THE EFFECTS OF USING SOMATOSENSORY VIDEOGAMES TO PROMOTE "LIFE-EFFECTIVENESS" OF CHILDREN IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

Year 2015, Volume: 2 , 153 - 158, 01.09.2015

İ-tsun Chıang Hsin-chih Wu Shang-ti Chen Shiou-ru Chen Sheng-hung Tsaı Hsiu-chi Fu

Abstract

With dramatic advancement
of technology, children in elementary schools have much more opportunities to
immerse in technology environment. However, children nowadays are facing a
variety of challenges in emotional control, peer pressure, and social
interactions and relationships due to rapid changes of social environment on
campus.  In order to develop their social
capacities, it is important to provide appropriate activities with technology
to enhance their life-effectiveness. 
Therefore, there is a crucial need to understand how to improve the
life-effectiveness of children in elementary school.  The purpose of this study was to explore
their life-effectiveness by using somatosensory video games, Xbox 360
Kinect.  A total of 84 participants were
recruited and divided into an experimental group (n = 40) and control group (n
= 44).  The experimental group
voluntarily agreed to complete 30-minute Xbox 360 Kinect trainings one time a
week for total of 4 weeks.  The
Life-Effectiveness questionnaire was used to measure and complete before and
after the intervention in both groups. 
The Wilcoxon nonparametric test for each two independent samples was
used to evaluate time-series training effects. 
Results showed that experiment group significantly improved their
self-effectiveness between pre and post-test (p < .05).  The study
concluded that using somatosensory video games is a potential tool to enhance
the life-effectiveness of children in the elementary school. Further studies
are suggested to validate possible follow-up benefits of somatosensory video
games and to develop the best intervention model.

Keywords

Life effectiveness, somatosensory videogame, Xbox 360 kinect, educational technology, e-learning

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