VALUES-BASED DIGITAL GAMES: Designing a digital game platform to foster sustainability in early childhood

Research suggests that many digital games include violence and about half of the violent incidents have negative repercussions such as increased aggression, serious injuries or death in the real world (APA, 2015; Children Now, 2015; Gentile 2014). This influential nature (Bogost, 2006) of digital games calls for research on ways in which the digital games can be leveraged instead. This is especially relevant for the early childhood context when players are most malleable (Gentile, 2014; Tootell, Freeman, & Freeman, 2014). Most individuals develop their value systems, habits, and attitudes through play in these early years (Epper, Derryberry, and Jackson 2012). “Play”, in today’s digital age, is facilitated by technology in the form of digital games. This makes digital games a powerful means of fostering values, attitudes, and developing social and emotional learning in children (Hromek and Roffey 2009). Using design science research, this research aims to tap into the power of digital games by creating a platform for designing digital games that foster values, including sustainability principles in early childhood

DESIGNING SERIOUS GAMES FOR A SUSTAINABLE WORLD

Computer games can be used to educate and persuade. In this paper we investigate the potential of “serious games” to foster values to create a sustainable world. Although the idea of using games to persuade people raises ethical concerns, we draw inspiration from the 17 UN sustainable development goals, focusing on goal 6 – Clean water and sanitation. This research project uses design science research to propose and demonstrate design artefacts via the creation of a game prototype. We believe that this approach has the potential to lay the foundation for the future design and development of serious games for sustainability

Design Of Ubiquitous Information Systems For Digital Natives

This paper focuses on how we can design Ubiquitous Information Systems (UIS) for digital natives. Digital natives are those who have grown up in a digital world, where the use of information and communications technologies is pervasive and ubiquitous, and where these technologies are used in organisational and personal contexts. Digital natives, unlike digital immigrants, like new technologies and they like change. This paper suggests that the rise of the digital native has profound implications for the design of information systems, and particularly UIS. Since many of our previous theories and models assume most users to be digital immigrants (who tend to resist new technology), a new set of design principles are needed for digital natives. We propose four key dimensions of UIS design for this new audience, namely, the system, the activity, the user, and the context that the system is designed to support. We conclude with a roadmap for the design and implementation of UIS for digital natives

Design of Organisational Ubiquitous Information Systems: Digital Native and Digital Immigrant Perspectives

Digital natives are those who have grown up in a digital world where the use of information and communications technologies is pervasive and ubiquitous. Digital immigrants are those who learnt to use computers at some stage during their adult life. This paper discusses the design of Organisational Ubiquitous Information Systems for digital natives and digital immigrants. Organisational Ubiquitous Information Systems (oUIS) refer to information systems available through many devices such as smart phones that are used by employees of an organisation anytime and anywhere to achieve specific work related goal(s). Based on interviews with digital natives and digital immigrants in one of the leading software companies in the world, our findings suggest that digital natives and immigrants have different perspectives and priorities when it comes to the design of oUIS. This paper discusses these differences and the implications for the design of oUIS

DESIGN OF ORGANISATIONAL UBIQUITOUS INFORMATION SYSTEMS: A FRAMEWORK FOR DIGITAL NATIVE AND DIGITAL IMMIGRANT USERS

This paper focuses on the design and implementation of Organisational Ubiquitous Information Systems for Digital Native and Digital Immigrant users. Organisational Ubiquitous Information Systems refer to information systems available through many devices such as smart phones that are used by employees of an organisation anytime and anywhere to achieve specific work related goal(s). A multi-methodological approach was used to explore the design requirements for Organisational Ubiquitous Information Systems design as compared with Traditional Information Systems design. The findings suggest that Organisational Ubiquitous Information Systems are part of a large organisational digital ecosystem, and hence a design and implementation framework for these systems needs to reflect this. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for the Organisational Ubiquitous Information Systems design process

Serious Games for Sustainable Development: A Decision-driven Transformative Approach

Digital games are pervasive, prevalent, persuasive and powerful. Several researchers recognize that sustainable development is an area that can benefit from persuasion, particularly, of values. We therefore explore serious games for sustainable development in this paper. We find that decision-making underpins learning and persuasion in serious games. As a result, we propose a decision-driven transformative approach for the design of serious games for sustainable development. This research uses design science research to propose conceptual artifacts for the design of serious games for sustainable development. We also create actual game prototypes as system artifacts to demonstrate the application of the proposed conceptual artifacts. We draw inspiration from the 17 internationally endorsed UN sustainable development goals, focusing on goal 6 – Clean water and sanitation. We believe that this approach has helped lay a solid foundation for creating artifacts to further support the design and development of serious games for sustainable development