Community Building among Older Adults in a Digital Game Environment

Robyn Schell, David Kaufman

2017

Abstract

This research study describes the social connections made by a group of older adults participating in a city wide Wii bowling tournament. Our results showed that participant’s experienced an increased level of social connectedness with not only those who played with them weekly but others where they lived, their friends and family members outside of the places where they lived. Overall, the participants found that playing Wii bowling in a tournament setting contributed to the expansion of their existing network and deepened relationships in the players’ community by extending the level of social connectedness both within the game environment and beyond the boundaries of the game space.

References

  1. Allender, S., Cowburn, G. and Foster, C., 2006. Understanding participation in sport and physical activity among children and adults: A Review of Qualitative Studies. Health Education Research, 21, pp. 826-835.
  2. Allaire, J., McLaughlin, A., Trujillo, A., Whitlock, L., LaPorte, L., & Gandy, M. (2013). Successful aging through digital games: Socioemotional differences between older adult gamers and non-gamers. Computers in Human Behavior, 29, 1302-1306.
  3. Astell, A. J. (2013). Technology and fun for a happy old age. In A. Sixsmith, & G. Gutman (Eds.), Technologies for active ageing (pp. 169-187). New York: Springer.
  4. Baecker, R., Moffatt, K., & Massimi, M. (2012). Technologies for aging gracefully. Interations, 19(3), 32-36. doi:10.1145/2168931.2168940Brookfield, S. (2012). The impact of lifelong learning on communities. In D. Aspin, J. Chapman, K. Evans & R. Bagnall (Eds.), Second international handbook of lifelong learning (pp. 875-886). New York, NY: Springer.
  5. Beck, U. (2000). Living your own life in a runaway world: Individualization, globalization, and politics. In W. Hutton, & A. Giddens (Eds.), On the edge: Living with global capitalism (pp. 164-174). London: Jonathan Cape.
  6. Boud, D. & Feletti, G. (1998). The challenge of problem based learning. New York, NY: Routledge.
  7. Brookfield, S. (2012). The impact of lifelong learning on communities. In D. Aspin, J. Chapman, K. Evans & R. Bagnall (Eds.), Second international handbook of lifelong learning (pp. 875-886). New York, NY: Springer.
  8. Cattan, M., White, M., Bond, J., & Learmouth, A. (2005). Preventing social isolation and loneliness among older people: A systematic review of health promotion interventions. Ageing & Society, 25(01), 41-67. doi:10.1017/S0144686X04002594.
  9. Cohen, S., Gottlieb, H. H., & Underwood, L. G. (2000. Social relationships and health. In S. Cohen, B. H. Gottlieb & L. G. Underwood (Eds). Measuring and intervening ni social support: A guide for health and social scientists (pp. 3-25). New York: Oxford University Press.
  10. Cohen, S. (2004). Social relationships and health. American Psychology, 59, 676-684.
  11. Creswell, J. W.. (2007). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among five approaches (3rd ed.). Los Angeles: SAGE Publications.
  12. Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1997). Flow and education. NAMTA Journal, 22(2), 2-35.
  13. Dattilo, A., Ewart, A., & Datillo, J. (2012). Learning as leisure: Motivation and outcome in adult free time learning.Journal of Parks and Recreation Administration, 34 (1), 1-18.
  14. De Schutter, R., & Abeele, V. (2010). Designing meaningful play within the psycho-social context of older adults. Fun & Games, (September), 13-15.
  15. Entertainment Software Industry. (2011). Essential facts of computer and video game industry. Retrieved from http://www.theesa.com/facts/pdfs/ESA_EF_2011.pdf.
  16. Gamberini, L., Martion, T., Seaglia, B., Spagnolli, A., Fabregat, M., Ibanez, F., . . . Andres, J. (2009). Eldergames project: An innovative mixed reality tabletop solution to preserve cognitive functions in elderly. HSI 7809 2nd Conference on Human System Interactions, Catania, Italy. 164-169.
  17. Gee, J.P. (2003). What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy. New York, NY, St Martin's Press.
  18. Holt-Lunstad, J., Smith, T. B., & Layton, J. B. (2010). Social relationships and mortality risk: A metaanalytic review. PLoS med 7(7): e1000316. doi:10.1371/ journal.pmed.1000316. PLoS Med, 7(7), e1000316-e1000316. doi:10.1371/
  19. Heylen, L. (2010). The older, the lonelier? Risk factors for social loneliness in old age. Ageing & Society, 30, 1177-1196.
  20. IJsselsteijn, W. A., Nap, H., de Kort, Y., & Poels, K. (2007). Digital game design for elderly users. Proceedings of 2007 Conference on Future Play, The Game Developers Conference, Toronto, Canada. 17- 22.
  21. Kaufman, D., Sauve, L., & Renaud, L. (2011). Enhancing learning through an online secondary school educational game. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 44(4), 409-428.
  22. Khoo, E., Merritt, T., & Cheok, A. (2009). Designing physical and social intergenerational family entertainment. Interacting with Computers, 21, 76-87. doi:10.1016/j.intcom.2008.10.009.
  23. Klinenberg, E. (2012). The extraordinary rise and surprising appeal of living alone. New York: Penguin.
  24. Marshall, V., Matthews, S., & Rosenthal, C. (1993). Elusiveness of family life: The challenge of the sociology of aging. In G. Maddox, & L. Powell (Eds.), Annual review of gerontology and geriatrics (pp. 39- 72). NY: Springer.
  25. McPherson, B. D. (2004). Aging as a social process: Canadian perspectives (4th ed.). Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press.
  26. Merriam, S. B., & Kee, Y. (2014). Promoting community well-being: The case for lifelong learning for older adults. Adult Education Quarterly, 64(2), 128-144. doi:10.1177/0741713613513633.
  27. Miles, M., Huberman, M., & Saldana, J. (2014). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook (3rd ed.). London: Sage Publications.
  28. Nintendo Investor Relations Information. (2014). Top selling software sales units: Wii. Retrieved from http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ir/en/sales/software/wii.htm l.
  29. Phillipson, C. (2013). Ageing. Cambridge, UK: Polity.
  30. Phillipson, C., Bernard, M., Phillips, J., & Ogg, J. (2000). The family and community life. London: Routledge.
  31. Rowe, J. W., & Kahn, R. L. (1997). Successful aging. Gerontologist, 37(4), 433-440.
  32. Saldana, J. (2009). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. London: Sage Publications.
  33. Savery, J. R. & Duffy, T. M. (1995). Problem-based learning: An instructional model and its constructivist framework. Educational Technology, 35(5), 135-150.
  34. Schell, R. M., Hausknecht, S., Zhang, F., & Kaufman, D. M. (2015). Social benefits of playing wii bowling for older adults. Games and Culture, 11(1-2), 81-103.
  35. Selwyn, N. (2005). The social processes of learning to use computers. Social Science Computer Review, 23(1), 122-135.
  36. Slavin, D. (1988). Cooperative learning and student achievement. Educational Leadership, 46(2), 31-34.
  37. Sloane-Seale, A., & Kops, B. (2008). Older Adults in Lifelong Learning: Participation and Successful Aging. Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education, 34(1), 37-62.
  38. Squire, K., Jenkins, H. (2011). Video games and learning: teaching and participatory culture in the digital age. New York: Teacher's College Press.
  39. Voida, A., & Greenberg, S. (2012). Console gaming across generations: Exploring intergenerational interactions in collocated console gaming. Universal Access in the Information Society, 11, 45-56.
  40. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, meaning, and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  41. Whitcomb, R. (1990). Computer games for the elderly. Proceedings of the Conference on Computers and the Quality of Life (CQL 7890), ACM, New York, NY, USA. , 20(3) 112-115. doi:10.1145/97344.97401.
  42. Withnall, A. (2012). Lifelong or longlife? Learning in the later years. In D. N. Aspin, J. Chapman, K. Evans, R. Bagnell (Eds.), The handbook of adult and continuing education, 2010 edition (pp649-664). New York, NY: Springer.
Download


Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Schell R. and Kaufman D. (2017). Community Building among Older Adults in a Digital Game Environment . In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU, ISBN 978-989-758-240-0, pages 233-239. DOI: 10.5220/0006253202330239


in Bibtex Style

@conference{csedu17,
author={Robyn Schell and David Kaufman},
title={Community Building among Older Adults in a Digital Game Environment},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,},
year={2017},
pages={233-239},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0006253202330239},
isbn={978-989-758-240-0},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Computer Supported Education - Volume 2: CSEDU,
TI - Community Building among Older Adults in a Digital Game Environment
SN - 978-989-758-240-0
AU - Schell R.
AU - Kaufman D.
PY - 2017
SP - 233
EP - 239
DO - 10.5220/0006253202330239