1KWORDS – Picture Guessing Game (Web and Android Version)
Background of the Study
Games are a regular part of students’ lives, no matter what their grade level. Students play games throughout the day on their computers, the Internet, and their cell phones. A computer game combines all the elements of a great story — adventure, danger, colorful and daring characters and a plot — with enhanced computer graphics and interactivity (Crosby, 2016).
An example of this are word games these are puzzles that rely aupon a player’s language ability to solve them. They can be competitive games where one player’s skill is pitted against another’s as in Hangman, Scrabble or charades; or they may have a player to solve the puzzle creator’s challenge like in crosswords. Word games are found in almost all written languages and are widely regarded as both entertainment and education (Downloadfreegames.com, 2016).
According to Bruner, (2010 in Nott, 2016) students who engage in hands-on learning and game play-based activities experience the following benefits, increased motivation, and enhance creativity, enhanced problem-solving skills, a greater sense of personal responsibility and the joy of autonomy and independence.
Many games, both for the purpose of learning as well as commercial games begin as an improvement or modification to an existing game. One way to generate ideas is to look at other games for inspiration. For example, you can consider a game that you personally like and try to identify what characteristics about the game play make it fun. It may be exploration, mastery of the game’s mechanics, or progressing through a story. Another technique for generating new ideas is to consider a specific genre, such as puzzle games, strategy games, or plat formers (Wanliss, 2016).
In line with this, the researchers proposed a system called, 1KWords: Word Guessing Game is a system that could help the students to enhance their thinking and vocabulary skills. Through this study, it would be able to help students to understand a new concept or idea, take on a different perspective and memorizing new words while playing the game.
Objectives of the Study
The general objective of this study is to design, develop and determine the acceptability of 1KWords: Word Guessing Game for students.
Specifically, it aims to:
- create a Word Guessing Game to enhance the English vocabulary and thinking skills of students ;
- design a system that can provide learning and entertainment to the students;
- develop an educational experience through the development of this system; and
- determine the acceptability of the 1KWords: Word Guessing Game in terms of appearance, design, content, audio, efficiency and operating performance.
Scope and Limitations of the Study
The 1KWORDS – Word Guessing Game for students will focus only on the student’s capability of guessing a word with the use of images and letters which has a corresponding definition in each guessed topic. It is limited to the categories about Sports, Technology, Vocabulary and Countries, that are suited for students aging between 13 years old and above.
Significance of the Study
This software system will benefit the following:
Students
The users of this software system will be the selected students of Saint Catherine Academy. Through the system the researchers hoped that the vocabulary and thinking skills of the students will be enhanced by playing the word guessing game with their gadgets like cellphones, tablets and computers.
Researchers
The researchers will also benefit from this study because they will be able to apply what they have studied and learned in school. It will enable them to learn more and allow them to face the challenges in the computer world. Through this study they will be able to develop their skills and abilities in programming and writing codes. This software system will also benefit the future researchers in providing them information and necessary details needed in conducting related researches in the future.
Definition of Terms
Acceptability a series of pre-defined standards related to the performance of an individual product, service or system that enables someone to easily determine the subject’s capability to perform its function within an acceptable range (businessdictionary.com, 2016). In this study, it refers to the capability of the system to be accepted in terms of appearance, content, design, sound, video, efficiency and operating performance.
Appearance the way a person or thing looks (dictionary.cambrigde.org, 2016). In this study, it refers to the look of the system.
Audio relating to the sound that is heard on a recording or broadcast (merriam-webster.com, 2016). In this study, it refers to the sound produce of the system.
Content the subject or ideas contained in something written, said, created, or represented (dictionary.cambrigde.org, 2016). In this study, it refers to the information used in the system like the exercises.
Design to prepare the preliminary sketch or the plans for (a work to be executed), especially to plan the form and structure (dictionary.com, 2016). In this study, it refers to the design of the system if it is attractive or enjoyable in the part of the user.
Gaming as a play defined by interactive challenges, discernible rules, and attainable goals (Chandler, 2011). In this study it refers to the games and activity that the researchers want to create.
Guess used when you are saying something that you think is probably true or correct (Macmillan, 2016).
Guessing Game a game in which participants compete to identify some obscurely indicated thing (Tag, 2016).
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the set of markup symbols or codes inserted in a file intended for display on a World Wide Web browser page (Rouse, 2016). In this study it refers to the programming language use in our system.
Multimedia uses computers to present text, audio, video, animation, interactive features, and still images in various ways and combinations made possible through the advancement of technology, example of multimedia would be combining a website with video, audio, or text images (Loretto, 2016).
Operating Performance is the total effectiveness and performance of a computer system, including the individual response if it is easy to use and operate and the availability of the system. In this study it refers, to the system if it is to operate.
PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is found on most web servers and is used by developers to create dynamic and database driven websites. It is a server-side scripting language that is typically embedded into HTML pages to add features that HTML can’t do by itself (Kyrnin, 2016). In this study, it refers to the programming language to present the system.
Sound the particular auditory effect produced by a given cause (dictionary.com, 2016). In this study, it refers to the sounds that interact to the user.
Student a person formally engaged in learning, especially one enrolled in a school or college (Dictionary.com, 2016). In this study it refers to the respondents who test the system.
