Using the Next Generation of Gaming & Computer Graphics To Promote Education & Physical Activity in Children.CHICAGO -- ACM SIGGRAPH
Content explores the future of teaching and learning: virtual instructors, toys as teaching tools, individual versus community learning, and how computers can make education more engaging. In addition, there is added focus to using computer graphics and gaming to help promote education and physical activity in youth. "Educational Technology is growing at an astounding a·stound tr.v. a·stound·ed, a·stound·ing, a·stounds To astonish and bewilder. See Synonyms at surprise. [From Middle English astoned, past participle of astonen, rate. This year we are able to showcase some of the first interactive programs developed for the new education environment," stated Patricia Beckman-Wells, SIGGRAPH 2005 Educators Program Chair from Bunsella Films. "We have several avatar teachers and experiments in virtual tutors to showcase. A large exhibit of exercise games built for the younger student population to discourage the current obesity problem in K-12 schools also is being presented. Our goal is to showcase the 'wonder factor' of current education products and encourage an environment of self-directed learning." A Few Highlights From the SIGGRAPH 2005 Educators Program: Fake Fun: Transforming the Challenges of Learning Into Play Stephen L. Guynup University of Baltimore The University of Baltimore (UB), located in downtown Baltimore, Maryland in the Mt. Vernon neighborhood, is part of the University System of Maryland. UB recently opened a brand new student center as well as changing the colors to blue and green, and the "UB" logo. Jim Demmers Georgia Tech Research Institute The Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) is the nonprofit applied research arm of the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia. GTRI employs around 1,300 people, and is involved in approximately $100 million in research annually for more than 200 clients in industry In the spring of 2004, a small first-person shooter  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled. game engine was adapted as the basis for a non-violent educational game titled "Go Fish." Produced within the Georgia Tech Research Institute, the project was surprisingly modest, but the insight it generated was remarkable. Structural differences between play and education were exposed. Resolving these differences, completing the project, and making sure that it was fun and educational required merging educational content into individual acts of play. The result was an attempt to solve the problem of "Fake Fun": the lack of enjoyment found in educational games. Bypassing the finer points of the narratology Narratology is the theory and study of narrative and narrative structure and the way they affect our perception.[1] In principle, the word can refer to any systematic study of narrative, though in practice the use of the term is rather more restricted (see below). vs. ludology debate and remaining within conservative educational boundaries, this discussion will focus on how to provide simple, practical advice for those seeking to transform educational challenges into challenges of play. Lessons Learned From Games for Education W. Lewis Johnson Lewis Johnson is a reporter for NBC Sports and Versus. Currently, he is the sideline reporter for Notre Dame football home games and in 2001 and 2002 was a sideline reporter for the NBA Finals on NBC and for the network's Arena Football telecasts from 2003 through 2006. University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission Idit Caperton MaMaMedia, Inc. Carrie Heeter Michigan State University Michigan State University, at East Lansing; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1855. It opened in 1857 as Michigan Agricultural College, the first state agricultural college. Yasmin Kafai University of California, Los Angeles UCLA comprises the College of Letters and Science (the primary undergraduate college), seven professional schools, and five professional Health Science schools. Since 2001, UCLA has enrolled over 33,000 total students, and that number is steadily rising. Brian Slator North Dakota State University North Dakota State University, at Fargo; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered and opened 1890 as North Dakota Agricultural College, achieved university status in 1960. There is increasing interest in the possibility that good game design can help promote learner states that are conducive to learning. However, we are only beginning to understand what features of games make them educationally effective. This panel will bring together researchers who are experienced in creating educational games and studying their effects on learning to address key questions: --What features of games are most important for promoting learning? --How do non-game learning activities and learning aids change when game-based activities are introduced? How can they best be integrated? --How does game-based learning transfer to the real world? New at SIGGRAPH 2005: The Incubator - an incredible demo space for interactive educational products that are available today or maybe available in the future. One highlight is described below: Getting School Kids Moving: Innovative Technology and PE4life Craig Jonas Phil Lawler Ken Reed PE4life Many people complain about the current generation of children spending too much time playing video games. If you include computers, television, video games, and cell phones, the average child spends 5.5 hours with these distractions on a given day. Technology is often cast as the leading culprit in the current inactivity and obesity crisis, but we are not going to convince the "game generation" to ignore their games. Interactive video games and corresponding technologies can inspire a new breed of activity as demonstrated in live play in this interactive Incubator area. Electronic Games: 2D or not 2D? Tina Ziemek Colorado School of Mines Colorado School of Mines, at Golden; state supported, coeducational; chartered 1874. It was one of the first mineral engineering schools in the United States. Should graphics in educational electronic games be 2D or 3D? This research investigates whether the use of 2D and 3D graphics in computer and video games This article is about the British magazine covering computer and video games. For the American magazine, see Computer Games Magazine. Computer And Video Games (CVG affects how attracted a male is to playing an electronic game versus how attracted a female is. Published research indicates males outperform women in 3D virtual environments; a female's inherent traits could have significant influence on how attracted she is to an electronic game. Beyond Virtual Tutors: Semi-Autonomous Characters as Learning Companions Ulrike Spierling Fachhochschule Erfurt, University of Applied Sciences This presentation will consider the new technical possibilities of virtual interoperable characters as learning companions. Following a brief summary of state-of-the-art interactive storytelling issues that must be considered in the creative process, the presentation will show first experiences from two projects with different approaches that employ playful text-based conversations with graphical animated bots bots maggots of flies which infest animals, especially horses and sheep. The term bot is also loosely used to include the invasive maggots such as those of Cuterebra and Wohlfahrtia spp. horse bots see gasterophilus. . The results lead to the surprising conclusion that the most significant learning process seemed to be achieved by active authors of the conversational dialogues. Beyond an instructive "virtual tutor" (primarily misunderstood as replacing a human educator), different metaphors are suggested that change some expectations for learning with virtual characters. As a result, learners will be viewed as authors who create and shape their own virtual companions. Research and Development of K-12 Learning Games Via the Undergraduate Student Jana Whittington K. James Nankivell Purdue University Calumet Purdue University Calumet is a regional campus within the Purdue University system that is located in Hammond, Indiana in the Northwest Indiana portion of the Chicago metropolitan area. There is an increasing amount of specific research on children's interactive learning games and the fascination of video games. "The fact that children spend considerable amounts of time playing computer games is a phenomenon that has not gone unnoticed by educators" (Robertson and Good 2005). This session will explore how an undergraduate computer graphics program can take advantage of current research while considering the K-12 curricula. The SIGGRAPH 2005 Educators Program opens 3 August at 8 am and closes 4 August at 5:30 pm. For a complete list of sessions, visit http://www.siggraph.org/s2005/main.php?f=conference&p=edu. SIGGRAPH 2005 will bring nearly 30,000 computer graphics and interactive technology professionals from six continents to Los Angeles for the week-long conference, 31 July to 4 August. A comprehensive technical program and special events focusing on research, art, animation, games, interactivity, and the web are planned. SIGGRAPH 2005 includes a three-day exhibition of products and services for the computer graphics and interactive marketplace from 2-4 August 2005. ACM SIGGRAPH, the leading professional society for computer graphics and interactive techniques, sponsors SIGGRAPH 2005. |
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