Alternate and Augmented Reality Games are a new and emerging instructional design method born out of the constructivist tradition. ARG’s fall into two groups. Augmented Reality Gaming and Alternate Reality Gaming. This adventure is divided into two parts according to these different “flavors”.
Adventure 1: Play an Alternate Reality Game while you learn about this emerging learning method Adventure 2: Explore the possibilities being explored using Augmented Reality Gaming
ADVENTURE 1
Objective: This adventure will introduce you to the world of Alternate Reality Games as an emerging Learning Environment
DIRECTIONS/BACKGROUND
Alternate Reality Gaming
Alternate Reality Games are an emerging learning environment that utilizes collaborative socially constructive techniques to take the learners into another world through narrative and simulations.
These games are relatively low tech and are designed using readily available tools on the Internet. They are often constructed by creating simple web pages, blog entries, podcasts and any other web accessible tool. Using elements of narrative, learners are introduced to a story that usually includes some mystery or conflict that must be resolved. While they work through the story in teams attempting to develop a solution, they are introduced to other characters in the story who may or may not give them good information.
The learning tasks are woven into the story and usually involve the creation of various artifacts of competency and understanding as part of the process of moving toward a solution leading to resolution of the narrative conflict.
This adventure will introduce you to the world of Alternate Reality Gaming. You can read about this form of game development through the provided resource links or you can personally experience learning through alternate reality gaming by playing the CoF ARG titled “Shafted Enlightenment”
Shafted Enlightenment is an alternate reality game that was developed specifically for the NAIS Classrooms of the Future as a presentation in the Stadium Classroom. By playing this game, you will personally experience aspects of learning through an alternate reality game and unlock the clues leading you to a "pot of gold"- extensive resources for learning more about teaching, learning and developing learning environments using alternate reality gaming.
Option 2:
Explore Alternate Reality Game Resources
The first widely played alternate reality game was likely part of a marketing plan for the 2001 movie A.I. (Artificial Intelligence). In the credits of this movie, there was a listing for a Jeanine Salla as a Sentient Machine Therapist. For those curious about this position, a quick search on the Internet lead them to Jeanine Salla’s site. This serves as the entry point for the game and leads you to several sites including this image map. As this game played out, a large global group formed calling themselves Cloudmakers- a discussion group for the ARG centered on the film A.I.
Now there are many ARG’s appearing on the net. Some of these are created simply for the love of playing the game while others are connected to other books and movies. Several related to books include the children’s series 39 Clues as well as Cathy’s Key (Cathy’s Key Website- First door to the game) (Cathy’s Key forum)
Imagine how you can use alternate reality gaming to bring history, science and literature alive in realistic, creative and engaging ways. What will your first game be? There are many more resources available in this adventure. However, they are only available through the successful completion of the game Shafted Enlightenment. Play it no or at any time to learn more about this emerging learning environment.
Objective: This adventure will introduce you to several resources related to the emerging world of augmented reality gaming.
DIRECTIONS/BACKGROUND
Here the learners are working on collaborative groups as they try to solve problems while they move through a geospatial environment. These game learning environments make use of the capabilities found in today’s handheld computing devices and GPS signals. While still in an experimental stage, these emerging learning environments have potential for future classrooms. Currently, these game require special software and a fairly high level of technical expertise to assemble. However, as development continues, this process is expected to simplify. These games will also become more accessible ad they start to leverage the functionality of SmartPhones. When this happens, this type of learning environment may have wide appeal because of access, engagement factor and the reality of the games.
