular, dismissing stereotypes and suggesting ways of implementing games with language learners.
Part B consists of a bank of step-by-step activities showing how to use digital play in the classroom. Activities cover different possible classroom scenarios – from no available technology, through one computer and a projector to multiple computers – and they all have the common aim of helping learners improve their knowledge and use of the foreign language, covering all four language skills.
Part C shows the teacher how to integrate digital play activities into the wider environment of the syllabus and the school, and suggests ways of developing personally and professionally as teachers of the 21st century.
Digital Play has become one of my most popular books to refer to when planning or reflecting on the use of technology in my own classroom and I would recommend any experienced, or non-experienced, teacher to consider purchasing it in the future.
http://www.eltexperiences.com/2011/10/digital-play-book-review.html, October 2011 PDF
I read this book like a novel from cover to cover one afternoon. Even as a confessed technophobe, I still found it easy to understand and at the end I couldn't wait to try out the ideas.
ELTAF Newsletter 49, Winter 2011 PDF
If you think gaming is only for kids, think again!
Business Spotlight, April 2012 PDF
The start of the book is all about the concepts behind computer games and learning. Successive sections link computer games up with society, education, language learning, language teaching and language aims. Each section is fascinating and revelatory in its own right, as we realise the extent to which 'virtual' on-line worlds have become virtual reality for a vast number of people.
http://reviews.hotchpotchenglish.com, July 2012 PDF
Overall, Digital Play offers a compelling argument for the use of computer games in the classroom. It also proffers some very creative and innovative ideas for English language lessons.
English Australia Journal, 2012 PDF