Developing Public Opinions on Science Using Information Technologies
January — December 2006
As an increasing number of complicated ethical and social issues involve scientific and technological debate, there is greater
need to provide tools to further inform discussion. Museums present opportunities to explore complex scientific ideas and evidence that can shed light on
current debate and hence support rich discussions. Designed for a museum environment, the POSIT project utilized Augmented Reality (AR) games previously
developed by the Teacher Education Program and role-playing to help participants better understand alternative views.
These games allowed participants to move through physical spaces with a Microsoft Pocket PC and interact with virtual
characters to help illuminate matters of public health, forensics, and history. Participants could express opinion ratings with a handheld slider,
showing how new evidence could provide a rationale to form new opinions. These participatory simulations encouraged students to investigate the complex
facets of difficult issues in order to arrive at informed decisions—a vital skill in complicated times.
Investigators:
Prof. Eric Klopfer, Teacher Education Program and Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning
John Durant, MIT Museum and Science, Technology and Society Program
Additional Information:
http://icampus.mit.edu/projects/POSIT.shtml
|
Games to Teach
June 2001 — August 2003
"What happens when you combine MIT-quality science, math, and engineering content with cutting-edge game play?
Confronting this challenge forces us to not only expand the creative and technical possibilities of an emerging medium but also to better understand its
cultural, social, and intellectual contexts. The Games to Teach project has allowed us to blow the lids off those dusty boxes of educational games we’ve
come to regard as ineffective, uninteresting, and tedious. Our research has already attracted enormous interest from leaders in both industry and
education."
—Professor Henry Jenkins, Literature: Comparative Multimedia Studies
This project was an interdisciplinary collaboration between faculty, staff, and students across humanities, sciences, and
engineering to develop a series of conceptual prototypes for teaching science and engineering courses with games at the advanced high school and early
college levels.
The project developed 10 game concepts to support learning and explored best practices in gaming and how to best apply them
in education. The conceptual prototypes consisted of game design information, original creative artwork, sets of pitch materials, accompanying pedagogical
rationale, and storyboards of user experiences and game play.
The goal of these prototypes was to provide grounded examples of next-generation educational gaming that would spark interest
and dialogue among the game developer communities, interactive entertainment industry, leaders in higher education, and government and consortium
funders.
Investigators:
Prof. Henry Jenkins, Literature: Comparative Multimedia Studies
Randy Hinrichs, Microsoft Research
Additional Information:
http://icampus.mit.edu/projects/GamesToTeach.shtml
http://educationarcade.org
|
