E Is for Everyone: The Case for Inclusive Game Design

Part of the Volume on the Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning In this chapter I examine the accessibility of today's games, or rather the lack of. Even common medical conditions such as arthritis, repetitive stress injuries, and diminished vision may prevent individuals from playing today's top software titles, not to speak of the barriers that these titles pose to the blind, deaf, and immobile. The clearest and most disheartening manifestation can be found when examining the special-needs sector. There we find children who cannot partake in their most coveted play activities, due to inconsiderate (and therefore inflexible) game design. I chose this sector to both define the problem and explore its solutions. Written from the perspective of a designer, the chapter first describes the lack-of-play and its residual impact as perceived in a school that caters to over 200 children with special needs. In an attempt to create the "ultimate-accessible" game, I demonstrate how games can be designed to be intrinsically accessible while retaining their original playability. Lastly, I show how normalization-of-play may improve upon the social, educational, and therapeutic aspects of the children's daily lives. Tying this fringe-case with the grander ecology of games, I discusses how better accessibility may encourage more people to enjoy games -- be they gamers, students, or patients

iLRN 2018 Main Conference Preface

iLRN 2018. Conferência realizada em Missoula, MT, USA, de 24-29 de junho de 2018.ILRN 2018 was the fourth annual international conference of the Immersive Learning Network. It followed on from the inaugural conference held in Prague in July 2015, the second conference held in Santa Barbara in June 2016, and the third conference held in Coimbra, Portugal, in 2017. In response to the increasingly accessible and powerful range of VR and AR technology, the vision of the iLRN is to develop a comprehensive research and outreach agenda that encompasses the breadth and scope of learning potentialities, affordances, and challenges of immersive learning environments. To achieve this, the iLRN invites and hosts scientists, practitioners, organizations, and innovators across many disciplines to explore, describe, and apply the optimal use of immersive worlds and environments for educational purposes. The annual conference aims to explain and demonstrate how these immersive learning environments best work. In 2018, 21 formal papers were received for the main conference and after a rigorous reviewing process six were selected for this Springer publication (28% acceptance rate). The authors of these papers come from institutions located in Brazil, Germany, the UK, and the USA (Florida, Texas, California). The main conference papers cover a range of interesting topics in some depth, providing useful information for other educators and researchers. Alvarez-Molina et al. report on how video games can help players develop their musical skills and illustrate this by creating and evaluating a music-video game that aims to improve the key skill of pitch recognition. Bakri et al. investigate the subjective perception of the fidelity of 3D cultural heritage artifacts on the Web and how this affects the user experience. De León reports on the promising results of utilizing problem-based learning for bridging theory and practice in teacher preparation programs through the use of immersive, ill-structured problems in a multi-user virtual environment that simulates a real school. Feenan draws upon 10 years of studies into the use of digital game-based learning as the basis of an analysis that recommends a five-pronged approach to the successful use of games to support social resiliency skills for students in a fast-changing world. Johnson and Sullivan describe a pilot study that identifies three key strategies for making students feel more comfortable and productive in an experimental game design class. Queiroz et al. present a literature review of learning outcomes from using fully HMD-based IVE in primary/K-12 education, highlighting relevant studies, identifying gaps, and providing insights for use in further research. This informative and fascinating collection of papers reflects the emerging and valuable possibilities of immersive learning research. We know you will find many points of interest and use in the well-presented reports in this collection. Finally, we strongly encourage you to join ILRN and contribute your own insights and research to the community.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Book Review: Modernism, Drama, and the Audience for Irish Spectacle

In a book about drama and Irish spectacle, one would naturally assume that the reactions to Synge\u27s The Playboy of the Western World, Yeats\u27s and Gregory\u27s The Countess Cathleen, and O\u27Casey\u27s The Plough and the Stars would be discussed, and one might be concerned - that this is all well-worn territory. While the reactions to these plays are discussed in Modernism, Drama. and the Audience for Irish Spectacle, by Paige Reynolds, and while the treatments of the plays and the concomitant situations themselves offer little that is really surprising or new, what is surprising and new is the context of these treatments amid other much less familiar incidents of Irish spectacle. By including .chapters on Dublin Suffrage Week, the death and funeral of Terence MacSwiney, and the 1924 Tailteann Games, Reynolds expands our conception of Irish spectacle,in exciting and provocative ways

Youth aspirations and sense of place in a changing rural economy: the Coos youth study

Youth in rural Coos County have surprisingly strong ties to their communities, finds a new report from the Carsey Institute. The brief is the first to report on a ten-year panel study of students who began seventh and eleventh grades in 2007 in Coos, New Hampshire\u27s northernmost and most rural county

Technopanics, Threat Inflation, and the Danger of an Information Technology Precautionary Principle

Fear is an extremely powerful motivational force. In public policy debates, appeals to fear are often used in an attempt to sway opinion or bolster the case for action. Such appeals are used to convince citizens that threats to individual or social well-being may be avoided only if specific steps are taken. Often these steps take the form of anticipatory regulation based on the precautionary principle. Such “fear appeal arguments” are frequently on display in the Internet policy arena and often take the form of a full-blown “moral panic” or “technopanic.” These panics are intense public, political, and academic responses to the emergence or use of media or technologies, especially by the young. In the extreme, they result in regulation or censorship. This paper considers the structure of fear appeal arguments in technology policy debates, and then outlines how those arguments can be deconstructed and refuted in both cultural and economic contexts. Several examples of fear appeal arguments are offered with a particular focus on online child safety, digital privacy, and cybersecurity. To the extent that these concerns are valid, they are best addressed by ongoing societal learning, experimentation, resiliency, and coping strategies rather than by regulation. If steps must be taken to address these concerns, education and empowerment-based solutions represent superior approaches to dealing with them compared to a precautionary principle approach, which would limit beneficial learning opportunities and retard technological progress

Connecting the dots: information visualization and text analysis of the Searchlight Project newsletters

This report is the product of the Pardee Center’s work on the Searchlight:Visualization and Analysis of Trend Data project sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation. Part of a larger effort to analyze and disseminate on-the-ground information about important societal trends as reported in a large number of regional newsletters developed in Asia, Africa and the Americas specifically for the Foundation, the Pardee Center developed sophisticated methods to systematically review, categorize, analyze, visualize, and draw conclusions from the information in the newsletters.The Rockefeller Foundatio

A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing two Cognitive-Behavioral Programs for Adolescent Girls with Subclinical Depression: A School-Based Program (Op Volle Kracht) and a Computerized Program (SPARX)

Limited research has indicated the effectiveness of the school-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) prevention program ‘Op Volle Kracht (OVK)’ and the computerized CBT program ‘SPARX’ in decreasing depressive symptoms. Therefore, a randomized controlled trial of the effectiveness of OVK and SPARX was conducted among Dutch female adolescents (n = 208, mean age = 13.35) with elevated depressive symptoms. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: OVK only (n = 50), SPARX only (n = 51), OVK and SPARX combined (n = 56) and a monitoring control condition (n = 51). Participants in the first three conditions received OVK lessons and/or the SPARX game. Depressive symptoms were assessed before interventions started, weekly during the interventions, and immediately after the interventions ended, with follow-up assessments at 3, 6 and 12 months. Intention to treat results showed that depressive symptoms decreased in all conditions (F(12, 1853.03) = 14.62, p < .001), with no difference in depressive symptoms between conditions. Thus, all conditions, including the monitoring control condition, were equally effective in reducing depressive symptoms. Possible explanations for the decrease of depressive symptoms in all conditions are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided. Dutch Trial Register: NTR3737

Promoting Character and Resiliency Among Elementary School Students: An Assessment of the CARE Now Program

Youth, especially in inner-city areas of the country, are in need of effective, outcome-based camp programs when school is not in session. Character and Resiliency Education (CARE) Now (CN) is a comprehensive in- and afterschool program designed to promote academic enrichment through positive youth development with a focus on enhancing character and resiliency. In the summer of 2013, CN was adapted to create a three-week long day camp at a high-needs elementary school in eastern Virginia. Using theoretically-based and outcome focused programming, CN was widely praised for its effectiveness among youth in this summer camp. To assess its impact, a mix-method approach was used, producing desirable results. Consequently, the supporting organization moved forward to fund CARE Now for a year-long program at the same school

Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP), Video Games, and the Adolescent\u27s Perceived Experience

Video games are an everyday experience for adolescents and have changed how adolescents interact with one another. Prior research has focused on positive and negative aspects of video game play in general, without distinguishing Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIPing) as the mode of play. Grounded in entertainment theory, motivational theory, and psychological distress theory, this cross-sectional, correlational study examined the relationship between VOIPing and quality of life (Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory), Yee\u27s motivation to play video games, and resilience (Child and Youth Resilience Measure). A series of linear regression and multivariate canonical correlation models analyzed self-report responses of 103 adolescents aged 13 to18. Results indicated that VOIPing was not statistically related to quality of life or resilience. However, VOIPing correlated positively with motivation to play video games, particularly with the subscales of socialization and relationships. Canonical analysis of motivation for gaming and quality of life indicated that adolescents with high scores on customization and escapism motivation for gaming subscales tended to also have high scores on each of the emotional, social, and school quality of life subscales. Canonical analysis of motivation for gaming and resilience indicated that adolescents with low scores on the escapism motivation for gaming subscale tended to also have high scores on the individual, relationships, and community resilience subscales. The positive aspects of VOIPing, particularly with increased motivation to play video games, can be effectively used in coaching adolescents in social skills and relationship building