TimeMesh: an educational historical game

The TIMEMESH game, developed in the scope of the European Project SELEAG, is an educational game for learning history, culture and social relations. It is supported by an extensible, online, multi-language, multi-player, collaborative and social platform for sharing and acquiring knowledge of the history of European regions. The game has been already used, with remarkable success, in different European countries like Portugal, Spain, England, Slovenia, Estonia and Belgium.

Measuring the value of “all play and no work”: can rigorous assessment of simulation games drive innovative teaching in construction?

The construction field is dynamic and dominated by complex, ill-defined problems for which myriad possible solutions exist. Teaching students to solve construction-related problems requires an understanding of the nature of these complex problems as well as the implementation of effective instructional strategies to address them. Traditional approaches to teaching construction planning and management have long been criticized for presenting students primarily with well-defined problems - an approach inconsistent with the challenges encountered in the industry. However, growing evidence suggests that employing innovative teaching approaches, such as interactive simulation games, offers more active, hands-on and problem-based learning opportunities for students to synthesize and test acquired knowledge more closely aligned with real-life construction scenarios. Simulation games have demonstrated educational value in increasing student problem solving skills and motivation through critical attributes such as interaction and feedback-supported active learning. Nevertheless, broad acceptance of simulation games in construction engineering education remains limited. While recognizing benefits, research focused on the role of simulation games in educational settings lacks a unified approach to developing, implementing and evaluating these games. To address this gap, this paper provides an overview of the challenges associated with evaluating the effectiveness of simulation games in construction education that still impede their wide adoption. An overview of the current status, as well as the results from recently implemented Virtual Construction Simulator (VCS) game at Penn State provide lessons learned, and are intended to guide future efforts in developing interactive simulation games to reach their full potential.

An exploration of massively multiplayer online role playing games : their application to public relations education and possible future public relations practice

Social communication technologies present exciting and challenging opportunities for public relations professionals. Although not new the latest online attraction grabbing the attention of educators and companies around the globe are the virtual worlds known as Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs). This paper will examine MMORPGs - in particular Second Life - and consider their potential as an educational medium and relevance to the practice of public relations. The paper argues that MMORPGs slwuld be taken seriously by educators and public relations professionals alike and not simply be treated as online entertainment.

Students' conflicting attitudes towards games as a vehicle for learning mathematics : a methodological dilemma

Mathematics games are widely employed in school classrooms for such reasons as a reward for early finishers or to enhance students' attitude towards mathematics. During a four week period, a total of 222 Grade 5 and 6 (9 to 12 years old) children from Melbourne, Australia, were taught multiplication and division of decimal numbers using calculator games or rich mathematical activities. Likert scale surveys of the children's attitudes towards games as a vehicle for learning mathematics revealed unexpectedly high proportions of negative attitudes at the conclusion of the research. In contrast, student interview data revealed positive associations between games and mathematical learning. This article reports on the methodological dilemma of resultant conflicting attitudinal data related to game- playing. Concerns arising from the divergence in the results are raised in this article. Implications based on the experience of this study may inform educational researchers about future methodological choices involving attitudinal research.

Learn to design vs design to learn: enhancing educational opportunities using game technoloy

Recognizing as children’s input in game design and development process is critical, we applied cooperative inquiry experiences working with young children as game design partners. The computer-based games specifically were designed and developed for the acquisition of survival literacy by 12-14 year old intellectually disabled children. During the design and development game process, children learnt game design techniques without their acknowledgement. Importantly, the development process will be undertaken by the students with the minimum guidance of team members. The experiences, challenges and lesson learned through game design process are discussed.

Understanding the mediatisation of educational policy as practice

The main argument presented in this paper is that the mediatisation of education should be viewed as forms of practice linked to specific practice effects. Drawing on Bourdieu's conceptualisation of practice - as elements of practice, practice games and field effects - the paper argues that viewing mediatisation as practice provides a set of methodological starting points for research involving media interactions with education. Taking the mediatisation of education policy as an empirical case for the argument, the contribution of the paper is to raise questions about how the term is utilised in educational research and to suggest that the practice is more open and complex than some accounts suggest. A secondary argument presented in this paper is that Bourdieu's account of practice provides resources suitable to developing research on mediatisation as an addition to social field theorising of processes.

A grounded theory for teaching entrepreneurship using simulation games

A practical teaching difficulty provided the opportunity to turn a problem into a useful case study with generic implications for the pedagogical effectiveness of simulation games in teaching entrepreneurship. Students playing the simulation game submitted written assessments that became the units of analysis for a single-case research project. Analysis produced a grounded theory consisting of four attribute categories and associated properties required of a simulation game to make it an effective teaching device in entrepreneurship contexts. The theory provides at the very least a useful checklist for teachers of entrepreneurship and, potentially, a basis for developing a quality standard for educational simulation games.

Crash landing at INSEAD : initiating a grounded theory of the pedagogical effectiveness of simulation games for teaching aspects of entrepreneurship

A practical teaching difficulty arising in a conducive environment provided opportunity to turn the particular problem into a case study with generic implications. Little research has been conducted on the use or effectiveness of simulation games for teaching entrepreneurship. In the context of established literature critiquing the effectiveness of simulation games as teaching devices in managerial contexts and at a point where problems in using a simulation game as part of entrepreneurship course became evident, the authors designed and executed a single-case research project to generate initial theoretical propositions about the pedagogical effectiveness of simulation games for teaching various concepts and aspects of entrepreneurship. The case analysed the perceived learning environment created when the Sky-High simulation was played by 41 MBA students taking an elective entrepreneurship course at INSEAD. The research design embodied the established methodological principles specified by Yin (1989), for effective case research. Theory building was based upon the grounded-theorizing procedures articulated by Glaser and Strauss (1967). Analysis and synthesis produced a grounded theory, in the form of a normative argument, containing four attribute categories and associated properties required of a simulation game to make it an efficacious teaching device in entrepreneurship contexts. The establishment of this grounded theory has made it both desirable and feasible to contemplate creation of an ISO quality standard for educational simulation games.

Process drama and digital games as text and action in virtual worlds : developing new literacies in school

This article explores the intersections between drama and digital gaming and the educational possibilities for literacy of both. The article draws on a model for the educational uses of digital gaming and three case studies from the Australian Research Council funded three and a half year project, Literacy in the digital world of the twenty first century: Learning from computer games. This model theorises the scope of the possibilities for literacy outcomes from the usage of computer games. The article describes how the model works, and then applies the model to drama education, specifying some new ways of thinking about the literacy outcomes from drama education. Process drama is theorised as the creation of text-in-action.

Digital games : literacy in action

Digital Games: Literacy in action is the result of a wide-ranging investigation into the educational possibilities involved in young people's games. From their creation in the classroom to analysing games and the world of games as text, academics and teachers are now taking seriously the serious play of young people.

The contributors use the interaction between the theoretical frameworks of games as text and games as action to explore a wide of range of issues relevant to the teaching of English and literacy. These include understanding games as media texts, the place of digital culture in young people's lives, the narrative and visual design components of games, exploring concepts of role play and identity in games, the potential for games to engage disengaged students, and issues of gender and social interaction in game playing.

The use of software Mapavox for teaching graphics and games to blind and low vision students: a development through practices

Current policies on education to visually impaired point for a growing trend of including students with special educational needs in regular schools. However, most often this inclusion is not accompanied by an appropriate professional trained or infrastructure, which has been presented as a big problem for regular school teachers who have students with visual impairments in their classroom. Based on this situation, the Group of Extension in Tactile Cartography from UNESP - University of the State of São Paulo - Campus de Rio Claro - SP - Brazil has been developing educational material of geography and cartography to blind students at a special school. Among the materials developed in this study highlight the development of graphics and board games provided with sound capabilities through MAPAVOX, software developed in partnership with UFRJ - Federal University from Rio de Janeiro - RJ - Brazil. Through this software, sound capabilities can be inserted into built materials, giving them a multi-sensory character. In most cases the necessary conditions for building specific materials to students with visual impairments is expensive and beyond the reach of features from a regular school, so the survey sought to use easy access and low cost materials like Cork, leaf aluminum, material for fixing and others. The development of these materials was supported by preparation in laboratory and its subsequent test through practices involving blind students. The methodology used on the survey is based on qualitative research and non comparative analysis of the results. In other words, the material is built based on the special students perception and reality construction, not being mere adaptations of visual materials, but a construction focused on the reality of the visually impaired. The results proved were quite successful as the materials prepared were effective on mediating the learning process of students with disabilities. Geographical and cartographic concepts were seized by the students through the technology used, associated with the use of materials that took into account in its building process the perception of the students.

Artemídia preferente: fenômeno jogar & ler nas histórias em quadrinhos interativas (HQI) com os games de RPG

This artistic-scientific process aims to innovate the concept of Interactive Comics by adding them into the concept of RPG games and Single-Adventures. To make it properly done, there will be some issues about Interactivity, history of the Comic Strip and Mangas, and their techniques of use. Also, there will be other issues involving Electronic Comics and Interactive Comics, in addition to the concept of the RPG games and Single-Adventures, so that the reader of this paper could understand the practical result of every issue combined into one. The identification of these issues is made from a bibliographic and iconographic research, and it will also be displayed throughout the content. Some decisions will be thrown along this paper for the reader to decide and, therefore, understand the Interactivity process in a better way. The combined issues’ result will be presented in my interactive website, http://a3studios.com.br/iss/home (address not final) or http://amstarproductions.net (final address), where the readers will have to experience the “Play&Read” phenomenon. Furthermore, this work is inserted in the line of the research Artistic Processes and Procedures of the Department of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of UNESP, whose methodology used was the Freinet Educational Cybernetics, developed in the research group Media Arts and Videoclip leaded by the leading advisor for this Final Course Work. The result and discussion of artistic and scientific research were reported in monographs such as this that I present, with the following versions: PDF version for dissemination in the virtual repository of the Institute of Arts’ Library; hardcover version for physical collection at the Library of Institute of Arts; The Printed Version for the board of examiners; and an appropriated template version for submission to International Scientific Congress in the area of Arts.

O papel dos games na construção de conteúdos midiáticos educativos

The goal of our article is build – including universes to support empirical research in communication – an educational matrix for a different order of analysis, incorporating new possibilities available for the advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). For this goal we use the game, as a source of playful learning and formation of being. Introducing the interaction from game plataform as middle convergent, where it is possible the diffusion and expansion of knowled in constant way that enables education and information exchanges oustide the status quo of schools, increasing the e effectiveness of knowledge fixing and interest to acquire it.

Games based learning for Exploring Cultural Conflict

In this paper we discuss the early stage design of MIXER, a technology enhance educational application focused at supporting children in learning about cultural conflict, achieved through the use of a game with an effective embodied AI agent. MIXER is being developed re-using existing technology applied to a different context and purpose with the aim of creating an educational and enjoyable experience for 9-11 year olds. This paper outlines MIXER’s underpinning technology and theory. It presents early stage design and development, highlighting current research directions.

Online games for the teaching of mathematics

In this article we present a didactic experience developed by the GIE (Group of Educational Innovation) “Pensamiento Matemático” of the Polytechnics University of Madrid (UPM), in order to bring secondary students and university students closer to Mathematics. It deals with the development of a virtual board game called Mate-trivial. The mechanics of the game is to win points by going around the board which consists of four types of squares identified by colours: “Statistics and Probability”, “Calculus and Analysis”, “Algebra and Geometry” and “Arithmetic and Number Theory ”. When landing on a square, a question of its category is set out: a correct answer wins 200 points, if wrong it loses 100 points, and not answering causes no effect on the points, but all the same, two minutes out of the 20 minutes that each game lasts are lost. For the game to be over it is necessary, before those 20 minutes run out, to reach the central square and succeed in the final task: four chained questions, one of each type, which must be all answered correctly. It is possible to choose between two levels to play: Level 1, for pre-university students and Level 2 for university students. A prototype of the game is available at the website “Aula de Pensamiento Matemático” developed by the GIE: http://innovacioneducativa.upm.es/pensamientomatematico/. This activity lies within a set of didactic actions which the GIE is developing in the framework of the project “Collaborative Strategies between University and Secondary School Education for the teaching and learning of Mathematics: An Application to solve problems while playing”, a transversal project financed by the UPM.