The majority of Americans know little about civics and government; video games could prove the unorthodox solution to our miseducation. This is the topic of Professor Lien Tran’s second op ed as a Public Voices fellow with The OpEd Project. On February 4, 2023, New Thinking magazine published her op ed entitled “The Game of Life: Leveraging Tech for Civics Education“.… Continue reading Games for civics op ed published in New Thinking
Tag: transformational design
Emerging technology’s role for telling critical Asian American history
Professor Lien Tran is part of DePaul University’s 2022-23 The OpEd Project’s Public Voices fellowship. Professor Tran’s first op ed entitled “Lunar New Year Offers a Chance to Reflect on Asian American History“, was published in VISIBLE magazine ahead of Lunar New Year on January 22, 2023. In this op ed, Tran shares examples for how… Continue reading Emerging technology’s role for telling critical Asian American history
Transformed Reality VR Workshop
Meaningful Play 2022, East Lansing, MI, USA
October 12-14, 2022
Presented by Lien Tran, Brighten Jelke, Lynn Baus, Chryselle Rego, LeAnne Wagner
In this workshop participants will learn about a set of resources and processes for creating a VR training experience and test a working project in a VR headset (Oculus Quest 2). This workshop is meant to be an informative primer for people curious about getting started in essential skills VR learning and training, specific to the use of immersive branching narrative experiences and assessment. The facilitators have been working on the creation of trauma-informed interviewing training modules for law enforcement. While the goal is to create improved training materials that address gender based violence, the team has developed a unique understanding of small team VR content creation and the process involved.
Workshop Resources
Project Consideration Worksheets
We provided some high-level worksheets to participants to help them determine whether designing and developing a similar VR training experience is a viable option for a particular context.
Presentation Slides
Our presentation slides, found here, also reference the VR training white paper by PwC from 2020. Here’s the link for those who are interested:
https://www.pwc.com/us/en/tech-effect/emerging-tech/virtual-reality-study.html
To learn more about our VR project “A Just Reality”, visit the project page.
Contact
If you’d like to connect with our team, please reach out to Lien Tran at lien.tran[at]depaul.edu, Director of Matters at Play, or LeAnne Wagner at Leanne.Wagner[at]depaul.edu, Director of PUSH Studio.
Dwell wins GLS Creativity and Design Award
Judges for the 2022 Games+Learning+Society conference’s game showcase awarded Dwell the Creativity and Design award in June 2022 in Irvine, CA. The games showcase selections were double-blind peer-reviewed. 30+ games were selected for showcase, and a panel of expert judges reviewed the games for award consideration. There were a total of four awards, 1 of… Continue reading Dwell wins GLS Creativity and Design Award
On Sunday, December 12, 2021, Jennifer Ann’s Group (JAG)’s Drew Crescente moderated the “Gaming Against Violence: Unplugged” panel at PAX Unplugged on the potential for analog games to communicate signs of and concerns for Power & Control in romantic relationships.
#LifeLovePAX
The judges for JAG’s 2021 Unplugged game design challenge made up the panel speakers: Drew Crecente (he/him/his) [Executive Director, Jennifer Ann’s Group], Dr. Mark Chen (he/him) [Lecturer, University of Washington Bothell], Hannah Corcoran (she/her) [Producer, Auroch Digital], Dr. Krista-Lee Malone (she/her) [Teaching Faculty II (Dr.), UW-Madison], Dr. Elizabeth Levato Richeson (she/her) [Clinical Psychologist / Jennifer Ann’s Group – Advisory Board Chair, Dr. Elizabeth L. Richeson], Dr. Sarah Stang (she/her) [Dr., York University].
Hear from the esteemed judges in the video below as they reflect on non-digital prosocial games as a powerful tool to engage young people in difficult topics like dating violence.
And the winner is….
Matters at Play was featured near the end of the session as one of seven selected #Unplugged finalist with our game The Big Build Up.
At the culmination of the panel, the game design challenge website was updated to announce the winner: Matters at Play with The Big Build Up! We are excited for this recognition and to hear the judges feedback. We also look forward to further developing the game resources for education use with our primary audience of youth ages 13-16.
