SCOOT Game: Place as Stage and Muse for Learning Together

Groups of school mates and families collaborating and competing in Museums and Galleries as they learn all about the history and resources of these ‘Memory Pallaces’. SCOOT game inspires both young and old, experts and novices to play and learn together… orientating through places that were once inconsequential, now are stages for adventure, story telling and meeting new people.

Design Team: Deb Polson, Yang Wong, Shu-Min Heng, Marcos Caceres and Dave Wallace

Check out the web site for SCOOT 2006 Melbourne, Australia. SCOOT 2007 Brisbane, will be launched in July http://www.newishmedia.com/scoot

MiLK: The Mobile Informal Learning Kit

Inspired by SCOOT, the MiLK system is custom made for schools. MiLK is basically a set of simple web interfaces that enable individuals (teachers and students) to design and populate there very own mobile games. The milk-building interfaces are designed to work like a simple series of storyboards with areas to upload images and write SMS text. Once the game designers have submitted their final designs, the storyboard content is dynamically sent to registered users mobile phones in a sequence and style the designers have planned. All communications are then stored and displayed on the students milk-journal for later reflection. The milk-journal is a web page generated by the Milk system and password protected. Students can add comments, upload images, send it SMS and MMS messages and share it with other group members. The teachers are also able to track these activities and set some specific assessment tasks.
We have a number of Primary and Secondary schools in both Adelaide and Brisbane currently trialling the system. Wiki post by Year 10 students using MiLK: the class were asked by their teacher, “Why is MiLK important in Schools?”

Student 1: “Hm. Well, firstly so that the ‘older’ community can enjoy technology as much as the ‘younger’ community. Therefore, they can have as much fun as we have using the new technology. And Secondly, for us teenagers to be able to use the technology we have today without being critised by older people either to put it away because it’s not important or because it’s anti-social of whatever. We enjoy these things so we should be allowed to have them. (pout) ”
Student 2: “ How is this NOT educational It’s completely educational. I mean, alright. You use mobile phones, but we can learn a whole lot from them… when we are playing the game we are doing teamwork, human interaction and we are using logical thinking as we are answering questions and answers. It’s also being physical as you run around the area trying to look for clues and answers. And just because it’s fun doesn’t mean that it’s not educational. Fun activities can be educational. What’s wrong with that? (growl)”

Design Team: Deb Polson, Yang Wong, Shu-Min Heng, Sherwin Huang, Colleen Morgan

Check out the blog we made for ACID: www.milkit.com

Farm It Right: Educational Simulation Game

Farm It Right is an aid for educating university level archaeology students about sustainable farming practices. Based on an ecological model of the 9th century Nordic region, it allows students to compare statistical and visual data to appreciate the effects of modifying various input parameters to the model.

This project was completed under very tight time line (ONE month!) with a small budget.
It is possible with good design!

Funded by University of Bradford, Bradford, UK. $4,000

The user is tasked with simulating the grazing of sheep on an area of grassland. A successful outcome is if the player manages to farm their land sustainably for a full ten years. A failed outcome is if all sheep die (for whatever reason) before the ten years have expired. Maintaining a sustainable population of sheep is a balance of ensuring enough food is produced (by grazing or hay production) to feed the sheep whilst preventing overgrazing of the grassland (which reduces the grazing potential and in turn the number of sheep that can be supported by the land). The player can adjust various parameters to affect this balance (or imbalance).

SCAPE: an urban sustainability education tool

SCAPE was developed for teachers and students in early secondary levels. The main component being a 3D simulation that students participate in on-site at Kelvin Grove Urban Village (a new development in Brisbane Australia). SCAPE brings together interaction designers, education experts, urban/community professionals and technologists, helping it achieve educational outcomes, reflect real-world scenarios and include sophisticated logic and decision making processes… to provide real time visual, statistical and character satisfaction feedback to students.

The project consisted of 3 main activities with various support resources for teachers, students and parents. The first being a web site full of background information and activities related to the urban planning. Secondly, in preparation for participating in the game, the students would receive character ‘dossiers’ to guide their decisions as one of six roles (such as developer, elderly tenant, councilor, builder etc). Finally there is a sophisticated 3D simulation of the village. Students form groups of mixed roles to negotiate decisions and reflect on the results as they collaborate to meet a consensus. The simulation consists of four simulation rounds of urban planning (Land Use, Density, Housing Types and Transport) and a design round with interactive neighborhood inventory objects for placement in the simulation.

Pedagogy
A community education program is being developed at Kelvin Grove Urban Village. With an overall objective of involving industry, supporting teachers and exiting students, the program will be based around the core theme of urban sustainability and provide:

- learning through a variety of interactive mediums
- hands on practical learning opportunities
- participation in real life projects and experiences
- intellectual support for teachers in emerging fields
- learning from industry experts
- interaction with other schools and types of students

Community Sustainability
The Kelvin Grove Urban Village Master Plan includes the client (the Hornery Institute) objectives of:
- Championing the principles of sustainability;
- Establishing the Project Participants as market leaders in the arenas of education, place making and social innovation; and
- Reflecting whole of Government outcomes across strategic policy areas.

“The development of a Community Curriculum providing extended learning opportunities, leveraging the facilities across the educational campus areas for the benefit of the broader community. This may include a schools program, seniors skills program, personal well being and environmental education”. The Hornery Institute community development plan, key deliverable (strategy 9.3.3).
SCAPE is currently being used by visiting student groups. Some initial feedback:

Teacher One: (this participant also joined us for initial discussions and brought his students together for trails). “These were fascinating discussions and I was excited by their ideas. Twelve months later I was invited to see the progress that had been made. What I saw literally blew me away because in that time they had developed a wonderful computer simulation…”
Year 9 Student One: “I liked the scenarios we got to play. It was a good way to pretend you had a say in your village. My team negotiated very well and at the end stage all of our characters were happy.”
Year 9 Student Two: “We made the decisions but I dont like the result.”

My Role: Project Manager and Lead Designer
Design Team: Dave Wallace (system), Sherwin Huang (visual), Matt Daniels (3D)
Funding: ACID, The Hornery Institute and the Queensland State Housing Department
Locations and Collaborators: Kelvin Grove Urban Village and QUT

The support web site for teachers, students and parentswww.kgups.acid.net.au

The Kelvin Grove Urban Village Web Sitewww.kguv.com.au/

Games, Digital Social Networks and Mobile Devices… for more effective learning.