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News and Background Information on the Conference | |||
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Mobile Gaming for Dutch Students
Launch of Games Atelier Pilot
Games Atelier was developed by the Dutch mediaLab Waag Society in cooperation with the schools. The Universities of Amsterdam and Utrecht will start a research on the Games Atelier in January 2009, as part of a four-year programme, looking into the learning effects of mobile and location-based games. “The use of location-aware and mobile technology offers many exciting learning opportunities for students, especially when it is applied to the urban context”, explains Rinske Hordijk from the development team. She describes the idea behind the Atelier, saying: “We worked with twenty students and twelve teachers in the pilot phase and instantly realised that students are much more involved and, moreover, excited about the lessons when they create their own learning content”. The Atelier consists of a mobile and web-based toolset and the technology platform 7Scenes, which was developed by Waag Society. Students use a set of templates to create the games collaboratively. “Much emphasis is put on a good story line”, Rinske explains. “Students work in teams both on the technical components and on the content of the game. This means that each student is able to contribute to the process in a similar way, a fact that enhances fun and motivation to a great extent”, she says. 
Screenshots of Games Atelier Students can even subsequently create a competition by setting up teams and publishing their games. Using a mobile application and GPS, players navigate the city, discover the story line, collaborate with other players, record and upload media such as photos, videos and audio notes - and while performing task, they score points. Mobile players can be supported by web-based peers. The entire game is broadcasted live on the web and can be reviewed for reflection. All the user-developed games can be archived in an online repository in the Atelier. Those schools that want to share their games can do so on their own school website. A tool kit with GPS-enabled mobile phones will be lent to those schools that wish to experience the Games Atelier. 
Screenshots of The teachers’ role is that of a tutor and guide. They do not interfere in the development process unless the students encounter serious difficulties. The students develop their own ideas about which problems or issues they want to solve using the mobile game. The research behind the project revolves mainly around the effects that location-based learning has on students, compared to traditional classroom-based lessons. Do they learn differently and what do they learn by actually creating the games? How can the urban reality function as a social or cultural learning environment? At OEB, Henk van Zeijts, the Director of the Creative Learning Lab at Waag Society, will introduce Games Atelier and share the research with the conference audience on Thursday, December 4th, 12:00 – 13:30, in the session Playing Educational Games. Games Atelier will be available for free to schools for a period of three months. After that, the platform will be marketed by a publisher. September 2, 2008 Further information:www.waag.org/gamesatelier
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On January 1st, 2009, a national Make-a-Mobile-Game Contest will mark the launch of Games Atelier, a new web-based authoring tool for the development of mobile games for students. Following a pilot project with five schools in 2008, the authoring tool will be made available for all students in the Netherlands.