2012-2013 Module 4 Establishing and supporting game communities Advanced Training Course Adults Learning for Intergenerational Creative Experiences This training course is delivered in the context of LLP Project GRUNDTVIG-ALICE Grant Agreement number :2011-3375/001-001 Project Number: 518106-LLP-1-2011-1-IT-GRUNDTVIG-GMP University Ca Foscari of Venice - Technical University of Crete - Romanian Society for Lifelong Learning SEED The Mosaic Art and Sound - Fondazione Nazionale Carlo Collodi UNIT 5 Games and social media to promote intergenerational learning
Unit 5 Games and social media to promote intergenerational learning Module 4: Establishing and supporting game communities Nektarios Moumoutzis Marios Christoulakis Laboratory of Distributed Multimedia Information Systems and Applications Training Coordination University Ca Foscari of Venice Cover graphic design Name of Responsible (SEED) This publication is produced with the financial support from the European Community in the frames of LLP, sectoral program Grundtvig, Grant Agreemen Grant Agreement number :2011-3375/001-001 The publication reflects the views only of its authors, and the European Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein. The authors of the Module are not responsible for the content of the websites listed as resources in this handbook. The content of these pages may change over time and is the sole responsibility of their authors 2
The Unit : Working Plan The Unit : Games and social media to promote intergenerational learning Gradual introduction to the creative language of video games through investigation of different types of games and exploration of their value as a means to develop key competencies and promote intergenerational dialogue. Introduction to game design and development with practical activities using Scratch. A holistic approach to games and social media for learning through guidelines for the establishment and support of game communities through the use of social networks. Modules M 1 Introduction: Understanding and classifying games Aim: Introduce the core concepts of games, discuss on their learning value and present the most important game genres with respect to their learning potential. Educational value of games from the perspective of intergenerational learning. Practical activities on transforming ordinary games into a learning environment promoting intergenerational dialogue. M 2- Analysing and selecting games: Identifying games for adults and children to play and learn together Aim: Present methodologies and tools to analyse and evaluate games to support game selection and deeper understanding of games. Practical activities promoting self-reflection on own behaviour as game player(s). M 3 Introduction: Tools to invent games Aim: Introduce detailed game design methodologies and use of modern game development tools to create games. Practical activities to introduce educators, adults and children to game design and development. M 4 Establishing and supporting game communities Aim: Present a holistic approach to connect game players and game developers within the context of game communities supported by social media. Practical activities to establish and support game communities connecting families and primary school communities that use games to learn and technically skilled teenagers/volunteers that develop and refine games for them. 3
Summary 1- Introducing the topic... 6 1.1. The topic in brief... 6 1.2. Preparing your work... 8 1.2.1. This is very important... 8 1.2.2. Now you are prepared to see practices... 8 2- Hands on!... 8 2.1. Tutorial... 8 2.1.1. What?... 8 2.1.2. Why?... 9 2.1.3. When?... 9 2.1.4. Where?... 9 2.1.5. How?... 9 2.1.6. Who?... 10 2.1.7. External Aids... 10 2.2. Introducing an example of practice... 11 3- Final Remarks... 12 4- References... 12 4
Module 4 Establishing and supporting game communities Nektarios Moumoutzis nektar@ced.tuc.gr Marios Christoulakis christoulakis@ced.tuc.gr Laboratory of Distributed Multimedia Information Systems and Applications Abstract In this final module of the learning unit addressing games and social media to promote intergenerational learning, we turn our focus to the big picture of how people create and use games within game communities. The approach presented is based on actual practices of open source software communities. Within such communities, users (or players, in case of game software) provide the needs and validate software whereas developers work to satisfy these needs in terms of software features implemented and respond to further users requests for improvements in a continuous process with feedback cycles between these two categories of community members. The establishment and management of these communities could exploit social networks to establish communication and organize the activities of the community members. 5
1.1. The topic in brief 1- Introducing the topic We have seen so far how playing games can promote learning even when commercial-offthe-shelf games are used (module 1), how a deeper understanding of games can be achieved through their analysis and evaluation complemented by self-reflection on game-play (module 2) and how game development can create a rich learning environment for both children and adults (module 3). In this final module of the learning unit we take a more holistic approach that tries to combine the three aspects of learning with games presented so far. This approach tries to combine game-based learning with game understanding and game development within a unified participatory framework. We use the term game communities for this unified participatory framework that distinguishes between different roles: Community Managers: This role refers to the person(s) that establish and support the community (e.g. an ALICE Adult Trainer). At a certain stage of its development, the community may develop the necessary process to manage itself and the community manager role may be undertaken by some of its members. Consumers: Members of the community that use the products (games) of the community and provide feedback (possibly through mediators) regarding their needs in terms of games that promote their learning opportunities. Consumers may be adults and/or children consuming the games individually or in collaboration (e.g. in a familylearning context). Producers: Members of the community that have a certain level of technical skills to develop games for the community s consumers. These persons may be technically skilled teenagers or volunteer programmers etc. Mediators: Members of the community that mediate the interaction between consumers and producers by eliciting consumer needs, providing game designs for facilitating game development, organizing game testing, providing feedback to producers for refining game prototypes, proposing learning uses of games, identifying extensions to existing games etc. Mediators could also be engaged in activities to encourage consumers to become developers by introducing them to game development practices and tools or by finding interested producers to mentor those consumers that want to become producers. Mediators could be educators (e.g. teachers in formal education, trainers of life-long learning institutions, retired teachers etc.) or even game developers that want to undertake a more responsible role within the community. The activities that take place within a game community are directly related to the major phases of game development (pre-production, production and post-production) as shown in the figure below: Development of the game concept Design of the game Implementation of the game Testing of the game Deployment of the game 6
These are the phases of the development of a real game and the figure presents the various professionals that take part in each phase. We adapt this process and the corresponding roles for the needs of our framework as follows, with reference to the four roles identified for game communities under consideration: 1. Development of game idea: The game idea may directly come from an individual (e.g. a Mediator that has already identified a need for the consumers of the community) or as a result of a creativity session based on brainstorming or nominal groups. Creativity sessions may be supported by social networks communication services (e.g. chat, forums, video conferencing etc.) 2. Initial game design: The details of the game could be specified through storyboards (as presented in the second module of this unit). The storyboards could be prepared by a Mediator or elaborated with the participation of consumers following a participatory design method including the development of paper prototypes (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/paper_prototyping for a short introduction to paper prototyping). A special case in this approach is to develop, if possible, a prototype of the game as a board game or a card game and test the game ideas with actual consumers of the community before finalizing the design to be given to the producers. 3. Detailed game design: Detailed game design could follow the methodologies and tools presented in the third module of this unit. The detailed designs could be developed under the responsibility of Mediators to help the producers develop the game (this is useful if the team of producers are not so experienced in game development such as students in secondary education learning how to program). Or, it could be developed by the team of producers themselves to make it possible to better distribute the work to be done. 4. Game development: This work is undertaken the producers using their preferred game development platform. An incremental prototyping approach could be followed, if appropriate (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/software_prototyping for a short introduction to incremental prototyping). In such a case, successive round of game testing (see below) are necessary. This approach creates more strong links between the producers and the consumers of the community. 5. Game testing: During this phase, selected consumers, possibly with the help of Mediator(s) are asked to play-test and evaluate the game. Evaluation sheets could be used to record their comments and give their ranking regarding the various aspects of the game. Theses sheets could be an adapted version of evaluation rubrics presented in the second modules of this unit. 6. Game distribution: The final version of the game could be distributed among the members of the community using a social network such as the Scratch community site, which has been already presented and used within the context of the previous modules 7
8 of this learning unit. Other people, not members of the community, could also use it and provide feedback for further improvements. 1.2. Preparing your work Initially participants will be introduced to the workflow that starts from a game idea and finishes with the distribution (sharing) of a finished game. This workflow is at the heart of the organization and management of game communities, as conceived in this module. The roles that different members of a game community play will be also introduced. Following this introductory phase, the participants will be invited to participate in a creativity session using the nominal group technique with the objective to develop a specific game idea. This activity aims to address the starting phase of a game development process, the only phase not addressed so far in the learning unit (modules 1-3). In parallel, material will be presented on an example of how to establish a game community. This example is taken from preliminary experimentation activities with local communities in Chania in the context of the ALICE project. During the personalization phase the participants will be asked to develop and reflect on how the creative language of games is related to the other creative languages of the project and how a trainer could combine these creative languages e.g. by incorporating narrative within a game, by developing a game to develop a story theme, by incorporating music and oral narratives into a game, by developing a game idea inspired by children's literature works etc. The aim of this final reflection phase of the learning unit is to enable ALICE trainers to follow an integrated approach to the use of the creative language of game and, by this way, making their learning interventions, more engaging and playful. 1.2.1. This is very important We are moving away from a world in which some produce and many consume media, toward one in which everyone has a more active stake in the culture that is produced. Henry Jenkins, Media Scholar, MIT 1.2.2. Now you are prepared to see practices How one could create a participatory learning space following the ideas presented in the introduction of this module? There are many ways to do so. In the following section we present a practical approach that could be adapted to address specific learning needs within the context of intergenerational learning. We also present an example of applying this approach within the context of the preliminary learning activities of the ALICE project in Greece. 2.1. Tutorial 2- Hands on! Let us see now how an ALICE trainer could organize a community linking game players with game developers within in an intergenerational learning framework that, among other things, promotes a closer relation between parents of pupils and the school. 2.1.1. What?
The central idea is to exploit the learning potential of video games to overcome the shortcomings of traditional teaching approaches especially for children that have a notable low performance when using paper and pencil. At the same time, the intervention targets at strengthening the links between these children and their families by giving to their parents and close relatives the opportunity to support them in their learning through joint gameplay. 2.1.2. Why? The intervention under consideration stems from the fact that game design as well as, game development provides a powerful learning environment for both adults and children. According to recent studies [Egenfeldt-Nielsen, 2006; Kafai, 1995; Kafai & Ching, 2001; Smeets, 2005; Robertson & Howells, 2008] game design promotes effective learning and learner autonomy. It is considered a rich activity that offers opportunities to exercise a wide spectrum of skills to embody creative ideas in a complex cultural artefact that can be enjoyed in other contexts both from peers and from an audience, including members of electronic communities within the framework of social networks. This approach of establishing and supporting a learning environment around games, effectively supports the transformation of children and adults into producers of knowledge that interact and play with their own game objects. Moreover, gameplay apparently promotes basic ICT skills for both children and adults and provides a means for strengthening the links between generations and learning together. 2.1.3. When? The learning intervention could be organized during a school year. The community establish may continue to work even after the initial school year and open to other local school communities or communities of volunteers as well. 2.1.4. Where? Support of the community could exploit social media like the Scratch community site (http://scratch.mit.edu) to meet together online, create collection of games for game players, share the games created with other people, receive feedback on these games, organize contests for game ideas, game development etc. 2.1.5. How? The intervention is organized in stages starting from the initial elaboration of a game idea and ending with sharing the finished game through social media (such as the Scratch community site - http://scratch.mit.edu). The process contains loops. Depending on the outcomes of each stage, the previous stage could be triggered again in order to account for suggestions or needs that were not initially identified. The process starts with the development of the game concept. The teachers of the children provide the educational objective of the game to meet certain learning needs in Mathematics, Greek Language and other school subjects. In collaboration with children parents, elderly people (e.g. retired teachers), technology experts and other volunteers, they follow creativity sessions (brainstorming, nominal groups, discussions etc.) to identify the theme of the game, its main parts and plot. The process continues with the design of the game through the use of tools such as storyboards and paper prototypes. The development of a board game or a card came equivalent is also an option here to promote early testing of the game before finalizing game rules and other design decisions. 9
The next stage is the development of the game based on the finalized game designs. The development process will be undertaken by communities of skilled teenagers or adult volunteers (programmers). At this phase, school communities of students of secondary education could be involved, e.g. in the context computer science courses taught in secondary schools. During this phase, direct communication of the developers with the children will be promoted from an incremental prototyping perspective. Use of detailed game design is also an option here to bridge any gaps between the storyboard design and the technical issues that may arise during implementation. When the final prototypes will be ready, the targeted children, their parents and teachers will be asked to play-test and evaluate them. At this phase of detailed evaluation, suggestions for refinements will be recorded. These suggestions will trigger a refinement phase where the developers will make the necessary revisions to the games and give them back to the users group. Development of new versions is also possible to meet the demands of special groups of children or a new development phase may start if the profound adaptations and revisions are necessary. The final stage is game distribution (or sharing) using, for example, the Scratch community site or any other appropriate social network. After this phase, further improvement of comments of refinements may be given from other people, outside the initial game community. NOTE: The above mentioned stages directly correspond to the phases identified during the presentation of the workflows following within a game community (section 1.1). Development of detailed game design is considered an optional phase not necessary to be present in case of simple games. 2.1.6. Who? As mentioned above when presenting the stages of this learning intervention, the groups that are involved and their respective roles are the following: Game players: Children that need support in the understanding of certain concepts related to their school curriculum and their parents. Game designers: Teachers of the children in the first group. They specify the learning objectives to be met and provide storyboards or paper prototypes regarding the games to be developed. Game developers: Teenagers or volunteer programmers. The elaborate detailed game designs, if necessary, and develops the games on a certain game development platform that has been selected by the community. NOTE: The above mentioned roles are corresponding directly to the roles identified during the presentation of the workflow followed within a game community (section 1.1): Consumers, Mediators and Producers respectively. The role of the Community Manager is undertaken by the ALICE trainer that organizes the learning intervention under consideration. 2.1.7. External Aids All stages of the workflow within a game community except the first phase (development of game idea) can be supported through methodologies and tools already presented in the previous three modules of this learning unit. For the first phase, if a community manager wants to involve many people in a creative process, the suggested methods are brainstorming and nominal groups. You may find information about these two techniques and how to implement them at: 10
Brainstorming: http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/idea-creation-tools/overview/brainstorm.html Nominal Group Technique (NGT): http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/idea-creationtools/overview/nominal-group.html For those interested to know more about how these two techniques compare with each other and why the NGT is considered more effective, see [Diehl & Stroebe, 1987] 2.2. Introducing an example of practice A specific learning intervention following the framework presented above is organized in the context of the pilot activities of the Alice project in Greece. The aim of this intervention is to promote social inclusion of children with learning disabilities and their families through participation in game communities together with other children and volunteer programmers that will develop educational games for them. During the process, the involved groups will communicate directly in order to promote mutual understanding and fight the social exclusion children with learning difficulties. The specific groups addressed by this learning intervention are the following: Game players: Selected children with learning difficulties and their parents from local special primary schools in Chania in the context of after-school support activities. Game designers: Classroom teachers of the selected children that will specify the learning objectives to be covered by the games. Teachers that support these children during after-school support classes to design the games using storyboards and paper prototypes in collaboration with the school administration and the classroom teachers of these children. Game developers - Teenagers: Students from local secondary schools and their computer science teachers. They elaborate detailed game designs, if necessary, and develop the games on a certain game development platform that has been selected by the community in the context of their computer science courses or in the context of group projects. Some of the teachers contacted have already organized volunteer seminars for students interested in studying general-purpose programming languages like C and Java. These seminars could be targeted to game development to support the learning intervention as well. Game developers - Volunteer programmers: Members of the local open source community and university students from the Technical University of Crete in the context of programming training workshops as project-based training activities. In particular, the Chania Linux User Group is actively organizing seminars for python programing in the context of which the python trainers are interested in specifying practical projects for the participants that will be based on our prototypes. As of July 2012, a paper prototype has been developed for a card-game aiming at facilitating the memorization of symbol sequences (such as the sequence of numbers from 1 to 10 and the sequence of alphabet letters). The prototype is a two-player adaptation of the well-known solitaire card game. A second prototype is under development that refers to a compound puzzle game to enable language learning and creative development of story themes. The prototype has the form of a board game. A third game is being elaborated through storyboards regarding a language game suitable for small children based on guided learning and predefined puzzles to develop a certain story with an open end. 11
3- Final Remarks At this last module of the learning unit, an integrated approach was presented that integrates the methodologies and tools presented in the previous modules of the unit. This approach aims at organizing a rich learning environment for educators, adults and children to socialize and learn through game play and game development. The approach is inspired by open source software communities and gives the opportunity to everyone to participate, as a game player in the beginning and as a respected game developer at later stages. Apart from the obvious learning opportunities with respect to ICT skills, this approach opens new ways to inclusion in the Information Society, especially for families that run the risk of social exclusion. The approach is possible to be adapted to various local needs (e.g. instead of developing games, tools like Scratch could be used to develop less interactive media like animated stories). It could also be targeted towards the development of artifacts (games, stories, ) beyond education. E.g. these artifacts may serve the objective of local promotion through content that is produced by the members of the local communities themselves. 4- References Diehl, M., & Stroebe, W. (1987). Productivity loss in brainstorming groups: toward the solution of a riddle. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 497-509. [Retrieved from http://carmine.se.edu/cvonbergen/productivity%20loss%20in%20brainstorming_toward%20t he%20solution%20of%20a%20riddle.pdf 23/7/2012] Egenfeldt-Nielsen, S., (2006). Overview of research on the educational use of video games. Digital Kompetanse, 1, 184-213. Kafai, Y. B. (1995). Minds in play: Computer game design as a context for children s learning. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Kafai, Y. B., & Ching, C. C. (2001). Affordances of collaborative software design planning for elementary students science talk. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 10(3), 323 363. Robertson, J., Howells, C. (2008). Computer game design: Opportunities for successful learning. Computers & Education, 50, 559-578. Smeets, E. (2005). Does ICT contribute to powerful learning environments in primary education. Computers and Education, 44(3), 343 355. 12