In efforts to further understand the impact of digital media in kindergarten to grade eight classrooms, The Joan Ganz Cooney Center has released results from its first US national teacher survey on games and teaching called Teacher Attitudes about Digital Games in the Classroom.

The study, completed with support from E Line Media,  the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the John L and James S Knight Foundation and BrainPop, surveyed 500 teachers who use digital games in their K-8 classrooms.

The survey found that teachers who are very or moderately comfortable using digital games use them more often with their students – 32% use games two to four days per week and 18% use them every day.

Also significant, 70% of teachers agree that using digital games boosts motivation and engagement with content and curriculum, and 60% of teachers found that games foster more collaboration amongst students and enable them to focus better on specific tasks.

95% of teachers use games that were created specifically for educational use (literacy/reading (50%) and math (35%), and cost is the number one barrier to digital game use in the classroom (50%) followed by access to tech resources (46%).

A series of five videos produced by the Center’s teacher in residence Jessica Millstone, featuring teacher practices, were also created to complement the survey and the first three can be accessed on the Joan Ganz Cooney Center website. The last two videos will be released later this summer.

Photo by Emily Wade on Unsplash