Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

7.14.09 | What do kids want after a full day of school? Not more school! We (designers in the social media research lab PETLab at Parsons The New School for Design) learned this and many more simple lessons as we designed and “play-tested” a new game design curriculum (yet to be named) for Boys & Girls Clubs of America. We outline some of these lessons here.

The term “curriculum” is used loosely. What we actually have designed is a set of activities, akin to “recipes” that club members can pull from a recipe box to learn the building blocks of game-making, one activity at a time.  The activities not only reveal the basic principles of game design, but also explore social issues. By early next year, we will share the curriculum with 4,300 clubs worldwide, reaching up to 4.5 million club members. Our goal is to introduce youth to the exciting field of game design, from design process to programming.

We approached designing the curriculum with the same methods we use in designing games: prototype and test as early and often as possible. It wasn’t easy. In fact, it was quite humbling. Our early play-tests seemed to expose everything we, the “experts,” don’t know about games and learning. But these play-tests have been instrumental in our curriculum prototypes, and we will integrate these insights into future projects.

Here’s what we’ve learned so far:

Design for the culture

The designer’s maxim, “understand the culture for which you are designing,” seems obvious. But not until testing do the contours and actual practices in the culture reveal themselves. If design can be thought of as a conversation, the first play-test can be thought of as a greeting.

The Boys & Girls Club culture is unique, and only by trying out early prototypes were we able to understand each other. We ran our first tests with club staff and experts in the club’s culture. This jump-started our prototyping process and helped create “buy-in” for the curriculum. Our second test, with club members, helped us experience the practices at play in the clubhouse. We were able to learn things that went unspoken. When we tried out our pilot, the body language of the club members spoke volumes.

Once you go digital, you never go back

It’s best to cover analog material fast, and first. When analog activities (drawing game screens, playing with cards) preceded the Scratch environment and online games, things went relatively smoothly. But once we went digital, club members let us know that going back to analog activities felt like punishment.

Construct, don’t deconstruct!

When we asked participants to deconstruct or “mod” existing games and activities, they asked, “when are we going to create our own games?” Club members jumped into game construction without reservation and needed few prompts (unlike the college-age students we have worked with). Once a game concept was constructed and play-tested, however, participants were more receptive to deconstructing what worked and what didn’t.

Test three times…

I’m a believer in the classic lesson from the Goldilocks and the Three Bears: finding “just right” requires a third try. The design of the Boys & Girls Club curriculum was no exception. The first test showed us what we needed to know about the culture. The second test showed us what we needed to know about the actual practices at play in that culture. In September we will test our third prototype. In this test, I am hoping we will see what makes the activities engaging, compelling and…fun.

Because, in the words of one club member, “we don’t need more school.”

The BGCA curriculum was designed by Colleen Macklin (Parsons), Eric Nunez (Parsons), and John Sharp (Savannah College of Art and Design). The development of the BGCA curriculum is supported by funding from the AMD Foundation and the Todd Wagner Foundation. Thank you to the Boys & Girls Clubs for your encouragement and openness to the prototyping process!

For more information visit PETLab’s website, http://petlab.parsons.edu or email Colleen Macklin, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or John Sharp, .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)