Note:  This is old, outdated, but my original ideas on a dissertation.  Topic of 'Serious Games' has been chosen, with a focus on education (games in the classroom).  This topic combines many of the topics below.  This page serves as a history of my thoughts in finding my dissertation...

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Proposals, from Spring / early Fall 2006:

Proposals:
click the proposals for more information...

PAR Model used to evaluate proposal ideas:

• Problem:  here's the problem

• Action:  what you plan to do (topic)

• Response:  what I expect- goals / outcomes

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Proposal 1:  Creating a Framework for educational game design

• Problem:  confusion on what is needed to create a GOOD educational game

• Action:  A design framework - nail down key components (instructional / pedagogical design, content design, game  design)

• Response:  educational game design will become easier, more efficient.  Possible 'formula' for creating great educational games

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Proposal 2:  Researching group cognition in educational MMOGs

• Problem:   Lack of knowledge about social interactions and group cognition in MMOGs

• Action:  Investigate group cognition in MMOGs, how group dynamics affect learning outcomes

• Response:  results can feed design, create better games and social interactions in them -> increase interactivity and learning

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Proposal 3: Increasing immersion by building affective features into games

• Problem:   games could be more immersive / engaging

• Action:  add affect / haptics (defined here)
  -> games that could make us cry, detect it, respond to that

• Response:  games are more immersive, evoke more visceral responses

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Proposal 4: Design of MUVE Online Courseware

What if WebCT had a virtual meeting space similar to SecondLife?

• Problem:   current online courseware doesn't support multi-user, immersive virtual environments

• Action:  while a theoretical approach would be preferred, it'd resemble a functional approach of blending WebCT and SecondLife

• Response:  more immersive, entertaining collaborative environment created- learning would be better supported by the enhanced communication

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Proposal 5: TBD... Serious Games in Healthcare or Policy?

(Potentials:  Neuro-feedback to rehabilitate (healthcare);     )

• Problem:  

• Action: 

• Response: 

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Top 'Topics', Spring / Early Fall 2006

 

Topics, Rank Ordered (will change):

1. Serious Games: Applications to Management, Health Care, Education (relates to #2)
   • Applying Game Theory (first:  what exactly is game theory?) to education, health care, etc.
   • In the Classroom:  Simulations increase learning?
   • War Training:  Give battle experience?  Reduce human 'conscience'?
      
2. Culture of Gaming
   • Gaming Communities:  New emerging culture?
      
3. Online / Virtual Communities
   • Causing revival / rise in community participation?
   • Assessing Trust and Identity
   • Using Affect / Emotion through non-verbal communication to rise communication effectiveness
      
4. Software Engineering
   • How could we pull affect and emotion into software design so software 'gets to know us' and improves communication effectiveness through continued use?
      
5. (TBD:  Pre-determined topic from Dr. Suthers)
   • to be determined

 

Ideas Interested in Applying to Topic:

1. HCI:  Affective Learning
2. HCI:  Online Collaboration (Distributed Cognition / CSCW)
3. Communication Theory:  Non-verbal Communication
4. Communication Theory:  Intercultural Communication (2nd source)
5. Game Theory (vague- need to define this better) -- see 'Serious Games'

 

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Original Ideas / Interests (Fall 2005 / Spring 2006):

1. Extreme Gaming / The New ‘Sport’ of Gaming, new digital heroes, the new ‘culture’ of video gaming- what is this ‘culture’, who are the heroes / role models, how it will grow in the 21^st century
2. (Continuation of ICS 668 / Suthers):  How do we assess trust of other people (identity) when we are online?  How can we tell when we are being deceived by others, and how can we protect ourselves / be safe with our / others online identity?
3. (Based on HCI / Affective Learning):  How can we improve software design so that it builds report with users through learning their behavior?  Affective learning- the software would elicit positive emotional responses from users.  Communication- it would learn / build context with the user, so it could use the shared context / built context over time to predict user communication and a ‘lingo’ from the context that allowed more efficient communication.
   - When we talk and interact with computers, we have to be just as explicit as we were the first time we talked to them.  What if we could build computer language processing systems that actually were able to build context levels with you?  So that, like with people, the level of context goes up over time, and more implicatures are understood by both parties based on a shared history / context.  This would involve the computer raising it’s level of context with you through history, and would be best suited to computer applications that were used frequently and often.
4. Idea from Dave:  Met Larry and Robin Holland at TAB Xmas party yesterday. Great people!  He is an archeologist who started building games 20 years ago. Very broad and deep thinker who thought your UH program sounded great. Company is Totally Games www.totallygames.com They are now branching out out and even doing work for DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Program Agency). Have you heard about “serious games” concept that is evolving?  Could be right up your alley. Go to www.seriousgames.org  They have conferences/Summits. Larry said another one is coming up in March. Go to www.seriousgamessummit.com for info on Fall05 Summit
   - Idea is that game theory is applied to management models.  This provides many interesting suggestions to management principles.
5. Games in the classroom:  Could immersive ‘computer simulations’ or ‘games’ be used as an instructional tool in the classroom to increase learning levels?  Many kids today prefer video games to books.  How could this be leveraged in the classroom to increase learning?  (Draw from work done in CIS 703, ICS 699)
6. (Draw from ICS 668) Virtual Communities, compared to traditional communities.  Community participation dropped off in the 70s / 80s, but is somewhat recovering due to virtual communities.  The convenience of online, asynchronous communities is making this possible.  ….
7. (Draw from Dr. Aune / Joe Walther, etc) Non-verbal communication, how it manifests itself online via emoticons, other cues.  How we might raise non-verbal communication online so that communication can be more effective?
8. (COM 660 – Dr. Wedemeyer):  How futures forecasting can be applied to ____
9. How video games are affecting war training:  how the ‘realness’ is the closest way to show combat, and develop quick reflexes.  Does the game / simulation remove some of the sting of battle?  Does it remove the human factor:  we are killing other people?  Killing in a game… no big deal.  In real life it is a big deal- maybe if we pretend we’re playing a game while in combat it might help relieve the pain of killing others.
10. Global citizenship / global village (McLuhan)… Jihad vs. McWorld: the idea of global consumerism, global citizenship as consumers, without any representation from below.  How global capitalism provides no human rights, how governments around the world cannot keep up with this trend, how terrorism may be a response to the invasion of US consumerism, and how democracy / other forms of government cannot keep up with this trend and provide representation for global consumerism.

 An example topic- Dr, Streveler’s example:  how messed up the medical system is for diabetes patients- how insurance will pay for a $30,000 amputation, but won’t cover a $100 appointment with a foot doctor (preventative medicine) to prevent the diabetes patient from needing the $30,000 surgery.

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Stream of Consciousness / Ideas:

Video Games:  I could write for hours on the culture behind these.  What defines the culture of video gamers?  How does this culture interact with traditional cultures?

Why  PC is better than Macs for gaming:  creativity / customizability of the hardware, specific for the application (such as gaming / gamers).

LAN parties:  looks crazy!  But this is an emerging culture of the 21^st century.

- Need to get the 60 minutes from 1/22/06.

 

Idea why Nintendo may have failed:  Nintendo was king of the video game market in the 80s when I grew up.  However, they have consistently tried to keep a ‘kids’ audience with a ‘G’ rating on their games.  Gamers have spread further than the ‘child’ audience as it once was- now gamers of all ages play (avg. age of 30 as said on 60 minutes) and want to push their senses to the extreme.  This is why Grand Theft Auto is more successful than Mario Kart.

 

Mom:  As I expressed to you before I like #2... And suggested you get into the kinesiology aspects..ala David Hawkins Power vs. Force. Etc.. Could make great dissertation. Love, Mom

 

Pull in other interesting topics:

• Distributed Cognition:  Collaborative Learning (Suthers)
• Intercultural aspect:  Intercultural Communication (Aune / Fontaine)
• Pull in Dr. Wedemeyer if possible – Futures Forecasting?
• Also non-verbal / relational communication (J. Walther, J. Burgoon articles)

   

When we talk and interact with computers, we have to be just as explicit as we were the first time we talked to them.  What if we could build computer language processing systems that actually were able to build context levels with you?  So that, like with people, the level of context goes up over time, and more implicatures are understood by both parties based on a shared history / context.  This would involve the computer raising it’s level of context with you through history, and would be best suited to computer applications that were used frequently and often.