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children's motivation to create their own games engages them into learning more
about their scholar subject. The prototype was tested with 10 children, aged between
8 and 10, divided in five pairs.
Surprisingly, most groups spent more time reading the scholar topics, choosing
a game story and debating about the possible questions and answers than, actually,
using T-Games to create the game. The goal of creating a game, motivated children
to learn, so they could formulate the questions and find the correct answer, as well
as the remaining options. Children were very enthusiastic about the preparation of
the game and voluntary put considerable effort in learning the topics related to the
questions that will be part of the game.
T-Games were easy to learn and to use by the children involved in the users studies.
The keyboard data input, however, presented some problems, since it took children a
longer time to create the game elements that required this type of input (answers) and
they often asked the team members for help with the text input. However long it took,
they didn't seem to care, which led to the conviction that they were really having
fun. Children even suggested the use of letter markers for text input. According the
users studies, T-Games is a game authoring tool for children with a great potential
to encourage them to learn and engage in social activities that can be directed to
promote behavior changes.
4.6
Conclusions
Entertainment technology can be combined with persuasive technology to produce
applications that engage people in desired activities and promote behavior changes.
This chapter presents and discusses several game prototypes built to foster users
awareness, learning and behavior change. Most of these prototypes are related with
environmental sustainability, as it is a relevant matter affecting the whole world. They
rely on entertaining and persuasive technologies combined with mobile computing,
contextual awareness techniques, or novel interaction methods. The use of typical
game design mechanisms, such as setting goals, tracking progress, rewarding and
providing support, seems to guide and keep the users engaged in the desired activi-
ties. Several approaches were explored: mobility and contextual awareness allow the
detection and reaction to both the users' actions and the changes in the environment
and enable just-in-time interaction; novel interaction methods and devices (such as
gesture and tangible interfaces) promote users engagement with the applications; so-
cial interaction fosters collaboration, competition, peer-pressure, and dissemination
of knowledge.
These techniques were also applied to support and engage children in learning
activities, promoting curiosity, creativity, self-esteem and social interaction.
The interactive systems presented in this chapter revealed a great potential to
engage users, raise awareness and encourage behavior change. Although the results
were positive, evaluating behavior changes is always a complex and time-consuming
task that requires assessing user behavior through time. Thus, further tests will be
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