In which good folks from the Tarrant Institute create an ARIS activity for Carmen Petrick Smith’s undergraduate educational technology course. Here’s an excerpt from their Storify piece of what they did:

ARIS is a mobile tablet-based gaming environment, based on the idea of augmenting scavenger hunts with more information about a related story or lesson plan. For instance, if you were teaching the Narnia books, you could have students move around the school as if they were moving through Narnia. You could have them talk to Aslan (in the form of a playground sculpture) and shoot through the halls on quests to save the world beyond the wardrobe.

Anyway, that’s not what we did.

What we did was take the story of John Pearl Gifford, 19th century physician, social activist, founder of the Gifford Medical Center and grave robber, and develop a mini-game around the historical context that allowed Gifford to be both a doctor and a felon.

This morning, we gave the students a first crack at working through the initial two levels of the game: locating the Librarian in Waterman and scanning QR codes to get hold of teeth to sell.

and what they learned about playtesting:

I learned a huge amount this morning not just about the mechanics of game-play but also how players interact with — and EXPECT TO interact with a game. A huge takeaway from this morning is just how much of the text in plaques I should convert to videos. It’s one thing to have a photo of Igor and a list of background text underneath, but a very different thing to take your Igor doll out on campus and shoot a video of him with narration in the background.

…Not that I have an Igor doll at all.

And as a group who are excited about the possibility of getting ARIS into classrooms where students can use it to construct their own narratives about a lesson plan, and interact with each other in a challenging, knowledge-share, this exercise was priceless.

Read more here. Dig on Vermont!

The article is actually called 30 Surprising (And Controversial) Ways Students Learn, and includes a lot of things that readers of this blog probably already know, like:1. Playing scary and violent video games help children master their fears in real life.

2. Video games can lessen disruptive behaviors and enhance positive development in ADHD children
5. Gardening improves children’s desire to learn and boosts their confidence
8. Music and movement augment children’s language capabilities during the preschool years
9. Green spaces or natural backyards elevate children’s learning through discovery

Then there was #11.

11. Children who construct their own video games experience increased cognitive and social growth

In a primitive society, children learned necessary survival skills by mimicking their elders. It was essentially, learning in action. In modern times, academics are often taught rather than “shown”- removing this type of opportunity from the educational process.

However, research outlined in the Lookstein Online Journal indicates that children show cognitive growth when they are given the task of creating their own video game. In order to develop such a game, students must use prior knowledge, create links between scenes, and take control of their learning through trial and error.

In essence, it is another way to create and active learning environment similar to ancient history. Children must use logic, survival skills, and generate new ideas and solutions in order to complete the game.

And it went on:

19. Play-based learning increases children’s attention span

… etc.

Read the rest, then go plan and make and play an ARIS game!

One of our users just uploaded a trailer for an ARIS game designed to change the world for the better by being more than just entertaining. The goal is to create a game that will encourage kids to get outside, exercise, and go out into their environment more.

To accompany his excellent blog post on Transmedia Storytelling, ARIS Game Tool, and K12 Education, John Patten makes a short 2 minute video argument on using ARIS to help improve writing and communication skills in students. Embedded here:

Jarrod Robinson created a cool 15 minute screencast demonstrating how ARIS could be used for physical education. Embedded here:

Here’s a nice example from Melbourne City School of using ARIS to prototype a game to save gorillas:

Excerpt:

What they will be building over the next  month or so is some AR and a game to help promote the save the Gorillas campaign from the Jane Goodall Trust and Melbourne City Zoo.

During our first session I introduced the kids to AR 101 and then we brainstormed opportunities for using this technology to place their stories and promotional materials in locations in and around Melbourne.

Between Learning Adviser Steve Brophy and I, we managed to both spark the kids imaginations and guide them to make sure we were both realistic to the requirements of the project and the limitations of the technology. I was in awe of some of the ideas and insights this diverse group of student had on the day.

The second session was all about ARIS and the basics of game mechanics. Many questions later the kids were eager to get started and build themselves a game or two.

Another great example of ARIS being used in schools.

Just read an article in Slate called Digital Jiminy Crickets about apps that help you be more ethical, do what you  need to do — all those things that we mean  to do, but need a nudge to actually do.

Capitalizing on three inter-related movements—nudging, the quantified self, and gamification—the good-behavior layer pinpoints our mental and emotional weaknesses and steers us away from temptations that compromise long-term success.

One example, they give is Gym-Pact, which “rewards” you with cash that you and other users put in a pool to pay the folks who work out. It’s a bit hilarious, and I imagine even more demoralizing that losing just the membership money. Here’s their video (also below).

What would an app to encourage good studenting look like? Would it quantify how much value you’re getting out of college by dividing the cost of the semester by the actual hours you study? (“Congratulations! You just studied $48.34 worth! No breaks until you earn $100!”). Would it just nudge to do homework or get to class on time like the one Marshall students developed? Or are there other “good student” qualities that can be gamified? (“Quest completed: Visit with your Econ prof during office hours.” Or, “Quest completed: participate in class 3 times this week.”). Would it include ARIS-like elements that guide you different resources on campus?

I’m actually soliciting ideas for this to pilot in my class this Fall. Send them to me at regardingjohn@gmail.com or tweet to @regardingjohn.

I’m stealing this directly from my colleague, Jim Mathews, published on the Macarthur Spotlight blog.

4.20.12 | Guest author Jim Mathews is a teacher at Middleton Alternative Senior High School in Middleton, Wisc., and a UW graduate student. Mathews is one of the designers of Augmented Reality and Interactive Storytelling (ARIS), a new augmented reality platform for the iPhone. The following is excerpted from a chapter he co-authored with Mark Wagler, “Up River: Place, Ethnography, and Design in the St. Louis River Estuary.” The article will be published in the forthcoming book “Mobile Media Learning: Amazing Uses of Mobile Devices for Teaching and Learning” later this year from ETC Press.

If you’re interested in using mobile games in the classroom, but feeling intimidated about how to get started, Mathews says you need not be. He recommends starting small and not being afraid to jump right in and experiment. He’s shared his rules of the road here:

Start small. Create something simple before embarking on a more complex effort to design a game or interactive story with lots of moving parts. Experimenting with many simple (and smaller) ideas helps build your fluency with the tools, clues you into what does and doesn’t work, and often sparks ideas for more complex designs.

Start designing. Don’t wait for the “perfect project” to start designing. Some teachers start by designing something for their personal use (e.g., as part of a birthday party or family outing) in order to learn the tools and experiment with different design ideas.

Start local. Build something that revolves around your school, schoolyard, or immediate neighborhood. This allows you to experiment with the technologies and teaching strategies without having to organize more complex field experiences.

Pilot. Implement a small design project with a subset of students. In some contexts, this might mean running an after-school workshop or organizing a field trip for a group of highly interested students. These experiences can be used to test learning activities and build your and your students’ capacity for doing mobile design work. Also consider organizing a design competition or inviting your students to design a mobile-based story or game to meet another class requirement.

Collaborate with students. Engage students as co-designers when you develop pilot projects, by actively seeking their advice for how to improve the project and embedded activities. These same students can serve as experts or classroom assistants when the project is implemented more broadly.

Experiment with design. Build students’ interest and expertise with the tools through game jams, where they build games that are not related to any specific content. This allows students to explore the tools and design processes, without the added constraint of specific content or concepts. Later, students can use their understanding of the tools to design media that aligns with specific curriculum areas.