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

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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.