Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 4.12
Children using
T-Games to create an
educational game
T-Games allow the children to create games based on the structure of the “Game
of life”, with an additional rule: in some places of the game board where players
can land, they have to answer a multiple-choice question. Instead of using a typical
computer to create their games, children have to interact with a tangible table (a magic
table), using small cubes with markers that represent objects and actions (Fig.
4.12
).
The idea of children creating their own application scenarios with physical objects
appeared from the notion that they are more familiar with constructing spaces using
their own toys, which they are used to do from the moment they have the necessary
dexterity.
Before starting to use T-Games to create a game, children have to design their
games and prepare the materials they will need. This way, they have to do some
research on the topics regarding the questions and answers they will include in the
game. Building a game to be played by other colleagues seemed to motivate them
to learn about those topics. After this step, children start to use T-Games where they
have to perform four different main tasks in order to define: a contextual story for the
game, a virtual character, a scenario for the game (board configuration) and all the
questions and respective four possible answers through the use of tangible markers,
a microphone and a keyboard. Markers are square pieces of wood with a picture on
the topside and an amoeba-like fiducial on the bottom side.
The T-Games starts with a presentation made by the magician (T-Game character)
who guides and helps the children during the whole game creation process. The
contextual story is a recorded audio file that will be played at the start of the game.
The magician asks the children to use the microphone to record the story of the game.
The children use a marker to start the record, a microphone to record the story and
another marker to stop recording. To select the character that will be the star of the
game, children use the corresponding marker. There is a marker representing each
one of the possible characters. Children can then use several markers to define the
character attributes (e.g., clothes, hair). After that, children need to select the game
board configuration, placing the corresponding marker on the table. Next, children
must define the question/answers. Each question is recorded in an audio file (like
the initial game story). Children are prompted to enter the possible answers with the
keyboard (the first one entered corresponds to the right answer). The game is then
ready to be played.
User tests were performed in order to evaluate the usability of the T-Games au-
thoring application and the children motivation to use it, as well as to perceive if
