Serious play and hard game: an essay analysing the SimSafety project approach Project funded by:...

Serious play and hard game: an essay analysing the SimSafety project approach

Project funded by:

Framework Lifelong Learning Programme / Transversal Programme / Key Activity 3: ICT (European Commission,EACEA

António Osório, Teresa Castro, Vanessa Mendes, Margarida Sousa, Ana MonteiroMinho University – Braga - Portugal

SimSafetySerious play and hard game: an essay analysing the SimSafety project approach

General Facts

•Passionate love affair between Children and computers, says Papert (1996)•They consider it a product of nature like milk or tomatoes, says Andreoli (2007)

•Is it the death of childhood (Postman, 1994) or the arising of a promising generation of Digital Natives? (Prensky, 2001)

•Opportunities/Risks/Threats?

•WEB 2.0 – 3.0

•Cyberbullying; Sexting; Cyberstalking; Cyberpedophilia…

SimSafetySerious play and hard game: an essay analyzing the SimSafety project approach

General Problems

•Not aware of the proportions of behaviours

•Take the blame

•Don’t know how to respond

•Fear parents reaction

•DEMONIZATION OF THE INTERNET IS THE SOLUTION??


General Solutions

•A BIG NO!!!!!!

•To DEMONIZATION OF THE INTERNET •To PROHIBITION


General Solutions

•Prevention begins at home/school

BUT

•How to deal with the digital divide?


Portugal kids literacy

•Half of the kids surveyed consider themselves as the family member who knows more about computers at home, ahead of brothers (33%), father (30%) and parents (16.5%), confirming the generational divide at home, on the relationship with new technologies.

•To the question “how they’ve learned” most children (43%) responded “on their own.” 39%, learned from their parents 35% with friends the same age and 30% with older brothers, only only 17.7% said with the teachers.

In Ponte, Férin, Carvalho, Brites and Oliveira, 2008: 180-185


Portugal TOP parents concerns

•“meeting strangers”, affecting mainly the parents of older girls.

•“Provide personal information and visiting pornographic sites”

• “Believing in false content, receive offensive e-mail and games with violence”

• “Worry of viruses”

•“Visit racist websites, downloading illegal content”

•“Purchases on credit card”

In Ponte, Férin, Carvalho, Brites and Oliveira, 2008: 180-185

Most

Least


Portugal last numbers on UE Kids Online www.eukidsonline.net

(European survey in children between 9 and 16 )

Some statistics:

The Portuguese youth 11 - 16 years are among those who claim most to make an excessive use of the Internet (49% vs. 30% EU average)

Portugal is a country with a lower incidence of online risks for children and young people (below the European average 12%)

Only 7% of children / young people claimed to have been facing risks such as: pornography, bullying, sexually oriented messages, contact with strangers, meeting offline with online contacts, harmful content, abuse of personal data




Some statistics:

13% say they have viewed sexual images (only 4% of parents think their children have already found them)

Risk of online bullying was reported by only 2% of children / young people, smaller than the incident in person (8%). Both are below the European average (respectively 5 and 17%)

4% said that went to meetings with people who met online and 15% said they maintain contacts with these people




Some statistics:

58% of children / young people have a profile on a social network. Of these 34% have up to 10 contacts and 25% has 50 contacts. 25% have the public profile, while 7% share the address or phone number




Some important conclusions:

According to Cristina Ponte the increasing use of internet “can lead to a less-controlled use of the Internet and a lack of monitoring by parents and may lead to increased exposure to online risks”

The children are accessing the Internet more and more younger (they have more difficulty in dealing with disturbing content)

Parents usually are not aware that their children are in situations of risk (more than half of parents whose children had been bullied online did not realize that this had happened)


Research around Children and ICT

1. Children have an innate ability to explore the digital technologies;

2. They are active agents, competent and knowledgeable users of digital technologies and its risks;

3. However, it is necessary to understand their universe through their eyes and experiences;


How we used Simsafety in classrooms

Teachers envolved: ICT teachers, librarian teachers and curriculum area teachers.

In our classrooms we chose to value experimentation, promoting choice, and encouraging exploration by class members.

This methodology emphasized the “critical thinking” in a team work learning exploration with the teachers/parents:

-Visiting places-Exploring the map-Avatar Personalization-Avatar Movements-Trying the group activities...



Theme: Bullying | Bullying Machine

The concept of bullying: physical, non-physical and cyber bullying and bullying/cyber bullying situations.

Visited sections: House of Knowledge; Info Centre; Report Centre.

Later, students gathered in a common area of the Info Center and shared experiences and emotions felt in relation to bullying/ciber bullying and discussed ways to deal with real situations of bullying.



Theme: Think before you post | Explosive Pictures

Students enrolled in the game and received some tips about his role in this mini-game.

After that, the players voted the attitude of the players, indicating if the action of each person was right or wrong.

Students had been told that there were more than one correct answer.

After the game, students and teachers participated in a discussion where it was held to reflect on the different roles played.


What we learned using Simsafety in classrooms

During activities:

The first step to approach Internet issues requires that teachers, parents and pupils are commited in working and learning together.

Teachers/parents must support students’ efforts, taking an active role in the teaching and learning relationship giving direct feedback about risk taking, characterizing the difficulties in doing so.

Natives and immigrantes can learn from one another. The balance between freedom and guidance in instruction is continually renegotiated.



Students need time to explore what they can do in Simsafety, and what they can do with Simsafety, as they make decisions about how to use this tool to achieve social and intellectual goals. When we ask students to explore, we have to be willing to accept that they may end up in different places than we might have planned for. Then, we adapt our goals.

Students and teachers can and should learn from each other as technology users. The teacher is not the sole “owner” of content knowledge. As Harste (1994) states, “It is when we are inquirers ourselves that we become the best teachers.”



Play is pleasurable

Play is a process

Play is not limited to conventional routines

Play is active

Play evokes positive effects on children



It is impossible to protect children from accessing things that can be considered undesirable or dangerous.

No strategy can guarantee that children will not encounter items on the Internet that are inappropriate, offensive or dangerous for their age.

Parents may try to restrict access, but children will likely be able to work around it, because they have a bigger technical competence.

So, Simsafety has a huge potencial in the learning/teaching of good practices concerning the use and circulation in the cyberspace, allowing users to take better advantage of its potential, without taking unnecessary risks or unaware of the consequences.


Thank you very much for your attention.

Date post:	28-Dec-2015
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