Video and computer game users are frequently stated as possessing a higher proficiency in English. In this study, 3 Swedish upper secondary school students from different programs played The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, a lovecraftian murder mystery game. The aim was to examine the possible effects on their English vocabulary acquisition through their ability of assuming words' meaning from the context presented by the game. The words used in the study were low-frequency words which were gathered from the game and then cross-referenced with the Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA). The 80 least frequent words were selected. Participants were tasked with translating, explaining or using the words in sentences after completing a game chapter. The study found that the game had in general had a positive effect on the participants’ vocabulary store. However, the test scores varied greatly between participants; 1 participant acquired 1 word while another participant acquired 18. This, combined with the small sample size, meant it was difficult to say definitively how effective the game had been at expanding the participants' vocabulary store.

Denna studie har som mål att utforska de attityder som pedagoger har till lärandet genom digitala spel i användningen inom skolverksamheten. Det studien mer specifikt kommer att undersöka “Hur förhåller sig pedagoger till användningen av digitala spel i skolverksamheten”. Vi har använt semistrukturerade intervjuer för att samla in vårt empiriska material. Ett sociokulturellt perspektiv användes för att analysera det empiriska materialet som hade samlats in.  Slutsatsen av denna studie är att pedagoger har en positiv inställning till lärandet genom digitala spel samt att lärandet och utvecklingen av kunskaper sker i koppling till skolämnen men även till den personliga utvecklingen hos barnen via kommunikationen som sker mellan varandra. Dessutom understryks det att pedagoger måste utveckla sin egen kunskap och sitt engagemang för användning av digitala spel för att framgångsrikt kunna hantera en pedagogisk användning genom spel, för att eleverna ska få möjlighet att lära sig genom sina intressen. / This essay aims to explore the understanding of leisure-time teachers attitudes about using digital games in leisure-time activities. What the essay more particularly will investigate is “How do educators relate to the use of digital games in schools’ leisure-time activities?”. We have used semi-structured interviews to gather our empirical material. Sociocultural perspective was used to analyze the empirical material collected. The findings of the essay shows that educators have a positive attitude towards learning through digital games, that the learning and development of the educational and the personal areas of the children evolve. Furthermore, it is underlined that educators must develop their own knowledge and commitment towards the use of digital games to be able to successfully manage an educational use of games that is in the interest of the children that are learning.

The focus of this study was to conduct a meta-analytic investigation to combine the results obtained in independent studies aimed at determining the effectiveness of using digital games, as opposed to traditional methods, as a strategy for improving students' performance in high school mathematics. The major question of this study is: "Does the research on the use of games in high school mathematics support the use of games as a teaching strategy for improving student achievement?" To answer this question, meta-analysis was employed. Meta-analysis synthesizes and analyzes the quantitative data collected in independent and multiple empirical studies carried out on similar topics, situations, and hypotheses in order to reach a general judgment regarding the results of these studies. To determine which studies to use, specific criteria including articles published in refereed journals, thesis, and dissertation studies with experimental and control groups, research with effect size, sample size, standard deviation, and means. Based on these criteria, it was decided to include six experimental studies in the meta-analysis. The result showed that there was no significant differences between the use of digital games and traditional methods to teach mathematics in high school. The weighting factor of the two variables, standard deviation and number of participants, may account for the lack of support for gaming over traditional method of instruction.

The use of digital games in mathematics is something that has found its place in many classrooms over the years. Previous research regarding digital games’ effect on students’ results and motivation has not included a teacher’s perspective. This qualitative study has therefore collected the data through semi-structured interviews and has interviewed five teachers about their intention and beliefs behind using digital games in teaching mathematics and how their intentions and beliefs may affect the choices they make. The result of the study was that teachers used digital games as to make students motivated to practice mathematics  as well as to individulize the mathematical content to the students. The teachers also viewed students as “digital natives” and related this view to their own self-image and this belief appeared to be a major factor when the teachers’ made choices. / Digitala spel i matematikundervisning är något som tagit plats i många klassrum de senaste åren. Den forskning som bedrivits om digitala spels påverkan gällande elevers resultat och motivation har däremot saknat ett lärarperspektiv gällande användningen av digitala spel. Denna kvalitativa studie har därför med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer undersökt fem lärares syften och uppfattningar gällande digitala spel i matematikundervisning och vilka bakomliggande faktorer som kan ha kommit att påverka deras val. Resultatet visade att lärarna använde spel i syfte att låta eleverna färdighetsträna på ett motiverande sätt samt att kunna individanpassa undervisningen för eleverna. Lärarnas syn på eleverna som “digital natives” i relation till sin självbild var det som tycktes påverka deras val i störst utsträckning.

Denna studie undersöker elevers kulturskapande kring digitala spel och vad det är med spel som tilltalar dem. Studien baseras på en kvalitativ semistrukturerad intervju gjord tillsammans med 9 elever i åldern 6-9 år. Intervjuerna skedde både i par och enskilt och alla intervjuer skedde på en och samma skola. I vår ramverksteori om det sociokulturella perspektivet används begreppen appropriering och mediering för att vi ska kunna analysera de sociala interaktionerna som sker genom digitalt spelande. Resultatet visar på att digitala spel har en stor roll i både elevernas fritid, lärandeprocesser och kulturskapande. Studiens resultat visar även på att digitala spel är en stor och väsentlig del i elevernas sociala samhörighet där gemenskapen är en stor faktor.

Previous research demonstrated the phenomenon of moral panics on “dangerous” games mostly from Western perspectives, regarding media violence and deviant behaviour. With the development of media technology, the term “media panic” has evolved from moral panic, representing the debates and fearful emotion from the public when a new media technology has been created. Digital games as a form of media technology have been developed to be widely played on various platforms in recent decades, which have not only brought concerns to the Western but also to Chinese society. The present study will introduce media panic on digital games in China by analyzing news reports from three Chinese mainstream news media: People’s Daily, Xinhua Daily Telegraph and Wen Wei Po (Shanghai). Content analysis will be adopted as the main method to process the news data (N = 445) which are collected from five periods between 2002 and 2020 (2002-2004, 2007-2009, 2012-2014, 2017-2019, 2020). Different phases and features of the panic will be analyzed through the classical moral panic theories of Cohen, Goode and Ben-Yehuda, and the media panic theory of Drotner. Topics of game addiction, Internet cafes, policies on the game industry, cultural innovation, development of esports will be explored when investigating the changing media attitudes toward digital games in the Chinese context.

In Sweden, 50% of all teenagers between the ages 12-18 spend at least three hours a day, spending their time on anything from digital games to YouTube and homework research. Given the popularity of such activities, it is worthwhile investigating to what degree any one of them might be used to help facilitate English second language learning. Research show that digital games use lead to an enhanced vocabulary comprehension, reading comprehension, speaking comprehension, lowered anxiety level and enhanced willingness to communicate for L2 English learners. In the current study we used a qualitative teacher interviews and a quantitative student questionnaires to determine to what extent Swedish elementary school teachers and students in the southern part of Sweden perceive extramural multiplayer online games as being effective for facilitating L2 learning motivation and vocabulary acquisition, as well as their strategies for implementing digital gaming. The major conclusions of this study from both a teacher and student perception is that the motivation is enhanced in students who are frequent gamers, also enhancing their motivation in the classroom to learn English. Additionally, teachers found a wider vocabulary and knowledge of synonyms in students who frequently play games.

This research proposes to investigate the contribution that innovative development projects involving digital games can make to the field of entertainment-education (EE), which has been considered as a communication strategy falling under the media for development approach in the broader field of communication for development (Manyozo, 2012). Studies have shown that EE scholarship and practice is largely rooted in theories of individual behaviour change, but also that new theoretical perspectives deriving from participatory and empowering, as well as cultural approaches to communication are emerging in the field. The prevalence of innovation and of the application of EE principles to new mediums like digital games has also been brought to light (Obregon & Tufte, 2014). Digital games as a vehicle for EE have been analysed through the concept of serious games, or games with a utilitarian purpose, and from a behaviour change perspective (Wang & Singhal, 2009). The present research project aimed at reflecting on serious games and EE from a new perspective through the notion of innovation, and was conducted by means of exploratory and comparative qualitative case study. Findings show that innovation is closely associated with the notions of co-creation and participation. By focusing on a participatory approach to game design, innovative development projects involving digital games fit predominantly in emergent theories in EE, and combine elements of multiple approaches to communication for development, not principally the media for development approach.

Today's school has become more and more digital the last years which means that schools have more access to digital tools than before. For example, digital games are something that is used frequently during mathematic classes. This systematic literature study has the purpose to compile current research about which impact digital games have in school and also see how digital games contribute to students' development of mathematical proficiencies. The results of this study show that students develop mathematical proficiencies through digital games with numerical literacy as the most central. The results also show that students are stimulated by using digital games, this contributes to a positive learning. More research would be desirable about how digital mathematics games can be associated with regular teaching. It would also be interesting to do a qualitative study of teachers’ knowledge about using digital games. / Dagens skola har blivit mer och mer digitaliserad de senaste åren vilket innebär att det finns ett större utbud av olika digitala läromedel än tidigare. Exempelvis är digitala spel något som används frekvent inom skolans matematikundervisning. Denna systematiska litteraturstudie har till syfte att sammanställa aktuell forskning kring vilken inverkan digitala spel har i skolan samt på vilket sätt dessa digitala spel bidrar till elevers utveckling av matematiska förmågor. Resultatet av studien visar att elever utvecklar matematiska förmågor genom digitala spel där räkneförmågan är mest central. Resultatet visar även att elevers matematikintresse stimuleras genom användning av digitala spel vilket bidrar till en positiv inlärning. Ytterligare forskning kring hur digitala spel kan komplettera vanlig traditionell matematikundervisning vore önskvärt. Det vore även intressant att göra en kvalitativ studie om lärares kunskaper kring användning av digitala spel.

As a fairly new form of media that is currently increasing its number of LGBTQ characters, digital games and their queer representation is an interesting research are, in equal parts in order to see what potential stereotypes and tropes may be in play aswell as to compare it to what has been done before in other forms of storytelling. The question at hand for this thesis is regarding Queer representation in the commercial game The Last of Us Part II, released in 2020. The game was analyzed through the use of a textual analysis. The main, queer, characters were analyzed through their dialogue, their backstory, their progression as well as the way they were presented and received by the rest of the game-world inhabitants. In order to fully understand the characters, the research includes media representation in film and tv that may have contributed to the way their storylines as well as characterization was created, ranging from the horror-genre itself to LGBTQ representation in both film, tv and games. The research provided interpretations of the main characters and the ways theirq ueerness can be interpreted. The characters and their narrative was deemed to contain both positive and negative portrayals, while similarities to real-life experiences of LGBTQ individuals could be seen as mirrored in this post-apocalyptic game-worldfilled with zombies.