Abstract:

Availability of cheap sensors, microcontrollers and wireless components has made it possible to build ubiquitous learning applications exploring novel game-based learning scenarios using electronic textiles (e-Textiles). We have pioneered the use of e-Textiles to build ubiquitous playground games around tag, hide-and-seek and “jacks.” Pedagogically, these games define a class of games called PAP (Problem posing And Problem solving) that employ a close coupling of problem posing and problem solving to create a natural conflict among the various players. Problem posing has been studied extensively in Mathematics education and is shown to be positively correlated with problem solving and seems to help learners develop meta-cognitive and reflective capabilities. e-Textiles PAP games have been designed to incorporate elements of internal motivation for game design identified by Melone and Lepper. These elements include Motivating goals, Challenge, Uncertainty, Performance feedback, Self-confidence, Sensory Curiosity, Cognitive Curiosity, Control and Fantasy. Extrinsic motivation factors like Cooperation, Competition and Recognition are also considered in game design. This paper explores and develops the concept of pleasure-driven design for such ubiquitous games. Donald Norman has argued that beautifully designed products provide a level of gratification that puts users in a harmonious mindset. Patrick W. Jordan identified that feelings associated with using pleasurable products include Security, Confidence, Pride, Excitement and Satisfaction. Displeasurable products, on the other hand, are associated with feelings that include Annoyance, Anxiety, Contempt and Frustration. Costello and Edmond provide thirteen pleasures of play derived from six prominent works in pleasure. The thirteen playful scenarios for incorporating pleasure include Creation, Exploration, Discovery, Difficulty, Danger, Captivation, Sensation, Sympathy, Simulation, Camaraderie, and Subversion. In addition, Costello and Edmond’s framework identified four factors of Novelty, Surprise, Complexity and Uncertainty or Conflict as variables that affect the strength of pleasure derived using the thirteen scenarios. This paper uses Costello and Edmond’s thirteen pleasures of play as the primary structure and incorporates Melone and Lepper’s factors of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation within. For example, “Creation” play consists of the pleasure participants get while creating something new. In the PAP game of tag, the “Creation” play is active when children are asked to create their own questions to stump their peers. Similarly, the “Discovery” play derives pleasures when participants discover something new or work something out. This play is active in PAP hide-and-seek game when a child after looking at a hint about the volume of a container on an electronic badge sewn to their shirt, makes the right guess about the actual volume of a container to discover an opponent hiding behind the container. The “Competition” play is evident in the game of jacks where children have to throw RFID-enabled stones up in the air and catch the one’s with the right colored answer to questions in the fastest and the most accurate manner to win. These and other examples from three different e-Textiles based ubiquitous games of tag, hide-and-seek and jacks are used to demonstrate the various aspect of this pleasure-based design framework.

Keywords:

Ubiquitous learning, e-Textiles, Game-based learning.