Slides utilized at the Workshop: Designing games for specific contexts, presented at the VS-Conference: http://www.vs-games2012.org/

1. Workshop: Designing games for
specific contexts
VS-Games 2012
Monday, 29 October 2012

2. Agenda
Getting to know each other.
9:00 - 9:30
Presentation of all, including Ivan and myself
9:30 - 9:45 Foundations of the workshop
9:45 -9:55 How we will work
9:55- 10:10 Presentation Case #1
10:10 -10:25 Presentation Case #2
10:25 - 11:40 Create teams and put hands on
Present and analyze the different designs made in the
11:40 - 12:30
workshop, discuss and draw conclusions.
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

3. About me
Monday, 29 October 2012

4. Influences
BSc in Electronic Engineering and
Communication Systems
MSc. Communications and
Media Engineering
PhD. Educational Technologies
Research Group (in Computer
Science Department). Dissertation:
Hypercontextualized Games
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

5. Influences 2
Academia
Entrepreneurship
photo source
Industry
photo source
photo source
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

6. Research in Joensuu
carolina.islas@uef.fi March 2010, by C.Schweikert
Monday, 29 October 2012

7. About my research journey
Aim:
To support the seniors in the
creation of their own games.
First by producing paper
prototypes by utilizing ICT
tools. Second, to transfer the
paper prototypes into digital
applications
2006 Seniors Game Workshop
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

8. About my research journey
Aim:
Game that supports
the Science Festival
objectives
carolina.islas@uef.fi 2007 SciMyst
Monday, 29 October 2012

9. About my research journey
Aim:
To support the Pielinen Museum to aid the transmission of information
to the visitors supported by the facilities and the knowing of the
curators
carolina.islas@uef.fi 2007 - 2010 LieksaMyst
Monday, 29 October 2012

10. About my research journey
Aim:
To test SciMyst on a similar
but not quite the same
context: the museum of
technology in Helsinki
carolina.islas@uef.fi
2008 - TekMyst
Monday, 29 October 2012

11. About my research journey
Aim:
To develop a game for the
Biosphere region of North
Karelia
2009 - HoK
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

12. About my research journey
Aim:
To listen the pupils’
understanding of HIV &
AIDS by utilizing their own
ICT tools
Workshop: “Working for my dreams”
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

13. Summarizing
• We are from different contexts
• We have different expectations
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

14. Agenda
Getting to know each other.
9:00 - 9:30
Presentation of all, including Ivan and myself.
9:30 - 9:45 Foundations of the workshop
9:45 -9:55 How we will work
9:55- 10:10 Presentation Case #1
10:10 -10:25 Presentation Case #2
10:25 - 11:40 Create teams and put hands on
Present and analyze the different designs made in the
11:40 - 12:30
workshop, discuss and draw conclusions.
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

15. Why to design this workshop?
Designing games for specific contexts
(at VS-Games Conference)
Monday, 29 October 2012

16. Games for learning or serious games
One way to see them: as products
Practice of use
Home environments Formal Education
Entertainment
Purpose of design
Education
carolina.islas@uef.fi From Linderoth, 2011
Monday, 29 October 2012

17. Games for learning or serious games
One way to see them: as products
Practice of use
Home environments Formal Education
Ideas about
gaming literacy, Content of the Shelf
Entertainment generic skill,
development, etc.
Purpose of design
Serious Games
Simulators
Education Edutainment Simulation,
Experimental
Learning activities
carolina.islas@uef.fi From Linderoth, 2011
Monday, 29 October 2012

18. Dimensions of Game Design
The question is: Where is the educational content?
Story Gameplay
Fiction Rules
Technology
(platform)
carolina.islas@uef.fi From Linderoth, 2011
Monday, 29 October 2012

19. Dimensions of Game Design - Where is the educational
content?
One argument: it is holodeck
Educational
content
Story Gameplay
Fiction Rules
Technology
(platform)
carolina.islas@uef.fi From Linderoth, 2011
Monday, 29 October 2012

20. Dimensions of Game Design - Where is the educational content?
Another argument: content emerges by interacting with the rules
Educational
content
Story Gameplay
Fiction Rules
Technology
(platform)
carolina.islas@uef.fi From Linderoth, 2011
Monday, 29 October 2012

21. Dimensions of Game Design - Where is the educational content?
Another argument: Rules (models) in the game are the
educational content
Story Gameplay
Fiction Rules
Technology
(platform)
carolina.islas@uef.fi From Linderoth, 2011
Monday, 29 October 2012

22. Dimensions of Game Design - Where is the educational content?
Another argument: The educational content comes from
interacting with the specific technology
Story Gameplay
Fiction Rules
Educational
content
Technology
(platform)
carolina.islas@uef.fi From Linderoth, 2011
Monday, 29 October 2012

23. Dimensions of Game Design - Where is the educational content?
Proposal: It should have its own dimension!
Educational
content
Story Gameplay
Fiction Rules
Technology
(platform)
carolina.islas@uef.fi From Linderoth, 2011
Monday, 29 October 2012

24. History maybe help us to us to understand how to
include educational content while designing a game
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

25. From history, games involve context
carolina.islas@uef.fi From Islas Sedano, 2012
Monday, 29 October 2012

26. Context
• It is difficult to define
• It is difficult to understand
• It is highly relevant
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

27. Other fields are noticing the importance
of context, for example: mLearning
carolina.islas@uef.fi From Botha, 2012
Monday, 29 October 2012

28. Designing games in and for a specific context derives
the model of Hypercontextualized Games (HCG)
Subject Matter
Game System
Information (SMI)
(GS)
= Educational content
Specific Context
Elements (SCEs)
carolina.islas@uef.fi From Islas Sedano, 2012
Monday, 29 October 2012

29. Environmental
Example of the HCG context aspects:
Heroes of Koskenniska (HoK)
Winter - Spring Summer
photos by Ewa Kowalik
Monday, 29 October 2012

30. Environmental - Intersubjective
Heroes of Koskenniska (HoK)
Lake
Winter - Spring
Monday, 29 October 2012

31. Environmental - Intersubjective - Subjective
Heroes of Koskenniska (HoK)
photos by Monika Zych-Laine
Monday, 29 October 2012

32. Analyzing context to certain objective
SMI GS
Aspects
Resources /Limitations Resources /Limitations
Birch, pine...
Difficult to detect 100%
Environmental Ants, pinecones,....
precisely where you are...
Hunting track...
Forestry education needs a
Inter - subjective teacher. Different social dynamics,
Human - Machine Cultural and historical families, hikers.....
Human - Human elements. Network challenges....
Different levels of the forest understanding.
Subjective Different attitudes.
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

33. Heroes of Koskenniska (HoK)
characters by a local artist
photos by Monika Zych-Laine
Monday, 29 October 2012

34. References
• Linderoth, J. (2011, April 26). Presentation:
Introduction to Games Learning and Education.
University of Gothenburg.
• Islas Sedano, C. (2012). Hypercontextualized
Games. Dissertation University of Eastern
Finland.
• Botha A., et al. (2012, Sept 17). Mobile Learning
Curriculum Framework. MobiMOOC
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

35. Agenda
Getting to know each other.
9:00 - 9:30
Presentation of all, including Ivan and myself.
9:30 - 9:45 Foundations of the workshop
9:45 -9:55 How we will work
9:55- 10:10 Presentation Case #1
10:10 -10:25 Presentation Case #2
10:25 - 11:40 Create teams and put hands on
Present and analyze the different designs made in the
11:40 - 12:30
workshop, discuss and draw conclusions.
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

36. How to balance the tension between
SMI and GS?
Monday, 29 October 2012

37. Flow and emphasis
• We will create two teams
• Each team will design a game for a specific context
! Team A: design a game for children’s rights in Italy (we’ll explain)
! Team B: design a game for refugees in Finland (we’ll explain)
• Pay attention on:
! How harmonize the tensions between learning content (SMI) and
game mechanics (GS)
! If the tool for analyzing context for certain objective is useful for you
• Analyze our designs
• Discuss and draw conclusions...
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

38. Questions
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

39. Agenda
Getting to know each other.
9:00 - 9:30
Presentation of all, including Ivan and myself.
9:30 - 9:45 Foundations of the workshop
9:45 -9:55 How we will work
9:55- 10:10 Presentation Case #1
10:10 -10:25 Presentation Case #2
10:25 - 11:40 Create teams and put hands on
Present and analyze the different designs made in the
11:40 - 12:30
workshop, discuss and draw conclusions.
carolina.islas@uef.fi
Monday, 29 October 2012

40. Thank you!
Monday, 29 October 2012