Assessing the educational values of digital games

Abstract   In recent years, digital games have assumed an important place in the lives of children and adolescents. Effective content design is crucial to the success of digital game-based learning. Therefore, the tool for assessing the effectiveness of game design is accordingly very important for parents and teachers, so that they may encourage or discourage students to play. The purpose of this study is to develop an assessment tool to examine the educational values of digital games. In the first phase of this research, the research team developed the indices for assessing the educational values of digital games. An expert panel consisting of game scholars and professional game designers was established to construct the indices for evaluating digital games in three focus group discussions. Seventy-four game evaluation indices were sorted into seven categories: mentality change, emotional fulfilment, knowledge enhancement, thinking skill development, interpersonal skill development, spatial ability development and bodily coordination. In the second phase of the research, the game designers were asked to assess certain games by using the 74 indices. Meanwhile, the game scholars were also asked to evaluate the same pool of games by the same indices. The assessments by both the scholars and designers were then compared and the similarities were found. This research provided a preliminary framework for future game designers, parents and teachers in assessing educational values of digital games.     

Twenty years of artificial life art

This essay begins with discussion of four relatively recent works which are representative of major themes and preoccupations in Artificial Life Art: ‘Propagaciones’ by Leo Nuñez; ‘Sniff’ by Karolina Sobecka and Jim George; ‘Universal Whistling Machine’ by Marc Boehlen; and ‘Performative Ecologies’ by Ruari Glynn. This essay is an attempt to contextualise these works by providing an overview of the history and forms of Artificial Life Art as it has developed over two decades, along with some background in the ideas of the Artificial Life movement of the late 1980s and 1990s.1 A more extensive study of the theoretical history of Artificial Life can be found in my paper ‘Artificial Life Art—A Primer’, in the Proceedings of DAC09 and also at http://www.ace.uci.edu/Penny. Excerpts from that essay are included here.      

Support of digital art for the design and development of logo

Logo is the mark indicates the characteristic of things, also plays a role in expression of meaning and transfer of information. This paper made a brief analysis and discussion on how to use digital art to enhance the artistic expression of logo based on logo examples.     

Micro‐adaptivity: protecting immersion in didactically adaptive digital educational games

The idea of utilizing the rich potential of today's computer games for educational purposes excites educators, scientists and technicians. Despite the significant hype over digital game‐based learning, the genre is currently at an early stage. One of the most significant challenges for research and development in this area is establishing intelligent mechanisms to support and guide the learner, and to realize a subtle balance between learning and gaming, and between challenge and ability on an individual basis. In contrast to traditional approaches of adaptive and intelligent tutoring, the key advantage of games is their immersive and motivational potential. Because of this, the psycho‐pedagogical and didactic measures must not compromise gaming experience, immersion and flow. In the present paper, we introduce the concept of micro‐adaptivity, an approach that enables an educational game to intelligently monitor and interpret the learner's behaviour in the game's virtual world in a non‐invasive manner. On this basis, micro‐adaptivity enables interventions, support, guidance or feedback in a meaningful, personalized way that is embedded in the game's flow. The presented approach was developed in the context of the European Enhanced Learning Experience and Knowledge TRAnsfer project. This project also realized a prototype game, demonstrating the capabilities, strengths and weaknesses of micro‐adaptivity.     

The effects of winning and losing on social presence in team-based digital games

Social play is an increasingly important constituent of the digital game experience. Though there is a growing understanding of how the social context influences the experience of playing, there is little known about how the experience of play influences the social experience. Specifically, it is not even known whether winning or losing affects a player's sense of social presence with their co-players. This paper provides the results of two studies aiming to explore this interaction. The first study is a lab-based study that looked at whether social presence varied in collocated teams playing team-based games depending on whether they won or lost. The second study is a user experience survey which measured how variables in the context of gameplay affected social presence across a number of team-based online games. The results of both studies show that when teams lose, the negative impact on social presence is greater within teams than between the competing teams. This has implications for how studies in this area should be analysed and also, through consideration of individual games, suggests that mechanisms in the games may lead to the reduced social presence.     

Successful aging through digital games: Socioemotional differences between older adult gamers and Non-gamers

The purpose of this investigation was to examine differences in psychological functioning (e.g., well-being, affect, depression, and social functioning) between older adults who play digital games compared to those older adults that do not play digital games. Analysis was conducted on a sample of 140 independently living older adults with an average age of 77.47 years (SD = 7.31). Participants were divided into three groups (Regular, Occasional Gamers, and Non-gamers) – 60% of the sample was either a Regular or Occasional Gamer. Differences among the groups were found for well-being, negative affect, social functioning, and depression with Regular and Occasional Gamers performing better, on average, than Non-gaming older adults. Findings suggest that playing may serve as a positive activity associated with successful aging.     

Connecting the dots: Understanding the interrelated impacts of type,quality and children's awareness of design features and the mathematics content learning goals in digital math games and related learning outcomes

This study focused on an examination of how type, quality and children's awareness of design features in digital math games, along with an awareness of the mathematics goals of the game, were related to learning outcomes. We conducted a parallel conversion mixed methods study with 45 students in Grades 3 and 4 (ages 9–10). Students participated in clinical interviews using three digital math games. The results suggest a moderated mediation relationship in which the quality of the design features moderated the mediating impact of children's awareness of the game's design features, specifically when the child was aware of the mathematics content learning goal (MCLG) of the game. These findings show how important it is that design features are of high quality in a digital math game, and how this is intertwined with children's awareness of the features and the MCLG. When these variables intertwined in just the right way, the interactions between the children and the digital math game afforded mathematical learning growth.     

What can Studies of e-Learning Teach us about Collaboration in e-Research? Some Findings from Digital Library Studies

e-Research is intended to facilitate collaboration through distributed access to content, tools, and services. Lessons about collaboration are extracted from the findings of two large, long-term digital library research projects. Both the Alexandria Digital Earth Prototype Project (ADEPT) and the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS) project on data management leverage scientific research data for use in teaching. Two forms of collaboration were studied: (1) direct, in which faculty work together on research projects; and (2) indirect or serial, in which faculty use or contribute content to a common pool, such as teaching resources, concepts and relationships, or research data. Five aspects of collaboration in e-Research are discussed: (1) disciplinary factors, (2) incentives to adopt e-Learning and e-Research technologies, (3) user roles, (4) information sharing, and (5) technical requirements. Collaboration varied by research domain in both projects, and appears partly to be a function of the degree of instrumentation in data collection. Faculty members were more interested in tools to manage their own research data than in tools to facilitate teaching. They also were more reflective about their research than teaching activities. The availability of more content, tools, and services to incorporate primary data in teaching was only a minimal incentive to use these resources. Large investments in a knowledge base of scientific concepts and relationships for teaching did not result in re-use by other faculty during the course of the project. Metadata requirements for research and for teaching vary greatly, which further complicates the transfer of resources across applications. Personal digital libraries offer a middle ground between private control and public release of content, which is a promising direction for the design of digital libraries that will facilitate collaboration in e-Research.     

Understanding the relationships between interest in online math games and academic performance

Although the Internet is widely used by students in both formal and informal environments, little is known about how and where youth spend their time online. Using Internet search and Web analytics data, this study discovered a large‐scale phenomenon associated with the poor performance of elementary school students in the USA that has been overlooked by educational researchers. This study found that approximately 10 million Internet users in the USA, many of whom are presumably youth, spend about 89 million hours in a year on a popular math game site that targets children. The number of game site users is equivalent to half of the K‐5 Internet population in the USA. However, there is little evidence that the math games on the website meet the criteria for effective instruction as described in the literature. This study found a significant negative correlation between search volumes for the game site in the 50 states in the USA and 4th grade students' performance in mathematics and reading. Moreover, Internet users in the states with greater numbers of low‐income families and fewer college graduates were more likely to search for the game site. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

The lies we tell and what they say about us: Using behavioural characteristics to explain Facebook activity

Are there two definable groups of users of social networking sites based on the individual’s interaction style, that is whether the prime goal is to self-promote (broadcast) or maintain relationships (communicate)? Do such groups indulge in differing patterns of deceptive behaviour? Measures of personality, behaviour, and Facebook activity were completed by 113 undergraduate students all of which were active Facebook users. Regression analyses showed that while broadcasting behaviour was predicted by risk taking, an out-going personality and an absence of quality interaction; low mild social deviance predicted communication behaviour. Unexpectedly, cluster analysis identified three, not two, distinct groups of users: high broadcasters, high communicators and a high interaction group. Although each group mainly interacted with known others, their style of the interaction varied. Communicators’ interaction style supported group cohesion often through the use of ‘white lies’ or social oil; while the remaining two groups indulged in deceptive behaviour designed to self-promote or aggrandize the individual.     

Constant time BSR solutions to L1 metric and digital geometry problems

In this paper we solve several geometric and image problems using the BSR (broadcasting with selective reduction) model of parallel computation. All of the solutions presented are constant time algorithms. The computational geometry problems are based on city block distance metrics: all nearest neighbors and furthest pairs ofm points in a plane are computed on a two criteria BSR withm processors, the all nearest foreign neighbors and the all furthest foreign pairs ofm points in the plane problems are solved on three criteria BSR withm processors while the area and perimeter ofm isooriented rectangles are found on a one criterion BSR withm ² processors. The problems on ann ×n binary image which are solved here all use BSR withn ² processors and include: histogramming (one criterion), distance transform (one criterion), medial axis transform (three criteria) and discrete Voronoi diagram of labeled images (two criteria).     

数字化矿山建设中存在问题分析及对策

分析了我国数字化矿山建设的现状及存在问题,并结合实际情况从转换管理方式、优化平台、建立专业级控制中心、加强大数据应用和管理、完善信息采集和展示方式几个方面提出了相应对策,为最终建立完整的可预测、预控、辅助矿方科学决策的可视化矿山平台,实现减人提效、人本安全提供参考。     

广告设计专业网络形象设计课程的教学探索与创新

广告设计专业学生要应对数字化和多媒体艺术的挑战,必须及时补充和完善多媒体艺术创作和设计能力,开设网络形象设计课程势在必行。在课程的教学中,我们应注意艺术原则和美观享受同技术手段和操作特性的恰当结合,既体现审美又满足实用。     

此时无声胜有声——论含蓄之美在平面设计中的审美价值与运用

含蓄能使平面设计产生气韵生动的效果,在平面设计的创意中,适当的运用含蓄的表现手法,则给人无穷无尽的情感诱惑。本文试对含蓄美这一审美方式进行探索研究,将含蓄美引入平面设计中,运用平面设计的视觉语言表现形式在作品中传达出含蓄之美,以达到作品的创新。     

Exposure to violent computer games and Chinese adolescents’ physical aggression: The role of beliefs about aggression, hostile expectations, and empathy

Previous research shows that playing violent computer games (VCG) influences physical aggression. However, the mediation processes of this influence and potential gender and age differences have not been well investigated. The present study (a) tested, in an integrated model, how three factors (i.e., beliefs about aggression, hostile expectations, and empathy) simultaneously mediated the relationship between playing VCG and physical aggression, and (b) determined if the mediation process varied across gender and age groups. A total of 795 (44% females) Chinese adolescents from three grade levels (Grade 5, 8 and 11) completed measures of exposure to VCG, physical aggression, beliefs about aggression, hostile expectations, and empathy. Results indicated that paths involving each of the three mediators as the sole mediator were significant in the whole sample. Beliefs about aggression (e.g., “it’s O.K. to hit someone”) were the most robust mediator across gender and age groups. Empathy was a more important mediator in females than in males in Grade 5 and Grade 8. The direct and/or indirect associations (e.g., VCG → beliefs about aggression → physical aggression) between playing VCG and physical aggression were stronger among younger adolescents than among older adolescents. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Digital design and time on device; how aesthetic experience can help to illuminate the psychological impact of living in a digital culture

ABSTRACT

Aesthetic techniques are increasingly used by marketeers to create enticing digital products. In this paper, I work with the aesthetic experiences of one audience group to consider the psychological impact of living in a culture where digital devices are deliberately designed to influence behaviour. I argue that aesthetic encounters can help with understanding the impact of the interplay between visual stimulus, affect and digital culture, in ways that may support situated understandings of mental distress in a digital age. I show how audiences respond to the artist-led research project Are We All Addicts Now? arguing that they generate ideas connected to submersion and being overwhelmed as a means of reporting on their own personal experiences of living in a digital culture that seeks to influence behaviour. The findings may have value for designers, curators and artists invested in understanding the experiential impact of digital devices.     

Agent‐oriented and ontology‐driven digital libraries: the IndianaMAS experience

This paper describes IndianaMAS, a multiagent system able to automatically classify and manage images, sketches, and multilingual documents in a cultural heritage domain. The latter has been formalized by means of an ontology, which enables the semantic integration of heterogeneous data from different sources, drives the agent communication with the internal and external environment, and provides an abstract and human‐readable interface between the system and the user. IndianaMAS is able to expose to the world the classified data via a digital library. Modularity and reusability are the key engineering principles followed in the system design and implementation. We present the details of the IndianaMAS system and discuss how its architecture can be generalized to create – with the minimal effort – systems addressing similar classification, storage, and management problems, but operating in different domains and driven by different ontologies. The concrete problems we faced and their solutions are described to share our lesson learned and, at the same time, to show the applicability and reusability of our modular approach based on ontologies, agents, and digital libraries. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Creativity,method and process in digital fabric printing: a 21st century paintbrush

Abstract

This paper analyses how the arrival and widespread use of digital printing affects the artist as maker in the postmodern world of instant reproduction. In response to the question of using digital printing as an artistic tool, a 21^st century paintbrush, the marks and imagery of paintings and drawings of the author's own work produced over the past few years were analysed. The digitally printed fabric outcomes, large scale painterly prints, will be presented as examples of how digitisation becomes a powerfultoolto the textile artist with the creative textile maker manipulating technology and not being controlled by it. The conclusion will show how digitisation and new technologies should not be seen as creating isolation but can be integrated into the textile artist's tool box to inspire and enhance creativity.