Group items tagged

"Problem-based learning is a pedagogical approach which started in early 1970s. It is well developed and established until now. Aalborg University in Denmark is one of pioneering world universities in PBL and has accumulated a huge experience in PBL for many different study lines. One of them is Medialogy education, which was established in 2002. This paper presents transfer of experiences from Medialogy education in Denmark to Game development education in Serbia - a new (2 years old) study line successfully developed in the country where game development companies hardly exist, but a need for newly educated programmers is evident."

From the abstract: "this study investigated how the perspectives of the non-computer science educators changed after learning game-programming and how it could be fitted into the K-12 curriculum. Fourteen non-computer science educators and/or administrators in the K - 16 educational systems who made up a cohort at Sam Houston State University, Master of Education/Instructional Technology Program participated in this study. The participants were required to learn two free Web 2.0 game-programming applications and reflect on an article related to reviving interest in math and science as part of their program. Qualitative data consisted of online reflections, and peer-review processes through Facebook. A quantitative component was added to the analysis. The findings indicated that: (a) the perspectives of the participants changed from negative to positive as they reflected on their own game-programming learning experiences; (b) participants came to understand how game programming could build up students' logical concepts and critical thinking skills improving performances in math, science, and other subjects; and (c) due to the benefits of logical concepts and critical thinking skills game programming could have immense benefits if built into the K-12 curriculum."

P. 158 in a long document. Abstract: " 157 Chapter 8Design and Implementation of Mobile Educational Games: Networks for Innovation Rob Harrap 1 , Sylvie Daniel 2 , Michael Power 3 , Joshua Pearce 4 , Nicholas Hedley 5 1 Queen's University, Department of Geological Sciences and Geological Engineeringharrap@geol.queensu.ca 2 Université Laval, Department of Geomaticssylvie.daniel@scg.ulaval.ca 3 Université Laval, Faculty of Educationmichael.power@fse.ulaval.ca 4 Michigan Technological University, Department of Materials Science & Engineering and theDepartment of Electrical & Computer Engineering, USApearce@mtu.edu 5 Simon Fraser University, Department of Geographyhedley@sfu.ca Abstract :" Research networks foster creativity and break down institutional bar-riers, but introduce geographic barriers to communication and collaboration. Indesigning mobile educational games, our distributed team took advantage of di-verse talent pools and differing perspectives to drive forward a core vision of our design targets. Our strategies included intense design workshops, use of online meeting rooms, group paper and software prototyping, and disseminationof prototypes to other teams for refinement and repurposing. Our group showedstrong activity at the university-centered nodes with periods of highly effectivedissemination between these nodes and to outside groups; we used workshopinvitations to gather new ideas and perspectives, to refine the core vision, toforge inter-project links, and to stay current on what was happening in othernetworks. Important aspects of our final deliverables came from loosely-associated network members who engaged via collaborative design exercises inworkshops, emphasizing the need to bring the network together and the im-portance of outside influences as ideas evolve. Our final deliverable, a mobileeducational game and a series of parallel technology demonstrations, reflect themix of influences and the focus on iterated development that our net

Abstract: "The purpose of this study aimed to construct an online competitive game-based learning system by using freeware for junior high school students and to assess its effectiveness. From the learning standpoints, game mechanisms including learning points, competition mechanism, training room mechanism, questioning & answering mechanism, tips, and feedback mechanism are taken into consideration while constructing the system. The system contains screens of Log-in, Game lobby, Waiting room, Player's room, Question & Answer, and Scoring. After the system was established, it was implemented in a 10 week teaching experiment. A total of 35 junior high school students participated in this teaching experiment. Both pre-test and post-test were administered and analyzed. A 5-point Likert scale questionnaire, containing domains of system operation, learning effectiveness, competition and incentive, and training room learning was also included to assess user's satisfaction. Descriptive analysis and independent t test were used to analyze the collected data. The findings of the study show that most students are satisfied with the four domains of the freeware constructed online competitive game-based learning system. Meanwhile, the online competitive game-based learning system is effective for junior high school students' learning."

From the abstract: "New York Center for Agricultural Medicine and Healt h (NYCAMH) has a need for a web-based educational game to educate families on farm saf ety. This project demonstrates a proposed game design that combines the elements of gaming th at enhance learning with the feedback received from NYCAMH. Feedback was solicited th rough a series of prototypes delivered to NYCAMH through an agile software development process. The proposed design follows a constructivist approach to place the learner in a context based on reality. The aspects of the game design that engage and motivate students by blend ing entertainment with learning are discussed."

A forthcoming online class led by Maria Droujkova, creator of NaturalMath, exploring the role of online communities facilitating math game creation and development by students and teachers. (2/3/12, 1PM EST)

Includes GameUp, free online games for curriculum

Certificate program "aimed at professionals with a degree in computer science, information technology, or art who seek entre into the growing digital games industry."

Based on a recent paper from MIT

Collaboration among researchers at Duke, UChicago and University of Waterloo on an online alternate reality game with economic crisis as the subject, invitation to join the game community

From the abstract: Recent studies show that the second generation of migrants is not adequately integrated into mainstream society but tends to segregate into secluded segments. 'Internet Use and Friendship Structures of young migrants in Vienna: a Question of Diversity within Social Networks and Online Social Games'1 is a transdisciplinary2 research project with the objective to create a serious music-based online social game, which firstly is intended to be a positive impact game with the purpose of furthering integration and encouraging the manifestation of meaningful multiethnic relations. Secondly, the game shall make social interaction observable for evaluation. This paper gives an overview of which methodological approaches can be combined in the phases of the game's design process and shows how the mutual embedding of game design researchers and social scientists works in this context."

"Players who became anonymous dictators in a simple online game showed unexpected benevolence toward their subjects, giving away more of their own money than previous, real-life experiments predicted. "This was supposed to be a simple replication, where we backed up the results of previous experiments, just in an online setting," said biologist Nichola Raihani of University College London."

Abstract: "Teaching computer programming to novices has always posed a major challenge to educators, most novices acquire basic programming skills but they are unable to utilize them in a meaningful way to solve many of the non-routine problems which are presented to them. As a result, they do not achieve any level of programming fluency. Collaboration has been identified as a useful tool to help overcome this problem if utilized at the right times during the programming/problem solving process. This paper presents a review of computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) concepts, collaboration in programming and the problem solving domain. Finally, a design for a gaming application of CSCL (COPS) to help improve the problem solving ability of novice programmers is presented."

"The appearance of collaboration tools such as blogs, wikis, social media, and video games has altered the way individuals and organizations relate to one another.[i] There is no longer any need to wait on professionals to share material and report on new developments. Today, people communicate directly in an unmediated and unfiltered manner."

Abstract: "Phishing is a form of online identity theft, which attempts to appropriate confidential and sensitive information such as usernames and passwords from its victims. To facilitate cyberspace as a secure environment, phishing education needs to be made accessible to home computer users and mobile games enable embedded learning in a natural environment. Previously, we have introduced a mobile game design that aimed to enhance avoidance motivation and behavior to protect against phishing threats. This paper focuses on a design that develops the conceptual knowledge that is necessary to combat phishing threats, home computer teaching users about phishing emails and web addresses. The prototype game design is presented on Google App Inventor Emulator."

Abstract: "With the advent of the increasingly participatory Internet and the growing power of the crowd, "Serious Games" have proven to be a fertile approach for gathering task-specific natural language data at very low cost. In this paper we outline a game we call Doodling, based on the sketch-andconvey metaphor used in the popular board game Pictionary ®2, with the goal of generating useful natural language data. We explore whether such a paradigm can be successfully extended for conveying more complex syntactic and semantic constructs than the words or short phrases typically used in the board game. Through a series of user experiments, we show that this is indeed the case, and that valuable parallel language data may be produced as a byproduct. In addition, we explore extensions to this paradigm along two axes - going online (vs. face-to-face) and going crosslingual. The results in each of the sets of experiments confirm the potential of Doodling game to generate data in large quantities and across languages, and thus provide a new means of developing data sets and technologies for resource- poor languages."

Report from the Canadian Association of Information Science meeting focusing on game research. Features audio and slides for the presentation "Gaming Works: Mental Health and Wellness in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games" by Diane Rasmussen Neal and Caroline Whippey (scroll down page for presentation)

Abstract : "This paper explores how supernormal stimuli may have contributed to the remarkable popularity of several types of video games: first-person shooters (FPSs), massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), and Minecraft. Human culture, technology, and environments have advanced so rapidly in the last 10,000 years that the brains of Homo sapiens have not been able to keep up. Humans survive in the modern world, but still retain a mind stuck in the Pleistocene. Supercharged representations of ancient stimuli, which appealed to prehistoric human ancestors in the environment of evolutionary adaptedness (EEA), appear in many video games and may be hyper-stimulating humans' adaptive instincts. These supernormal stimuli appear to correlate with the remarkably engaging, pleasurable, and satisfying experiences human players derive from playing these games. This paper goes on to propose that greater recognition of the potential of supernormal stimuli, and experimentation with the creation of virtual worlds stand to improve not only digital games, but the way in which humans live, work, and play in the real world."

Reflections from a university games development instructor on both analog and online courses

"The combined hardships of economic downturn and a target audience that is increasingly defined by their affinity for active participation in their surroundings have left many nonprofit museums struggling to remain relevant in the 21st Century. We have partnered with Discovery Place, a hands-on science museum in Charlotte, North Carolina in order to create an easy-to-integrate software solution to help them better engage their audience. Our project is the creation of a three-part digital layer to increase museum engagement for all visitors, but particularly those considered digital natives. We have created two systems to be implemented in the museum, one to appeal to traditional visitors and one to better engage large groups of students. In the future, these two systems will be tied to an online meta-game to complete our digital layer by bringing the enhanced museum experience home for visitors."