Marja Kankaanranta

Design and Use of Serious Games

During the last few years, a new area of creative media industry, namely Serious Games, has started to emerge around the world. The term serious games has become more popular for example in the fields of education, business, welfare and safety. Despite this, there has been no single definition of serious games. A key question, what the concept itself means, has stayed unsolved though most have agreed on a definition that serious games are games or game-like interactive systems developed with game technology and design principles for a primary purpose other than pure entertainment. In this book, serious games are understood as games which aim at providing an engaging, self-reinforcing context in which to motivate and educate the players. Serious games can be of any genre, use any game technology, and be developed for any platform. They can be entertaining, but usually they teach the user something. The central aim of serious games is to raise quality of life and well-being. As part of interactive media industry, the serious games field focuses on designing and using digital games for real-life purposes and for the everyday life of citizens in information societies. The field of serious games focuses on such areas as education, business, welfare, military, traffic, safety, travelling and tourism.

Constructing Digital Portfolios: Teachers Evolving Capabilities in the Use of Information and Communications Technology.

Abstract The article describes a collaborative action research project, which encouraged teachers to participate in displaying and developing the pedagogical practices of early childhood institutions through networking and digital web portfolios. Special emphasis is placed on examining the progress of teachers ICT capabilities during the first two cycles of action research. The study is based on the ecological approach to virtual learning environments. In the ecological approach, the description of virtual communities is extended to include features of the overall environment: technical devices, programs, materials, tools for communication and planning, different social and emotional processes, functions and contents of activities and also norms and culture of learning. It is assumed that deeper understanding is needed about the meaning of technology and the interaction of technology and humans in the daily life of teachers and children. It was found out that the factors of access, competence and motivation in the use of ICT intertwined during diverse cycles of portfolio development. The results also showed that there is an enormous need for teacher support in the use of information and communication technology. In addition to in-service training sessions, there is a need of more informal support, which is organised flexibly as on-site tutoring and advising.

Collaborative Learning and Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning Environments

A focus on purely individual cognition has set a stage to social construction of knowledge. New learning environments, in many cases supported by computer technology, are often based on collaborating and sharing expertise. As a result research on Computer Supported Collaborative learning (CSCL) environments is a significant and growing field, which actively seeks new methods to resolve the challenges of human learning across diverse levels of interaction in a modern information society. In this chapter we will discuss the concept of collaborative learning and the issues involved in using information and communication technology to support collaborative learning. We begin with the definition of collaboration, which lays the foundation for diverse research perspectives and methodologies on collaborative learning. The chapter also reviews the potential of CSCL environments, and addresses the challenges CSCL environments face.

Information and Communication Technologies in Finnish Early Childhood Environments

From a very early age, todays children grow up with information and communication technologies (ICT) as an essential and natural part of their daily lives. As they grow, they face expectations from school and work environments alike to become active and self-directed members in their local communities and in the information society at large. Furthermore, new technologies create ever more versatile possibilities for the acquisition and creation of new information, and they act as a medium for self-expression and for communication and interactions with other people on local, national, and worldwide levels. New technologies also create tremendous challenges for citizens in the information society. Active participation in the information society presumes novel skills for the acquisition, management, and communication of information as well as versatile work approaches from children and teachers alike (Ministry of Education, 1999a). These challenges concern the teachers of young childrenas well. Although the use and applicationof ICT inFinnish early childhood education is often questioned and essentially invisible in curricula for early childhood and preprimary education (Finnish National Board of Education, 2000; Kangassalo, 1998), even the youngest children do learn to use electronic toys, devices, and learning tools that did not even exist just a decade ago (Vandevelde, 1999). This article describes the use of ICT in Finnish childhood education from three perspectives. First, we will shed light on the Finnish policies concerning the use of ICT. Second, we will indicate the prevailing state of ICT use in childhood education, according to the results of both national and international surveys. And finally, we will present some innovative practices involving the use of computers in education. The focus is on children attending early childhood education centers and primary schools. (In Finland, children start school at age 7, and all 6-year-old children have the right to preschool education, either at child care centers or at primary schools. Children attend preschool for at least 700 hours a year.) Active participation

Children’s life world as a perspective on their citizenship: The case of the Finnish Children’s Parliament

The latest childhood studies present children’s citizenship as a process of engaging in matters related to children themselves in their everyday lives. However, only a few studies have been conducted on what those issues are and what they actually tell about children’s citizenship. This study explores the nature of children’s participation and citizenship by adopting a life world perspective. The aim is to examine what kind of issues children want to participate in and influence. The data are drawn from an online discussion in the Finnish Children’s Parliament. Altogether 61 children participated in the discussion, with 566 postings. The analysis of the children’s online discussion shows that children comment mainly on issues that directly impact their lives, such as school. However, they also want to engage in issues that are global in nature, such as children’s general well-being.

Exploring Children's Requirements for Game-Based Learning Environments

End users expertise in the development of new applications is acknowledged in user-centered and participatory design. Similarly, childrens experience of what they find enjoyable and how they learn is a valuable source of inspiration for the design of products intended for them. In this paper, we explore experiences obtained from collaboration with elementary school children in the design of learning environments, based on three projects and three requirements gathering techniques. We also discuss how the children experienced the participation. The childrens contribution yielded useful, both expected and unanticipated, outcomes in regard to the user interface and contents of the learning environments under development. Moreover, we present issues related to design collaboration with children, especially in terms of the childrens feeling of ownership over the final outcome.

Using a Mobile Application to Support Children's Writing Motivation.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the use of the prototype of a mobile application for the enhancement of childrens motivation for writing. The results are explored from students and experts perspectives.Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on a field trial and expert evaluations of a prototype of a mobile application. The field trial data consists of questionnaire data collected from elementary school students (n=25) who used the mobile prototype. The expert evaluations (n=8) of the prototype were conducted based on usability and pedagogical heuristics. The main research question is how the mobile application motivates children to learn creative writing.Findings – The findings suggest that the use of a mobile application can have potential in supporting childrens creative writing skills and their motivation to complete writing tasks.Research limitations/implications – Due to a limited sample of students (only one class), and the mobile application of Ruff being only a pro...

Introducing Assessment Tools for 21st Century Skills in Finland

The Finnish national interest in the enhancement of 21st century skills has highlighted a need for and interest in developing tools and methods for teaching and assessing such skills. In this chapter, we present and analyze the development process of online assessment tools in the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills study (ATC21STM) from the Finnish perspective. (The acronym ATC21STM has been globally trademarked. For purposes of simplicity the acronym is presented throughout the chapter as ATC21S.) The development process was implemented according to the guidelines of the international project through four phases, namely concept checks, cognitive laboratories, pilot studies and trials. These phases are analyzed from the student and teacher perspective. This chapter presents the experiences, possibilities and challenges of introducing and developing the assessment tasks for 21st century skills in the Finnish comprehensive schools across the different phases of the study. An essential element of the process was the need to translate and localize the tasks to the Finnish contexts and language. The chapter also discusses ideas for the further development of such tasks towards more collaborative research design.

Children's Social Participation in Virtual Worlds

Virtual worlds provide an arena for children to express themselves and to interact with others. They are a natural and frequent part of childrens life today. However, there is not much research on what actually happens in the online worlds and what kind of opportunities those worlds could offer to children and thereby enhance their social participation. The aim in this study is to explore the potential of virtual worlds for childrens social participation. The empirical part of the study consists of interviews with 21 Finnish children, aged 11-15 years. By interviewing children, the authors examined their social practices in virtual worlds. In the study, the authors found seven types of social practice that make it possible for children to socialize with others, learn new things and skills, express themselves publicly and play in virtual worlds. Virtual worlds provide an arena for children to overcome the limitations of the real world. However, the freedom also has side effects: misbehavior.

A mobile application concept to encourage independent mobility for blind and visually impaired students

This paper presents a user-centric application development process for mobile application to blind and visually impaired students. The development process connects the assistive technology experts, teachers and students from the school for visually impaired together to participate to the design of the mobile application. The data for the analysis is gathered from interviews and workshops with the target group. The main goal of the project is to examine how mobile application can be used to encourage and motivate visually impaired students to move independently indoors and outdoors. The application allows the students to interact with their environment through use of sensor technology now standard on most smart and feature phones. We present a user-centric application development process, report on findings from the initial user trials, and propose a framework for future phases of the project.