REALITYNEXTM

Big changes happening

today will only accelerate in the

coming years: technology

will play an even bigger

role in every aspect of our

lives. We as a society need

to equip our kids to face

these new challenges.

Teen Workshop Number 1

November 11, 2017

RealityNext . CoMotion Labs . University of Washington . 4000 Mason Road . Seattle, WA 98195 . realitynext.net

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Introduction ........................................................................................... 3

Workshop Statistics .......................................................................... 4–5

Part 1: Workshop Introduction & Warmup Games ........................... 6

Part 2: Subject Research and Refresh ................................................. 7

Additional Activities .......................................................................... 8–9

Part 3: Game Mechanics ...................................................................... 8

Part 4: Storymaking .............................................................................10

Part 5: Practice and Showcase ...........................................................10

RealityNext is an education technology studio-lab where teens can create and share immersive stories and games from the inside of the Virtual Reality experience – and without any coding.

Our vision is to blend education with maker spaces, storytelling, and theater while letting students generate content as an uninhibited curiosity stream, fueled by the magic of VR.

Our partners:

A special thank you to Warren Swiney, Tavis Hamilton, Alisa Belyakova, and Agnus Narkevicius for contributing their photographs and videos from the event.

Teen Workshop Number 1November 11, 2017

visual-spatialverbal-linguistic

logical-mathematicalmusical-rhythmic

bodily-kinesthetic

intrapersonalnaturalistic

existential and moral

interpersonal

As a collective of educators, theater, writing, gaming, and technology experts, RealityNext is working to build a supplemental education facility called The One World Initiative, where students become co-producers instead of the consumers of their educational content. Without any coding, we practice educational VR story-game making—a narrative combined with goals, rules and objectives of a game.

To begin leveraging educational opportunities across the Puget Sound region, we launched a series of mixed-media One World Initiative workshops with KeyTech Labs, CoMotion at the University of Washington, and SIXR.

We set these main points for qualitative testing: » Can project-based experiences of virtual story-game making provide for full

engagement of multiple intelligences and enhance team workflow management and creativity?

» Can project-based experiences of story-game making stimulate subject comprehension as well as critical thinking?

» Can students turn subjects into games and produce an interactive product that can be experienced by their friends and family as an audience?

» Would the activity be considered education or entertainment for the participant?We assessed modalities for each workshop segment based upon education pioneer

Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences in his research at Harvard University. Gardner’s eight distinct modalities individually and concurrently support a student’s abilities to learn through a spectrum of styles to best meet that student’s potential. In 2016, Gardner suggested the creation of another intelligence, teaching-pedagogical, “which allows one to be able to teach successfully to other people.” This modality is especially relevant as an algorithm for the story-game education technologies.

On November 11, 2017, we conducted our first workshop for teens (mostly middle and early high school) to assess how our methodology of “Play games to learn, make games to share” would work in the field.

Workshop Objective: to create a story-game based on the in-class presentation of the carbon cycle.

Game Mechanic: to move the player forward in the game come up with the multiple-choice questions/answers on the subject, then build a story around the one correct answer.

Deliverables: a live “mime” rehearsal of a short scene, acted out by the group with the “behind the scene” narration, assessed by the jury of the “future” players.

4 5

Pizzas Consumed

Student Participation

Adult Participation

Grade 7

Grade 8

Grade 9

Workshop Leaders

Theater Director

Teen Counselors

Photo/Video

Grade 11

F M

Student Participation

Adult Participation

Grade 7

Grade 8

Grade 9

Workshop Leaders

Theater Director

Teen Counselors

Photo/Video

Grade 11

F M

Adventurousness

Usefulness

Understandingof Concept

Collaboration

Warm-upGames

Refresher/Research

GameMechanics

Storyboarding Practice/Showcase

Creativity

Sources: RealityNext Education Workshop, 11/11/2017. Study based on 12 students plus 6 facilitator/assistants.

Participant Engagement

High

Low

Interest in VR

Sources: RealityNext Education Workshop, 11/11/2017. Study based on 12 students plus 6 facilitator/assistants.

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We started the day with our students by introducing motion capture technology and game-making with a video about the behind-the-scenes creation of the “Planet of the Apes” film.

Students and mentors then played icebreaker games together to become comfortable with one another and facilitate better learning outcomes

• Games based on memorization and critical thinking personalized learning for the group and made each student a part of the process

Intelligences Satisfied• Visual-spatial• Musical-rhythmic• Existential and moral• Verbal-linguistic• Naturalistic

To further students’ cognitive development, we provided a refresher on the day’s learning subject, the Carbon Cycle, which also prepared them for game-making.

• Animated TEDed video on the carbon cycle had students’ rapt attention and increased learning velocity, followed by the moderator’s whiteboard drawings to help ingrain concepts

• Students split into groups, which created more intimate learning communities, and answered 12 questions about the subject, each timed at two minutes

Intelligences Satisfied• Visual-spatial• Existential and Moral• Interpersonal• Logical-Mathematical• Naturalistic• Verbal-linguistic

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Eleven of our 12 students enjoyed their first experience in VR and showed the enthusiasm to want to develop their own story-game after trying it out.

Our workshop wasn’t all work. The students had plenty of time to enjoy themselves and get outside stimulation throughout the day as well.

We explained and employed game mechanics as students shifted from being consumers of content to producers, which spurred critical-thinking skills

• Student-centered, mastery-based methodology helped all the students understand the concept of advancing to next levels by having future players answer subject-related questions: One about release, the other about absorption

• All teams were able to synthesize research knowledge into Q&A development

• Students needed to occasionally revisit research to ensure accuracy

Intelligences Satisfied• Visual-spatial• Existential and Moral• Interpersonal• Logical-Mathematical• Naturalistic• Verbal-linguistic

The students enjoyed hearing from a casual, energetic and knowledgeable speaker, VR Industry Expert Dr. Evie Powell of Verge of Brilliance. They spent more than a half hour asking questions about and discussing careers in gaming and tech.

10 11

Once students established the question, to make the game interesting they built stories around the right answer to integrate knowledge and memory retention into a fun environment.

• Through creativity, innovation, and collaboration, 2/3 of students and mentors quickly turned questions into story for their game

• Students used deductive and hypothetical reasoning to express high levels of creativity in story-game development

• 2 of 12 students wanted to create a violent storyline

Intelligences Satisfied• Logical-Mathematical• Existential and moral• Intrapersonal• Bodily-Kinesthetic• Naturalistic• Interpersonal

Before the second part of the workshop, where students will record their games into virtual reality in a motion capture studio, they needed to act out their story to demonstrate the power of their game-based learning.

• All students and mentors were very engaged in acting out scenario to guide player to correctly answer questions

• Students received immediate feedback by having audience answer all of their developed questions

• Students instinctively sought conflict and secondary storylines to enhance narrative

• Collaboration and complexity of concepts in simple storylines proved mastery of subject and better learning outcomes

Intelligences Satisfied• Visual-Spatial• Musical-Rhythmic• Bodily-Kinesthetic• Verbal-linguistic• Interpersonal• Teaching-Pedagogical

Sign up to participate with your community. Contact alex@realitynext.net or visit us at www.realitynext.net.