Hanns Christian Schmidt works as a research assistant at the Institute of Media Culture and Theater of the University of Cologne. His research project “Literalität des Spiel(en)s – Vermittlung von Medienkompetenz im Rahmen analoger, digitaler und hybrider Spiele” (“Literacy of Play / Literacy of Games – imparting media competence within analogue, digital and hybrid games”) was funded by the RheinEnergie Stiftung Jugend | Beruf, Wissenschaft. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Literature-Arts-Media (University of Konstanz), a Master of Arts in Media Studies (University of Tübingen) and successfully defended his PhD-project titled “Transmediale Topoi – Medienübergreifende Erzählwelten in seriellen Narrativen) in January 2018. His research interests include Game Studies, Game Literacy, Transmediality and Intermediality, Film and TV Studies, zombies, aliens and Lego bricks.
Hanns Christian Schmidt
University of Cologne
All Sessions by Hanns Christian Schmidt
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3. Game Studies Summit
July 9
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16:00
Welcome
16:00 - 16:05WhereOnline
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16:30
Ludo Lego Literacies - Exploring Game Literacy, Brick by Brick
16:30 - 17:00Can you teach game literacy with Lego bricks? Maybe! Even though playing and learning are intrinsically linked, research dealing with game-based-learning often ignores the issue of how we learn to 'read' games themselves. This “game literacy” (Apperley/Beavis 2013) or “ludo literacy” (Zagal 2010) deals with questions of how we acquire the necessary knowledge about "playthings" (Crawford 2009), how we learn to use them, how we find out about the effects of certain game mechanics, how we interpret them as expressive artefacts and even how we can use this literacy to ‘game’ other systemic processes in our society (Zimmerman 2009). This presentation outlines a possible mediation of game literacy by offering a closer look at the Game Literacy Arcade Machine (a.k.a. Dario’s Box) – an Augmented Reality technology which functions as a platform for the experimental game “A Maze in Tiles." Framed within informal game design workshops in the City Library of Cologne, the tool gives children the ability to construct their own maps with bricks, to add game design elements, and to turn them into mazes that can be explored in the first-person perspective. This method is based on a constructionist approach, "extend[ing] the idea of manipulative materials to the idea that learning is most effective when part of an activity the learner experiences as constructing a meaningful product" (Papert 1989). Both hardware and software are the results of the research project “Playgrounds of Game Literacy”, a collaboration between the Institute of Media Culture and Theater (University of Cologne) and the Cologne Game Lab (TH Köln). -- Apperley, Tom & Beavis, Catherine (2014): “A Model for Critical Games Literacy.” The Journal of Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria (1): 46-54. Crawford, Chris (2009): “The Archaeology of Play Things: Theorising a Toy Stage in the 'Biography' of Objects.” Childhood in the Past (2): 55 - 70. Papert, Seymour (1987): Constructionism: A New Opportunity for Elementary Science Education. Abstract Summary. Online: https://nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=8751190, last accessed 24.06.2021. Zagal, José (2010): Ludoliteracy: Defining Understanding and Supporting Games Education, Pittsburgh, PA, USA 2010. Zimmerman, Eric (2009): “Gaming Literacy Game Design as a Model for Literacy in the Twenty-First Century”, in: Binder, Thomas u.a. (eds..): (Re)searching the digital Bauhaus, London 2009, 179–190.