Group items tagged

Virtual reality field trips!

Interesting NYTimes article - an elementary school organizes regular field trips to provide students with basic experiences that many low-income kids don't get to have (i.e. an auto repair shop so they get a chance to experience sitting in a car) and connects these to academic work.

Great article! It seems like there is a growing movement to bring "play" back into childhood learning.

I wonder if this will encourage or discourage trips to the museum. If you can get the experience virtually, why not view it from home?

This longer gamasutra article talks about Macro Flow and Micro Flow, complete with Csikszentmihalyi's flow diagrams. "Macro flow is the constant rise in difficulty to compete with the player's increasing skill level, maintaining the balance between boredom and anxiety. Macro flow refers to the entire gameplay experience from the beginning of the game until the end, and having a good macro flow will likely result in constant interest and intrinsic motivation on the part of the player throughout the course of the game." "Micro flow is short intense periods of flow that happen frequently, as well as the constant adaptation of the game's challenges to the player's increase in skill level. It is perpetuated by repeated successes in rapid succession, which provides positive emotional and tangible feedback encouraging the player to continue in the micro flow; this is known as a virtuous cycle."

Thanks for posting, Stephanie. I wonder if these instances of "micro flow' interfere with a gamer's chances of experiencing macro flow. I'm imagining instances of micro flow to be like interesting pit stops along a road trip, while macro flow would be equivalent to the exhilaration of cruising down an open road without any interruption. Not sure if that's the right way to think about it though...

Virtual Cultural Exchange!