Sparkling Games

Together with secondary school students have investigated how concepts from the field of game-based learning can be used to develop learning methods and materials to the topic informatics and society. Starting with a detailed analysis of existing learning and mainstream commercial games students will iteratively conceptualise and develop games and game-like materials to support teaching about topics including copyright and intellectual property, privacy, surveillance, social media, and big data.

The Project resulted in a transfer of academic competencies to students, who will gain expertise in the areas of game design and serious games as well as in social science research methods to assess and reflect their creations. Key results of the project include a commented collection of existing games supporting learning about topics form the area of informatics and society, new games and game concepts developed by students, and bottom-up insights into how game-based learning can be used in schools. Sparkling Games strives to expand the potential of games as media for learning, reflection and for teaching media literacy. We further hypothesise that the process of creating learning games itself constitutes a highly valuable learning experience.

The project was hosted at the Institute of Design and Assessment of Technology (Vienna University of Technology) and will be carried out in close collaboration with the Department of Communication (University of Vienna) and the Viennese schools Schulschiff Bertha von Suttner, HTBLVA Spengergasse and BFI Margareten.