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The pandemic has bred a new dependence on online technologies for work and social engagement. Immersive technology such as that used in 3D video games, virtual reality and augmented reality can be designed now so that the person experiencing them is transported into a socially rich online world. This began with the design of massive online role playing games and continues with other platforms for living in an altered digital reality with purposeful activity, such as the platform Second Life. During pandemic shutdowns, online role playing gamers have still had access to extensive social connections with many people in virtual worlds. Players communicated free of charge, with hundreds of other people on the real-time voice server Discord. The combination of an immersive 3D video game and real-time voice communications created a reassuring space when the external world was cut off. But game worlds are not just for recreational community. This form of immersion based on a desktop computer experience has now reached the medical and humanitarian fields as well. Building game world simulationsA game world is an alternate world that can transport users to virtual worlds. This means that in corporate, academic or life coaching settings, people can also learn and practise extending their skills in virtual space. Perhaps most importantly, a game world is not a game. It has no winning or losing conditions. It is simply an immersive fantasy world that is created with the intention of promoting interaction with its environment. Visiting a game world is like visiting a city or a continent, or even the inside of an emergency room where rules, called game mechanics, govern the players’ abilities. It is not a game in that it is not designed to entertain, but to both entertain and change behaviour. A game world has a few core essential components. The first is a narrative, or story. If it were used for medical education for example, the world could be the inside of an emergency room. Game worlds for medical and aid workersCurrently, the World Health Organization (WHO) is building such simulations. By using a 360 camera we can record any emergency department in the world, then translate that into a 3D model which can be viewed on a desk top or enlarged so that the user is standing inside that virtual reproduction. The WHO Learning Academy is building code to admit simulated patients, each one with its own life path. Virtual lives can be saved by managing the flow of patients during a mass casualty simulation. The software can predict how many minutes can be saved by careful triage. Game worlds can be more fantastical and oriented to increase enjoyment of learning, particularly when the subject matter is complex. The UN office for Disaster Risk Reduction and the the UN World Food Program have produced video games for learning about the respective issues they respond to. Currently with the World Food Program, our team — consisting of a video game company, learning professionals and UN subject experts in Rome — is building a fully immersive exploration game. We are working on building a game world for UN staff that will help them learn how to protect vulnerable populations and how to be accountable in their field work. The game world features multiple engagement loops (things to do) that make it attractive to participate in. When you have to teach the minutia of a 40-page manual in a few hours, a video game world is a sound approach. People’s capacities to recall text they read is limited in the short term, and their memory of it diminishes over the long term, but when people learn procedures through a video game world they show high engagement and retain the information. Fantasy encompasses a simulationTwo terms have now become essential when describing what happens in game worlds: “autopoiesis” which means self organizing or self generating; and “hyper reality” which is a term developed by French post-modern sociologist Jean Baudrillard referring to “the generation by models” of something real “without origin or reality.” A game world has its own “digital physics,” not real-world physics, thus separating it from simulation. A game world is a place where new things can be created and the person lives among fantasy objects. Autopoetic hyper reality is a digital space where the player is enticed to complete goals in a fantasy that encompasses a simulation. But the larger meaning is that as virtual reality continues to mature, we will gradually live more of our lives in digital space. We’ve seen many examples of this through the pandemic, including new uses of Zoom and social media to replace the workplace and face-to-face contact. Digital game worlds are places we can live, play and work together across great distances while feeling we are in a reassuring place where we connect. David Chandross, Associate lecturer, Masters of Digital Media Program, and Senior Scholar in the field of Aging and Technology, Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
Taking video games from console to classroom (2025-12-10T10:45:00+05:30)
 Terrance Newell poses as a character in his game, “21st Century Learning Labs.” Photo by Peter Jakubowski; photo montage by Mario R. LopezBy Kathy Quirk, Aug, 14, 2025, As a high-school history teacher, Terrance Newell didn’t need to read a research study to realize video games and simulations shaped the way his students learned. Teens who struggled in his class worked their way through elaborate video games at home: gathering information, navigating complex scenarios, learning through trial and error. “Millennials are used to problem-solving, multitasking and learning new skills informally using video games,” says Newell, who is now an assistant professor of information studies at UWM. “A video game is a problem matrix.” Although research shows students can learn from videogames, most retail or off-the-shelf games aren’t suitable for the classroom, Newell says. While the commercial games may have snazzy graphics, many popular ones focus on first-person shooting scenarios, or using map skills as a way of tracking enemies. “Students learn things, but potentially the wrong things,” says Newell. “The content is not suitable or tailored for educational purposes.” Playing to learn  Newell’s information-literacy simulation creates a virtual school library where students can interact with “cybrarians” as they learn how to search out and evaluate information. Photo by Alan Magayne-RoshakNewell’s information-literacy simulation creates a virtual school library where students can interact with “cybrarians” as they learn how to search out and evaluate information. So Newell set out to design his own educational games and test them to see what impact they had on student learning. In one of his initial research projects, he created an interactive simulation on “information literacy” – designed to help students learn how to locate, evaluate and select information, using both 21st century technology and traditional resources. Newell’s simulation game, “21st Century Learning Labs,” tested with middle-school students, featured an interactive, computer-generated community with schools, libraries, and other, informal information sources like museums. Student players sought out information on virtual computers and in virtual books and encyclopedias, guided by virtual “cybrarians.” Students could also become information-literacy apprentices, and progress from novice to master in information problem-solving. Newell worked with classroom instructors in creating the simulated middle-school world, complete with hallways and lockers. Over a four-week period, Newell compared two groups of seventh- and eighth-grade students in a computer-literacy class, which was located next to the library. Students were assigned to research complex problems that required multiple sources of information. They had to search websites, watch and listen to online videos, and search catalogs to do the required problem-solving. This information problem-solving involved a number of tasks – locating resources, accessing information, interpreting and communicating information, and evaluating the results and the process used. One group was led by teachers who worked with the students face-to-face, but did not use the simulation. The other group, though guided by teachers, used Newell’s simulation to solve the information problems. The simulation allowed students to use their keyboard, mouse and computer screen to move about using avatars, and communicate via chat features and gestures. The results, published in School Library Media Research, showed that, overall, students who used the computer simulation improved more in information problem-solving. However, students who worked with teachers face-to-face understood the content they learned better, while those who used the computer simulation understood the processes better. The results on learning content via the simulation may have been impacted by teacher concerns about if and how much they should work with the students and “cybrarians” in the simulation, says Newell. Supplement, not substitute  Research starting in 2012 will look at how students working in teams can learn using games and simulations on an iPad.Research starting in 2012 will look at how students working in teams can learn using games and simulations on an iPad. The models in this photograph are not part of the research. As a former history teacher, married to an assistant professor of education, Newell certainly isn’t looking to replace teachers or librarians with virtual counterparts. “Nothing can replace face-to-face teaching. These simulations are not designed to substitute for the teacher or the librarian. We see them using the simulation to supplement the learning process.” As a researcher, he’s looking to find and test the best ways to combine games and simulations with face-to-face teaching in K-12 education. That’s one of the reasons he moved from education to information studies. Currently, he’s doing additional testing on the effectiveness of the information-literacy simulation, and designing other simulations for content areas like history, science and mathematics. In a research project starting with an elementary school in 2012, he’ll have 16 iPads available that students can work with in teams of two. That will give him the opportunity to collect information on collaborative learning within simulated contexts. “My ultimate goal is to develop and test a suite of simulations that teachers and librarians can use.” Eventually, he’d also like to explore an interesting finding that wasn’t part of his formal research – the impact of the simulation on classroom behavior. “In one classroom, I observed some out-of-control behavior and disrespect for teachers before the study. After they implemented the simulation, it was like day and night. Students were engaged and focused, and helping each other problem-solve.” With a full-time career and a 3-year-old daughter, Newell says he doesn’t have the time or inclination to play a lot of video games himself.“I enjoy designing the games and creating the backgrounds, but I’ve always been more interested in the education aspects. I like to think about ways to get students motivated and excited about educational content.” Taking video games from console to classroom
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Technology practitioners eye online skill gaming industry for career growth : Study (2025-12-08T13:03:00+05:30)
 IANS Photo Kochi, (IANS) The online skill gaming industry is being seen as a potential high-growth sector by tech talent in Kerala, according to a study. The study, titled 'Unveiling the Potential and Scope of the Online Skill Gaming Industry: A Study with Technology Students and Professionals” by the E-Gaming Federation (EGF) and the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata (ISIK), provides unique insights into the growing interest in the online gaming sector within the technology community. The study sampled 4,644 individuals from the tech community across Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, demonstrating a very strong interest among both students and professionals in the online skill gaming sector. It found out that 72.5 per cent of respondents across India have expressed a strong inclination towards pursuing a career within this dynamic domain, while 60 per cent believed that "providing an opportunity to create in India for the world" could stem the brain drain to overseas tech jobs. Another finding was 100 per cent of participants in Kerala showed a willingness to pursue professional education in the gaming sector, indicating a strong desire to upskill and contribute to the industry's expansion. Dr Diganta Mukherjee, Professor at the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, said as the industry rapidly evolves, there is a unique opportunity to harness the creative potential of our youth and build a robust ecosystem that nurtures both technological innovation and economic growth. Kerala is home to more than 4100 start-ups operating in a variety of industries including hardware, healthcare, fintech, biotechnology, and artificial intelligence. The study's analysis underscores the vital role the sector could play in India's economic and technological trajectory. To unlock this potential, it is imperative that policymakers, industry stakeholders, and academia work hand in hand to create an environment that fosters innovation, skill development, and entrepreneurship. skill gaming industry Technology practitioners eye online skill gaming industry for career growth : Study | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
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How Swedish children learn English through gaming (2025-12-08T12:53:00+05:30)
Pia Sundqvist, Karlstads University and Liss Kerstin Sylvén, University of GothenburgAn hour of homework or an hour of World of Warcraft? It’s not hard to guess what many ten-year-old boys would rather be doing when they get home from school. But now research shows that in non-English speaking countries, children are picking up a large amount of English from online computer games. In Sweden, ten and 11-year-olds spend a lot of time at the computer and often use English rather than their native Swedish for online communication and gaming. In a recent study of 76 children, we could see that playing games seems to have a positive effect on their English skills. Our work adds to other research that has been done in Turkey and Finland on how children learn language as they play computer games. In our study, the children answered questions about the English they came into contact with outside of school, whether they liked English and whether they thought they were good at it. They also filled out a language diary over the course of a week, indicating how much time they spent doing activities such as reading books, watching TV, and playing computer games. The main purpose of the study was to investigate language-related computer use in English and Swedish, but also to look for possible correlations between computer gaming and a child’s motivation to learn, how good they felt there were at the language and the strategies they used to speak it. In a previous study with 12-year-olds, we had seen that gaming was positively linked to English comprehension and vocabulary. We wanted to see if this also was true for even younger learners, who had only learnt English in school for a little bit more than a year. Massive multiplayer bonusOur results show a major difference between Swedish boys and girls as regards spending time “in English” at the computer outside of school. On average, boys spent a total of 11.5 hours a week doing things in English, of which about 3.5 hours were devoted to playing computer games. To compare, the girls on average spent 5.1 hours on English, less than half of that spent by the boys, and hardly played any games in English, only 0.4 hours per week. But girls used Swedish much more than boys at the computer, primarily because they used Facebook more and did so in Swedish. To our surprise, despite their young age and very limited experience of English in school, we found that some of the boys play massive multiplayer online role-playing games, a genre of games in which hundreds or even thousands of players interact with one another simultaneously in a virtual world such as World of Warcraft. Since players in these online games are often from different countries, English becomes the default language for communication, both for writing and speaking. It was also very common among the boys to play multiplayer online games, such as Call of Duty, Counter-Strike, and League of Legends. They also enjoyed Minecraft and various sports games. Among the few girls who played games in English, The Sims was mentioned, a simulation game that does not include as much oral or written interaction as online multiplayer games. Picking up wordsWe divided our sample into three groups: those who did not play any computer games at all, those who played a little bit, and those who played a lot (four hours or more per week). We wanted to see if there were any differences in their motivation in speaking English, their self-assessed ability in the language, and what strategies they used when they ran into problems speaking it. The non-gamer group consisted mainly of girls, group two was mixed, and among the frequent gamers all but one were boys. We found that motivation and self-assessed English ability were high across all groups – a very positive finding. Turning to Swedish was more common in the first two groups than among the frequent gamers. Although speculative, it is possible that the frequent gamers have more developed speaking skills than those who play games less frequently. In previous studies we have seen positive correlations between playing computer games and English vocabulary skills. In the past, we have found that young frequent gamers know more unusual and difficult words, such as melt, roar, flesh, meat or hide. In this study we showed that very young Swedes are involved in complex multiplayer online games. To succeed in such games, they have to understand game content and they need many English words to do so. Although this was not an experimental study with a control group, it is reasonable to conclude that gamers pick up words thanks to their gameplay. Based on our findings, we encourage teachers to learn more about their students’ English activities outside of school. By acknowledging the English learnt in children’s spare time as an important source of language input, we believe student’s motivation in school can also be boosted. Pia Sundqvist, Senior lecturer, Department of language, literature, and intercultural studies, Karlstad University, Sweden, Karlstads University and Liss Kerstin Sylvén, Associate Professor in Language Education, University of Gothenburg This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
Children live online more than ever – we need better definitions .... (2025-12-05T12:44:00+05:30)
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Children live online more than ever – we need better definitions of ‘good’ and ‘bad’ screen time, Kathryn MacCallum, University of Canterbury and Cheryl Brown, University of Canterbury, The pandemic has fundamentally altered every part of our lives, not least the time we spend on digital devices. For young people in particular, the blurred line between recreational and educational screen time presents new challenges we are only beginning to appreciate. Even before COVID, there were concerns about screen time for children. A 2019-20 survey found four in five children were exceeding the current Ministry of Health recommendation of two hours’ recreational screen time a day. This was on top of screen time linked to learning. With lockdowns and social restrictions now a new normal, it is increasingly difficult to disengage from screens. Children are growing up in a digital society, surrounded by a multitude of devices used for everything from social connection to learning and entertainment. The boundaries between recreation, communication and learning are becoming less distinct. Screen time that may seem on the surface to be purely recreational can in reality be important for learning, supporting mental health and driving awareness of important issues. YouTube, for example, can be both entertaining and educational. It is increasingly used in classes to supplement teaching. But it is also used in other ways, including to drive social change, as German star Rezo demonstrated with a viral climate change video that prompted sweeping public reforms. Likewise the popular online game Minecraft has been shown to provide rich educational and social benefits. Even games like Roblox or Fortnite, where those benefits may be less apparent, still provide opportunities for rich social engagement and spaces for problem solving and experiential learning. Are official guidelines outdated?This all presents an interesting dilemma: can we really fit screen time into discrete categories, and should we apply limits to some but not others? This blurring of boundaries has led researchers from the University of Auckland’s Centre for Informed Futures – Koi Tū – to call for clearer and more detailed official screen time recommendations. Specifically, they felt the current recommended limits failed to represent the variety of screen time students experience. This was supported by a review of the academic literature covering the impacts of screen time. While research indicates a broad association between excessive screen time and a range of behavioural, learning and other problems, the results are far from conclusive and can generally be attributed to other factors. The review also found the type of screen time is important: in many cases, negative effects were driven by passive screen use, whereas interactive use didn’t have the same impacts. In fact, the latter can have positive influences, such as better learning achievement and enhanced cognitive skills. Getting the balance rightThis suggests we need to reorient our views of screen time away from a blunt measure of time spent on screens and towards better understanding what children are really doing on those screens. While balancing passive and interactive screen time is clearly important, so is finding ways to encourage and prioritise more socially and educationally productive online behaviour. This should also guide the adoption of technology in schools. Rather than wholesale integration within every aspect of learning, devices should clearly add value or improve teaching and learning, not simply replace traditional practices. The role of screen devices in classrooms is particularly relevant in light of New Zealand’s 2018 PISA results, which indicated children using devices in subjects like mathematics and science achieved lower scores than those who didn’t. In August this year, the Ministry of Education responded by saying:
Active versus passive timeIt’s true there is considerable scepticism about the validity of the PISA tests, and wider research into the influence of screens in classrooms has shown mixed results. Generally, however, we cannot claim a causal, linear relationship between use of devices and academic outcomes. Rather than assuming the PISA results indicate screen time is detrimental to learning, we need to consider how screens are actually being used in classes. We need to focus on integrating technology that makes a difference and enhances learning. Students learn best when they are actively engaged and create and drive their own learning. The same principles can apply to the use of digital devices – limiting passive consumption in favour of students being actively creative. This will open up new learning opportunities and provide students with authentic experiences. For example, rather than students simply watching a YouTube clip to learn about the solar system, they might create their own augmented reality simulation, requiring them to apply their knowledge to correctly place, size and animate digital objects. Rebalancing screen time in this way will help avoid the more negative consequences of these ubiquitous devices and highlight some of their unique advantages. But this will require deeper and more critical thinking about what might be gained or lost in a world where engaging with digital technology is increasingly unavoidable. Kathryn MacCallum, Associate Professor of Digital Education Futures, University of Canterbury and Cheryl Brown, Associate Professor of e-Learning, University of Canterbury This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
Virtual reality grooming is an increasing danger..... (2025-12-04T11:25:00+05:30)
Virtual reality grooming is an increasing danger. How can parents keep children safe? Marika Guggisberg, CQUniversity Australia: Virtual reality (VR) headsets are increasingly popular among adults and children. They are part of extended reality environments, which “enable ever more realistic and immersive experiences”.VR provides entry into computer-generated 3D worlds and games with different environments and interactions. Sometimes this is loosely referred to as the “metaverse”. The majority of VR headsets have a lower age limit of 10–13 years due to safety concerns of extended reality technologies in general and VR headsets in particular. But VR is increasingly used by young children, even of preschool age. These immersive technologies make it difficult to monitor children’s physical and emotional experiences and with whom they interact. So what are the dangers, and what can we do to keep the kids safe? The good and the badVR allows children to dive into a digital world where they can immerse themselves into different characters (avatars). Thanks to the richness of the stimuli, VR can give the illusion of actually being in the virtual location – this is called “virtual presence”. If children then interact with other people in the virtual world, the psychological realism is enhanced. These experiences can be fun and rewarding. However, they can also have negative impacts. Children tend to have difficulty distinguishing between what occurs within VR and in the real world. As children identify with their avatars, the boundary between them and the VR device is blurred when playing in the metaverse. Children can even develop traumatic memories when playing in virtual worlds. Due to the immersive nature of VR, the sense of presence makes it feel as if the child’s avatar is actually “real”. Research is still emerging, but it is known children can form memories from virtual experiences, which means sexual abuse that occurs virtually could turn into a real-world traumatic memory. The rise of ‘cyber grooming’Research has found that online predators use different grooming strategies to manipulate children into sexual interactions. This sometimes leads to offline encounters without the knowledge of parents. Non-threatening grooming strategies that build relationships are common. Perpetrators may use friendship strategies to develop a relationship with children and to build trust. The child then views the person as a trusted friend rather than a stranger. As a result, the prevention messages about strangers learned through education programs are ineffective in protecting children. A recent meta-analysis found that online sex offenders are usually acquaintances. Unsurprisingly, a proportion of adult predators pretend to be peers (that is, other children or teens). Sexual approaches by adults occur more commonly on platforms that are widely used by children. “Sexual communication with a child” offences, according to police statistics from the United Kingdom, increased by 84% between 2017–18 and 2021–22. Due to the hidden nature of cyber grooming, it is difficult to know the true prevalence of this issue. Some police reports in Europe indicate that approximately 20% of children have experienced online sexual solicitation, and up to 25% of children reported sexual interaction with an adult online. Concerning reports by Europol indicate that children have been drawn into erotic role play online. In interviews with researchers, some parents have also shared anecdotal experiences of their children being exposed to explicit sex acts on social online gaming platforms such as Roblox. Such encounters have the potential to create memories as if the virtual experience had happened in real life. For parents it is important to know that cyber groomers are well versed in the use of extremely popular virtual worlds. These provide predators with anonymity and easy access to children, where they can lure them into sexual engagement. A recent report from the Internet Watch Foundation charity reports that a record number of young children have been manipulated into performing sexual acts online. Through the metaverse, a sexual offender can be virtually brought into a child’s bedroom and engage in sexual behaviours through the child’s VR device. As VR worlds become more immersive, the danger for children only increases. Grooming occurs where parents least expect it to happen. To mitigate this danger, parents need to be aware of online grooming patterns – such as isolating the child, developing their trust and asking them to hide a relationship. Recognising the signs early can prevent the abuse from happening. But this can be difficult if parents aren’t familiar with the technology their child is using. To help them understand what their children experience in extended reality environments, parents must familiarise themselves with VR and the metaverse. If parents experience and experiment with the VR technology themselves, they can have conversations with their children about their experiences and understand with whom the child might interact with. This will allow parents to make informed decisions and put tailored safeguarding measures in place. These safeguards include reviewing the parental controls and safety features on each platform, and actively learning what their children are playing and whom they are interacting with. With such safeguards in place, parents can allow their children to have fun with VR headsets while keeping them protected. If you believe your child is targeted by grooming or exploitation, or you come across exploitation material, you can report it via ThinkuKnow or contact your local police. If you are a child, teen or young adult who needs help and support, call the Kids Helpline on 1800 55 1800. If you are an adult who experienced abuse as a child, call the Blue Knot Helpline on 1300 657 380 or visit their website. Marika Guggisberg, Senior Lecturer, Domestic and Family Violence, CQUniversity Australia This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
Play These Mobile Games Designed to Help Save Dying Aboriginal .. (2025-11-28T12:15:00+05:30)
 Screenshots from the Nyiyaparli living language project app – credit, supplied by Nyiyaparli WidiPlay These Mobile Games Designed to Help Save Dying Aboriginal Language and Culture: An Australian Aboriginal community with only 8 fluent speakers left has launched a mobile phone game to help reconnect their youth with the tongue of their ancestors. The game allows you to help preserve a wetland nature reserve where the community lives, with almost 100 words and phrases in the Nyiyaparli language. Numbering around 400 community members, the Nyiyaparli hail from a remote region of northwest Australia in an area called the Pilbara. There, as happened in so many other lands across the Commonwealth, indigenous children were placed in English-language institutions and the connection with their lingual heritage was severed. Once widely spoken across the Pilbara, the pressure of assimilation into European culture and the spread of larger neighboring Aboriginal languages has proven almost fatal to Nyiyaparli. The Karlka Nyiyaparli Aboriginal Corporation (KNAC) which manages the common welfare of the community launched the Nyiyaparli Living Language Project in 2022 in an attempt to save their dying language. But the KNAC didn’t look to the past for inspiration, rather, they leveraged the present. “The cultural working group decided that you’re never going to take phones away from kids,” said the project’s executive producer Simon Te Brinke. “Why not give them something that can help them learn?” Despite their remote location and rich indigenous heritage, Nyiyaparli children seem to be as immersed in games like Minecraft and Fortnite as anyone else. Te Brinke decided to try and utilize that existing interest: to go with the flow, rather than try to convince them to put their phones down. The game puts you into the role of a junior ranger in the Fortescue Marsh Nature Reserve which the community manages. The game contains 90 Nyiyaparli words, spoken aloud by community elders who know how. “Players have to collect cultural objects as they navigate their way through each of the locations,” Mr. Te Brinke told ABC News. “As they collect, they hear sounds and words actually spoken in Nyiyaparli. So it’s reinforcing the language.” The game has won several awards that included large cash prices which will undoubtedly help the project expand its efforts. A digital language center is in the works, with the aim being to build on the foundations established by the phone game. Apps and games are being used to help revive other Aboriginal languages too. A storybook app that teaches science concepts was designed by a man from the Goldfields region of northern Australia, who’s one of only 3 people who speak Ngalia, a dialect of a more widely spoken Mantjiltjintjarra, that’s featured in the application. Kabo Muir worked with his brother Talbot, another speaker, to compile a dictionary of Ngalia words, which benefits from the fact that it’s similar to the surrounding tongues in the region. The next step to preserving it, he says, is innovation.The Mamutjitji Story app centers around a native insect species called an antlion, and how it adapts to a changing world. Play These Mobile Games Designed to Help Save Dying Aboriginal Language and Culture
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How a Minecraft world has built a safe online playground for autistic kids (2025-11-19T11:31:00+05:30)
Kathryn Ringland, Northwestern UniversityFor autistic children, online social interactions can be just as fraught as those in the offline world. The community at Autcraft, which is built around a customised version of the popular game Minecraft, has set out to create a safe virtual playground. In the process, they may be demonstrating the kind of filtered, structured environment in which more and more socialisation will occur as online and offline worlds collide. In my research, I have worked with members of the Autcraft community to better understand how they are keeping autistic children safe while they play. I found they use a combination of modifying the software of Minecraft itself (called “modding”) and social structure or rules. Autcraft uses Minecraft to do four key things for autistic children: it gives them structure, creates a safe social space, lets them filter their experience in various ways, and helps them unleash their imaginations. A structured playgroundThe Minecraft game world is structured to begin with, as the game contains boundaries and rules that players must follow. The Autcraft community uses extra software plug-ins to make the game world a little easier, especially for younger players. For example, players can mark out their own plots of land so that they, and specified friends, are the only ones who can build there. This keeps other players from changing their houses and other creations without permission. On top of this sort of “physical” structure, the Autcraft community also has social structure. This takes the form of rules that all community members must follow, as well as norms around friendliness and helpfulness. These norms are built into the game through tools such as community chests where players can leave things they no longer need for others to use. Filtered interactionsMinecraft, as a game, filters and simplifies things in ways that can be helpful for autistic players. Characters are fairly crude representations of people. They do not have facial expressions or much in the way of body language. Everything is communicated through character movements (such as jumping around or giving away items) or via text. While the text chat can be overwhelming at times (even for a researcher such as me), it’s still a filtered version of human interaction that makes socialising less stressful and more fun for autistic youth. People with autism also often need to adjust their sensory intake to suit their needs. Volume and brightness can easily be adjusted in Minecraft, and players also vary their sensory intake by moving their characters around. For example, I saw one player bury their character underground to make their screen go dark for a small visual sensory break. Autcraft has also built virtual sensory rooms that offer a variety of sensory inputs and moods, ranging from a bright multicoloured room with spider webs for texture to a serene garden, rooms where the door shuts for darkness, and a cozy library. In Autcraft I saw buildings that looked like giant pink ponies, statues of people the size of buildings, Doctor Who’s TARDIS, and everything in between. Community members would sometimes work alone, but also worked together, forming teams to accomplish building goals. I interviewed autistic youth who would take on leadership positions to lead their friends to finish large castles and create whole villages together. For children who have difficulty communicating, making friends, and learning in a classroom environment, this is a very big deal. The shape of things to come?Minecraft is much like a playground in the physical world. This allows for a deeper engagement for the player, and deeper learning as well. This is especially true for the autistic youth of Autcraft, who use the accessible interface of Minecraft to help support their social play - without some of the barriers that can make offline play difficult for them. As physical and virtual spaces blend together, filtered ways of socialising and interacting will become a norm for everyone. We can expect the already tenuous distinction between “virtual” and “real” life to dissolve further - and worlds like Autcraft will simply be a part of life. Dr Kate Ringland is speaking at the 2019 Education in Games Summit in Melbourne on Monday 14 October, hosted by ACMI as part of Melbourne International Games Week. Kathryn Ringland, Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern University This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
Can a video game save a life? African refugee puts players in his race for survival (2025-11-18T11:33:00+05:30)
 Can a video game save a life? African refugee puts players in his race for survival: Video game developer Lual Mayen, 25, who learned to code in a refugee camp after fleeing South Sudan, plays his new game at his home in Washington, D.C., US on January 7, 2020. (REUTERS File Photo) WASHINGTON, (Reuters): The goal of Lual Mayen's video game is to survive the horrific ordeal of a refugee, an experience that his family knows well, but the 25-year-old developer's ambition is to change the world. Mayen, who was born as his family traveled 250 miles (400 km) to escape South Sudan's second civil war, hopes his game, Salaam, will give players a better understanding of what it means to be homeless, hungry and on the run. "A lot of people don't understand the journey of a refugee," said Mayen, 25, who and spent his first 22 years in a refugee camp in northern Uganda before moving to the United States. "It was a journey of life and death," he said, recalling family stories about bomb attacks, wild animals and how babies were abandoned by parents who could no longer care for them. Now head of his own video game company in Washington, Mayen believes that "gamification," where participants make decisions unlike the passive experience of watching a movie, puts ordinary people in the shoes of a refugee. Salaam, an Arabic greeting meaning peace, enables users who have never had to flee a war-torn country to take a virtual trek to a "peaceful environment" -- if they can dodge hostile troops and find enough food and water. BRIDGING THE VIRTUAL AND REAL WORLDS While the game is free to play, when participants need to buy food, water or medicine for their virtual characters, they can make in-app purchases that will go to real-life refugees, he said. "Salaam is going to be the first-ever game that is going to bridge the virtual world and the reality on the ground," he said. "When someone buys food in the game, you're actually buying someone in a refugee camp food." But Mayen also has a long game in mind, hoping that Salaam will enlighten today's teens when they become the next generation of policymakers. "When they're making policy, they'll already understand what refugees face, just through playing my game," he said. "That's actually how we change the world and how we can be able to use the industry for good." Growing up in a refugee camp, Mayen had never even seen a computer until one day, at age 12, he reported to the camp's registration center. "It was a moment that actually helped me to understand, wow, I want to use this one day," he said. For the next three years, his mother, whom he made the main character in Salaam, worked tirelessly to stash away $300 to buy him a laptop, which he now keeps in a glass display case in his apartment. His game went viral after he uploaded it to Facebook and caught the attention of the gaming industry. In 2018, he was named a Global Gaming Citizen at the Game Awards in Los Angeles. "To be able to ... represent the continent and represent the game for social impact, it gives me so much hope," he said. "It gives more refugees hope." Can a video game save a life? African refugee puts players in his race for survival | MorungExpress | morungexpress.com
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Online spaces are rife with toxicity. Well-designed AI tools can help clean them up (2025-11-14T12:10:00+05:30)
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Lucy Sparrow, The University of Melbourne; Eduardo Oliveira, The University of Melbourne, and Mahli-Ann Butt, The University of Melbourne Imagine scrolling through social media or playing an online game, only to be interrupted by insulting and harassing comments. What if an artificial intelligence (AI) tool stepped in to remove the abuse before you even saw it? This isn’t science fiction. Commercial AI tools like ToxMod and Bodyguard.ai are already used to monitor interactions in real time across social media and gaming platforms. They can detect and respond to toxic behaviour. The idea of an all-seeing AI monitoring our every move might sound Orwellian, but these tools could be key to making the internet a safer place. However, for AI moderation to succeed, it needs to prioritise values like privacy, transparency, explainability and fairness. So can we ensure AI can be trusted to make our online spaces better? Our two recent research projects into AI-driven moderation show this can be done – with more work ahead of us. Negativity thrives onlineOnline toxicity is a growing problem. Nearly half of young Australians have experienced some form of negative online interaction, with almost one in five experiencing cyberbullying. Whether it’s a single offensive comment or a sustained slew of harassment, such harmful interactions are part of daily life for many internet users. The severity of online toxicity is one reason the Australian government has proposed banning social media for children under 14. But this approach fails to fully address a core underlying problem: the design of online platforms and moderation tools. We need to rethink how online platforms are designed to minimise harmful interactions for all users, not just children. Unfortunately, many tech giants with power over our online activities have been slow to take on more responsibility, leaving significant gaps in moderation and safety measures. This is where proactive AI moderation offers the chance to create safer, more respectful online spaces. But can AI truly deliver on this promise? Here’s what we found. ‘Havoc’ in online multiplayer gamesIn our Games and Artificial Intelligence Moderation (GAIM) Project, we set out to understand the ethical opportunities and pitfalls of AI-driven moderation in online multiplayer games. We conducted 26 in-depth interviews with players and industry professionals to find out how they use and think about AI in these spaces. Interviewees saw AI as a necessary tool to make games safer and combat the “havoc” caused by toxicity. With millions of players, human moderators can’t catch everything. But an untiring and proactive AI can pick up what humans miss, helping reduce the stress and burnout associated with moderating toxic messages. But many players also expressed confusion about the use of AI moderation. They didn’t understand why they received account suspensions, bans and other punishments, and were often left frustrated that their own reports of toxic behaviour seemed to be lost to the void, unanswered. Participants were especially worried about privacy in situations where AI is used to moderate voice chat in games. One player exclaimed: “my god, is that even legal?” It is – and it’s already happening in popular online games such as Call of Duty. Our study revealed there’s tremendous positive potential for AI moderation. However, games and social media companies will need to do a lot more work to make these systems transparent, empowering and trustworthy. Right now, AI moderation is seen to operate much like a police officer in an opaque justice system. What if AI instead took the form of a teacher, guardian, or upstander – educating, empowering or supporting users? Enter AI AllyThis is where our second project AI Ally comes in, an initiative funded by the eSafety Commissioner. In response to high rates of tech-based gendered violence in Australia, we are co-designing an AI tool to support girls, women and gender-diverse individuals in navigating safer online spaces. We surveyed 230 people from these groups, and found that 44% of our respondents “often” or “always” experienced gendered harassment on at least one social media platform. It happened most frequently in response to everyday online activities like posting photos of themselves, particularly in the form of sexist comments. Interestingly, our respondents reported that documenting instances of online abuse was especially useful when they wanted to support other targets of harassment, such as by gathering screenshots of abusive comments. But only a few of those surveyed did this in practice. Understandably, many also feared for their own safety should they intervene by defending someone or even speaking up in a public comment thread. These are worrying findings. In response, we are designing our AI tool as an optional dashboard that detects and documents toxic comments. To help guide us in the design process, we have created a set of “personas” that capture some of our target users, inspired by our survey respondents.  Some of the user ‘personas’ guiding the development of the AI Ally tool. Ren Galwey/Research RenderedWe allow users to make their own decisions about whether to filter, flag, block or report harassment in efficient ways that align with their own preferences and personal safety. In this way, we hope to use AI to offer young people easy-to-access support in managing online safety while offering autonomy and a sense of empowerment. We can all play a roleAI Ally shows we can use AI to help make online spaces safer without having to sacrifice values like transparency and user control. But there is much more to be done. Other, similar initiatives include Harassment Manager, which was designed to identify and document abuse on Twitter (now X), and HeartMob, a community where targets of online harassment can seek support. Until ethical AI practices are more widely adopted, users must stay informed. Before joining a platform, check if they are transparent about their policies and offer user control over moderation settings. The internet connects us to resources, work, play and community. Everyone has the right to access these benefits without harassment and abuse. It’s up to all of us to be proactive and advocate for smarter, more ethical technology that protects our values and our digital spaces. The AI Ally team consists of Dr Mahli-Ann Butt, Dr Lucy Sparrow, Dr Eduardo Oliveira, Ren Galwey, Dahlia Jovic, Sable Wang-Wills, Yige Song and Maddy Weeks. Lucy Sparrow, Lecturer in Human-Computer Interaction, The University of Melbourne; Eduardo Oliveira, Senior Lecturer in Software Engineering, The University of Melbourne, and Mahli-Ann Butt, Lecturer, Cultural Studies, The University of Melbourne This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article. |
