Learning by Co-Designing Environmental (In)Justice Games

Abstract

This paper describes undergraduate students' learning after researching environmental topics and co-creating and disseminating environmental justice games to fulfill their course and university service-learning requirements. Post-play reflections revealed motivation toward improvement in providing a game format that audiences would find engaging while learning about the seriousness of the environmental topic. Further, evidence of students' critical thinking, reflecting on the lack of environmental justice was noted. Students remarked that disseminating information by "spreading the word" is a key to raising awareness about environmental injustices. Essays also revealed students' intrigue with the game's co-creation process and enjoyed playing games with others. These findings may benefit researchers and educators interested in game creation as critical pedagogy.

Metaverse in the Virtual Workplace

“…Various factors can influence team creativity not just on a personal level but also on team-related components such as emerging states and processes (Reiter-Palmon et al, 2021). Chavez-Aguayo (2009) argues that creating original content in the metaverse encourages creativity because it allows people to express themselves in original ways that enrich the content of virtual life. Torres-Coronas and Gascó-Hernández (2009) mention that creativity may help virtual teams work better; however, due to the lack of research in this area, there is still a challenge in reaching high levels of creative performance.…”

“…Several papers in our dataset deal with Second Life. Whether in terms of the demands that users have on it (Kumar et al, 2008), the study of communicative behaviour (Sharma et al, 2010), creativity and cultural production (Chavez-Aguayo, 2009), but also more technically based challenges such as the 3D representation of objects in the metaverse (Arroyo et al, 2009; Steurer, 2011). Salmasi and Gillam (2009) also point to the ethical dimension of Second Life and offer a framework for responsible gambling.…”

“…They introduce a new concept of ‘meta-art’ that transforms the viewer into a participant, user, and even creator of artworks and content on the web. Chavez-Aguayo (2009) even suggests that the metaverse contributes to the democratization of culture, art and education by bringing creation closer to consumers and thus breaking down social, economic and political barriers. According to Morie (2010), the metaverse certainly brings a new dimension to art as well.…”

Individual differences in selective attention and engagement shape students’ learning from visual cues and instructor presence during online lessons

“…For example, visual cues facilitated learning among middle school students who knew less about the lesson topic, but instead interfered with learning for students who had more prior knowledge 47 . Several other factors that may affect these individual differences have been identified (e.g., age, working memory capacity, spatial abilities, motivation/interest in the lesson topic 48 – 52 ), but have not yet been studied in depth 2 , 3 . As a result, our understanding of the mechanisms that shape individual differences in learning during multimedia lessons remains incomplete.…”