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From Comenius to Counter-Strike : 400 years of Game-based learning as a didactic foundation

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Author list: Mozelius, Peter

Publisher: Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited

Place: Sophia Antipolis, France

Publication year: 2018

ISBN: 978-1-911218-99-9


Abstract

The Czech philosopher John Amos Comenius has been presented as the father of modern didactics. He also favoured learning by doing and believed in ""the art of turning all our schools into games"". Furthermore, Comenius had the idea of a flipped classroom with a four-hour school day, divided into two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. The time in between is recommended to be spent on preparation, play and to explore nature. Comenius saw play as an important didactic strategy since play is an imitation of life itself. Most importantly, Comenius wished games/play and learning to be integrated. He envisioned ""a school in which the serious and the fun are mixed"" (Comenius, 1657B, [xviii]).

This study has been carried out as a central and comparative literature review. Central in the sense of reviewing a body of literature that is central to the chosen topic, and comparative in the sense that texts describing ideas from the Comenius era have been compared to contemporary ideas. The historical texts were studied using a contextual method, viewing Comeniuss works as moves in an argument, as described by Skinner (1996).

The comparison reveals both similarities and differences. The concepts of learning by doing, facilitas and to flip the classroom, are all didactic ideas aligned to game-based learning today. Some examples of learning initiatives and schools fundamentally built upon the idea of learning by gaming were found, but the idea still seems radical to most educators. Comenius would probably have loved the rich abundance of games and gamification today, but certainly not shooting games like Counter-Strike. Comenius’s vision was more one of a peaceful utopia with enlightened citizens. Finally, it is hard to tell if Comenius, alive today, would find the 21st century digital games to support or to interfere his Epicurean idea of a direct vision.


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Last updated on 2018-09-11 at 04:01