What Prevents Teachers from Using Games and Gamification Tools in Nordic Schools?

This study is based on a survey study distributed in the fall of 2017 in Norway, Denmark, and Iceland. The study was designed by a group of researchers from the Nordplus Horizontal project: Digital Computer Games for Learning in the Nordic Countries, to uncover teachers’ perceived obstacle in regard to using digital game-based learning in teaching situations. The results indicate that the teachers included in this study did not have enough information and knowledge about games and gamification tools to be used in teaching. The findings show that technical obstacles are the most experienced hurdle among the respondents in all three countries when it comes to applying games or gamification tools in teaching activities. There are not many differences to be observed gender wise. A common difference that is worth noticing, is the difference between women and men regarding their reporting on the obstacle ‘knowledge/skills’, where more women claim this to be an obstacle. From these results, the paper proposes three types of digital game-based learning guidelines, namely (1) rhetoric framing of usability and learnability, (2) engagement and (3) creating a guidance area – building a DGBL infrastructure. In conclusion, the paper calls for further empirical studies on the actual situation presented in this paper, to reach an informed discussion about questions that are of real concern for many parties, including teachers, school leaders, children and researchers.