Periodic Reporting for period 1 - EduGames (Play to learn: ludic video games and interactive experiences to improve critical and computational thinking skills)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2022-11-01 al 2024-10-31
The EduGames project tackles a problem that is becoming more and more prevalent in our fast-paced, digital world: the ability to think critically in the face of disinformation. Critical Thinking skills, such as understanding cause and effect, following logical steps, reading, and spotting misinformation, are essential for navigating the complex information we encounter every day. By practicing these skills, people become better equipped to engage with the world around them, actively participate in society, and make informed decisions. While schools play a role in building these skills, people outside formal education may also need support. This project aims to bridge that gap by developing video games that are engaging, entertaining, and educational, giving people of all ages a chance to strengthen these essential skills while playing.
In line with Europe’s digital strategy to combat disinformation, the project has a clear mission: to help individuals recognize and question false information. Disinformation, or weaponized misinformation, has become a major concern over the past few decades, and this project contributes to countering it by designing entertaining games that also teach. With video games being one of the most popular forms of entertainment, they offer a powerful way to reach a wide audience and make learning enjoyable, accessible, and engaging. This approach is designed to impact a broad range of people, from teens to adults, and help build a society that thinks critically and responsibly in our information-saturated world.
The project has two key objectives:
1. creating and testing skill-building games: with the help of experts from education, game design, and game research, we aim to create video games that are first and foremost entertainment products, while ensuring that they contain sound educational material delivered in a way that can be acquired and used by the players;
2. documenting the uniquely multi-disciplinary design and development process to produce a set of guidelines to aid the development of video games with educational focus and entertainment ambitions.
By combining education with entertainment, this project seeks to build a toolkit of design principles that other game developers can use, opening up new opportunities for creating fun and meaningful games. The project has the potential for far-reaching impact: as more developers use these principles to create games, the public gains greater access to playful experiences that make learning skills for life both accessible and fun. This initiative will contribute to building a more critically aware and engaged society, preparing people to meet the demands of today’s digital world in an informed and empowered way.
In line with Europe’s digital strategy to combat disinformation, the project has a clear mission: to help individuals recognize and question false information. Disinformation, or weaponized misinformation, has become a major concern over the past few decades, and this project contributes to countering it by designing entertaining games that also teach. With video games being one of the most popular forms of entertainment, they offer a powerful way to reach a wide audience and make learning enjoyable, accessible, and engaging. This approach is designed to impact a broad range of people, from teens to adults, and help build a society that thinks critically and responsibly in our information-saturated world.
The project has two key objectives:
1. creating and testing skill-building games: with the help of experts from education, game design, and game research, we aim to create video games that are first and foremost entertainment products, while ensuring that they contain sound educational material delivered in a way that can be acquired and used by the players;
2. documenting the uniquely multi-disciplinary design and development process to produce a set of guidelines to aid the development of video games with educational focus and entertainment ambitions.
By combining education with entertainment, this project seeks to build a toolkit of design principles that other game developers can use, opening up new opportunities for creating fun and meaningful games. The project has the potential for far-reaching impact: as more developers use these principles to create games, the public gains greater access to playful experiences that make learning skills for life both accessible and fun. This initiative will contribute to building a more critically aware and engaged society, preparing people to meet the demands of today’s digital world in an informed and empowered way.
We carried out several activities during the course of the project, first to frame the problem and plan interventions and training, then to implement the planned interventions according to the project's aims and methodology, and lastly to collect the lessons learned and plan end-of-project dissemination and communication activities.
First, we started with a survey of educational video games, and how games are used by educators. This action resulted in i) a first conference publication providing a review of the academic literature and state of the art of educational video games, and ii) a number of interviews with educators interested in educational video games. We approached the educators who had an interest in video games and using games as educational interventions. We asked them informations about their educational fields, their educational practices, and how they see, and use, video games in their educational work. We collected several responses across different educational settings, both academic and non-academic, and gathered a fairly rich and nuanced picture which contributed to inform and guide the game design activities. At the same time, we performed a survey of the academic literature as well as the state of the art in educational video games, which led to a first conference publication reviewing the literature and state of the art, and proposing the EduGames project as an approach to attack the problem.
We proceeded with the design and implementation of two video games.
1. "Cash or Card?" is a cashier simulation that deals with issues around the use of cash and electronic payments. In many countries, the adoption of electronic payments has increased, sparking varied reactions, from worries about the costs and opportunities of the different payment methods, to concerns surrounding the utility of cash for certain demographics, to full-blown conspiracy theories about population control and freedom limitation the COVID-19 pandemic. The game focuses on presenting the opposing arguments for and against using each payment method, accompanied by accessory information about costs, risks, and opportunities. The goal is to allow the players to explore the topic in as neutral a way as possible so that they can reflect on the two alternatives and the consequences of each method.
2. "The Journalist" is an investigative journalism simulation that deals with issues of misrepresentation of data and the reliability of information sources. Taking the role of a journalist, the player is tasked with composing a number of articles for a weekly magazine, drawing information from a variety of sources of which they have to ascertain the reliability based on the way in which they present information. The player is free to choose their strategy, whether that means increasing or decreasing their magazine's reputation, and managing their own income stream. By giving the players this choice, they are encouraged to reflect on the way the truth is constructed through factual or distorted information, and on the incentives for going either way.
"Cash or Card?" was designed by the project's PI based on information collected online and in real-life conversations with shopkeepers and customers. The implementation was done by the PI alone as a baseline proof-of-concept against which to compare the multi-disciplinary collaborative approach involving domain experts advocated by the EduGames project. In line with the goals of the project, "The Journalist" was instead designed and developed by a team composed by game designers, a science teacher, and a game and HCI researcher. The difference in focus and direction of the two design processes is clear and confirms the expectations set out in the project's proposal that working with domain and industry experts would make creating educational video games that also work as entertainment products easier and more effective. An initial reflection on the two games, as well as some usage data analysis for "Cash or Card?" resulted in a second conference publication.
First, we started with a survey of educational video games, and how games are used by educators. This action resulted in i) a first conference publication providing a review of the academic literature and state of the art of educational video games, and ii) a number of interviews with educators interested in educational video games. We approached the educators who had an interest in video games and using games as educational interventions. We asked them informations about their educational fields, their educational practices, and how they see, and use, video games in their educational work. We collected several responses across different educational settings, both academic and non-academic, and gathered a fairly rich and nuanced picture which contributed to inform and guide the game design activities. At the same time, we performed a survey of the academic literature as well as the state of the art in educational video games, which led to a first conference publication reviewing the literature and state of the art, and proposing the EduGames project as an approach to attack the problem.
We proceeded with the design and implementation of two video games.
1. "Cash or Card?" is a cashier simulation that deals with issues around the use of cash and electronic payments. In many countries, the adoption of electronic payments has increased, sparking varied reactions, from worries about the costs and opportunities of the different payment methods, to concerns surrounding the utility of cash for certain demographics, to full-blown conspiracy theories about population control and freedom limitation the COVID-19 pandemic. The game focuses on presenting the opposing arguments for and against using each payment method, accompanied by accessory information about costs, risks, and opportunities. The goal is to allow the players to explore the topic in as neutral a way as possible so that they can reflect on the two alternatives and the consequences of each method.
2. "The Journalist" is an investigative journalism simulation that deals with issues of misrepresentation of data and the reliability of information sources. Taking the role of a journalist, the player is tasked with composing a number of articles for a weekly magazine, drawing information from a variety of sources of which they have to ascertain the reliability based on the way in which they present information. The player is free to choose their strategy, whether that means increasing or decreasing their magazine's reputation, and managing their own income stream. By giving the players this choice, they are encouraged to reflect on the way the truth is constructed through factual or distorted information, and on the incentives for going either way.
"Cash or Card?" was designed by the project's PI based on information collected online and in real-life conversations with shopkeepers and customers. The implementation was done by the PI alone as a baseline proof-of-concept against which to compare the multi-disciplinary collaborative approach involving domain experts advocated by the EduGames project. In line with the goals of the project, "The Journalist" was instead designed and developed by a team composed by game designers, a science teacher, and a game and HCI researcher. The difference in focus and direction of the two design processes is clear and confirms the expectations set out in the project's proposal that working with domain and industry experts would make creating educational video games that also work as entertainment products easier and more effective. An initial reflection on the two games, as well as some usage data analysis for "Cash or Card?" resulted in a second conference publication.
The results achieved so far indicate that video games with educational intent and entertainment ambitions can be effective as educational instruments and well received by players as entertainment products. Entertainment products encourage continuous play over time, which can beneficial when paired with content and gameplay that enable not only knowledge acquisition but also knowledge practice, reflection, and deeper exploration of the educational content. The playtests performed on the two video games developed showed the potential impact of being not only exposed to opposing arguments, but also being asked to directly engage with the information at hand, and to act on it. By taking decisions with consequences, albeit fictitious, players reported having reflected on the educational content, and being more open to discussing it, and to have their mind changed about the issues presented. The lessons learned during the course of the project will form a core of recommendations for further development of similar video games and other types of educational interactive experiences such as, for example, museum installations.
On the down side, engaging domain and industry experts is an expensive enterprise, both in monetary and resource terms. This was expected at the start of the project, and in fact this only highlights the need for more funding available for this kind of activities. For-profit video game development is an expensive and risky enterprise, but with the potential positive impact on society, it becomes easier to argue that low-risk funding and support structures should be made more easily available to both the industry and academia.
We are making plans to i) finalize the development of "The Journalist," seeking further financing if necessary, and ii) develop a third video game to consolidate the lessons learned from the first two and further pursue the aims of the EduGames project. Further research will be necessary, particularly longitudinal studies to keep track of skills acquisition and development over time, which has not been possible during the course of this project due to time constraints.
On the down side, engaging domain and industry experts is an expensive enterprise, both in monetary and resource terms. This was expected at the start of the project, and in fact this only highlights the need for more funding available for this kind of activities. For-profit video game development is an expensive and risky enterprise, but with the potential positive impact on society, it becomes easier to argue that low-risk funding and support structures should be made more easily available to both the industry and academia.
We are making plans to i) finalize the development of "The Journalist," seeking further financing if necessary, and ii) develop a third video game to consolidate the lessons learned from the first two and further pursue the aims of the EduGames project. Further research will be necessary, particularly longitudinal studies to keep track of skills acquisition and development over time, which has not been possible during the course of this project due to time constraints.