Digital games as a context for early childhood learning and development

Playing games is a very natural way of selfdirected learning during the all stages of human life, especially in childhood, which is the stage of most rapid cognitive, psychomotor, and socio-emotional development. This natural way to learn through play today is supported by new technology, like mobile phones, PDA devices and tablets that are fully integrated into our lives. Many people have explored how new technology can enhance learning during children’s play, and how best to support children to develop cognitively through playing activities. Although a lot of research based on developing a conceptual and theoretical understanding of designing of digital games specifically for children has been done, there is still deficient evidence about their effectiveness of children’s development process. In this context, we have decided to develop a serious game for Android operating system, using OpenGL ES 1.0 version, which support all Android devices. This puzzle game, based on a concept of task-based learning, was used for measuring children’s enjoyment, engagement, tension, usability and fun. The results of the evaluation has been analyzed and shown in this paper