Revista Electrónica de Investigación Educativa (Jul 2017)

Analysis of online change games: exploring opportunities

  • Tania Ouariachi Peralta,
  • María Dolores Olvera Lobo,
  • José Gutiérrez Pérez

DOI
https://doi.org/10.24320/redie.2017.19.3.1298
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 19, no. 3
pp. 101 – 114

Abstract

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Online games have been proposed as a promising tool for communication and education. Taking into account the new communicative paradigm of young people and the fact that climate change is one of the main threats to their future, this paper presents a checklist of indicators validated using the Delphi method to analyze the communicative elements of online climate change games targeting young people, and illustrates their use and usefulness with a qualitative analysis of a sample of games produced in Spain. This exploratory study maintains that online climate change games are shaping up to be innovative strategies, thanks to their immersive narrative and interactivity, among other features, which are used to meet the communicative and educational challenges regarding climate change: causes are made visible, actions are portrayed as local, uncertainty is avoided, contextualized information is provided in a positive and proactive tone, and a critical thinking approach is encouraged through decision-making.

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