Enhancing Digital Literacy Skills while playing casual games : young people in Brunei as a case study

• Main Author: Musa, Juraidah
• Other Authors: Abbott, Christopher ; Webb, Mary Elizabeth ; Stevenson, Ian James
• Published: King's College London (University of London) 2017
• Online Access: https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.754879

Digital Literacy Skills refer to skills which help digital technology users to participate meaningfully and safely in the digital world. These skills have become essential since digital technologies nowadays are imbedded in almost all aspects of everyday life, including education, work, home and leisure activities. In particular, it has been argued that the younger generation has developed a certain degree of digital literacy skills due to regular exposure to digital technologies. Playing casual games is one of the popular activities amongst the younger generation, or young people as referred in the main thesis. With advantages such as portable technology, simplicity of play and easy access, these games can be played almost anywhere and anytime. The question therefore arises: To what extent would these casual game play activities enhance the digital literacy skills of the young people? This thesis presents a qualitative case-study analysis of casual game play activities of young people and the potential associated enhancement of digital literacy skills from these activities. The model proposed by Eshet-Alkalai referred as The Conceptual Framework for Survival Skills in the Digital Era, was used as the main framework for this study. This model comprises of six digital literacy skills namely Photo-visual, Reproduction, Branching, Information, Socio-emotional, and Real-time Literacy Skills. The model is chosen since the literacy skills within the model encompass all of the cognitive skills that are used when utilising digital technology. Data was gathered from a sample selection of young people in Brunei Darussalam aged between 10 and 12 using think-aloud techniques, observations, and semi-structured interviews. The Activity Theory System was used to structurally guide the study in organising the game play activities based on hierarchical levels of actions and operations. The results of this study suggest that casual game play activities may likely enhance the digital literacy skills of young people.