Approaching Sustainability Learning Via Digital Serious Games

Santos, Alysson Diniz dos; Strada, Francesco; Bottino, A.

doi:10.1109/tlt.2018.2858770

Cited by 20 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Serious games represent optimal platforms to foster wicked problem management abilities, due to their potential to: (i) simulate complex dynamics and elicit problem management in conditions of complexity [16,19,22]; (ii) contextualize gameplay activities reproducing real-world settings and dynamics [35]; (iii) promote the integrative development of knowledge, attitudes and skill sets through engagement in meaningful activity [15,20]; and (iv) function as collective learning environments exempt from spatiotemporal constraints that limit formal learning contexts [19,35]. The nature of WPM suggests that these potentialities can be leveraged to foster WPM abilities by designing serious games based on the principles presented in Table 1.…”

Section: The Challenge: Fostering Wicked Problem Management Abilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rethinking Serious Games Design in the Age of COVID-19: Setting the Focus on Wicked Problems

2020

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We live in a complex world, in which our existence is defined by forces that we cannot fully comprehend, predict, nor control. This is the world of wicked problems, of which the situation triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic is a notable example. Wicked problems are complex scenarios defined by the interplay of multiple environmental, social and economic factors. They are everchanging, and largely unpredictable and uncontrollable. As a consequence, wicked problems cannot be definitively solved through traditional problem-solving approaches. Instead, they should be iteratively managed, recognizing and valuing our connectedness with each other and the environment, and engaging in joint thinking and action to identify and pursue the common good. Serious games can be key to foster wicked problem management abilities. To this end, they should engage players in collective activities set in contexts simulating real-world wicked problem scenarios. These should require the continuous interpretation of changing circumstances to identify and pursue shared goals, promoting the development of knowledge, attitudes and skill sets relevant to tackle real-world situations. In this paper we outline the nature, implications and challenges of wicked problems, highlighting why games should be leveraged to foster wicked problem management abilities. Then, we propose a theory-based framework to support the design of games for this purpose.

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Section: The Challenge: Fostering Wicked Problem Management Abilitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…2. Players should interact and negotiate with other agents, who should have different and conflicting roles, needs, interests and worldviews [16,19,20]. 3.…”

Section: Collective Engagementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Rethinking Serious Games Design in the Age of COVID-19: Setting the Focus on Wicked Problems

2020

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“…The United Nations (UN) Climate Summit in Paris in 2015 was recognized as a major breakthrough in environmental governance and global policymaking [2]. Global climate change and sustainable development require novel approaches to energy consumption across a range of human activities [21] and shifts in technologies, techniques or infrastructures, meeting today's demands, without compromising the needs of the future generations [20]. To this end, there is an acute need to improve awareness on individual and societal levels, especially at the younger populations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One such path taken by the community is the use of gamification mechanisms, in order to engage children on related aspects and give them incentives to act responsibly, e.g., save energy at the school or at home [15,22,35,39]. In this context, researchers have targeted a wide range of end-user groups/communities, like civil servants, office workers, public housing tenants, among others [20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus far, the actual implementation and integration of serious games and playful experiences related to sustainability and energy by the research community has followed a range of different paths [20,21,35]. On the one hand, there have been quite a few implementations that offered games of considerable size and depth, which follow the design of games like city simulators but with a sustainability and renewable energy focus [20]. On the other hand, simpler experiences have attempted to focus on educating end-users by presenting them with information in a playful manner, e.g., in the form of interactive quizzes [21].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Designing Effective Playful Experiences for Sustainability Awareness in Schools and Makerspaces

Mylonas

Hofstaetter²,

Friedl³

et al. 2021

FabLearn Europe / MakeEd 2021 - An International Conference on Computing, Design and Making in Education

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Sustainability awareness in young people, and especially students, is growing in importance. To this end, serious games and playful experiences are used to enable students and teachers to actively study climate change issues and respective challenges. Many approaches have been proposed, ranging from quiz-based web applications to full-blown game experiences. We discuss several related design aspects through the lens of our own experience with gamification inside educational environments. Our results derive from the use of a playful web application focusing on sustainability and energy issues, developed within the GAIA project and used in 25 schools with 3762 registered users. We also present results from surveys answered by 723 students and 32 educators. Our findings show that a simple playful experience can yield good results within educational environments when taking into account their constraints, integrating the intervention to schools' everyday life and placing it within a strategy that includes other tools. CCS CONCEPTS• Applied computing → Interactive learning environments; • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in HCI .

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