The Development and Preliminary Evaluation of a Street View-based Educational Game - “Guarding Ka-lah-a©”

Abstract

Providing immersive experience with historical and cultural assets could be an ideal instructional strategy for teaching history. Nonetheless, organizing visiting to real world historical sites and cultural artifacts can be costly and time-consuming. Information technology could transform the real-world experiences into digital experiences. Game-based learning is regarded as an effective approach to promote students’ learning motivation and engaging experience. This study developed a street view-based educational game – “Guarding Ka-lah-a©”, which introduced the historical and cultural assets of Ka-lah-a, one of the earliest reclaimed region in ancient Taipei. An initial evaluation of the game was employed with 47 junior high school students in northern Taiwan. Results suggested that students positively evaluated the game. As for students’ gaming experience, students generally reported positive experience in terms of flow experience. These preliminary findings suggested that potential of employing digital game in history teaching could lead to better learning outcomes.