Designing Game Based Learning – a Participatory Approach

Game Based Learning seems to be an interesting new possibility of teaching and learning, but the effort spent on designing games and the possible positive outcomes have to be weighed carefully. The following paper describes the development process and the conceptual design of a simulation game on sustainability for teenagers. The design process is participatory in nature. Members of the future group of learners are involved in the design process at every stage. This involvement is especially important to overcome the contradiction between the goal of the game as such and the pedagogical goal of the designers

Parallelt. [Übers. des Autors]: Concept an realization of an adult continuing education eLearning course

Die Dissertation hat die Entwicklung und Umsetzung eines Universitätslehrganges an der Technischen Universität Wien für umweltgerechte Produktgestaltung/Ecodesign auf eLearning Basis zum Thema. Die Zielgruppe sind Personen, die schon seit längerem im Arbeitsleben stehen und den Kurs in vielen Fällen neben ihrer Berufstätigkeit absolvieren. Sie sind daher nicht mit herkömmlichen SchülerInnen oder StudentInnen zu vergleichen, da sie einerseits schon längere Zeit aus dem traditionellen Lernprozess ausgestiegen sind und andererseits aufgrund ihres Alters in vielen Fällen eine niedrigere Media Literacy im Bezug auf Computer und Internet besitzen.Das Thema Nachhaltigkeit in Firmen einzubringen erfordert in vielen Fällen einiges an Enthusiasmus. Diesen zu vermitteln ist ebenfalls ein Ziel des Kurses. Nach der Absolvierung sollen die TeilnehmerInnen nicht nur fundiertes Fachwissen besitzen, sondern auch in der Lage sein, die Ideen von Ecodesign in ihrem Arbeitsumfeld einzusetzen.Aus diesen Anforderungen ergeben sich die in der Arbeit behandelten zentralen Fragestellungen:Wie sehen die gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen, Erwartungen und Möglichkeiten in Bezug auf eLearning und Life Long Learning aus? Welche pädagogischen Ansätze eignen sich am besten für das geplante Thema und die Zielgruppe? Wie können die bekannten Probleme und Nachteile von eLearning vermieden werden? Auf welche Art kann mit der Lernumgebung und dem Lehrgangsaufbau ein soziales Umfeld geschaffen werden, das eine möglichst hohe Lernmotivation für die TeilnehmerInnen mit sich bringt? Welche Art von Software und Implementierung ist am besten für einen derartigen Kurs geeignet? Für diese Fragestellung wird zuerst das theoretische Fundament in den Bereichen Erwachsenenbildung, eLearning, Usability und aktuelle technische Standards erläutert. Darauf baut dann die Entwicklung eines konkreten Konzeptes für den Universitätslehrgang auf. Der dritte Teil der Arbeit beschreibt das Resultat der Implementierung und die Umsetzung des entwickelten Konzeptes. Zum Abschluss werden die Ergebnisse aus der ersten Abhaltung des Lehrganges an der Technischen Universität Wien im Wintersemester 2004/05 analysiert.This thesis is about development and realisation of an university course in sustainable product development/Ecodesign. The target group of this course are people who finished their standard education and worked for several years. It is also necessary to take care of the lower media literacy of people who did not grow up with Internet.To bring Ecodesign into companies it often needs a lot of enthusiasm.For this reason the participants should not only have good knowledge of the basics in Ecodesign, they also should be able to apply sustainable product development in their working fields, after finishing the course.The main issues in this study are:What are the society expectations in development and in possibilities of eLearning and Life Long Learning? Which pedagogical theories work best with the target group and best for the goals of the course? How is it possible to avoid the known problems and the disadvantages of eLearning? In which way is it possible to the technical and organisational environment to generate a social learning scenario to motivate the participants? The thesis starts with theory about adult education, eLearning, usability and current technical standards. After this a concrete concept for the eLearning course has been worked out. The third part describes the implemented product and the realisation of the concept. Finally the outcome of the first held university course in 2005 is discussed.20

Collaborative Situation Report Production on Big Wall Displays: the CoSitRepSys

This paper presents the concept for a collaborative situation report production system (hereinafter referred to as CoSitRepSys) being used in situation monitoring centres and crisis management headquarters (hereinafter crisis rooms) equipped with large display areas. We present a concept of a collaborative system that aims at supporting the production of daily bulletin and situation report production or similar workflows. The central feature of the CoSitRepSys is the collaborative editing of reports and a broad applicability on big wall displays of varying size. The whole system uses just a few simple interaction patterns. There are two separate areas: one for creating and editing situation reports and another for sifting and review of information sources. The key artefact is the big wall display and the information shown thereon. Besides the present operators also remote team members can control what is displayed by using their personal mobile devices, such as laptops, tablets or smart phones. Web technology and html-based deployment ensures a substantial independence of operating systems.JRC.G.2-Global security and crisis managemen

Sustainable Living - A Multiplayer educational game based on Ecodesign

The educational Ecodesign game SuLi (Sustainable Living) aims at transferring basic knowledge about sustainability to young people onwards in a playful way. When playing the game, the impacts of producing and consuming goods are displayed. The importance of design and production decisions is transferred and the players are confronted with the consequences of their activities in an enjoyable but reasonable manner. This knowledge about the impacts of production and consumption along a products´ life cycle will help preferring environmentally sound products that were produced under fair conditions. The integration of the target group of the game takes place at an early stage of development so that their needs and wishes can be addressed and taken into account. During the testing phase the practical use of the game is also tested and evaluated on this high school