Game Making in Italian Primary Schools: The Neglected Actor

Students in primary schools engage in designing and developing games as a way to foster Computational Thinking (CT) skills through a constructionist approach. CT includes several 21st Century Skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving skills, it has positive effects on school results and is needed for a successful integration into our digital society. Focus is usually on STEM related subjects, suggesting that CT is fundamental for success in scientific areas; nevertheless, benefits from game making go well beyond this, including a much wider set of skills and school subjects. The process of game making and playing can be seen as a communication between three different actors: the developer, who is designing the game and coding the computer behaviour; the computer that interacts with the player; the player. The present paper, starting from the analysis of games created by grade 4 and 5 classes of an Italian primary school, as well as teacher training courses on coding in class and lessons organized by coding clubs, argues that while coding certainly is central to game making, little attention is payed to the human player. When the development of a game is carried out while keeping attention on the final player, several elements have to be considered: contents organization, player instructions, aesthetics, etc. The programming language becomes a means of communication, to be practiced within a social context including other developers and players, and widening the advantages of game making in schools. Language arts, visual communication skills and creativity are thus addressed, extending the range of basic skills for a successful integration in the 21st Century society. The paper reports a specific game making experience in primary schools, based in the online Scratch programming environment, which offers a rich context where projects can be shared, commented, and remixed: a perfect setting supporting communications. A preliminary analysis of the developed games is reported and suggestions to address the communicative aspects are given.