Social Skills among Students while Playing Computer Games in Class: A Case Study in Malaysia

Computer games are very popular among Malaysians especially youngster as they are easily accessed anywhere with the widespread availability of computer in Malaysia. We believe that computer games could and should be exploited as another medium for teaching and learning in Malaysian schools. An investigation about the possibilities of optimizing computer games as another pedagogy instrument especially focusing at students’ social skills development had been conducted in Malaysia. 341 public school students and 24 teachers across Selangor Darul Ehsan were involved and 9 computer games were tested. The results showed that with each game has different gameplay, challenges and genre, students’ social skills development could be slightly improved. The important issue is not the object or technology used in teaching and learning, but how it is being applied and diffused. Teachers have to take a positive and active role in ensuring that these computer games are incorporated effectively especially for students’ social skills development.