PROJECT INFORMATION:

Project Title:
Creation of Serious Game for Citizen Participation, Respect Values and Peace Culture Learning in Southwest Colombian Region.

Executor:
University of Caldas. Medialab.
-Visual Design Department, Design and Cognition in Visual and Virtual Environments Research Group DICOVI (Category A Colciencias)
-Systems and Informathics Departament, Information and Networks Technologies Research Group (Category C Colciencias).

Leader Researcher:
Germán Mauricio Mejía Ramírez.

Finance:
University de Caldas. Vice rectory of Research and Graduate Studies.
Award of Colciencias (Colombian Science and technology Institute) – SENA (National Learning Service).

Executive Abstract:

In the learning through information technologies and communication has prevailed the conventional contents movement to multimedia elements. This project seeks to achieve learning goals through the videogame, the didactic impact elements improvement like interactivity, ludics, immersion and symbolic image that present in this type of experiences. Children and teenagers citizen competences with access to the computer sciences in the Central-West region of Colombian will be the main topic in this project.

In this way, the interactive system creation that provides the citizen competences assimilation through symbolic images, digital technologies and ludics will be the goal of this project to contribute to the social change and to the collective nation construction.

The interactive system composed by diverse supports and means will create a stimulus with two components: first, it hopes that the assimilated knowledge establishes a frame of values with a positive influence towards the peaceable living together and the respect for the difference; second, the wished symbolic imaginary construction that serves as a reference model to children and teenagers.

This type of strategies is not new in the world; some organizations have created videogames in the last years with learning purposes and social change, which have named in the academic and professional community the “serious games”. Among the organizations that have created serious videogames we have The World Food Program of the United Nations Organization with the game Food Force (United Nations World Food Program. 2005), that explains how this food program acts in famine areas; or the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict with the game A Force More Powerful (The International Center on Nonviolent Conflict - ICNC and York Zimmerman Inc. 2006), that teaches people to develop nonviolent activism in democratic areas conflict like dictatorship or corruption countries. These games through ludics allow people to understand, involve and act in social problematic situations.

This project is pointed towards one of the main nation historic goals: the peace. Goal through the values learning which will stimulates a solid construction of the social tissue to improve our nation people life quality. The information and communication technologies use will be the strategy; where it has developed technological infrastructure the nation has done efforts; now, it is necessary investing in digital products focus in culture problems designed to our communities.

From this perspective, the fulfillment of the technologies promises, about the knowledge democratization and the social gap reduction is possible with this type of projects that focus towards the information and knowledge management.

This project will be carried out with an interdisciplinary research visual design and computers science team, with the cognition, citizenship and social change communication consultants. The interactive system will be flexible and scalable for permitting improvements and extensions. This flexibility is showed in narrative constructions that are from the digital format and web to books, television, mobile phones, daily spaces and other supports to turn the videogame user world in a stage of learning citizenship game.