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!