Game Based Lifelong Learning - E-Infrastructures and Technologies for Lifelong Learning - page 340

through games, though, has a somewhat unserious
flavour, especially from the perspective of formal
educational systems.
In lifelong learning, however, education is
usually not formally imposed on the learner. There
is a high degree of “ownership of learning” that
turns the situation around (Wilson et al., 2006).
The learners themselves are now the main moti-
vational instance and equipped with a fair deal of
initial self-motivation. Much like subscribing to a
gym, this initial motivation can, however, decrease
quickly when they discover disadvantages, like
getting bored or overtaxed.
The main objective of a game-based learning
approach for lifelong learning is thus the suste-
nance of this motivation and helping learners
over the hurdle of getting truly comfortable with
the overall learning process they have engaged
upon. While this may seem like a noble goal, the
challenge is far from trivial.
For several years experts in the field of educa-
tion have made thousands of games designed for
education. Nevertheless, the advantages of such
an approach to learning have remained obscure,
and the factors required to successfully create a
learning game out of a situation appear seemingly
random (O'Neill, Wainess & Baker, 2005). In this
chapter we explain the advantages of using a sys-
tematic approach that makes use of game design
patterns (Bjork & Holopainen, 2004). These can
be used for the following purposes:

as well as cinematic computer graphic and mobile
technologies have opened the gates to a world of
possibilities we do not want to miss out on.

2. CURRENT STATE-OF-THE-ART

The state-of-the-art of games in lifelong learning
is difficult to pinpoint, as scientifically relevant
results on the exact intersection of the two spectra
are scarce. However, there exist some approaches
that can be placed in the topical proximity of our
focus, showing very promising perspectives. We
picked a couple of examples coming from differ-
ent directions in order to provide a certain deal
of coverage.
One of the more notable approaches, for
example, can be found in the field of mobile
learning games dealing with lifelong learning of
the homosexual minority in India (Roy, Evans
& Sharples, 2009). The targeted people have the
societal disadvantage of being pushed into obscur-
ing their sexuality from daily life, which makes
it difficult for them to access relevant knowledge
that could help them avoid related problems such
as HIV infection or drug abuse. While the learn-
ing game as such makes use of the pattern of role
play, hence enabling a good deal of identification
with the game character, it also allows the target
group to stay anonymous: the game is realized as
a text message-based quest game, moderated by
anonymized “peer educators”. The users can play
the game accessing relevant educational content
without revealing their personal attitudes to their
social surroundings: operating a mobile handset is
nothing that draws a lot of bystanders' attention.
While this example may seem very specialized
and unique, it illustrates the enormous potential
of a game-based life-long learning approach.
Another example with more generic properties
is the “UniGame”, described by Pivec & Dzia-
benko (2004), which is used to learn social and
knowledge management skills. In this approach
several teams collaborate on a simulated project,

• Identifying hidden game elements in a

non-game-based educational scenario

• Making a game out of a non-game-based

scenario

• If there is nothing to build on, designing a

game from scratch.

On a general note, also we can subsume that
the latest technological developments (Johnson,
Levine & Smith, 2009) have created an enormous
potential for learning games to be revisited. The
arrival of the Web 2.0, semantic web technologies,