Are girls interested in egaming? ... 6% of preteen and 4

1
TechGURLS Egaming and Teenage Girls

• Presented by Lesley Farmer
• lfarmer_at_csulb.edu
• www.csulb.edu/lfarmer

2
Whats the Situation?

• Are girls interested in egaming?
• YES! About 67 of 9-12 year old girls do and over
  90 of 13-17 year old girls use technology
• 40 of girl game daily
• 6 of preteen and 4 of teen girls make up game
  audience
• Girls spend less time (household priorities)

3
Egame Mastery and Gender

• Girls master individually vs. boys learning from
  each other (because of societal messages)
• Girls ask boys for advice
• Girls tend not to use manuals
• Girls tend to reset level or game
• Girls may walk away from controls/navigation
• Expert gamers are gender-neutral

4
Whats the Problem??

• Girls dont like the computer culture
• They dont like the nature of most computer games
• They dislike stereotypical female characters
• They see few female role models
• And their attitude becomes more problematic when
  they hit adolescence because of social issues
• by the way, did you know that parents are more
  likely to buy computers for boys than girls?

5
What Happens in Schools?

• Technology-enhanced projects are gender-neutral
  or more male oriented.
• Girls are discouraged from taking advanced tech
  courses.
• Girls lack info about the impact of technology on
  salaries and promotions.
• Girls tend to classify all tech jobs as
  masculine.
• Schools tend to dis egames.

6
The World of Gaming

• Nature of the game, its characters, its story
  line
• Graphic features
• Interactivity
• Openness
• Context
• Incorporation into education
• Scaffolding
• Personalized textual feedback

7
Benefits of Egaming

• use of fixed, equitable rules
• clear roles and expectations
• internally-consistent environment where
  everything is possible
• clear goals within a rich context that gives
  goals personal meaning and relevance
• opportunities to explore identities
• cognitive and affective engagement
• multiple ways to achieve goals through
  constructivist strategies
• specific, timely feedback
• sense of control and personal investment
• situated learning
• sense of reward for effort, including trial and
  error
• structured interaction between players, and
  between players and the game
• blend of cooperation and competition

8
Tips to Engage Girls with Egames

• Provide choice
• Get the girls input and act on it
• Make it social encourage buddy learning
• Focus on communication and human relationships
• Encourage intellectual risk-taking
• Emphasize effort more than mastery
• Have fun!

9
School Conditions for Engagement

• Broad-based vision and mission
• Positive and open community-based school culture
• Cohesive, interdependent curriculum
• Strong repertoire of instructional/learning
  strategies
• Sufficient resources
• System infrastructure and support

10
Criteria for Choosing Egames

• confidence encourage and support girls
  abilities
• collaboration facilitate working together
• personal identification relate to personal life
• contextuality present information in narrative
  or story form
• flexibility/motility offer several navigational
  paths
• social connectivity facilitate interpersonal
  connections
• inclusion portray diverse populations
• multimedia presence meld high-quality graphic,
  motion and audio elements

11
Library Portals and Egaming

• add game-related displays that include game art,
  game-related fiction, and information about
  careers in gaming
• link to gaming magazines and strategy guides
• publicize gaming events and resources
• add student-created content, such as game reviews

12
Instruction and Egaming Principles

• provide student choice (which topic to study)
• offer opportunities for low-pressure situations
• emphasize the importance of memorizing and
  mastering basics of a concept before applying the
  knowledge
• Facilitate collaborative work
• provide extra help for struggling students
• provide extension activities for students who
  excel
• evaluate effort rather than product
• use alternative and authentic assessments
  designing demo games, tests based on mastery
  levels (not everyone takes the same tests)

13
Egaming and Information Literacy

• just-in-time verbal or textual feedback when the
  learner wants it
• affirmation of effort as it leads to performance
  and competence
• incorporation of the affective domain,
  particularly as it relates to personal priorities
• consideration of systems and relationships as
  they impact information analysis and use
• emphasis on distributed knowledge and
  cross-functional information-seeking teams
• acknowledgement and leveraging of multiple
  perspectives
• empathy of complex information systems

14
What Can Adults Do?

• Have girls bookmark egames when they use the
  Internet make them easy to find!
• Include these site on web portals
• Link to projects that support girls career
  exploration
• Alert the school community about these egames
• Plan activities that use these egames

15
References

• Agosto, D. (2004). Girls and gaming A summary of
  the research with implications for practice.
  Teacher Librarian, 31(3), 8-14..
• American Association of University Women. (2000).
  Tech-savvy Education girls in the new computer
  age. Washington, DC American Association of
  University Women.
• Amory, Alan, et al (1999). The use of computer
  games as an educational tool.. British Journal of
  Educational Technology, 30, 311-321.
• Becker, K. (2007) Digital game-based learning
  once removed.. British Journal of Educational
  Technology, 38, 479-488.
• Cassell, J., Jenkins, H. (Eds). (1998). From
  Barbie to Mortal Kombat. Cambridge, MA The MIT
  Press.
• Cooper, J., Weaver, K. (2003). Gender and
  computers Understanding the digital divide.
  Nawah, NJ Erlbaum.
• DeKanter, N. (2005). Gaming redefines
  interactivity for learning. TechTrends, 49(3),
  26-31.
• Fromme, J. (2003). Computer games as a part of
  children's culture. Game Studies, 3(1).
  http//www.gamestudies.org/0301/fromme/
• Gee, James. (2007). What video games have to
  teacher us about learning and literacy (2nd ed.).
  Palgrave, England Macmillan.
• Graner Ray, S. (2004). Gender inclusive game
  design Expanding the market.. Hingham, Eng.
  Charles River Media.
• Helmrich, E., Neiburger, E. (2007). Video games
  as a service Three years later. VOYA, 30(2)
  113-115.
• Jenkins, H. (2008). Reality bytes Eight myths
  about video games debunked. The Video Game
  Revolution. Jones, S. (2003). Let the games
  begin. Washington, DC Pew Internet American
  Life Project.
• Kaiser Family Fntn.. (2005). Generation M Media
  in the lives of eight to eighteen year olds.
  Menlo Park, CA Author.
• Koster, R.(2004). A theory of fun for game
  design. Phoenix, AZ Peralglygh.
• Levine, J. (2006). Gaming and libraries. Library
  Technology Reports, 42(5).
• Macgill, A. (2007). Parent and teen Internet use.
  Washington, DC Pew Internet American Life
  Project.
• McFerrin,E., et al. (Eds.). Proceedings of
  Society for Information Technology and Teacher
  Education International Conference 2008 pp.
  991-996). Chesapeake, VA American Association of
  Computer Education.
• Neiburger, E. (2007). Gamers...in the library?!
  Chicago American Library Association.
• Nicholson, S. (2007). The role of gaming in
  libraries Taking the pulse. http//boardgameswith
  scott.com/pulse2007.pdf