Major: Urban Game Design as a Tool for Creativity, Collaboration, and Learning Among Youth

“21世纪技能伙伴计划”（P21）是2002年由美国教育部与苹果电脑公司、思科系统公司和全国教育协会等组织合作成立的全国性组织，是推动我国教育改革的主要力量。P21旨在为美国的每个孩子准备？21世纪的知识和技能？他们需要成为有能力的工人和积极的公民。在他们列出的技能清单中，最重要的是创造力和创新，他们说这不仅包括个人创造性思考的能力，还包括创造性地与他人合作并将创新付诸实践的能力。本着P21的精神？随着我们对创造力和创新的新关注，我们的研究将通过观察年轻人在有机会成为技术设计师（特别是一款名为Re:Activism的手机游戏的设计师）时的表现，为STEM教育带来关于创造力和信息技术之间关系的新见解。在这款游戏中，游戏设计师向配备了全球定位系统（GPS）设备的玩家发起挑战，让他们访问并了解社区中发生过重大历史事件（如抗议、骚乱或激进事件）的地区。例如，在纽约，这些地点可能包括三角衬衫工厂（Triangle Shirtwaist Factory）火灾的地点。在整个项目过程中，三组青年参与者将组成团队，通过原型设计、测试和改进的设计过程，设计他们自己版本的Re:Activism。参与者将主要从新青年城市学习网络（NYCLN）成员机构的课后项目中抽取11-16岁的学生。NYCLN是由麦克阿瑟基金会赞助的一项新计划，由纽约的一系列文化机构组成，包括纽约科学馆、DreamYard项目（数字艺术项目）、纽约公共图书馆和Play研究所（游戏设计项目）等。透过设计自己的游戏，青年参与者将学习如何透过地理及流动科技，将照片等媒体与实际地点连结起来。他们还将学习如何在游戏设计的背景下创造性地使用这些工具来制作和分享他们社区的历史故事，并最终被其他人玩到。除了为STEM教育工作者提供新的见解外，我们还计划在非正式学习社区内以多种形式和场所发布这项工作的结果，以影响和告知私营、公共和慈善部门正在进行的当代对话，讨论移动和地理技术在支持位置和社会形式的学习、推进地理空间理解和鼓励社区参与和参与方面的重要性。

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (P21), a national organization formed in 2002 by the U.S. Department of Education in cooperation with organizations such as Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, and the National Education Association, is a leading catalyst for educational reform in this country. P21 seeks to prepare every child in the United States with the ?21st century knowledge and skills? they need to become competent workers and active citizens. At the top of their list of skills is creativity and innovation, which they say includes not only the ability for individuals to think creatively, but also to work creatively with others and implement innovations into practice. In the spirit of P21?s new focus on creativity and innovation, our research will lead to new insights for STEM education regarding the relationship between creativity and information technology by looking at how young people act when they are given the chance to be technology designers, specifically designers of a mobile game called Re:Activism. This is a game in which game designers challenge players equipped with Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled devices to visit and learn about areas in their community where significant historical events such as protests, riots, or activist events have occurred. In New York, these sites might include the location of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, for example. Over the course of the project, 3 groups of youth participants will work in teams to design their own versions of Re:Activism using a design process of prototyping, testing, and refining. Participants will be 11-16 year olds drawn primarily from the after school programs at member institutions of the New Youth City Learning Network (NYCLN). NYCLN is a new initiative sponsored by the MacArthur Foundation and is comprised of a set of cultural institutions in New York that include the New York Hall of Science, the DreamYard project (digital arts program), the New York Public Library, and the Institute of Play (game design program), among others. Through the process of designing their own game, youth participants will learn new ways to link media like photographs to physical locations via geographic and mobile technologies. They will also learn how they can work together to use these tools creatively within the context of game design to craft and share historical stories about their community in a format that can eventually be played by others. In addition to developing new insights for STEM educators, we plan to publish the results of this work in multiple formats and venues within the informal learning community to impact and inform the contemporary dialogue underway within private, public and philanthropic sectors regarding the importance of mobile and geographic technologies in supporting situated and social forms of learning, advancing geospatial understanding, and encouraging community participation and engagement.