Naumchuk Volodymyr Ivanovych

doi:10.19080/JYP.2018.04.555628

Review Article

Classification of Mobile Games as a Precondition of the Efficiency of their Use

Naumchuk Volodymyr Ivanovych*

Department of Theoretical Foundations and Methods of Physical Education, Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University, Ukraine

Submission: May 11, 2018; Published: May 21, 2018

*Corresponding author: Naumchuk Volodymyr Ivanovych, Department of Theoretical Foundations and Methods of Physical Education, Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University, Ukraine, Tel: +380973328330; Email: v_i_n_69@ukr.net

How to cite this article: Naumchuk V I.Classification of Mobile Games as a Precondition of the Efficiency of their Use.J Phy Fit Treatment & Sports. 2018; 4(1): 555628. DOI: 10.19080/JPFMTS.2018.04.555628

Abstract

The article reveals the essence of mobile games - an important factor in the formation of a comprehensive and harmoniously developed personality. The problem of classification of mobile games is considered in the context of improving the quality of their pedagogical potential. The proposed conceptual model for the classification of mobile games involves the creation of a certain system of games, consisting on the basis of the consideration of fundamental and common features - the principle of unity of processes of reproduction and creativity and the purpose of mobile games, as well as regular relationships between them.

Keywords: Mobile Games; Classification; Conceptual Model; Efficiency of the Pedagogical Process; Personality.

Introduction

The game is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that is comprehended by man through experience and recognized at the sensual level. It combines and structures various processes and phenomena, reveals the peculiarities and preferences of a person, simulates and tests any aspects of their life. With this phenomenon, a person knows their inner world and interacts with the surrounding reality. Through the game, a person reveals the origins that allow them to rise above themselves. Organically combining the past and the future, real and imaginative, understandable and incomprehensible, the game manifests the uniqueness and singularity of the individual, provides the necessary conditions for its self-realization.

Today, the scientific search for specialists is aimed at finding out the philosophical and psychological and pedagogical essence of the game, the study of cultural foundations, the properties and qualities of the game phenomenon, the definition of the place of the game in the educational process, the use of its opportunities in various spheres of life of different groups of the population. At the same time, the conditions for improving the gaming activity of the modern generation that provide the integrated realization of the game’s potential are not yet sufficiently studied, and as a result, the ways of using its pedagogical possibilities in the formation of the personality have not been determined. An open question remains about the influence of mobile games on the factors that determine the comprehensive and harmonious development of the individual.

One of the ways of solving this problem is related to the definition and justification of new approaches to the development of the classification of mobile games. This will help to improve the system of interdependent mobile games of one or another intended purpose and allow to better orient in the diversity of gaming objects and help to consciously and effectively use them in the pedagogical process. The purpose of the research is to develop and substantiate the conceptual model of the classification of mobile games in the context of implementing their pedagogical potential.

Research Methods

To achieve this goal, a set of interrelated methods has been used, namely: analysis, synthesis and synthesis of scientific information on the problem of research, educational and methodological literature and Internet sources, pedagogical observations.

Research Results

The game, as a manifestation of one of the main types of human activity, can be studied from different positions: from the pedagogical-as a means and method of influencing the personality, from psychological -as a means of mental development, the way of mastering social relationships and collective forms of activity, from sociological - as a condition of the emergence and development of communication, people’s relationships, etc. [1]. In our study, mobile games are meaningful activities that aim at achieving specific motor tasks in a rapidly changing environment. Unlike games in general, mobile games used in the pedagogical process have a clearly set goal and, in accordance with it, the expected result, which can be justified, can be determined by the necessary components of this process and characterized by educational and developmental orientation. In this case, mobile games are studied not in isolation from other forms and types of gaming activity, but as an integrative factor which contains general and universal features of gaming activity and represents the functionality of the game.

By simulating any game situation or episode, mobile games require from each participant a comprehensive manifestation of psychomotor abilities and intelligence. At the same time, participation in the game leads to an active and proactive stance, which largely determines the success in achieving the desired results. After all, the activity of the player acts as one of the psychological and pedagogical mechanisms of mental, social, moral, physical, emotional growth of personality, their inclusion in culture. It is accompanied by an interest, a feeling of pleasure and enjoyment and is based on them. According to P Lesgaft [2], functional satisfaction is the most significant feature of the game, which significantly distinguishes it from physical exercise. This is confirmed by the fact that in no other way, a person does not seek to show their own ability to fail, revealing the available psychophysical and intellectual resources, as in the game.

The classification of mobile games is considered as a connecting link in the process of knowledge, which promotes the proper relationship of pedagogical theory and practice. It acts as a form of reflection of reality and includes a certain list of logical operations. At the same time, the development of the classification allows to clarify the concept and organize the knowledge, establish connections between individual mobile games and their groups, carry out quantitative and qualitative analysis of the game material in the determined directions, outline the prospect of further research.

The analysis of literary and Internet sources and the synthesis of the best practices show that today there is no single universal feature of classification, on the basis of which it is possible to systematize the entire spectrum of mobile games. The unifying factor of modern approaches to the classification of mobile games is their order according to the level of complexity and content, organization, number and age of the players, the intensity of tension, the predominant manifestation of physical qualities and the type of motor activity [3-2].

We proceed from the fact that psychological and pedagogical substantiation of the essence of mobile games, their systematic ordering should be determined by the problems of physical education and training and is correlated with them. In physical education, this manifestation of gaming activity is seen as a process that is the basis of the formation and development of personality. As for physical education, mobile games here serve as a means and way to achieve the goal beyond its borders [7]. The need to distinguish between the two aspects of pedagogical culture - the culture of education and the culture of training, due to the need for science in the conceptual delimitation of these relatively synchronously existing phenomena, which allows deeper and more detailed study of the current state of the problem under study.

The educational process, in comparison with the pedagogical process, relies on already existing knowledge and certain achievements of the individual and, accordingly, begins ontogeny later. Education is primarily viewed as a dynamic, long-term process that has no end, and training is often limited in time. The priority of education is the harmonious, comprehensive, holistic development of personality potential, first of all, creativity and constructive and creative abilities in the process of mastering the achievements of physical education. In its turn, physical education is aimed, in the majority, at the formation of human perceptions about the system of norms and values, the strengthening of the person’s attitudes and the improvement of their qualities, which is associated with the problems of the purpose-setting of the pedagogical process. In contrast to education the free interaction between a person and the outside world, training is carried out between the subjects of the process, who are at different levels of competence. Initially, the process of training is characterized by the overwhelming influence of someone else’s viewpoint on the pupil, and further, it involves overcoming the difficult path to the formation in the individual of the ability to determine their own qualities and opportunities and act properly.

Developing the classification of mobile games requires the identification of relevant system-generating features that reflect the nature and focus of physical education and physical training. The main issues that always arise when considering the problem of classification and systematization of mobile games can be formulated as follows:

a) What signs (or separate ones) determine one or another type and kind of mobile games that are implemented in the pedagogical process?

b) Is any feature taken separately reasonable for the classification of types and kinds of mobile games?

c) If so, why is this feature put forward as the only selfsufficient factor?

d) If not, what should be the interconnection between them so that the diversity of types and kinds of mobile games is a single entity?

In any human activity (study, work, etc.), there are two interrelated processes-reproduction and creativity. They characterize the game activity and permeate all its types and kinds. These processes are dialectically interconnected, interdependent and act as two separate components. The main element is creativity, and activity at the level of reproduction is a preparatory stage for it. At the same time, both components form a single whole, in which the elements of reproduction and creativity are closely intertwined and are mutually complementary. At the same time, their ratio varies. In some cases, such as relay races, where confrontation with an opponent is mediated and the modes of motor action can be determined by already known patterns or models, the processes of reproduction will prevail. In the others, the creative search will dominate. In particular, the effective solution of tasks in team games requires the manifestation of creativity, based on previously acquired knowledge and experience, and achievement of the expected result is impossible provided that only the old template is used.

However, an indispensable element of the implementation of any mobile game is the individual knowledge. In this process, which is always based on the high activity of the participants in the game, it is possible to distinguish the following determinative activities:

a) The activity of assimilating and applying the finished information or motor skills in familiar situations

b) Activity, the content of which is the definition of possible modifications of the already acquired principles, the diversification and combination of motor activities in changing conditions

c) Activity aimed at independent discovery of principles, improvement and integration of motor activities.

In a closed circuit which is always present in the game activity, reproduction and creativity interpenetrate each other, acting in a constant unity and interconnection. Reproductive activity, unlike creative, is characterized by the fact that it always ends with the creation of a product according to already known patterns or models. In the course of such activity, a person who is in conditions of the same type operates the methods of the previously formed system in public and in their own experience. The process of finding the necessary solution to the problem involves reproduction of existing knowledge and experience, their updating and enrichment, as well as the ability to operate them and construct new ways to act. Reproductive actions are creative, on the one hand, as their foundation, and on the other - as a derivative of the creative. Creativity stems from reproduction, is the development of the latter and contains reproductive processes as one of its derivatives [8]. This pattern is the procedural side of the grouping of mobile games, which can determine their general typology, namely the following types:

a) Reproductive

b) Reconstructive-variant

c) Partial search

d) Creative

Consequently, the ratio of processes of reproduction and creativity, the level of manifestation of the latter, as one of the priorities of physical education, can serve as a necessary feature that underlies the classification of mobile games. In the school, family, social, and gender pedagogy a wide arsenal of mobile games is used which reflects the universal, national, ethnographic, geographical, historical, regional values, features and peculiarities. To study, research a large number of variants, modifications, strategies of games that meet certain sexage categories and level of player’s training is quite difficult. The possibilities of designing and adapting mobile games in accordance with the conditions of their implementation should also be taken into consideration: forms of occupation, place of conducting, number of participants, material and technical support, weather, etc. At the same time, games differ from one another not only by a formal model, a set of rules, quantitative indicators, but above all goals. Even those mobile games which contain the same rules, the information base has significant differences, provided that they are used for different purposes. Actually, the poly functional nature of mobile games contributes to the multifaceted influence on the development of the individual, on their creative, motivational, intellectual, physical, emotional and volitional spheres.

Since physical education is a purposeful process, and the principle of identifying the types of mobile games, the definition of their kinds within the framework of this typology must always be combined with the logical-content side and externally manifested, including through certain pedagogical purposes, another necessary feature of the classification of mobile games to serve their intended purpose. At the first level of grouping mobile games, the predominant orientation of pedagogical influence is determined by cognitive and developmental, educational and training, control and assessment, and recreational and recreative purposes. At subsequent levels, further distribution is carried out by refining the goals of using games and their specifics in certain tasks. Cognitive and developmental goals are first separated by separate constituents, and then detailed in accordance with the information field and subject of development: intelligence, memory, reaction, attention, etc.

Clarifying the group of educational and training purposes involves the delineation of the relevant areas with the following specification through the educational aspect of the task of mastering certain knowledge, the formation of motor skills and educational component through physical education objectives and personal qualities. In this case, mobile games often serve as commonly developing, training, special exercises and, simultaneously, a method of physical training. Control and estimating group includes objectives of systematic physical or athletic training, evaluation of motor talent, physical fitness, forecasting abilities. Further details of the goals of this group are due to the choice of the subject of study: certain physical and personal qualities, motor activities, sides of athletes training, their functional status, and elements of sport selection. In turn, the recreational and recreative components, which determine the group of recreational and recreative purposes, are specified in accordance with the objectives of disease prevention, treatment, rehabilitation of the human body, as well as the tasks of recreation in the broadest sense. Here, mobile games are mostly health-improving and specially improving exercises, attractions, amusements, sights and other emotional instruments of pedagogical influence (Figure 1).

This approach to the classification of mobile games makes it possible to further develop this open system, since, on the one hand, human creativity is unlimited and can appear in different manifestations, and on the other hand, pedagogical activity will always put forward various tasks that can be solved with the help of mobile games. This arrangement is intended to become a reference point in the whole variety of mobile games, a source of information about their pedagogical potential.

Questions of the classification of mobile games require further scientific and theoretical justification, since optimal ordering of games as an important and universal tool of pedagogical influence allows to optimize the process of physical education, to correctly orientate in the system of means and methods of physical training. At the same time, the effectiveness of the practical use of mobile games should be ensured not only through their appropriate selection in accordance with the pedagogical conditions and proper organizational and methodological solution, but also through adapting their content and structure to a particular contingent and a particular pedagogical situation.

Conclusion

The proposed conceptual model for the classification of mobile games involves the creation of a certain system of games, consisting on the basis of the consideration of fundamental and common features, the principle of unity of processes of reproduction and creativity and the purpose of mobile games, as well as regular relationships between them. In this case, certain features reflect the pivotal aspects of pedagogical culture - physical education and physical training, and the links between the elements of the formed system are established in two directions: vertically (by the level of creativity) and horizontally (by the predominant orientation of pedagogical influence). The first direction reflects the procedural side of the grouping of mobile games and determines their type. The second one provides within the general typology the logical ordering of types of mobile games according to their intended purpose. Supplementing each other, these directions determine the integrity of the system, and the corresponding types and kinds of mobile games are considered as interacting, interconnected components.

JPFMTS.MS.ID.555628

Our Media Partner

JPFMTS Menu

Useful Links

Downloads