Examination of digital game habits of high school students

Digital games are becoming more and more popular among today’s students. Digital games are used directly or indirectly in many areas such as marketing and communication. In terms of education, digital games allow students to socialize and also provides stundents with the development of motivation and self-regulation skills. Digital games have become an important pedogogical tool thanks to such benefits. It is important to know the habits and preferences of the students who play digital games to get the best benefit in education. Because the habits and preferences of individuals playing digital games are seen as a cultural phenomenon. So it is necessary to know the preferences and the habits of learners in the target culture. The aim of this research is to analyze the digital gaming habits of high school students. This study is based on survey model. It was conducted in a province in Western Black Sea Region. It was carried out an Anatolian High School students. Participants of this research consist of 418 high school students. The survey was conducted by means of a questionnaire developed by researchers. This questionnaire contains questions about the demographic information of students and determination of the habits of playing digital games. In the analysis phase the percentage, frequency, mean and standart deviation were used. 49.2% of male students and 50.8% of female students participated in the research. 97.3% of the students have a smartphone but 2.7% of the students do not have a smartphone. Also 81.8% of the students have the smartphones with internet connection. When it comes to the frequency of playing digital games 33.7% of the students play digital games everyday, 14.1% play digital games three or four days a week, 25.3% play digital games one day or two days a week, 16.2% play digital games a few times a month. When it comes to the frequency of daily digital gaming 20.5% of students play digital games less than an hour, 21.7% of students play one or two hours, 9.6% of students play three or four hours, 1.2% of students play for five or six hours and 1.2% of students play 7 hours and more. When students are asked where to play their digital games, 50% of students play their digital games on the smartphone, 3.3% of students play digital games on tablet, 3.3% of students play digital games on game console, 6.2% of students play digital games on PC, 34.4% of students play on their laptops. 72.2% students who play digital games say that they play single-user digital game. 27.3% of students say that they play multi-user digital games. When it comes to multi-user digital games, 0.7% of students say that they play with their parents, 23.4% of students say that they play with their friends, 75.9% of students say that they play with unfamiliar people on the internet. 19.1% of students say that they go to the internet cafe to play digital games. When the findings obtained from research are examined, it is understood that the most majority of high school students have a smartphone with internet connection. Also half of the students play their digital games through the smartphones. These findings can be considered as an important opportunity for the applicability of mobile learning and mobile educational games. When the frequency of students playing digital games is examined, it is determined that one of every three students play a digital game everyday. While most of the students are playing single-user digital games, multi-user digital games are played with unfamiliar people on the internet. There is a possibility that students will be able to cope with unwanted situations and behaviors such as bullying while playing unfamiliar people on the internet. There is not a lot of students who play multi-user digital games with their family. This finding points to the inadeguancy of parental control in multi-user digital gaming environments. As a result of research findings, it has been discussed what can be done about the digital game playing habits of students and various suggestions have been made to families, aplicants and policy makers. Keywords: High school students, Digital game playing, habit