Metacognition and Self-Scaffolding in MMORPGs: Case Study of an Adolescent Male Gamer

The genre of massively multiplayer online role-playing games has become increasingly popular with adolescent males. While researchers have studied the social aspect of online role-playing games, there is little known about the metacognitive and self-scaffolding processes that players engage in as they navigate these digital immersive environments. This case study focuses on the experience of an adolescent male gamer as he develops his knowledge, self-awareness and virtual identity. Keywords: Metacognition, Self-Scaffolding, Immersive Learning, MMORPG, Gaming, Virtual Identity, Observational Case Study"After all - we live in 3D. Why shouldn't we start thinking and teaching that way?"(Google, 2011)Traditional educational frameworks have evolved significantly in recent years. This is due in part to technological advances and demands to meet the needs of neomillenial learners (De Freitas, 2014; Dede, 2005; Prensky, 2001). Dede (2005) refers to learners born after 1982 as neomillenials, while Prensky (2001) refers to them as digital natives. The traditional roles of the student as a learner and the classroom as an instructional setting have evolved in order to satisfy the modern mind and compete with the dynamic nature of the internet (De Freitas, 2014; Small & Vorgan, 2009). This is especially true in the case of adolescent learners. The way adolescents receive information and acquire new skills has been transformed by digital technology. Adolescents and young adults spend hours engaged in online multi-user virtual social and gaming environments. The ever changing interface of virtual environments has allowed learners to use technology as disembodied extensions of their identities. The number of gamers participating in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) has reached 23 million users, with as many as 8,000 users entering and exiting multi-user virtual environments during peak usage hours (Pittman & Gauthier-Dickey, 2007; www.mmodata.net, 2013). Adolescents and young adults account for 50% of gamers in MMORPG environments, and of those gamers, 66% are males (www.superdataresearch.com, 2014). Mendenhall, Saad, and Nepomuceno (2010) suggest that males may prefer MMORPGs over other types of games because they encourage competition and allow males to partake in male-dominated activities such as cooperative hunting and warfare.This research topic was selected based on the researcher's teaching experience and observations working with adolescent males. The cultural and social conditions of digital natives are heavily embedded in their use of multimedia and web-based applications. Immersive virtual environments such as MMORPGs play a substantive role in the lives of many adolescent males (Hou, 2013). When compared to female students, male students appeared to be more actively engaged when they were participating in learning modules that delivered multi-sensory stimulation. Adolescent males appear to acquire superior cognitive and motor skills through their involvement MMOPRGs. Another notable observation is in regards to adolescent males' rapid reaction time and ability to make split second decisions according to their virtual conundrum. However, there is limited research on the learning process that male gamers undergo as they engage in MMORPGs. As such, it is necessary for educators to acknowledge and understand their potential as effective pedagogical tools.The purpose of this case study was to understand the role of MMORPGs in stimulating metacognitive functions and enhancing self-scaffolding skills in a 16 year-old male gamer. Specifically, this case study addressed the question: What self-scaffolding skills does a teenage male utilize as he engages in MMORPGs?Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing GamesMMORPGs are a genre of video games and subset of role-playing games that are played online by large numbers of players who interact with one another in an immersive virtual environment (Safko & Brake, 2009). …