Creating Games as Authentic Learning in the Information Technology Classroom

Teaching students to create computer games has become a common practice in both K-12 and tertiary education to introducing programming concepts, increasing student engagement, and recruiting majors and minors in technology fields. This study describes a project where first-year college students in an introductory technology concepts course use a visual game creation tool to develop original games to play on their computers and mobile devices. The paper argues that the process of making an original computer game develops digital literacy skills and provides an authentic learning experience as students collaborate to create, publish, and deploy interactive games that they can play on their computers and mobile devices. [For the full proceedings, see ED562095.]