CMT 3321 NOVEL INTERACTIVE TECHNOLOGY

MY REFLECTION ON THE GAME (Bright kids) DESIGNED BY MY GROUP

BERTRAND OSSY IROEGBU

MOO272549

Bi059@live.mdx.ac.uk

TUTOR: - Dr. Engie Bashir

REFLECTION.

This reflection is based on the game designed by me and my group members on the game “BRIGHT KIDS”.

Points considered in this reflection are: -

DESCRIPTION INTERPRETATION BENEFITS OUTCOME MY CONTRIBUTION DIFFICULTIES / SETBACKS CONCLUSION

DESCRIPTION: the game “Bright kids” came up as a result of a requirement for our CMT 3331 course, where we were asked to design tangible and interactive games using reactivision, TUI processing and fiducials to create tangible and interactive game for kids.As a group, we chose to design for kids between the age bracket of 4 – 7 and the aim of our game is to teach them color mixing and alphabets.We chose this game after a series of group meetings and brain storming, coupled with our ability.

INTERPRETATION: - this game as earlier introduced is designed based on tangible and interactive technology. This is to make sure that the child is physically engaged, with physical interaction, digital feedback (audio and visual). The colored boxes are painted with several colors and fiducials markings on them to make them identifiable by the reactivision and processing.

BENEFITS: - I achieved a lot from this project because all along, I had the believe that games can only be controlled by mouse, joystick and gears but with this project I saw how you could actually make use of fiducials that make you physically engaged throughout the process of playing the game and as part of the designing team, I found out that by writing codes, the actions performed by mechanized and computer games could actually be performed and see what the driving force behind those games are.

OUTCOME: - the outcome of this project is a fully physical, interactive and tangible game that uses fiducials as the controllers, webcam for accepting input, processing for carrying out and activating the functions to enable the game to be executed and run properly.

MY CONTRIBUTION: - as a member of this group, I contributed to the best of my ability at the three different stages of the game in the following ways: -

1. Design stage: - assisted the group in the designing of the blog, got some materials for the presentation as can be seen on the blog and the presentation slides, modeled some of the fiducials that were used for the presentation and kept proper documentation of the group’s activities.

2. Implementation stage: - at the implementation stage, since everyone cannot write code at the same time and we have a better programmer in our group, coupled with the fact that there are other activities to be done, I assisted the group by getting and preparing the fiducials according to their needs, documenting corrections and assistance we receive from our tutor and keeping up with posts on the blog.

3. Evaluation stage: - at the evaluation stage, I conducted an interview with a fellow student and carried out a self-evaluation with the group members since my nationality, learning and living environment did not entitle me to evaluating it with kids. I also got some questions used in the evaluation, read some books and did research online to actually know what really evaluation is and what to evaluate. I got my materials posted on the blog to let other members have a look and pick any information they deem helpful and for also exchange of ideas since we are a group.

4. Final presentation: - for the final presentation, I will be assisting the group during the creation of the presentation slides, source for materials from books, journals and the internet, be responsible for collecting the project materials on behalf of the group and minutes of any meetings we hold.

DIFFICULTIES / SETBACKS: - during the course of this project, I encountered some difficulties such as difficulties in coding as I have a little knowledge of java, tight schedule which actually affected the completion of the game and some other minor hindrances which usually occur when work has to be done by a group.

CONCLUSION: - in conclusion it was a really nice project because I learnt a lot of new things, worked as a group where we encountered difficulties and settled it. I also acquired a little more knowledge of programming, working with reactivision, fiducials and processing. I also know and believe now that we can actually interact with the computer to yield results not just relying on keyboard and mouse click gestures.

Some of the materials I read, researched on and used during the project include: -

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:pNj1TXIrRKoJ:ftp1.de.freebsd.org/Publications/CEURWS/Vol386/p08.pdf+evaluating+tangible+games&hl=en&gl=ae&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESiqYZaeV6gvltqiHHOSo0Fty_aZYqqyIlUjxFAkVGiQ03z08lK6og0UoZBB6ruTtnR7ycPXxW526CgdPmcsP29al4WxIutUbyIZocW0hIpPooT3uOz2Imco_rJsNPdqajGWMA&sig=AHIEtbS1SlQBgjSGmPpR7KsCa_ayFnYtLg LINK FOR FIRST SOURCE OF MATERIAL ON EVALUATION.

Designing, Using and Evaluating Educational Games:Challenges, Some Solutions and Future ResearchNalin K. ShardaSchool of Computer Science and MathematicsVictoria University, PO Box 14428Melbourne City MC, Victoria 8001, Australia..........> first book read

http://www.innovativelearning.com/instructional_technology/educational_games.html

some questions where obtained from here.

http://www.teem.org.uk/publications/teem_gamesined_full.pdf ....> report on the educational use of games.

http://www.stcsig.org/usability/newsletter/0410-gameevaluation.html ........>results from research on an online evaluation.

http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet25/ip.html ......>Evaluating coursework in computer games degrees: Students and assessors as virtual characters.

http://seriousgames.bbn.com/behaviorauthoring/evalsNew/GameEvaluationFormLegend.htm ......> points to consider when creating evaluation form and questions.