This article discusses iBiome-Wetland, the first educational game from the author's company Springbay Studio. It invites children to build virtual wetland ecosystems, learn about 54 species living in wetlands, experience biodiversity, and conduct experiments to find out how food webs work. The game has received five awards from prestigious…

We report on a large-scale, log-based study of the associations between persistence and success in an online game-based learning environment for elementary school mathematics. While working with applets, learners can rerun a task after completing it or can halt before completing and rerun it again; both of these mechanisms may improve the score.…

Early literacy skills, the basis of literacy skills, can be introduced to children through various stimuli and are supported by digital games with the increasing use of technology. This study aims to investigate the games children can download from the Play Store, which has high accessibility and allows them to play offline many times, regarding…

The need for a new measure of social-emotional wellbeing for children 6--12 years emerged in our collaboration with schools and community agencies in a disadvantaged region of Brisbane, Australia. Our search for an age-appropriate medium led us to develop "Clowning Around", a computer game generating data which was assessed for validity…

The educational game Interactions 500 was extensively used remotely during the COVID-19 Pandemic as an activity at the Federal University of Ceará (Brazil) to help students review intermolecular forces. In the postpandemic years, the game was also used face-to-face in the classroom. However, Apple Store and Google Play Store removed it from their…

The use of apps in preschool has increased considerably during the last few years. Studies have shown that digital technologies are sometimes used to replace analogue artefacts in educational settings. This calls for studies on how the use of apps transforms preschool activities. This study empirically investigates how preschool children play…

The literature on infant and toddler screen time has been built on two traditions--cognitive models of learning and sociocultural models of learning. Cognitive studies have cautioned against the use of screen time for young children because clinical research has not shown children can learn as effectively from screens as they do from human…

The presence of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is associated with worse cognitive control. Children with ASD and ADHD often respond poorly to medications, thus we need alternative treatments. We examined the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary efficacy of Project…

The RETAIN Model is a game design and evaluation model for serious games. In this study, educators evaluated social change web-based and mobile app games using the RETAIN model rubric. In general, web-based games scored higher on the RETAIN rubric than their mobile app counterparts. In addition, the educators analyzed the social change games for…

We assessed the Swiss-German version of GraphoLearn, a computer game designed to support reading by training grapheme-phoneme correspondences. A group of 34 children at risk for dyslexia trained three times a week during 14 weeks, on top of their standard school instruction. The sample was divided into two groups of 18 and 16 children, who started…

A popular activity among young children is the use of mobile devices and apps. Yet, the impact of mobile devices on learning and development is rather underexplored. The limited studies identified explore effects on literacy development and communication and report on mixed findings. A considerable gap is observed as to how the use of mobile apps…

Test anxiety always makes students afraid of doing the test because they probably think that they will fail. To overcome the problem, the teacher then used gamification based assessment. Furthermore, the study investigates the category of students test anxiety, students' attitudes toward Quizizz and the students' preference toward the elements of…

Children's learning of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is important for their achievement in related fields. Before formal schooling, families can expose children to STEM by sharing knowledge and influencing children's use of learning tools, including media. We investigated whether parent attitudes towards STEM media and…

The goal of the current study was to contribute to our emergent understanding of whether and how particular types of digital games can support student learning and engagement. We focused on commercially available educational apps that focused on similar content (fraction comparison and equivalence) but represented extremes in how game-like they…

Recent developments in mobile technologies have increased the ways in which languages can be learnt, both within and beyond the classroom. Whereas the use of mobile technologies seems to challenge traditional knowledge and skills acquisition, research shows that foreign language study can be enriched through easy access to resources selected to…