Gaming Pattern

Among all the teachers interviewed, only one teacher (i.e. Teacher E) never played computer games so she would be excluded from the gaming discussion. According to Teacher E, she had no interest in gaming. There were two gaming patterns seen among the teachers. The male teachers played different types of games such as fighting, strategy, puzzle, role-playing, sports, action-adventure and MMORPG, whereas, the female teachers played only puzzle games.

a. Male Teachers

A male teacher (i.e. Teacher B) played Clash of Clans, King of Fighter, Street Fighter,

DotA, and World of Warcraft. He played these games because he enjoyed the

competition with the other players in the games. Teacher B played digital games for two to three hours daily. The other male teacher (i.e. Teacher C) enjoyed playing

Command and Conquer once a week for less than one hour. He said,

There is some part I need to learn how to use strategy to conquer the other world. There is one strategy I always used. How I can know my students, I

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need to know my students well. This is part of my strategy in my teaching and learning. So I get to know my students. So I need to conquer their mind. So basically they will follow me (Teacher C).

Teacher C had an interesting teaching strategy adopted from gaming. Students were analogous to the opponents in games, and he used those gaming strategies to understand and to motivate his students to learn. His strategy seemed to be effective. From the students’ and parents’ interviews, I got to know that he was one of the best teachers in the school.

Comparatively, both male teachers were equally good and knowledgeable in gaming. According to them, they learned multitasking, land navigation, teamwork, problem- solving, and concentration through gaming.

b. Female Teachers

The female teachers were not active gamers. Other than Teacher E who never played any computer game, the other three female teachers (i.e. A, D and F) played only puzzle games such as Candy Crush, Solitaire and Sudoku. Candy Crush was their favourite game. Teacher D who spent approximately 30 minutes per day playing Candy

Crush said,

Because you feel that you like to complete the level. If you don’t get it, you will feel not worth it, angry and really not satisfied. You want to try again until get it done. The feeling of satisfaction. If you complete one level, you feel very happy… The happiness, enjoy doing that (Teacher D).

Teacher D explained that the principle of hard fun (Papert, 1998) or pleasantly

frustrating (Gee, 2007) had engaged her to play Candy Crush. In Candy Crush, learning

was essentially hard and frustrating when she failed to complete a level, but the learning experience was fun, enjoyable, pleasurable and contented.

Another two female teachers (A and F) showed less interest towards gaming. Teacher A cited that she had stopped playing computer games although she had played

Solitaire, Sudoku and Candy Crush in the past. She said,

Solitaire was numbers, because it is more like arranging. Candy Crush also is because finding the similarities… Just to stretch my mind. Ya, I forgot I used to play Sudoku in the smartphone… I like games that involve numbers. I don’t know, just like it… Ya, logical thinking. Thinking to solve it and arranging it (Teacher A).

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Teacher A preferred playing puzzle games that required analytical and logical thinking skills. This could be related to her job as a mathematics teacher. As for Teacher F, she did not have much interest in gaming. She said,

Nothing interesting. Just to waste my time. That one minute is sufficient. No time to be wasted [Translated from BM] (Teacher F).

Teacher F was not only having no interest in playing computer games, but also perceived playing games as a waste of time. As expected, the female teachers (A, D and F) did not recognise learning of multitasking, problem-solving and land navigation skills in computer games. However, two teachers recognised learning of teamwork and concentration skills.

Teachers’ gaming experience (e.g. hours spent and types of games played) seems to be consistent with their self-reported metacognitive skills learned (i.e. multitasking, land navigation, problem-solving, teamwork and concentration). The male teachers who have claimed to be knowledgeable in gaming are well-informed of learning various metacognitive skills in games. Conversely, the female teachers who have played only puzzle games are being truthful for they have admitted that they are not aware of learning most of the metacognitive skills in games. It is a common notion of adults that they only see the negative side of gaming and miss some positive opportunities that gaming might offer.

The above finding could imply that the male teachers enjoy playing computer games, but not the female teachers. The male teachers seem to plan and have an intention to play computer games during their leisure time. However, female teachers play computer games only when they have some spare time without any significant purpose. The teachers’ gaming experience is very much influenced by their gender differences.

Older generations hardly play computer games because they are not capable or they have no interest in gaming. The older generations may not see the enjoyment in using such technologies. They may view pleasure differently. For instance, they may enjoy more practical activities - fishing, reading and cooking. It is a tendency that the older generations do not enjoy playing games.

A boomer who can’t pick up a new program is basically just not trying. But a boomer who can feel natural playing a game – is a real anomaly (Beck

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The older generations were first introduced to computers when they were in high school, university or at the workplace, to complete a serious task. However, young generation nowadays were first exposed to computers to play games.

For the young generation, a computer is their close friend to play with or a learning companion since young; but for the older generations, a computer is like a friend that they know later in their lives (i.e. working companion) – they have grown up and they do not play like kids anymore. Different childhood experience may have formed different feelings and views about computer technologies.