Αξιολόγηση εκπαιδευτικού λογισμικού σε σχέση με τη μαθησιακή του αποτελεσματικότητα: η περίπτωση του διαδικτυακού παιχνιδιού GREPOLIS κι η παιδαγωγική του ένταξη για τη διδασκαλία του μαθήματος της Ιστορίας στη Δ΄ Δημοτικού

Abstract

In the New Media Age more and more educational technology researchers support the utilization of online games for didactic purposes based on the premise that this ‘Game Based Learning” is capable of providing a playful, interactive learning environment. For this reason, ‘educational games’ or else ‘computer games in Game Based Learning’ (Tang, S., Hannegham, M., & Rhalibi, A., 2009: 4) are nowadays considered to create a safe learning setting where students have the opportunity to acquire multiple learning experiences. Nevertheless, it is due to a still insufficient evaluation in terms of the digital games’ pedagogical orientation that their implementation in the educational process remains a debating issue. On the grounds of this adequacy we attempt in this paper to investigate the possible pedagogical appropriateness of a highly commercial, massive multiplayer browser based game called GREPOLIS. By making use of a proposed Quality Evaluation Framework we expect to experiment on whether this online game could be considered as ‘serious’ and reliable methodological resource for the teaching/ learning of the history course for fourth graders in primary school education.