Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
activity system. Kafai (
1995
) has highlighted the signifi cance of game design in
education to make pupils teach fractions to other kids of lower grade. She intro-
duced the 'designer notebook' for kids to develop the story board and document the
design processes and revisions. It stems from the tradition of constructivist peda-
gogy and
constructionist
technology education introduced by Papert, which were
employed for development purposes in the project and considered in the light of the
project goals. Following an integrated approach of constructionist technology and
art education, in our project, the designer notebook as well as the art education idea
of process development was taken into account when developing the design process
oriented by MediaArt@Edu project portfolio.
However, rather than constructing virtual worlds or augmented reality applica-
tions, this paper looks at a particular concept of creative game development, that is,
the invention and design of on- and offl ine games using different sorts of tools,
materials and media, such as Makey Makey (MIT), an Arduino-based technology to
turn everyday objects into computer keys and use the tangible physical objects of
the environment as a computer keyboard. It was inspired by the do-it-yourself (DIY)
and maker movement. Further, the art project 'Dead drop', a shared offl ine data
store in public space to engage people in participating in it, and the software iMovie
which comes along with the iPad were introduced.
We use the term of the GamesLab ON/OFF, which addresses the linking of the
physical and the digital world in a wider sense, bringing together a variety of levels
of reality to virtual spaces of the computer. Imagination, analogue and digital media
as well as the physical bodies of the players, as well as the issue of motion, are con-
sidered the basis of our human existence. Different to the typical and widely spread
screen-based computer games, our approach is not focusing on the construction of
virtual worlds but on the game concepts embedded in the physical world, the objects,
bodies, materials required as well as shaping and communication processes between
the learners. Our online-offl ine game design approach also differs from new edutain-
ment applications, which extend and augment the space of physical acting (aug-
mented/mixed reality, as described in the context of mixed reality learning spaces
(Reimann
2006
). Rather than developing computer-based systems, we intend to
make them invent complex game conceptions, which bring together digital and
physical space and media in rather unusual, new ways to them.
As kids love to play computer games, such media serve as motivators to learning,
that is, the activation of young people as learners in vocational preparation. In our
education scenario, we support the processes of game invention in cooperation with
education students. Jenkins has introduced 'play' as relevant skill for the twenty-
fi rst century, defi ned as 'the capacity to experiment with the surroundings as a form
of problem solving' (Jenkins
2009
).
The students in the project act as mentors and researchers who scientifi cally
observe the design and learning activities of the young people. The mentoring con-
cept aims to support all processes of creativity, such as the conception, the develop-
ment of a narrative, that is, the storytelling and game fl ow, as well as the interface
design and the technical realization. The processes include basic social,
communicative and collaborative activities, practised in team-based arrangements.
