Mobile educational games 08 nov 2014 final

Page 1


2 1 Questions •  Why Mobile? •  Why Games?


Why mobile? •  Mobile Devices overtake PC sales

Worldwide Device Segment (Thousands of Units)

3000000 2500000 2000000 1500000 1000000 500000 0

Traditional PCs Mobile Devices

2013

2014

2015


Why mobile? •  Africa is the Mobile continent


Why Mobile ! 

The current and future generations’ technology


Why games? •  Simple answer –  Games = Fun –  But what is fun?, What do we find fun and why?


!  x

=1x2

!  no

challenge !  bored

!  x

= (a +2b)(a – 5b)

!  Unidentified !  frustrated

!  10

=x+2

pattern!  Solvable pattern !  delight


What is fun? •  So fun is our brains feeling good – the release of endorphins. –  We are all drug addicts –  When we learn or master something we get our endorphin reward

•  Survival trait –  We need to learn/acquire skills to survive and our body rewards us for learning


•  Crucial for our ancestors to hide from enemies/wild animals •  Searching was a skill needed in gathering foodstuffs •  Children play games to acquire needed skills in an environment where the stakes are lower.


Why games? •  So fun = learning

IS

–  And that makes games the teachers –  How have we been teaching without games?

•  Our games need to be updated to impart the skills that are relevant today –  Hide and Seek needs its modern


I’ve been to the moon!


Looking Back - 2014 •  Started with linked course approach. •  Collaboration between Marisa Venter and Riaan van der Walt. •  Linking of 2 B.Tech IT subjects •  Development Software IV –  Mobile game programming Expertise

•  Project Management IV


Looking Back - 2014 •  Project: Develop a financial literacy game. •  Students were given creative freedom. •  Skills: Saving, managing of income, expenses, debt. •  Made use of training material from Khan Academy for Financial Literacy training.


Looking Back - 2014 •  After first semester two projects were chosen to continue with development. •  Third year graphic design students helped with graphic design. •  We worked closely with development team of the Oinks game. •  Iterative design until they had a game concept that they themselves would enjoy playing.


Heading •  Text 1 •  Text 2 •  Text 3


Going forward 2015 and beyond •  We possess the technical and project management expertise in the IT department to take this project further, provincial and national. •  Advantageous position in terms of flexibility. •  We plan to develop and test various educational apps in schools next year. •  Potential collaboration: devices, schools, educational content.


Going forward 2015 and beyond •  We need to look at educational apps through a new lens. •  Rid ourselves of our preconceived ideas. •  We need to truly innovate. •  Find out what learners want and what is working.


Going forward 2015 and beyond •  Start using the available knowledge about gaming and use it to our advantage. •  Apply it in a new fresh way to meet the educational demands of digital natives. •  “Students today think and process information fundamentally differently from their predecessors, as a result of being surrounded by new technology”.


Going forward 2015 and beyond •  Bridge the divide between digital natives and digital immigrants. •  We should meet them on their turf! •  If we succeed in doing this the sky is the limit!


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