The Effects of Machinima on Communication Skills in Students with Developmental Dyslexia
Many research efforts in the international literature have been conducted to investigate various fundamental issues associated with communication skills cultivation of students with developmental dyslexia. However, little is known when it comes to the impact that ‘immersive technologies’, such as th...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2022-10-01
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| Series: | Education Sciences |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/10/684 |
| _version_ | 1797473674316480512 |
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| author | Nikolaos Pellas Athanasios Christopoulos |
| author_facet | Nikolaos Pellas Athanasios Christopoulos |
| author_sort | Nikolaos Pellas |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Many research efforts in the international literature have been conducted to investigate various fundamental issues associated with communication skills cultivation of students with developmental dyslexia. However, little is known when it comes to the impact that ‘immersive technologies’, such as three-dimensional virtual worlds, without considering any exploration of their impact to assist boys and girls with developmental dyslexia cultivate communication skills. Motivated by this inadequacy in the literature, the purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of the machinima approach, created via OpenSimulator and Scratch4SL, for students with developmental dyslexia in vocabulary learning and practicing. This embedded mixed-methods research was conducted over a four-week timetable in-class course, with forty students (n = 40) aged 10–12 years old. All students were equally separated into two groups in line with their gender. Boys and girls were encouraged to unfold the communication skills developed (i.e., spelling, writing, reading) by creating their own stories, after viewing educational videos and machinima scenes, before and after the treatment. The results indicate that machinima positively affected students’ learning outcomes and achievements. Machinima can improve immediate knowledge gains in boys compared to girls to purposefully translate their cognitive thinking into storytelling, when problem-solving situations through simulated realism are considered. This study also offers insights for educational implications and design guidelines for machinima creation, providing empirical evidence on its effect on the participants’ linguistics understanding and communication skills for language learning in girls and boys with developmental dyslexia. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-09T20:19:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bdc904ff3e7e402798b35d52d419cbe4 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-7102 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-09T20:19:45Z |
| publishDate | 2022-10-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Education Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-bdc904ff3e7e402798b35d52d419cbe42023-11-23T23:51:32ZengMDPI AGEducation Sciences2227-71022022-10-01121068410.3390/educsci12100684The Effects of Machinima on Communication Skills in Students with Developmental DyslexiaNikolaos Pellas0Athanasios Christopoulos1Department of Primary Education, University of Western Macedonia, 53100 Florina, GreeceCentre for Learning Analytics, Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Turku, 20500 Turku, FinlandMany research efforts in the international literature have been conducted to investigate various fundamental issues associated with communication skills cultivation of students with developmental dyslexia. However, little is known when it comes to the impact that ‘immersive technologies’, such as three-dimensional virtual worlds, without considering any exploration of their impact to assist boys and girls with developmental dyslexia cultivate communication skills. Motivated by this inadequacy in the literature, the purpose of this study is to explore the effectiveness of the machinima approach, created via OpenSimulator and Scratch4SL, for students with developmental dyslexia in vocabulary learning and practicing. This embedded mixed-methods research was conducted over a four-week timetable in-class course, with forty students (n = 40) aged 10–12 years old. All students were equally separated into two groups in line with their gender. Boys and girls were encouraged to unfold the communication skills developed (i.e., spelling, writing, reading) by creating their own stories, after viewing educational videos and machinima scenes, before and after the treatment. The results indicate that machinima positively affected students’ learning outcomes and achievements. Machinima can improve immediate knowledge gains in boys compared to girls to purposefully translate their cognitive thinking into storytelling, when problem-solving situations through simulated realism are considered. This study also offers insights for educational implications and design guidelines for machinima creation, providing empirical evidence on its effect on the participants’ linguistics understanding and communication skills for language learning in girls and boys with developmental dyslexia.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/10/684communication skillsdevelopmental dyslexiaembedded mixed-methods researchmachinimavirtual worlds |
| spellingShingle | Nikolaos Pellas Athanasios Christopoulos The Effects of Machinima on Communication Skills in Students with Developmental Dyslexia Education Sciences communication skills developmental dyslexia embedded mixed-methods research machinima virtual worlds |
| title | The Effects of Machinima on Communication Skills in Students with Developmental Dyslexia |
| title_full | The Effects of Machinima on Communication Skills in Students with Developmental Dyslexia |
| title_fullStr | The Effects of Machinima on Communication Skills in Students with Developmental Dyslexia |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Effects of Machinima on Communication Skills in Students with Developmental Dyslexia |
| title_short | The Effects of Machinima on Communication Skills in Students with Developmental Dyslexia |
| title_sort | effects of machinima on communication skills in students with developmental dyslexia |
| topic | communication skills developmental dyslexia embedded mixed-methods research machinima virtual worlds |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/12/10/684 |
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