User Centered Technologies, Serious Games and Learning

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Copyright © 2011, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited.

DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60960-044-0.ch020

Chapter 20

User Centered Technologies, Serious Games and Learning:

A Critical, Speculative Perspective

Giuseppe ContiFondazione Graphitech, Italy

Raffaele De AmicisFondazione Graphitech, Italy

Gabrio GirardiFondazione Graphitech, Italy

Michele AndreolliFondazione Graphitech, Italy

INTRODUCTION

The domain of cultural heritage has benefitted, in the last few years, of an increasing use of IT technologies. A wide range of multimedia tech-

nologies have been adopted among museums, archaeological sites and libraries to name but a few. Interactive presentations, multimedia kiosks are nowadays often found at the premises of sev-eral cultural heritage sites or institutions (Conti et al., 2006).

ABSTRACT

The widespread adoption of IT technologies by cultural heritage (CH) has transformed how cultural heritage is presented both to experts and the broad public. In the last few years a large number of multimedia applications, including virtual and augmented reality simulations, have been proposed by researchers and industry alike. However some of these technologies struggle to achieve mass diffusion, most probably due to limitations of their interfaces. Conversely, the recent widespread success of both serious games and mobile applications are laying the foundations for true extensive access to digital information on cultural heritage, creating new possibilities. This chapter illustrates this technological trend, highlighting their potential effects on the public and discussing a number of emerging scenarios of interest for the cultural heritage domain.

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User Centered Technologies, Serious Games and Learning

Similarly, interactive virtual reconstructions are becoming an ordinary feature at museums or on the web, as dedicated graphical hardware today have become a commodity. A growing number of research works have also proposed the adoption of state of the art technologies, including among others virtual and augmented reality set-ups, within the domain of cultural heritage. The scientific lit-erature is rich in use of cutting edge technologies within the context of cultural heritage to deliver virtual reconstructions and interactive simulations.

Nonetheless we argue that all these applica-tions, albeit they should be prized for rising the attention towards cultural heritage of scholars, technology experts and people alike, in fact have only partially achieved mass diffusion mostly due to their limited usability and lack of user centric design.

The main reason for their limited success is that all multimedia applications in fact, despite their well-known claims, are far from achieving a true user-centric approach. The truth is that most of these technologies adopt an underlying communication metaphor which has not evolved significantly in the last few years, and it is es-sentially based on a linear logical sequence of events. In fact in most of these applications users’ freedom is limited: the user can interact with the application along pre-sets information corridors. Whenever the application brings them to a “logi-cal crossroad” they can only choose which logical branch they want to move next. This metaphor, essentially based on the hypertext-based access to information, provides limited degree of freedom to the user and it only partially fosters essential aspects typical of learning process such as engage-ment, discovery and experimentation.

On the other hand cutting edge technologies, such as virtual and augmented reality, have clearly shown their main limitation firstly in their set-up and maintenance costs and, secondly, in the true level of ergonomics ultimately delivered to the us-ers. Usability in fact is often hindered by the need to wear stereoscopic goggles or head-mounted

displays as well as to make use of tracking and interaction devices such as virtual gloves. This not only has posed a serious limit in the overall ergonomics but it does dismay and, most impor-tantly of all, discourages most final users to use them. This is the case of audiences traditionally not familiar with, or even frightened by, IT tech-nologies, such as elder people. In particular, for the latter group, a special care should be taken when creating interfaces that can truly facilitate the learning process.

However in the last few years the widespread diffusion of some key technologies, namely video games and mobile IT technologies, is laying the foundations for a radical change. Since the early nineties both scientists and the industry have been paying a growing attention to educational aspects related to gaming activities and to the implementa-tion of computer games for educational purposes. Numerous scientific studies have demonstrated unambiguously the benefits that characterize the so-called Digital Educational Games (DEG), also known as serious games. The scientific literature is rich in studies bringing forward different ap-proaches to design and use of DEG for didactical applications across several domains including cultural heritage (see Figure 1). If compared to standard VR reconstructions, which allow navigation and pre-set interaction with object present within the virtual scene, game-structured environments have a tremendous added value in that the entire environment is funded upon a plot, a challenging tasks that requires a speculative attitude that goes beyond mere navigation of a reconstructed virtual scene.

This chapter will first illustrate the essential learning implications of the use of DEG by pro-viding an historical perspective of how these can be designed to fit the different learning method-ologies. The chapter will then describe the expe-riences of the authors, made in the context of a number of different projects, which have brought to the implementation of serious games for cul-tural heritage. We will illustrate how DEG has

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proved to be a very effective means to teach, especially young users, history and archaeology. Serious games have proven particularly effective when targeted to a younger audience, typically less interested by traditional passive forms of learning and, conversely, notoriously very inter-ested in entertaining dynamics. A major objective of the authors was in fact to create interactive forms of interaction and communication that could encourage the use of the application through an experience that could feel more like a playful moment than as a traditional teaching tool.

Besides the widespread use of serious games a second factor is radically contributing to a sig-nificant paradigm shift in the use of IT technolo-gies in the context of cultural heritage: the fast diffusion of the latest generation smartphones, including iPhones, Android phones, to name but a few, which is causing a radical breakthrough in the way IT applications are conceived and used.

The great level of portability, the unprecedented level of usability typical of mobile devices, let us think for example about the iPhone, makes it possible for the user to directly interact with the device either by touching the display or by

simply moving the device. This is fostering a new generation of applications designed around the users, whose interfaces are becoming virtu-ally transparent thanks to the possibility to detect the user’s position (through a GPS receiver), the direction the user is pointing the device at (through an electronic compass), as well as the way the user is moving the device (through three-axial accelerometers). This is directly affecting the way mobile applications are conceived, in turn inspiring those designing applications targeted to address cultural heritage scenarios.

In particular in this chapter we present an ex-ample of DEG developed for mobile users, based on iPhone (see Figure 2), developed to promote learning of the history of Trento, in Italy.

The chapter will further discuss this paradigm shift, which sees the user finally moved to the centre of the application, and its societal implica-tions, when one builds around the users a knowl-edge-rich environment. We will eventually con-clude by introducing how this paradigm shift may lead to a number of new unexplored scenarios, by trying to envisage next generation mobile learning tools specifically designed to deliver

Figure 1. Different screenshots of a serious game on the history of Trento and (bottom right) an image of the user interacting with it through the Wii Mote™ controller from Nintendo

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ubiquitous, user-cantered and personalized access to cultural heritage.

BACKGROUND

The two-thousand years old Latin adage “lu-dendo docere”, that is teaching -and therefore learning- by playing, is the proof that playing has long since been considered as on one of the most important forms of learning. The so-called “pedagogy of play” (Shultz Colby et al., 2008; Farné, 2005), had formalized this approach by emphasizing the role that the act of playing has in our first years of life. However the potential of games must not be constrained to early years learning and in fact, specifically targeted to adults, it has been extensively exploited to deliver a more compelling forms of teaching and training. More recently, alongside the widespread availability of video games, a growing number of scientists have explored the didactical potential and relevance of video games in the context of teaching and training. With regard to this, in the last decade, so-called “serious games”, also known as Digital Educational Games (DEG), have been extensively adopted in a wide range of learning and training scenarios.

A limited number of early scientific works had shown a rather sceptical standpoint (Brody, 1993) with respect to the educational effectiveness of Digital Educational Games (DEG), by arguing that their entertaining nature did not ensured effectiveness in strict educational terms. Klawe (1998) stated that they are not suitable to support a specific learning process. For this reason, a number of research works (Virvou et al., 2005), have argued that the educational effectiveness of DEG is still to be assessed in a clear manner.

This sceptical standpoint is clearly in con-trast with a growing body of literature which acknowledges the significant didactical relevance of Digital Educational Games (DEG) and their essential role in a number of training and learning scenarios. Authors (2003) i (Aliya, 2002) highlight that Digital Educational Games can potentially improve thinking ability if properly engineered.

Results from the EU-funded ElderGames project (http://www.eldergames.org/) also dem-onstrate that beneficial effects of video games can be extended to elderly population.

Leaving aside for a moment the issue of the di-dactical relevance of DEG, most authors acknowl-edge that Digital Educational Games are effective at building motivation among players (Prensky, 2003). One of the major factors contributing to this is the immersive nature of games, mostly caused

Figure 2. An image of the DEG developed on the iPhone

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by their interactivity, which frequently triggers a specific mental state often referred to as Flow. This concept (Csíkszentmihályi, 1990), represents, from the cognitive standpoint, the feeling of being fully immersed in a new space (Gee, 2003), in this case the “game space”. This typical occurrence, often experienced by most video game players, greatly contributes to help people engage with the tasks required by the game. In turn this becomes one of the major factors that help players build a strong sense of motivation.

As noted by many pedagogues, motivation by itself is one of the most important factors in learning (Paras et al., 2005) and therefore, being very effective at building motivation among users, DEG can potentially bring substantial benefits in terms of learning efficacy (Chan et al. 1999). Nevertheless (Paras et al., 2005) motivation alone cannot be considered sufficient to deliver an ef-fective learning experience as this needs to be backed by a sound didactical framework.

The need for assessing the pedagogical effec-tiveness of Digital Educational Games (Virvou et al., 2005) has resulted in a number of specific stud-ies, (Conati et al., 2002), to assess the emotional feedback provided by students while engaged in Digital Educational Games. The method adopted builds on top of Ortony Core Collins - OCC (Or-thony et al., 1988) theory of cognitive structure of emotions upon which a set of Dynamic Decision Networks (DDS) was developed. De Freitas et al. (2005) have developed a specific framework to help teacher assess the efficacy, in learning terms, of DEGs. A similar goal is also shared by aforementioned ElderGames project which aimed at developing play-driven tools that could be used by experts and elderly care supervisor to monitor patients’ quality of life in relation to their cognitive capabilities.

This cognitive-driven approach has been complemented by research exploring the issue from very diverse perspectives related to learning potential of games, ranging from biological-driven analysis, to studies focusing on psychological

aspects, to attention-related issues (in terms of visual attention over a field of view) (Green et al., 2006), to research exploring neurocognitive implications (Smith et al., 1999) of games and on how serious games can be used for neuropsycho-logical rehabilitation of children with learning or cognitive diseases. In particular the efficacy of video games is proved by their extensive use for cognitive training and neuropsychological reha-bilitation of children. A comprehensive analysis of their use within this context is beyond the scope of this chapter, a broad historical review can be found in (Lynch, 2002).

Despite all these multi-disciplinary research efforts, one can notice the lack of specific models capable to integrate sound learning theory (Kafai, 2006) with an effective and engaging game design strategy. In early works a number of scholars had taken a so-called instructionist approach whereby instructional games are created on top of instructional material edited in a form that can deliver a clear educational value (Bahr et al., 1989) (Malouf, 1988) (Malone, 1980). Concurrently several authors have tried to build on top of so-called experiential learning theory (Kolb, 1984). The theory, which in turns extends the concept of experiential education philosophy formulated by Dewey (1938), predicates forms of learning through direct experience, rapid feedback and clear and user-tailored goals. An extensive coverage of experiential learning theory is beyond the scope of this chapter and can be found in (Moon, 2004).

Last, but certainly not least, a third group of DEGs has followed a so-called constructionist approach. This was first proposed by the math-ematician Seymour Papert (1980). According to his theory, games must be engineered to help students face situations (Papert, 1991) which can help them construct mental models of the phenomenon they are studying. The theory di-rectly evolves from Jean Piaget’s constructivism learning theory (Wadsworth, 2003). An interesting analysis of both instructionist vs. constructionist

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approaches, in the context of games, is proposed by Kafai (2006).

Taking a more project-oriented perspective, with specific regard to the domain of cultural heri-tage, several projects have developed game-like applications for didactic purposes. A number of them have focused on history including a number of them being specifically designed to teach the history of a city. Notable examples include the TrentoIeriOggieDomani project (Conti et al., 2009), a virtual exhibition which has reconstructed the evolution of the urban evolution of Trento (Italy). The project was inspired by a previous similar initiative, called DentroTrento (Conti et al., 2006), which has brought to the development of a virtual exhibition illustrating the life of the city of Trento during the Roman age. The EU-funded project NetConnect (www.netconnect-project.eu/) provides yet another example of development of a video game to teach history of archaeology. The same project has also developed a mobile application providing additional information for visitors of museums and archaeological sites. Among other relevant projects it is worth noting the Frequency 1550 project (http://freq1550.waag.org/), a mobile city game where pupils could learn about the history of Amsterdam through location-based media-assignments on the city’s history.

Further examples of such a new generation of applications making extensive use of mobile technologies, of interest for the cultural heritage domain, include Mobile 3D City (http://www.mobile3dcity.com/) which allows user to navigate the 3D model of cities and to access information of cultural interest in a very intuitive manner.

Another key example of this trend is Layar (http://layar.eu/) a free application that overlays information on the user’s surrounding environ-ment, including cultural heritage, on top of the images captured by their mobile phone’s camera. As the user holds the telephone as if he/she were taking a picture of the surrounding scene, the information on the user’s position and direction are used to render information on the surrounding

environment directly on top of the images of the real world. If the user wants to know something about the environment he/she only needs to point the camera at the location of interest. Similar ap-proach, mostly targeted to touristic applications, is shared by Wikitude (http://www.wikitude.org/). These commercially available solution, often available as freeware, provide similar features to complex technologies made available, until only a few years ago, by research projects through the use of complex hardware (Vlahakis et. al, 2002) (Stricker, 2001).

EXPERIENCING A PLAYFUL WORLD

The most important buildings blocks of DEGs are their high interactivity and their ease of use, backed by the very nature of the logic of interaction typi-cal of videogames, which is explicitly designed to promote a learning process among users, built on top of a sound teaching strategy. Since the use of serious games allows creating an experience very similar to the language of interaction typical of video games, as a result, the application becomes less demanding, and the user is encouraged to try and experiment with it.

In fact one of essential elements underpin-ning the effectiveness of serious games, which distinguishes them from traditional video games, is the implementation of a clear strategy based on a specific educational and pedagogical experimen-tation, devoid of mis-educating elements. This approach typically triggers a number of positive feedback mechanisms in that it stimulates explora-tion among users, both young and adult, reducing the fear of an unknown elements, as well as the apprehension of being judged by other people including fellow students or teachers.

This latter issue is extremely relevant when adult of elder user is involved. In fact, conversely from the so called “digital natives” (Prensky, 2003), a term used to address those being born during the digital age and therefore natively ac-

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customed to using digital technologies, most adult or elder users are “digital immigrants”. “Digital immigrants” typically learn to make use of digital technologies at adult age, and for this reason their approach to digital technologies often requires a significant cognitive effort. They consider in-teracting with digital technology as a challenge, sometimes with a certain degree of apprehension, while “digital natives” master interaction with digital technologies in a natural way, they are used to multitasking and to collect information from different sources through the use of a number of devices such as mobile phones, internet etc.

What is important is that DEG, besides being obviously very naturally adopted by “digital na-tives”, they are also extremely effective when em-ployed with “digital immigrants” who essentially perceive them as just yet another game-related experience. This psychological trigger is essential to let them take a more natural and relaxed ap-proach, thus encouraging them to discover, experi-ment, try without fear of damaging the system or of being judged. Furthermore serious games can easily adapt to specific users’ personal needs since each individual is free to repeat at will or, vice versa, ignore, procedures and processes according to their level of knowledge. For this reason the mechanisms of active learning triggered by DEGs are in fact much more effective than traditional teaching methods based on standard learning.

THE EXPERIENCE OF SERIOUS GAME FOR MOBILE DEVICES

The adoption of strategies typical of DEG can now also benefit significantly from the widespread availability of sophisticated mobile platforms. A number of devices, today readily available on the market, including, but not limited to, iPhones or Android phones, in fact allow an unprecedented level of freedom to software developers who can now take advantage of powerful computing capabilities, hardware support of 3D graphics,

large memory and extended storage space, high-resolution touch screens, support for two hand interaction (e.g. in the case of the iPhone), avail-ability of high-resolution on board cameras and of a variety of sensors including GPS antenna, proximity sensors, gyroscopes and accelerom-eters. This plentiful of hardware devices is then complemented by the ubiquitous availability of internet connections either via Wi-Fi or through 3G, Edge or UMTS networks.

The unprecedented success of these devices, with the iPhone alone estimated to be selling up to 10 million devices per quarter, is deeply affect-ing the way people consider mobile computing across a number of different domains and this is also going to have profound effects in the domain of cultural heritage. Moreover, since the video game market is one of the most segments it is foreseeable that consequently DEG will benefit of a rising interest also within mobile scenarios.

In particular the requirements of a mobile set-up are fostering a radical change in the way games are conceived. Interfaces must be designed to benefit at most from the availability of the available sen-sors, for instance allowing the user to shake or tilt the device to perform a given task. Furthermore the built-in GPS receiver, the high-quality video camera and the electronic compass can be used to create mobile augmented reality applications. These metaphors are just few examples of user-centredcentred design strategies; they are essential to provide new means of accessing digital infor-mation in the most user-friendly and clear form.

A DEG, developed by the authors, clearly epitomizes this emerging trend. The application has been developed to run on an iPhone or iPod Touch and it has been implemented using the Uni-ty3D (http://unity3d.com/) game engine platform.

The graphical user interface has been designed in a way that the user can play with the game either with a virtual joy pad (see Figure 5 - bottom left) or by moving the device, by taking advantage of built-in accelerometers.

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The overall structure of the game has been engineered as a virtual container of different micro games, each focusing on a given skill or user knowledge. The ultimate goal of the game in fact can be achieved only by passing a number of micro-challenges on logics, history, mathemat-ics, all sharing the same common goal of teaching the history of the city of Tridentum, the ancient Trento, in Italy. Each micro game requires the user to interact with the device in a different man-ner, i.e. tapping on the screen, tilting the device, shaking it etc.

AND SO THE STORY GOES

The DEG developed is an adventure game where the player has to move around the ancient city of Tridentum searching for useful pieces of infor-mation that will help them built a mosaic from a number of lost fragments. The environment itself is an accurate reconstruction of the old town of Tridentum, the ancient name of Trento, in the Ital-ian Alps. The environment is a slightly simplified version of a 3D model which had been previously

created in the context of the DentroTrento project (Conti et al., 2006), optimized to be run smoothly on a iPhone. The 3D environment had been mod-elled on the basis of the information available to the historians, with the support of the local cultural heritage department. Expert had provided interpretations, based on similar evidence found in town of the same historical period, e.g. Pompeii, wherever direct historical information could not be found. The environment which is the setting of the game is therefore philologically correct and it represents a significant portion of the roman town of Trento at three different historical phases, 200 BC, 200 AD and today.

The game starts with a video of a teenager girl while studying on a book the history of the city (see Figure 4). While reading she falls asleep, wandering, in her dreaming, why she is not able to learn the history of the city. At this point she is magically transported back in time to the ancient town of Tridentum where she finds herself stand-ing at one of the town ancient gates.

In order to return to her time she needs to piece together the fragments of an ancient mosaic. Once the fragments will be joined together the spirit of

Figure 3. An image of a user playing with the Tridentum game on an iPhone

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the ancient town, who has trapped her and brought back in time, will be freed and she will be able to get back to the current age. The pieces of the mosaic, which is a virtual replica of a real mo-saic actually discovered during recent archaeo-logical excavations, are scattered all around the city across different historical ages. To find them she will have to pass a number of tests, challeng-ing her knowledge of the history of the town, and she will have to travel across different historical ages.

As visible in Figure 5, the first part of the game is engineered to help the user get accustomed to the interface which uses a virtual joy pad located at the bottom left-hand corner of the screen. The user can navigate the scene by touching the virtual joy pad with her thumb as if it was a real joy pad normally found by gaming consoles (e.g. PlaySta-tion, Xbox etc.). More specifically the user has

to follow the directions provided by the game, a number of transparent blue boxes floating in mid-air, visible within the virtual scene, thus following a route that will bring her to the first challenge.

After walking along the main street of the an-cient town she meets a peasant (Figure 6) whose carriage has broken down across the street thus preventing her to walk on. In order to remove the carriage she needs to pass three different chal-lenges, each contained within a micro-game, each engineered to help the peasant fix a part of his cart.

The concept of a micro game has been ad-opted to create a number of independent spaces, logically set within the context of the main game, but which may have a different interaction meta-phor. During each micro game the user needs to perform a very specific task by using his/her mobile device in various ways, for instance by interacting with the touch screen, tilting the device,

Figure 4. Two images of the first scenes of the game with the girl studying the history of the city of Tridentum

Figure 5. (left) An image of the first sequences of the game. A number of floating blue hotspots help the user follow a given route and get accustomed to the interface while exploring the virtual town. (right) An image of the interface used to select different tools available

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shaking it etc. Each micro game can be a theo-retical challenge or a much focused practical game. This has the advantage of stimulating the user, since each game does not require long time to complete, and it ensures constant motivation through step-by-step gratification. The short duration and self-enclosure of each micro game is also an added value considering the typical use in a mobile scenario which often requires short gaming session while on the move. This makes it possible to move forward the game through a number of easy steps, which can be saved and retrieved back whenever the user needs to stop playing the game, yet within a unique logical context, that is the virtual reconstruction and with a unique leitmotif, that is ultimately getting to the end of the game.

This way the main DEG represents an extend-ible container for a number of micro games. In fact it becomes very convenient to extend the game functionalities by just introducing other

micro games within the main virtual environment. Moreover the overall game can be easily adjusted to the skills or knowledge of the different users by providing access to micro games of different complexity.

When the user meets the peasant she is required to accomplish a number of different tasks, going through three micro games, to help the peasant fix his carriage. The user first has to use the ham-mer to fix one of the wheels of the carriage. To do so she has to shake the iPhone as if she were holding a hammer, in order to nail down a mini-mum number of pegs within a given time frame (see Figure 7). Then she needs to use a sew, by rhythmically shaking the iPhone as if holding a sew in her hands (see Figure 8). Finally she has to fit the right piece of wood at the correct place within the carriage by tilting the phone until the piece of wood slides to its final location.

After completing all the tasks she receives by the peasant, as a reward, the map of the city. This

Figure 7. (left) The interface suggests to hold the iPhone straight to play the micro game (right) where the user needs to hammer down a number of nails to fix the carriage

Figure 6. (left) An image of the scene and some hits (right) provided by the characters of the game to help the user

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approach follows a clear strategies consistently adopted across the DEG. In fact the more the user moves along the different stages of the games, the wider the map becomes and therefore the higher his awareness on the overall city layout becomes. Accordingly, whenever the user com-pletes a new challenge, the overview map, which can be rendered in overlay to the scene, will show a wider region of the city.

The map received by the peasant includes the “cardo” and “decumanus”, the two main axis of the city typical of the layout of roman towns. The peasant tells her that one of the pieces of the magic mosaic can be found along the “cardo”. Since the virtual character does not known what the “cardo” and “decumanus” are, she has to acquire more information on them. As she walks on she meets a little goat who tells her the story of the “cardo” and “decumanus”, telling her that at the roman times the city had a square plan with two

main streets, a grid of orthogonal minor streets and with surroundings walls. However all of a sudden the little goat stops taking, if she wants to know more she has to help the goat get back home once more by successfully going through a number of micro games.

The first game is a puzzle (see Figure 9) representing one of the classical roman mosaics found within the site. The second game is meant to stimulate logical thinking: since dusk is ap-proaching the user needs to turn on the lights of the town. To do so the player has to locate, within the map, the minimum number of lights necessary to lit the path to the little goat’s house. The third game has a mathematical twist since the user has to count how many footsteps are required for the little goat to walk home (see Figure 10). Finally the fourth and last micro games is again an ability game, in that it requires the user to tilt the phone

Figure 8. (left) The interface suggests to rotate the iPhone to play the micro game (right) where the user needs to sew a piece of wood by tilting the iPhone as if holding a sew on her hands

Figure 9. Two images of the gizmo which is being built throughout the game that lets the user access different portions of the city

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in order to help the goat walk across a maze of barrels to help her find her way home.

After the user passes the second set of chal-lenges she is finally told where the ”cardo” is located. At the end of it she can find one of the city towers at the top of which there is another piece of the mosaic. However she cannot get into the tower as a little devil is guarding the door and holds its key. Once the little devil sees the users he starts chasing her. At this stage the point of view of the game changes from first to third per-son (as seen from above); the user has to run away until, after a certain time, the devil drops the key. She then needs to walk back, grab the key, enter the tower, climb the stairs until she is at the top where she eventually finds a piece of the mosaic. From such an advantage viewpoint she can see the entire town of Tridentum. From there she also sees that in a nearby garden there is a further missing fragment of mosaic lying on top of a haystack.

Once she walks down to the nearby garden she realizes that she needs a ladder to get hold of the key. Since there are no ladders in view she has to find it in the town. Next to the haystack there is a hole on the ground, when she enters it this proves to be a time gateway. As soon as she enters the hole she is transported to another age stepping into Tridentum during 400 AD. At that time the same garden is instead the building site of the church of S. Maria, one of the most important churches in

town. She can grab a ladder and get back to 200 BC to get hold of the further fragment of mosaic.

The game continues much further with a num-ber of different challenges and micro games to be tackled by the user. As it should be clear from the previous description, the game becomes an effective tool to experience life at the roman age, instructing the user on the history at the different ages of the town and challenging the knowledge of the users with a number of tests and games.

The game will soon will be available from the App Store.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS

The approach presented so far however relies on a one-way process whereby a producer of information creates the content which is then used to deliver a learning experience within the DEG. However this scenario may well change in the near future as the increasing availability of digital content on cultural heritage, available through the internet can create new opportunities for people to experience and share information on cultural heritage.

One of the main challenges is in fact to allow learners to create and structure the content of a DEG, changing radically the way teaching is traditionally conceived, by turning learners into teachers thus stimulating them to explore and

Figure 10. Two images of the micro-game that requires the user to count how many footsteps are required for the little goat to walk home

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organize the knowledge at their disposal. This approach follows one of the trends of contempo-rary pedagogy which predicates forms of learning based on creation of content and of experiences as a form of learning.

The widespread diffusion of mobile devices and DEG lays the foundation for a second major shift: the development of Location Based DEG. Building on top of the emerging success enjoyed by the so-called Location Based Services (LBS), which are software capable to provide specific services according to the geographical location of the user as detected by the GPS receiver, Location Based DEG in the context of cultural heritage can be extremely powerful tools to let people interact with the surrounding cultural heritage in a playful manner. This allows relating the digital information available on the environment that surrounds the user, with the real world in a playful manner. Again this approach changes completely the traditional way of conceiving the process of teaching and learning.

This new forms of learning, based on games, if applied in the context of cultural heritage can transform in fact the environment itself into an information-reach collaborative learning envi-ronment, by providing tailored information on heritage located in the real world, to which the community can contribute, as the user itself moves through the real world.

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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS

Digital Educational Games (DEG): Video games engineered to deliver a specific learning added value.

Location Based Service: software Software capable to provide specific services according to the geographical location of the user in the real world.

Mobile Learning: a A form of learning based on the use of mobile technologies.

Serious Games: synonymous Synonymous of Digital Educational Games.

Documents

User Centered Technologies, Serious Games and Learning