=Paper=
{{Paper
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|storemode=property
|title=Games Fostering Co-Creativity in Learning as Contributions to the "Maker Movement"
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1450/paper4.pdf
|volume=Vol-1450
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/iwec/KoulourisS15
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==Games Fostering Co-Creativity in Learning as Contributions to the "Maker Movement"==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-1450/paper4.pdf
Games Fostering Co-Creativity in Learning as
Contributions to the ‘Maker Movement’
Pavlos Koulouris1 and Kalliopi-Evangelia Stavroulia1
1
Ellinogermaniki Agogi, Pallini, Greece
pkoulouris@ea.gr
Abstract. The C2Learn project aims to foster co-creativity in learning through
digital gaming activities whose design and development is grounded on rigid
theoretical foundations. The project is shaped as a progression from theoretical
foundations to design, development, pilot implementation and evaluation in real
life educational settings. Careful pedagogical and game designs have defined the
elements of learners’ gameful digital experiences and produced the specifications
for the development of the corresponding technologies and activities. In this
process and throughout the project, school communities have been engaged in
iterative dialogic cycles leading to design decisions, their implementation and
evaluation in real-life educational settings. This paper presents in summary the
methodology followed and the results of a core part of the research, with a special
focus on the C2Learn games which, despite originating in a different context,
directly contribute to the ‘maker movement’ in education.
Keywords: games · creativity · learning.
1 C2Learn: digital games for co-creativity
C2Learn is a European research project (2013-2015) aiming to foster co-creativity
in learning through digital gaming activities whose design and development is
grounded on rigid theoretical foundations. In our project, current understandings of
creativity in education and creative thinking meet with digital games and intelligent
technologies to provide young learners and their teachers with innovative
opportunities for co-creativity in learning. We aim at producing tangible research-
based outcomes readily available for use in and outside classrooms. Therefore
C2Learn is shaped as a progression from theoretical foundations to design,
development, pilot implementation and evaluation in real life educational settings.
Careful pedagogical and game designs have defined the elements of learners’
gameful digital experiences and produced the specifications for the development of
the corresponding technologies and activities. In this process and throughout the
project, school communities have been engaged in iterative dialogic cycles leading
to design decisions, their implementation and evaluation in real-life educational
Copyright © 2015 for the individual papers by the papers' authors. Copying permitted only for private and academic purposes.
This volume is published and copyrighted by its editors.
Make2Learn 2015 workshop at ICEC’15, September 29, 2015, Trondheim, Norway.
21
settings. This paper presents in summary the methodology followed and the results
of a core part of the research, with a special focus on the C2Learn games which,
despite originating in a different context, directly contribute to the ‘maker
movement’ in education.
2 C2Learn theory and pedagogy
The foundations of the project lie in a consolidated theoretical framework
encompassing the theories of Wise Humanising Creativity (WHC) [1,2,3] and
Creative Emotional Reasoning (CER) [4]. C2Learn theory provides insights into
how co-creativity of children and young people can be fostered in formal and
informal learning settings. Co-creativity is defined as educational activity in which
learners, individually as well as mainly collaboratively and also communally, come
up with novelty, new ideas. These new ideas: a) have emerged through asking ‘what
if’ and ‘as if’ questions and through the use of disruptive techniques resulting in re-
framing; b) have emerged from shared ideas and actions in an immersed dialogic
rather than hierarchical pedagogical environment; and c) are captured or selected
because they matter to the community and have a valuable impact on it. In this,
learners take into account the impact of that novelty on the individual, collaborative
and communal dimensions of their community.
The theoretical framework defines the vision of the project and frames the design
and development of the envisioned C2Learn technological solution. C2Learn theory
also defines the wider conceptual and pedagogical framework in which the use of
C2Learn technologies and C2Learn-inspired learning and teaching practices are
placed. Thus, starting from C2Learn theory, the project produces theoretically
framed technological innovation combined with designs for its deployment, use, and
evaluation in real educational practice.
C2Learn theory is provided to the project in an operational form so that it can be
used for the design and evaluation of the C2Learn solution. Thus, the theoretical
framework is manifested as: a) CER Techniques [4,5], which offer ways for the
application of CER in practice; b) Learning Design [6,7], which describes how WHC
and CER can be enacted in pedagogical practice; and c) co-creativity assessment
methodology [8], which is used in the pilots to establish to what extent and in what
ways the solution produced by the project has the desired effect.
3 C2Learn technology and gameful design
The technology produced is an innovative digital gaming and social networking
environment incorporating diverse tools the use of which can foster co-creativity in
learning processes in the context of both formal and informal educational settings.
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Digital gaming constitutes the chosen means for the involvement of learners and
educators in WHC-CER practices in and around this digital environment. C2Learn
theory thus frames game design, so that the designed playful digital experiences can
foster co-creativity as theorized in C2Learn.
The C2Learn digital environment and the wider pedagogical environment in which
it is used are gameful environments where co-creativity occurs playfully. The pursuit
of playfulness is a priority served through explicit gameful design [9,10]. In addition,
background Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are employed to further
empower learners as creators and creative thinkers within the defined frame of co-
creativity.
3.1 Co-designing and piloting with school communities
Throughout, school communities are actively engaged in iterative dialogic cycles
leading to design decisions, their pilot implementation and evaluation in classrooms.
In close reflective collaboration with communities of educators and students in
Austria, Greece and England, researchers gather user requirements, co-design locally
appropriate solutions for the introduction of the innovation in real life learning
settings, negotiate and plan various instances of such an introduction for the purposes
of piloting and evaluation.
The aim of piloting in the project is to test and evaluate with users the C2Learn
experience, including both the technologies developed and the pedagogical practices
enabled by these technologies. In the pilots, educational activities specifically shaped
around the use of the C2Learn technologies and methodologies are implemented in
educational settings. The aim is to create conditions for evaluation that can provide
the project with feedback used for further refining design and development and for
introducing adjustments and improvements.
Evaluation is realized through the application of the co-creativity assessment
methodology specifically developed on the basis of C2Learn theory. The core aim is
to evaluate C2Learn’s impact on learner’s co-creativity as theorized in the project,
by documenting change as well as the lived experience of engaging in C2Learn-
enabled activity [8]. The co-creativity assessment methodology is applied in
fieldwork during the pilots leading to the collection of rich qualitative data. The data
collected is then analysed to lead to critical descriptions of the activities, evaluative
findings and conclusions.
3.2 A scenario-based design approach
Educational scenarios [11,12,13] provide the integration of the various parts of the
project into a coherent C2Learn user experience in a given educational setting,
23
orchestrating the various technological and pedagogical parts of the project described
in the previous sections. They are concrete designs of pedagogical practice in the
context of given educational settings specified in terms of learner age group,
curriculum links, the degree of formality of the learning activities, and the wider
cultural/country setting. Educational scenarios thus ‘translate’ learning design and
game design into plans for the implementation of educational activities in real life,
predominantly in the pilots run within the project, but eventually also in other
educational settings. At the same time, scenarios present the world of education with
the range of possibilities offered and examples of effective use of the C2Learn
solution.
Educational scenarios are designed in close collaboration with the school
communities, providing input into the design process directly from educational
practice. Indeed, they constitute that aspect of the design of the C2Learn solution
which is most strongly shaped by the collaborating school communities and framed
by their educational realities. They are a design tool aiming to ensure that the
innovative technologies deployed and practices introduced will correspond to the
needs, circumstances, expectations and aspirations of the end users. Therefore, their
development is interwoven with processes aiming at establishing user expectations
and requirements.
As we have described elsewhere [14], setting out from a theoretical perspective and
motivation, the project has deliberately adopted a scenario-based approach to engage
teachers as designers of learning experiences. In summary, in our approach a scenario
is an adequate but flexible structure for sustained engagement and learning within
open-ended environments, like the ones designed in C2Learn. In addition, scenarios
can also enable teachers to manage the change in the flow of classroom activity
induced by the technology-enhanced pedagogical innovation. Further, by shifting the
pedagogical emphasis from the transmission of subject matter to the orchestration of
experiences around the subject matter, C2Learn scenarios focuses on a crucial
dimension that is often neglected in discussing the curriculum: making the learning
situation meaningful from the point of view of the students. Scenarios can turn our
curricular objectives into personal goals that students understand and embrace.
Finally, scenarios can generate useful user input to inform the design of the
envisioned technological system, as well as serving as exemplars for communicating
pedagogical innovation to a broader population of potential users and other
communities of interest.
An important aspect of this design is the distribution of C2Learn practice in the
physical and digital spaces of C2Learn. In this context, educational scenarios propose
appropriate configurations of the use of digital and non-digital C2Learn assets in the
pedagogical environment, based on the affordances and opportunities offered by the
various media and how those can be best used in a given educational setting.
Attention is paid to the representation in the scenarios of a wide variety of
configurations of C2Learn experience, including the use of different combinations
of digital and non-digital assets, in various time frames, so as to illustrate the
versatility, flexibility and adaptability of the C2Learn solution.
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4 Learning through making while playing C2Learn games
The C2Learn games are hosted in C2Space, a web space which integrates all
technological constituents into a unified user experience. It is a gameful social
networking environment designed to foster co-creativity as theorized in the C2Learn
project. C2Space offers playful digital experiences (‘C2Experiences’) for students to
engage with. C2Experiences are structured in C2Space in ‘Creative Quests’,
‘Creative Missions’ and ‘Creative Challenges’, as presented in Table 1.
Among the various Creative Challenges, of particular interest from a ‘maker
movement’ perspective are those based on the games 4Scribes and Iconoscope.
4.1 4Scribes
4Scribes is a story-making game. The objective of the game is to collaboratively
create a story, while each player tries to steer the narrative towards their individual
secret ending. The premise of the story can be given by a teacher, decided by the
players, or generated by computational tools. The winner is decided through the
players, who each anonymously vote which ending was the “best”.
The Light and Dark variety is a variation on the 4Scribes game, where learner-created
endings are randomly attributed a dark or light modifier. This gives the players goals
in different directions, and often results in more dynamic play, because of the
conflicting goals. Dark and Light endings refer to the tone the learner should take
into consideration when writing their secret ending. Dark refers to dark themed
endings, working against the ideals of the premise. Light refers to lighter themed
endings, working towards the ideals of the premise.
To play 4Scribes, players use the Creative Elements, i.e. cards carrying one word or
short phrase each which are meant to disrupt players’ conventional thinking. In turns,
players advance the story using one of their elements at each time. The words are not
meant to be interpreted literally, but are an idea and an archetype that should spark
the imagination of players. Thus, using the words or phases appearing on the
elements in play serves as a creative seed in story-making.
4.2 Iconoscope
In Iconoscope players make icons to represent concepts given by the system. The
player’s goal is to make their icon representative of the concept, but not too obvious,
so that they make the others guess - and to guess what other players’ icons represent.
Players score points for guessing right, and for having co-players guess what their
own icon is representing.
25
Table 1. Elements of C2Learn gameful design.
Gameful design Explanation Example
concept
CREATIVE Players set out on Creative Quests, i.e. Save the Earth from
QUEST journeys towards specified goals. Quests Invincible Invaders!
can be longer-term ventures (spanning over
weeks or months).
CREATIVE Players engage themselves in Creative We will devise new defense
MISSIONS Missions, i.e. actions with specific methods against Invincible
objectives contributing towards achieving Invaders!
the goals of the quest.
A Quest can include a number of Missions.
Missions are shorter-term ventures
(spanning over a day, days, or weeks).
How can we outsmart
In the heart of each mission lies a Problem; Invincible invaders’
Problem one with no obvious ‘correct’ answers, e.g. warcraft, which is by far
a dilemma. technologically superior to
ours?
CREATIVE To address the Problem, players choose
CHALLENGES Creative Challenges to pursue. A Mission
can include a number of Challenges.
Challenges take a relatively short time to
complete (spanning over minutes).
“You are the last ones still
conscious and capable of
action on the Earth. You
have just received Invincible
Invaders’ ultimatum before
Playing structured story-telling to generate
the Attack: the Earth is to be
4Scribes ideas for innovative scenarios of action.
taken. Only one of you will
Usual duration: 20-30 minutes.
be spared human
consciousness to participate
in the New Rule - provided
you subscribe to the Cult…”
Continue the story!
You are the last ones still
conscious and capable of
Playing free collaborative writing to action on the Earth. You
Creative Stories generate ideas for innovative scenarios of have just received Invincible
action. Usual duration: 10-30 minutes. Invaders’ ultimatum before
the Attack. Write Earth’s
Message to Invincible
Invaders!
Iconoscope Playing with the concepts to understand Dare you look deeper into
them better. Usual duration: 10-15 minutes.{concept1: War},
{concept2: Cunning} and
{concept3: Threat}? Prove
it, outsmart the others!
26
However, if all co-players interpret the icon correctly, the player loses points - hence
the need to make an icon that is representative, but not too obvious.
The game requires participants to internalize the logic of a disruptor, and then
produce one. The creativity (disruptive) part comes in through the way this icon is
then evaluated. Usually signs or icons are meant to convey unambiguously whatever
message they represent. A common measure of success is their having conveyed their
message as accurately or fully, to as many people as possible. In Iconoscope the icon
has achieved its purpose if it has conveyed the idea to as many people as possible,
but not all. So an icon fails if it communicates its intended message to everyone, if it
communicates its intended message to no one, or if it communicates its intended
message to fewer people than another competing icon.
Acknowledgements. The C2Learn project (November 2012 – October 2015) is
supported by the European Commission through the Seventh Framework
Programme (FP7) under grant agreement no. 318480. The contents of this paper do
not represent the views of the European Commission and the Commission cannot be
held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained
therein. Responsibility for the information and views set out in this paper lies entirely
with the authors.
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