Games Based Learning MOOC

Could you make a game like Mentira? Could something like it be bootstrapped?

Mentira AR game

Leveraging Mobile Games for Place-based Language Learning
Christopher L. Holden & Julie M. Sykes Research Paper for the game Mentira

I can certainly see an application, again my problem would be that I am at a community college in Colorado and many of my students have only basic mobile phones with no internet access. I can see an application for the ETH 224 class (Introduction to Chicano Studies) There are enough places in Longmont, Colorado with historic application to that class. An example, is that there is a store on Main Street with a line still visible that is about 2/3 back from the front door. (three floorboards are laid at 90 degree angle to the rest, making a definite but subtle line. It used to be a shoe store and I have first person information regarding that line. There were similar lines were on other stores. This line was a “do not cross” for anyone who wasn’t white, you had to go in the back door to be waited on. This was indeed still a practice well into the 1950s. Might be able to do that without a grant with Kae’s help. The store is vacant right now, I will try to get a picture today to post here so you can see it.

We might be able to use it in Cultural Anthropology but certainly it would lend itself to Chicano/a Studies. There is also some abandoned buildings that the owner lets artists paint every so often, and is reflective of past/current Chicano/a Culture. I do have some pictures of some of those.

I would love to try! I am excited about the possibilities of trying this on our school campus. The issue that would need to be worked out would be the narrative and what platform to use to make it. I think it should be possible with Aurasma. Our whole middle school is 1:1 iPad and we have classroom sets in the lower school along with full campus wifi that is accesible indoors and out. So access is not really the issue. The narrative is a whole other story. Where do you start? What do you include? How do you set it up? These are the things that would need work! I have been thinking about trying it in a small way before going all out. Maybe starting with a mystery in the library or something similar for library orientation in the fall. I think it will all be too much of an undertaking to try for this year as I only have 2 1/2 months left of the year.

A library mystery could be awesome! It reminds me a little bit of a Clue game, for some reason. Perhaps the auras could be linked to pictures on the walls that are already there? And perhaps each one could have a clue that leads to the next?

I think, for the younger set, that keeping it in one place such as the library would be a great start. It would set up a perimeter so that students wouldn't get frustrated trying to figure out where they needed to be for the "game".

Great ideas! I'd love to hear more about this, Lleshrad (and anyone else who wants to jump in with their ideas).

Lleshrad, if you are interested in communicating with me about this, maybe we could talk each other through the process? It's something I would really like to try but don't feel very confident about.

This game really reminded me of ARIS so I looked it up and, sure enough, that's how it was created. I first learned about ARIS at the GLS Conference last year and was really intrigued, but it's yet another thing I haven't had time to fully explore. Also, I seem to remember it not working with iPads, which can be a problem as a lot of sixth graders don't have mobile phones. Aurasma may work better for an elementary setting.

After playing around with Aurasma, I've discovered that the first major hurdle is finding/creating engaging content in terms the auras themselves. Yes, there are templates to use in their library, but they are more "cute" than relevant. For example, using a cartoon in the textbook as a trigger, I was able to create an aura of a squirrel skittering across the cartoon panel. Entertaining, but not worth the effort.

So, the most work will be creating engaging auras for a location based AR game. If students are walking up to a location in a school, does an old version of that site pop-up (student art, archived photo/video)? I want to know whether A) this aura content exists, and B) what use is that for any classes other than local history?

For a murder mystery, are we to grab Clipart, dare to swipe copy-written materials, make our own short clips/audio files? I think the danger is to have a product that is NOT coherent in its presentation (a Disney character aura, a home-produced guitar recording, a ripped video from CNN, etc), and since this whole idea relies on its presentation, how effective can it be?

I am VERY interested in this technology and game design, despite what I see as a lack of relevant resources **UNLESS** it is classroom/student created as part of the project/process. The only caveat I have is that this seems rather time-consuming with standard 40-45min meetings each day in a typical high school. Emily Forand even said that her time was limited while working with college students (I realize she was working with IF, but I am using the basic prjoect creation idea and age group as examples).

There is another Aurasma thread going if anyone is interested.

Regarding this conversation, I just sort of assumed I would have to create content from the ground up. I was considering doing a classroom tour with Aurasma next September. I would use key images around the classroom and have this years students create auras explaining classroom rules events etc... Sort of a high tech version of the year end "write a letter to next years class" activity.

One problem I am having with Aurasma, and I've barely started using it so I could be doing something wrong, is getting the trigger images to register properly. The bar doesn't want to move to green for me. Is it because I'm using actual objects instead of pictures? Any advice?

@missrithenay Sorry so long to get back to you. Sick kids... I would love to work on this with you if you would still like to! I will actually try out Aurasma with objects tomorrow and see what happens.

@leedale I am thinking of using Dewey decimal posters for the aura with the younger kids.

Still needing to work through all of the other questions I posted but I think this will be pretty cool.