Do Hard-Players Transfer Soft skills?

In the last two decades digital games have acquired more and more relevance in everyday life, as seen in the latest ISFE report on Videogamers in Europe 2010. Today the effects of the wide diffusion of digital games among laypersons represent a main field of interest in the study of education and learning in a life span perspective. From this insight over the changes in media habits in Europe we decided to tackle the promising and rich panorama regarding the development of soft skills through digital gaming, via a multi-staged project concerning the development and transfer of soft skills in multiple domains: cognitive, relational, emotional and academic performance. With this poster we present the first stage of this project, a preliminary study regarding soft skills development in digital game players. By doing that, we want to focus on individual perception of development and transfer of these skills via digital game experiences. Literature warns us about the inherent transfer difficulties of skills and knowledge from different fields (Salomon et al., 1991; Anderson, 1993). From literature we also know that specific skills can be acquired and developed during digital game experiences, regardless of age, gender, social and economical background (Gee, 2008). A semi-structured questionnaire, specifically designed for this study – on the basis of existing literature – was administered to a sample covering ages from childhood to adulthood. The questionnaire consists of 22 items regarding different fields: game habits, motivation to play, emotional background during play, self perception regarding one’s abilities and correlates of digital game play. The results from this questionnaire will be used as field trial in order to identify the main areas that will be assessed over the subsequent phases of the main research. By that time, we will be in the position of selecting those instruments that in literature represent the golden standards for soft skills inquiry. Finally, results and conclusions will be discussed in the light of the general framework, opening future directions for academic debates.