How can we use pervasive gaming to teach?
To begin with, pervasive gaming is not a very good definition of complex and deep activity. Pervasive gaming is very easy to confuse with location based games when you are unfamiliar with definition for them both. And even then it is confusing to comprehend the difference. Pervasive games take part in physical world concurrently with the normal everyday activities of the players.
While location based games is something similar to paintball or soft gun play, both can contain roleplay but are not really pervasive as the game when players leave location. Pervasive game does not stop just because a player leave a location or goes out to eat dinner with family. But most pervasive games take in account that sometimes people wish to opt out.
An example of a pervasive game that happened in Norway is related to Jo Nesbøs book. This was, as mentioned above, a game for the Norwegians to participate in. Using the newspapers and the web for promoting the book, several thousands of people participated and immersed themselves in the game.
Another example is the movie “Rottenetter” where they used a game to promote the movie. The game also had a prize pool of 250 000; NOK for the winner. The game had a huge impact and there was over 16 000 people that played the game. The movie title “Rottenetter” was the second most used word for Norwegian twitter users in 27. August. 2009.
Different types of Pervasive Games:
A game that depends primarily on pervasive
technology and standardized input devices.
• A game with a persistent presence in the real world
thus available to the player at any time.
• An existing game that is augmented by computers,
resulting in a mixture of real and virtual worlds.
• Affective Gaming: Game using human emotions
direct input.
• Supplementary Board: Traditional tabletop
games with fancy effects provided by advanced calculation techniques.
• Location Aware Games: Mobile games where
Players will have to physically move.
• Augmented Reality Games: Variety of Virtual Reality that
blends the virtual image of the players view.
So how can you use pervasive games to teach/learn?
Pervasive Games could be a new way of teaching/learning with it’s ability to include everyone by having fun while learning. If you compared this way of learning to the old way of academic reading and writing you should be able to compel a bigger audience.
“Learn by doing” is a popular saying that can be applied in many situations. For example, in Norway there is a museum called Stiklestad that have employees dressed up as vikings/people from the viking era and give visitors a tour of the place. Stiklestad museum has an outdoor museum as well as an indoor one. Outside, they have different activities to do for both kids and adults. It is a popular place for a field trip, so kids from around the area all get to experience the viking era. They are given a tour around the place while the guide tells them different happenings and facts about vikings and their accomplishments. But before going on the tour, the kids get to dress up as vikings, and they are also given viking names. This will immerse the kids and making the touring a game for them, filled with fun and anticipation. They get to learn about the history of Norway, and also have fun riding horses and playing vikings/make-believe.
Building upon this, you can make an even more interesting experience. For instance, employees and/or volunteers can make up a situation/problem that the kids have to figure out. Situations such as some kids will be given secret instructions and must not tell anyone about them. These instructions can be things for the kid to do at a certain time during the tour that will help the immersion in the experience.
Example: During a kidnapping event one of the kids can act as if he/she is part of the kidnapping team and have been working with them all along.
While other kids can be given counter instructions on how to act when the kidnapping happens. Neither of participants is aware of their active roles, but there is no real danger since participants are aware of situation being unreal and everything is happening in controlled environment.
Conclusion
Use of pervasive gaming can immerse the “player”, making the learning a fun and exciting experience. It is a perfect tool to use in education, seeing as most of schooling can be tedious and boring, which in return gives a negative feeling towards school and education.
Pervasive Gaming can keep you distracted while learning, by making a fun and educational game.
All articles in folder week 41 on Fronter
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This is so AWESOME! Great job!
SvarSlettNERDGASM!
SvarSlettWow good job guys! It's so sweet that you wrote about Stiklestad! :D This blog is great!
SvarSlett