Greenworks:  Science, Role-Playing, and Community Transformation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lev Horodyskyj ◽  
Tara Lennon
Keyword(s):  
Political Science ◽  
Real World ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Virgin Islands ◽  
Plastic Pollution ◽  
Effect Change ◽  
Community Transformation ◽  
Trade Relations ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Community Projects

<p>Environmental crises will overwhelmingly impact Millennials and Generation Z.  Most are aware of this reality and enthusiastic about finding and promoting community and policy solutions.  However, many youths also lack the communication and collaboration skills necessary to implement change in their communities.  The Greenworks program is a collaboration between Science Voices (a nonprofit focused on improving science education) and a political science course at Arizona State University (ASU).  Teachers and students from the University of the Virgin Islands (US), Khairun University (Indonesia), and University of Campinas (Brazil) are currently involved in on-going pilot projects as well.  The program provides space for students to practice deliberation and policy-making in an online role-playing game and then implement their own proposal to address an environmental problem in their community.</p><p>In the Greenworks program, students complete a short curriculum on geoscience and governance, engage in a role-playing diplomacy game to resolve environmental issues in a fictitious world, and then implement a community project to effect change in the real world.  ASU students participate as part of an online political science course formally offered by ASU.  Students and faculty mentors at other universities are recruited by Science Voices and complete custom curricula and community projects.  As part of the role-playing game that all students participate in, students are assigned to fictitious nations and address analogous real-world environmental and political challenges through diplomacy between nations with various competing objectives.  Challenges vary from semester to semester and include trade relations, climate change, plastic pollution, pandemics, and deforestation.  Through communication channels like Slack and Discord, students share their personal experiences on these topics and collaborate on related policy options.  Students enrolled through Science Voices also develop proposals to address local problems of importance and are provided with crowdfunded grants and materials to implement their proposal.</p><p>We will describe the program in more detail, discuss the experiences of our students, and the results of the first community projects.  We will additionally discuss developing this program as a collaborative space for students from the Global North and South to partner and co-mentor each other in developing local solutions to global challenges.</p>

Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game for Teaching Youth Finance in Canada

2012 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
David A. Jones ◽  
Maiga Chang
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Kindergarten Students ◽  
Educational Tool ◽  
Financial Decisions ◽  
Personal Finances ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
The Way

It has been stated that people need to improve their knowledge of finances and make better choices with their money. Many programs have been created to teach basic finances. These programs target people of all ages from adults all the way down to kindergarten students. The vast majority of opinions on teaching finances state that education begins with children – the younger the better. The goal of this research is to create a fun to play multiplayer online role playing game (MORPG) capable of teaching younger students how to better manage their personal finances. The game is designed as an educational tool with an attempt to balance both the entertainment and educational components. It simulates a real world where the player must make financial decisions for their avatars in an attempt to develop enough wealth to allow that avatars to retire at a specified age.

Promoting Civic Thinking through Epistemic Game Play

2011 ◽  
pp. 111-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. S. Bagley ◽  
David Williamson Shaffer
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Real World ◽  
Computer Games ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Knowledge And Skills ◽  
Civic Values ◽  
Real World Problem ◽  
Urban Science ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
The Many

A growing body of research suggests that computer games can help players learn to integrate knowledge and skills with values in complex domains of real-world problem solving (P. C. Adams, 1998; Barab et al., 2001; Gee, 2003; Shaffer et al., 2005; Starr, 1994). In particular, research suggests that epistemic games—games where players think and act like real world professionals—can link knowledge, skills, and values into professional ways of thinking (Shaffer, 2006). Here, we look at how a ten hour version of the epistemic game Urban Science developed civic thinking in young people as they learned about urban ecology by role-playing as urban planners redesigning a city. Specifically, we ask whether and how overcoming authentic obstacles from the profession of urban planning in the virtual world of a role playing game can link civic values with the knowledge and skills young people need to solve complex social and ecological problems. Our results from coded pre- and post-interviews show that players learned to think of cities as complex systems, learned about skills that planners use to enact change in these systems, and perhaps most important, learned the value of serving the public in that process. Two aspects of the game, tool-as-obstacle and stakeholders-as-obstacle, contributed to the development of players’ civic thinking. Thus, our results suggest that games like Urban Science may help young people—and thus help all of us—identify and address the many civic, economic, and environmental challenges in an increasingly complex, and increasingly urban, world.

Playing Chopin

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Gibbons
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Video Games ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Real World ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Frederic Chopin ◽  
Main Character ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Mobile Game ◽  
Role Playing Game

This chapter explores two video games that feature the nineteenth-century pianist and composer Frédéric Chopin as the main character: the Japanese role-playing game Eternal Sonata and the mobile game Frederic: Resurrection of Music. The chapter begins by examining three mythic identities that have shaped audience’s understandings of Chopin and his music and that play a role in Eternal Sonata and Frederic: the salon composer, the Romantic composer, and the Slavic composer. To address the challenges of creating a compelling video game narrative about a real-world composer, both games employ innovative but problematic narrative strategies to transform Chopin into a more stereotypically heroic character. Moreover, both games include his music in ways designed to reinforce its musical greatness and increase the music’s appeal to younger audiences.

Mixed Reality Games

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Charles Marty ◽  
Thibault Carron ◽  
Philippe Pernelle ◽  
Stéphane Talbot ◽  
Gregory Houzet
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Mixed Reality ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Learning Activity ◽  
Learning Session ◽  
Real Objects ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Mixed Approach ◽  
Set Up

The authors research work deals with the development of new game-based learning (gbl) environments. They think that the way of acquiring knowledge during a learning session is similar to following an adventure in a role-playing game and they apply the metaphor of exploring a virtual world, where each student embarks on a quest in order to collect knowledge related to a learning activity. In their university, the authors have set up numbers of experiments with students using gbl environments. They revealed weaknesses for specific learning activities. Sometimes, learners seem to acquire a skill in the game, but they are not able to reuse it easily in the real world. This is particularly the case for skills that require concrete manipulation of real objects to be acquired. Gbl environments thus lack of means to learn know-how aspects. Some of the learning processes involving real world objects are very difficult to reproduce in gbl environments and there is an essential technological issue in mixing virtual and real aspects in gbl environments. In this article, the authors describe the possible problems that can appear when using this mixed approach, give hints on how to avoid them and illustrate the proposition with examples issued from the electronic domain. The authors focus on issues linked to the transition between virtual and real worlds and they explore how new electronic features can facilitate this mixed approach, where identification, localisation and update of the user models are key issues.

scholarly journals A New Quest is Available: seeing, walking and narrating the city

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 127
Author(s):  
Elita Nuraeny
Keyword(s):  
Real World ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
The Body ◽  
Spatial History ◽  
Spatial Narrative ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Project Location ◽  
The City ◽  
Knights Templar ◽  
The Church

Walking becomes a conversation, of past, present and future, between our body and the city. However, today’s modern hand-held map demands us to look down, disrupting the dialogue between the body and city. Like a modern role-playing game, the map guides us to our quest mark beyond with minimum consideration of the present time. The map makes the quest mark and path visible; yet, the in-between space of our reality is overlooked. Following the idea of a hidden quest mark in our real world, this study explores the lost narrative between our body and the city. The study examined a project named Location + that follows spatial history, experiences and the journey beyond of a hidden church of the Knights Templar in London. The project is filled with instructions to decipher codes, directing people to the church. By using psychogeography, the project Location + approaches a spatial narrative using site writing and creative map-making that is specific to the site. By emphasizing the idea that our journey matters, this project allows a dialogue between the body and city.

scholarly journals NON-POISSON DONATION BEHAVIORS IN VIRTUAL WORLDS

Fractals ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (04) ◽  
pp. 1950061 ◽  
Author(s):  
YAN-HONG YANG ◽  
MING-XIA LI ◽  
WEI-XING ZHOU ◽  
H. EUGENE STANLEY
Keyword(s):  
Power Law ◽  
Virtual Worlds ◽  
Real World ◽  
Charitable Giving ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Detailed Data ◽  
Long Range Correlations ◽  
Complex Interactions ◽  
Donation Process ◽  
Role Playing Game

Similar to charitable giving in real world, donation behaviors play an important role in the complex interactions among individuals in virtual worlds. However, it is not clear if the donation process is random or not. We investigate this problem using detailed data from parallel virtual worlds adhered to a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. We find that the inter-donation durations follow power-law-tailed distributions distributed with an average tail exponent close to 1.91, have strong long-range correlations, and possess multifractal features. These findings indicate that the donation process is non-Poissonian, which has potential worth in modeling the complicated individual behaviors in virtual worlds.

Prospects for the use of modern technologies to increase student involvement

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 28-33
Author(s):  
Iu. V. Amelina ◽  
R. V. Amelin
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
Educational Process ◽  
State University ◽  
Role Playing Games ◽  
It Education ◽  
Interaction Plot ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Live Action

The article discusses the prospects of role-playing games in the educational process to increase students’ motivation and involvement, as well as the possibility of modern information technologies (primarily social networks) for constructing innovative forms of such games. The author’s format of the live-action role-playing game is presented. It was developed and tested at the Saratov State University. It involves the integration of numerous educational tasks into a single plot, within which each participant plays a role and communicates with other participants to complete tasks. The main interaction, plot development and group activities occur in dialogs, conversations and groups of social networks. This approach has shown its viability in teaching legal disciplines, and also has prospects for use in IT education.

PENERAPAN FINITE STATE MACHINE UNTUK PENGENDALIAN ANIMASI PADA VIDEO GAME RPG NUSANTARA LEGACY

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Mustofa Mustofa ◽  
Sidiq Sidiq ◽  
Eva Rahmawati
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Finite State Machine ◽  
Role Playing ◽  
State Machine ◽  
Game Development ◽  
Development Life Cycle ◽  
Finite State ◽  
Role Playing Game

Perkembangan dunia yang dinamis mendorong percepatan perkembangan teknologi dan informasi. Dengan dorongan tersebut komputer yang dulunya dibuat hanya untuk membantu pekerjaan manusia sekarang berkembang menjadi sarana hiburan, permainan, komunikasi dan lain sebagainya. Dalam sektor hiburan salah satu industri yang sedang menjadi pusat perhatian adalah industri video game. Begitu banyaknya produk video game asing yang masuk ke dalam negeri ini memberikan tantangan kepada bangsa ini. Tentunya video game asing yang masuk ke negara ini membawa banyak unsur kebudayaan negara lain. Ini semakin membuat kebudayaan nusantara semakin tergeserkan dengan serangan kebudayaan asing melalui berbagai media. Maka dari itu peneliti mencoba untuk menerapkan Finite State Machine dalam merancang sebuah video game RPG (Role-Playing game) yang memperkenalkan kebudayaan. Dalam perancangan video game ini peneliti menggunakan metode GDLC(Game Development Life Cycle) agar penelitian ini berjalan secara sistematis. Dalam suatu perancangan video game tedapat banyak elemen, pada penelitian ini penulis lebih fokus pada pengendalian animasi karakter yang dimainkan pada video game ini. Dari perancangan yang dilakukan, disimpulkan bahwa Finite State Machine dapat digunakan untuk pengendalian animasi yang baik pada video game RPG. Diharapkan video game ini dapat menjadi salah satu media untuk mengenalkan kebudayaan nusantara

UTILIZANDO O ROLE PLAYING GAME (RPG) COMO UM RECURSO DIDÁTICO NO ENSINO DE GEOGRAFIA FÍSICA

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 1289-1299
Author(s):  
Daniel Victor Martins de Araújo ◽  
Cleire Lima Da Costa Falcão
Keyword(s):  
Role Playing ◽  
Physical Geography ◽  
The State ◽  
State University ◽  
Geography Teaching ◽  
Palabras Clave ◽  
Cognitive Action ◽  
Role Playing Game ◽  
Didactic Material ◽  
Brazilian Northeast

A utilização de novas metodologias em sala de aula é um assunto recorrente dentro das discussões sobre o ensino de geografia. Possuindo isso em mente, como produto da disciplina de Oficina em Geografia II da Universidade Estadual do Ceará (UECE) foi elaborado um material didático alternativo com objetivo de auxiliar os docentes na construção de um ensino contextualizado de Geografia. Essa pesquisa objetiva apresentar uma metodologia alternativa para o ensino de Geografia que visa praticar além da ação cognitiva de memorizar um conceito, trabalhando a interdisciplinaridade, a criatividade, o emocional e a cooperação. A proposta foi construir um RPG (Role Playing Game), que é um jogo que se utiliza da interpretação de personagens para criar e contar histórias coletivamente nas quais todos os agentes se tornam ativos dentro desse processo. Realizaram-se os seguintes procedimentos: revisão bibliográfica, seleção e adaptação do sistema de regras. Por fim, produziu-se a aventura de RPG intitulada “A busca pelo arco de Gelo”, que trabalha alguns aspectos físicos do nordeste brasileiro principalmente do estado do Ceará. Após a elaboração do material constatou-se a importância de trabalhar perspectivas para além do conteudismo. Sentiu-se a necessidade de aplicar no ensino básico para mensurar seu real impacto. Palavras-chave:  Recurso Didático. RPG. Geografia Física. ABSTRACTThe use of innovative methodologies in the classroom is a recurring subject in discussions about geography teaching. With that in mind, as a result of the discipline Workshop in Geography II from the State University of Ceará (UECE) was created, an alternative didactic material with the aid of teachers in the construction of a contextualized geography teaching. This research looks to show an alternative perspective for the teaching of geography that aims to practice beyond the cognitive action of memorizing the concept, but also working on interdisciplinary, creativity, the emotional and cooperation. The proposal was to build an RPG (Role Playing Game), which is a game that uses character interpretation to create and tell stories collectively in which all agents become active within that process. The following procedures were executed: bibliographic review, selection and adaptation of the rules system. At the end, it produced an adventure of RPG "The search for the arc of Ice" that works on physical aspects from the Brazilian northeast, focusing on the state of Ceará. After the material elaboration, it was clear the importance to work on perspectives beyond content. It felt the need to apply the didactic resource to measure its real impact. Keywords: Didactic Resource. RPG. Physical geography.     RESUMEN El uso de metodologías innovadoras en el aula es un tema recurrente en los debates sobre la enseñanza de la geografía. Con eso en mente, como resultado de la disciplina Taller de Geografía II de la Universidad Estatal de Ceará (UECE), se creó un material didáctico alternativo con la ayuda de los maestros en la construcción de una enseñanza de geografía contextualizada. Esta investigación busca mostrar una perspectiva alternativa para la enseñanza de la geografía que tiene como objetivo practicar más allá de la acción cognitiva de memorizar el concepto, pero también trabajando en la interdisciplinaria, la creatividad, lo emocional y la cooperación. La propuesta era construir un juego de rol (RPG), que es un juego que utiliza la interpretación de personajes para crear y contar historias colectivamente en las que todos los agentes se vuelven activos dentro de ese proceso. Se ejecutaron los siguientes procedimientos: revisión bibliografico, selección y adaptación del sistema de reglas.   Palabras clave: Recurso didáctico. RPG Geografía Física.  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document