Transcript Someone Else`s Shoes

Dr. Debbie Ging and Dr. Miriam Judge
Dublin City University
Someone Else’s Shoes
A Pilot Digital Game aimed at 11-16 year olds
Designed to educate students about the causes
and effects of migration and to explore
intercultural relations between people in their
wider social and political contexts
Influenced by the type of role play exercises
used in intercultural awareness training
Game format – children and teenagers spend a
lot of time plugged into games and the internet
Projects such as Future Lab and the Serious
Game Initiative e.g ‘Darfur is Dying’
Someone Else’s Shoes
Objectives of the Game?
To encourage a better understanding of the
dynamics of migration
To address racism (causes and effects) and
encourage intercultural awareness
To encourage both media literacy and critical
media literacy
To entertain but in a way that is challenging
and does not trivialise racism or the plight of
migrants
Someone Else’s Shoes
Why a Game?
Many of the exercises used in ant-racism
training are interactive, are based on role play
and rely on ability of participants to imagine or
visualise
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Appeal to young people
Appeals to universal sympathy/imaginative
empathy
Engage the learner at various levels in the
process of self-directed learning
Specific Irish classroom resource looking at a
range of legal, economic, historical and cultural
realities
Someone Else’s Shoes
Serious Game –Academic Framework
Serious games are “games that use the artistic medium
of games to deliver a message, teach a lesson, or provide
an experience” (Michael and Chen, 2006 )
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Pedagogically Someone Else’s Shoes fits into the
category of an “activism game”
Team primarily interested in games’ ability to encourage
reflection and critical thinking
According to the Fair Play? Report (1999:2), “video
games' unique interactive capabilities may make them
even more likely to influence children's attitudes, beliefs
and behaviours than more traditional forms of media.”
Someone Else’s Shoes
Media and Education - Pedagogical Issues
Central underpinning question – to what extent can a ‘serious
game’ help teachers and children to explore complex issues
around multiculturalism, racism and identity?
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Addressing 2 types of learning –
(a) the first is about improving media literacy skills (e.g.,to what
extent does a visual, interactive format help with information
retention?).
(b) raising intercultural awareness & encouraging critical
thinking about a range of issues around racism, cultural and
national identity, integration, intercultural communication, etc.
Someone Else’s Shoes
Key Features
It integrates a range of different exercises
and strategies
It can be played at different levels of
complexity and intensity
It provides teachers and students with a range
of auxiliary learning resources
It encourages critical thinking and debate
Someone Else’s Shoes
What will students learn?
Factual Learning about Darfur, migration etc.
Critical/Analytical learning about the role
played by the media in representing minority
groups, events, individuals etc.
Students are encouraged to engage in wider
philosophical debates about intercultural
conflict and harmony
Someone Else’s Shoes
Pilot study
Will be piloted in schools commencing
September 2010
Schools currently being sought to participate
Pilot feedback will determine future
development of the game
Further information and student and teacher
worksheets available on the game website at
http://www.someone-elses-shoes.ie/