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=== PCST: Public Communication of Science and Technology ===

Notes from the __Sharing Knowledge__ conference organized by the __Da Vinchi Institute__ in Amsterdam.\\




=== Communication of Science and New Media ===



=== > Role of Gaming in PCST: ===
----

Lecture by __Peter Vorderer__\\

**What attracts people to games or anything else for that matter?**\\

The standard way of looking at this is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uses_and_Gratifications_Theory|uses and gratification theory]]\\
But Vorderer advocates the use of __entertainment research/theory__: effect-dependent theory of stimulus arrangement.

== How do we select a medium? Do we watch a movie or read a book? ==
  - excitatory homeostasis: optimal level of arousal.
  - intervention potential: level of absorption of the medium.
  - message-behavioral affinity: does it fit my mood?
  - hedonistic valence: is it uplifting or distressing, can it change my mood?

Problems of this approach:
  - entertainment is multifaceted and multidimensional.
  - interactive entertainment is completely different from classical media.

More recent approaches:
  * [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology|evolutionary psychology]]: explaining our behavior from evolutionary principles.
  * motivational theories: intrinsic and external motivations.
  * self-determination theory: which states that __people need 3 things__ for enjoyment or even mental health:
    - need for competence: a challenge to overcome at just the right level of difficulty to not get frustrated.
    - need for autonomy: the feeling of personal achievements.
    - need for relatedness: being part of a group where there are not only rivals but also friends.

== Relevance of self-determination theory to media and games: ==

Competence:\\
In traditional media you almost always feel competent; you don't switch of the television because it's too challenging.\\
In interactive media the level can change so it delivers excitatory homeostasis.

Autonomy:\\
Users of any media underestimate the interdependence from outside influences. When asked they think media influences others a lot, but not so much themselves.\\
In interactive media, you are not part of a movie-audience, you are scoring points and exploring individually.\\

Relatedness:\\
PSI/PSR affective dispositions. This is of mayor importance. The success of a tv-show or game (MMOG) or a film depends very much on the popularity or unpopularity of show-hosts, avatars, movie-stars. Do we feel related, this is crucial to success.\\

== Conclusion: PCST has to target these three needs just like entertainment has to and gaming meets them better than any other media. ==

Notes:
  * **the popularity of destruction**. We like things exploding, falling over, and crashing, especially old and expensive things. Vorderer speculates that this tapps into a deep longing for change and renewal and the liberation from existing structures. The collapsing of the World Trade Center has overtaken the Challenger-explosion as the most broadcast picture of all time.
  * **The budged for research into education in the USA is dominated by exploring the use of avatars as a learning tool**.




=== > Games and Learning. ===
----
Lecture by Ute Ritterfeld.

**If kids would only devote this kind of attention to their education.**

== Three ways to improve learning: ==
  - motivation paradigm: making it more fun, and rewarding good results.
  - reenforcement paradigm: combining different ways to deliver the message, text, graphics.
  - blending paradigm: (as she calls it) enjoying the process of learning.

== Serious Games. ==

Ritterfeld looked into serious games in the English language.\\
In early 2007 they found some 650 of them:\\

|        ^ subject area                ^ example           ^
^ 60%    | academic education          | Reading Blaster   |
^ 15%    | social change               | Darfur is Dying   |
^ 10%    | occupation related training | the Business Game |
^ 10%    | health knowledge            | Remission         |
^  5%    | military training           | Americas Army     |
^  1%    | consumer behavior           | The Arcade Wire   |

My rough translation of her statistics:

|        ^ age group        ^
^ 40%    | elementary school|
^ 40%    | high school      |
^ 15%    | adult            |
^  5%    | preschool        |

|        ^ educational goal           ^ example          ^
^ 50%    | skills                     | maths / reading  |
^ 25%    | problem solving            | saving seals game|
^ 20%    | discovery / exploration    | history          |
^  5%    | awareness / attitude change| behaving well    |

== Gaming environments; some results: ==

In working with disadvantaged children in LA she found that it remains extremely difficult to engage children into a topic they are not already interested in, even with gaming-environments.

They did an experiment where they presented the exact same content in 4 different ways:
  - interactive game.
  - just action replay.
  - hypertext.
  - text.

(I will develop this further later.)

== Determinants of presence. ==

What holds the attention / increases engagement in educational games?
  * aesthetics.
  * challenge (at the optimal level).
  * narrative, the power of which she feels, is only very recently acknowledged.
  * personal relevance;
    * as a private laboratory for identity development.
    * developmental tasks such as dealing with competition, fear, joy, losing, winning.
    * mimic past experiences, for instance to deal with traumatic experiences.
    * enabling you to go beyond limitations, like a boy with muscular dystrophy who claims walking around a game environment are his happiest moments.
    * physiological arousal.
    * suspense / arousal due to the use of time and time-limits. 

== Some Interesting Experiments with Games: ==

Virtual Cliff (Blascovich 2006)\\
Person enters a room then gets a VR-headset which presents a cliff. The rendering is just with simple lines, nothing very intricate, and the person is asked to walk forward. 50% refuse to go there and 40% of those still refuse with a guide. 

Virtual Combat 1 (Rizzo et al. 2007)\\
War veterans are helped to overcome their Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome.

Virtual Combat 2 (Henderlite 2005)
War veterans with and without combat experience are allowed to play for as long as they like.
  * without combat experience - 4 hours.
  * with combat experience - 9 hours.


Temporary Suspension of Disbelief.\\
From neurological data gathered on gaming in a MRI-scanner, Ritterfeld speculates that subjects when gaming are constantly engaged in a balancing-act between accepting the fiction as real and sometimes letting it collapse into disbelief.



== Conclusion.==

  * Games can be shallow entertainment, but they can also give very meaningful experiences to people.
  * Games are excellent at keeping the attention of individuals.
  * deliberate and sustained practice is the most imporant factor in learning, not just talent.
  * future games will respond to the learner state more closely to give the optimal challenge level by monitoring physical behavior:
    * hart rate and other physiological measures.
    * keyboard speed and correctness.
    * monitor facial expression.
    * body posture.
    * monitor voice and language.

== Attributes of the Perfct Educational Game. ==

  * scaffolding learning environment.
  * encourages self regulated learning.
  * is a safe and private environment.
  * challenges you to go beyong impasses and problems.