Serious Game and Communities
Post do MediaShift Idea Lab, de Leslie Rule, mostra como os “Location-Based Mobile Games” podem ser usados de forma mais “séria”, para educacão, por exemplo. Sobre o conceito: “The term Serious Games is in the vernacular, and we see games that teach, inform, and enlightened but are not necessarily in formal learning environments. They are being used to teach more traditional organizational change issues like Systems Thinking, Collaborative Learning, Leadership, and Professional Development. There are Games for Health being built for healthcare applications and to explore new ways to improve global healthcare. Games are also being designed to effect
overlay on the physical spaces you inhabit, thereby sharing the embedded cultural knowledge we all have.”
Um projeto interessante informado nesse sentido é o “Create-A-Space”, também usado para a educação e que permite a criação de histórias (produção de textos, imagnes, sons) e localizá-las com GPS. O Create-A-Scape é fruto de uma parceria do Futurelab – Bristol e a HP, e é um software modificado do mSpace da empresa. O software permite criar o que eles chama de “mediascape”:
“A mediascape is composed of sounds, images and video placed outside in your local area. To see the images and video, and hear the sounds you need a handheld computer (PDA) and a pair of headphones. An optional GPS unit can automatically trigger the images, video and sounds in the right places.To create a mediascape, you start with a digital map of your local area. Using special, free software, you can attach digital sounds, pictures and video to places that you choose on the map (see below). By going outside into the area the map covers, you can experience the mediascape. Using the handheld computer and headphones, you can hear the sounds and see the pictures and video in the places the author of the mediascape has put them. All sorts of exciting things can happen as you explore the mediascape.” Aqui é possível ver um vídeo feito por um estudante.
Em relação ao post de ontem sobre comunidades e tecnologias móveis, o post do MediaShift informa também sobre o projeto “Pleasurable Cities”, do Futurelab, Bristol, GB, que visa investigar como as tecnologias podem ajudar a criar reforço comunitário, logo politico e social, entre os jovens, principalmente com o uso de telefones celulares e serviços baseados em localização.
Sumário: “The Pleasurable Cities project is an investigation into how everyday technologies might be used to create a dialogue between young people about their local community spaces. The project explores the pros and cons of technology-enhanced systems (utilising located media and mobile phones) to enable young people to share their ideas with peers and policy makers and to affect change to the environments in which they, live, play, work and learn.”
A questão das comunidades, e mais precisamente das “Mobile Communities”, o do “Mobile Social Networking” é um tema chave para compreender as relações sociais mediadas pelas tecnologias móveis e consequentemente, a dimensão política (em breve um post sobre essa questão). O evento, “Mobile Communities Unconference”, na California vai precisamente discutir isso. Justificativa:
“Another? Scale. The number of mobile handsets in use just dwarfs the number of PCs. Another? Experience. You can take it (your network) with you. With the user experience that advanced handheld devices like the iphone bring, you no longer signifignanty compromise your online experience when using a handset. And last but not least: Location. Locative experiences and media are going to explode soon. I got a taste of this when I worked at Autodesk, but just the simple fact of knowing where you are geographically, and where friends, family and potential contacts are relative to your position adds a whole new layer of meaning and experience to social networking. Want to join the conversation? We have an AWESOME group of folks lined up to discuss this next Thursday, March 20th in Palo Alto.” Mais infos no link do evento.