THE STUDENTS' PERCEIVED USE, EASE OF USE AND ENJOYMENT OF EDUCATIONAL GAMES

Relevant literature suggests that today's children possess digital skills and competences that set them apart from the previous generations. This may be due to their continuous exposure to ubiquitous media and digital games. Therefore, this research uses valid measures from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Theory of Planned Behavior, and from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) to investigate the primary school students' attitudes and normative pressures toward playing educational games, at home and at school. The study was carried out amongst year-3 students in a small European state. The findings reported that there were strong correlations between the students' attitudes and their intention to play the school's games. The respondents indicated that they considered the educational games as useful and relevant for their learning. However, the results have shown that there was no significant relationship between the perceived ease of gameplay and the children's enjoyment in engaging with the school's digital games. These findings are consistent with the extant academic literature on the digital natives. To the best of our knowledge, there is no other study in academia that has explored the technology acceptance of digital games in primary education. Therefore, this contribution opens future research avenues as this study can be replicated in other contexts.