Protocol for Using Nintendo Switch in an Engineering Class: A Literature Review

The rapid pace of technological advancement means accelerated emergence of new hardware and software options, which speaks to not only the intellectual capabilities of their designers but also to the immense latent potential of these technologies to be used in education to unlock human intellectual capital and train the human capital of the future. That being stated, emergent, experimentative technologies can also have barriers to accessibility; for example, they could be cost prohibitive and/or require potential users to have prior software programming capabilities. The portability of technology could also be a barrier to accessibility; For instance, most game consoles require a screen, which then limits their portability. The Nintendo Switch offers an interesting alternative for use in education in that it overcomes the three accessibility barriers of cost, programming, and portability. It also has the potential to teach video game design to students with no programming skills. Our work is intended to shed light on how the Nintendo Switch has been used previously by educators and technology managers.