Intro presentation for NEASC conference describing games for learning illustrated through two EMC projects: BREAKAWAY for the United Nations, and two Cystic Fibrosis games Ludicross and Creep Frontier
Z Score,T Score, Percential Rank and Box Plot Graph
Designing games for learning at the EMC
1. Designing Games for Learning
Ann DeMarle Artwork: Champlain alumni Dan Peavey
Associate Professor, Champlain College
Email: demarle@champlain.edu
Web: http://www.champlain.edu/Emergent-Media-Center.html
BREAKAWAY: http://www.breakawaygame.com
2. Experience:
• Founder, current director Emergent Media Center
• Founder, current director MFA in Emergent Media
• Founder of Game Development degrees
• Founder, director Governor’s Institute of VT in Info Tech
3. 1. Build games for learning
Emergent Media Center @
Champlain College 2. Students learn collaboratively
creating games
4. Motivation, Attention, Working Memory & Learning
Why Games?
Designed for
Engagement.
Key Concepts:
1. Magic Circle
2. Flow
Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine
5. The Magic Circle
Johan Huizinga (1872–1945).
"Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-
Element in Culture
Boundaries
6. The Magic Circle
Johan Huizinga (1872–1945).
"Homo Ludens: A Study of the Play-
Element in Culture
Individual Choice
Rules
Empowerment Multiple Pathways
Feedback Systems
7. Flow
Proposed by Mihály Csíkszentmihályi
The mental state of operation in
which a person in an activity is fully
immersed in a feeling of energized
focus, full involvement, and success
in the process of the activity.
8. Magic Circle, Flow, & Learning
Choice
• Exploratory & experiential
• Try on differing roles
• Creative expression
• Borderless community
Rules
• Well ordered problems
• Cause & effect
Mastery Pathways
• Cycle of expertise/mastery
• No failure
• Player has a story to tell
Feedback
• On demand & in-time learning
• Cause & effect
• Virtual presence
10. Cystic Fibrosis games
• Collaboration with Dr. Peter
Bingham on Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation grant
• Ten students working in two
teams
• 1 1/2 years. Initial research with
young patients
• Questions:
• Can games improve patient
compliance?
• Can games improve lung
capacity?
11. Poster Nicole Lazzaro: http://www.xeodesign.com/about.html
Nicole Lazzaro’s theory of the
Four Keys of motivation.
• Easy Fun—curiosity, creativity, exploration
• Hard Fun—challenge, goals, mastery Top: Creep Frontier—ex. Easy Fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV1j5gprhH4&feature=related
Bottom: Ludicross—ex. Hard Fun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s99Iwe_p3nc
12. Cystic Fibrosis Games
Results
• Subjects spent more minutes
using Game than Control.
• When effect of game period
was adjusted for by covariates,
there was a trend relating the
game period to improved
pulmonary function.
• Game period had a significant
effect on vital capacity, stronger
still after adjustment for
covariates.
http://www.abstracts2view.com/pas/view.php?
nu=PAS11L1_3660
13. BREAKAWAY
http://www.breakawaygame.com
• Sponsored by the United
Nations Population Fund
• Collaboration with Population
Media Center
• Three years—ongoing. Over
120 students
• Initial research in South Africa
• Testing in South Africa,
Caribbean, Vermont, & online
14. Project Goal:
Social Change
1. Awareness of Problem
2. Acknowledgement of Personal
Accountability
3. Attitude & Behavior Change
4. Advocacy for Change
15. Games for Social Change
Experiential Learning
• Identification with characters
• Role playing real life situations:
Player becomes the Transitional
Character
• Critical thinking: Interactivity
leads to decision-making
• Player experiences cause &
effect
• Reflection & storytelling
16. Sabido Methodology
• Entertainment Education
• Social Change
• Role Modeling:
• Positive
• Negative
• Transitional
• Narrative 70/30 rule
17.
18. Challenges: Storytelling, Player
Choice & Asset Management
• Technology—delivery system
• Universal story—theme
• Setting—could this be every boy’s home turf?
• Language & localization
• Ethnicity — stereotypes
• Clothing — religion—cool factor
• Romantic or sexual implications
• Portrayal of girls: victim, subjugation or strong
women
• Portrayal of violent actions
• PR
19.
20.
21. Results
2000 CDs distributed.
750+ CDs to youth groups
participating at the 2010 World
Cup:
• Grassroots Soccer
• Ikamva Youth
• ManUp Campaign
• Streetfootballworld
• Restless Development
• Fundacion Privada Samuel Eto’o
22. Results
Web site:
• 178 countries
• 11,710 unique visitors
Online Game:
• 143 countries
• 2070 registered users
• 52% under 18
• 65% are boys ages 10-16
• Play through& repeatedly (6 hrs/chapter)
• 89% saved with positive decisions
23. Next Steps
• UN: distribution of CDs worldwide
• UN Marketing—getting the word out & the online game into the hands of
more youth
• Facilitators guide: for teachers, youth groups, soccer clubs, etc.
• Impact Assessment
• Mobile game
24. Designing Games for Learning
Ann DeMarle Artwork: Champlain alumni Dan Peavey
Associate Professor, Champlain College
Email: demarle@champlain.edu
Web: http://www.champlain.edu/Emergent-Media-Center.html
BREAKAWAY: http://www.breakawaygame.com
Hinweis der Redaktion
Inclusion, safety
Skill-based Behavior change
Most programs focus on victims. Yet the UN has identified VAW as a key driver of worldwide poverty. So we took a different tack - our goal is to change the attitudes & behavior of men and boys. Its designed to educate during critical social development years from 9-14 years old.
Experiential learning
The solution is also depending on a behavioral methodology proven to be effective when used in a linear format of radio & video
The project brought forward some HUGE challenges to concept & development: How do you create a first person game that is meant to appeal to EVERY boy in the world?
Specifically our challenges mostly centered on storytelling, player choice, distribution, & asset management
The team’s solution is web delivered soccer game — most popular sport worldwide and with national teams in more countries than the UN is in. In our game, BREAKAWAY, the issue of violence against women is never explicitly conveyed & it does not demand the boys to take on adult violence. In fact to the boys, our players, the theme is soccer. Created for global distribution release the first chapter of BREAKAWAY launched with the World Cup in 2010. International soccer star, Samuel Eto’o is the game’s spokesperson and a walk-on character in the game!
BREAKAWAY is based on the age old dilemma of peer pressure - who do you side with & who will hang out with you? The game system is based on an interactive narrative and a series of skill-building mini-games (shooting, defending, tackling). Choices in these determine you and your teams’ chances at winning the longer play soccer matches. As the player, you make choices on how to treat the girls in the narrative. These decisions determine which team mates you practice with and therefore what soccer skills you learn from various team mates. Literally you can not win if you do not become a champion for the girls in the narrative.