This ARG Brought to You by the US Intelligence Community? In recent years, the United States Government has launched a number of experiments in alternate reality games and collective intelligence. To celebrate the 40th anniversary of ARPANET in 2009, the Department of Defense hid ten red weather balloons across the country with a $40,000 prize to the first organization to verify the location of all ten balloons.
That same year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded an alternate reality game designed to help set Hawaii’s pandemic priorities. And now, the intelligence community is interested in exploring how alternate reality games could serve as a platform for social, behavioral, and psychological research. As initially reported on WIRED’s Danger Room blog, the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) issued a Request for Information on “Using Alternate Reality Environments to Help Enrich Research Efforts” (UAREHERE). Comments.
Inspector grim rant 2. Ingress. We are the Jack Boxers. Supernatural - World of Warcraft - Eng Dub / Ger Sub. Magic Circle (virtual worlds) In regard to digital media, the term “magic circle” refers to the membrane that encloses virtual worlds such as first-person shooters (FPSs), online social environments, and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).
As noted by Edward Castronova in Synthetic Worlds: The Business and Culture of Online Games, this membrane “can be considered a shield of sorts, protecting the fantasy world from the outside world. "[1] Instead of being impenetrable, however, an examination of contemporary virtual worlds reveals that the magic circle is actually quite porous. More directly, there appears to be a relationship between virtual worlds and the outside world.
As noted by Eva Nieuwdorp, the term magic circle was “coined by Dutch historian Johan Huizinga (1872–1945) All play moves and has its being within a play-ground marked off beforehand either materially or ideally, deliberately or as a matter of course. Classroom ARGs. Ah, young Grasshopper... a kettle of worms you have opened. *I think I'm channeling a few fables and Star Wars, so I'll stop now. I think each has its own challenges. Generalizing "K-12" is difficult. I think implementing a game in an ECS classroom would be WAY different than a grade 11 classroom. With younger kids, they're more willing to accept whatever the teacher throws at them. On the other hand, I think college students take more responsibility for their work, and you may have greater buy-in because these are people wanting to be there and wanting to succeed (yes, I know that's a HUGE generalization, but compared to the students in a K-12 school, who are forced to be there by law, it more or less stands).
So there are different challenges at each level. First the Classroom, Then the World. The Start of a Mystery. Grasshopper, I really like your "rabbit holes" and "trailheads". How authentic and engaging! What were your learning goals? It sounds like general creative and critical thinking/problem solving, but I can imagine something like you described with history learning goals specific to a particular figure or event. The mystery I've been trying to develop isn't nearly so authentic, and I think that's making it much more difficult for me. So, here's what I've come up with so far: When: the present Where: "Science City" is hands-on science center designed to resemble a city, with streets, underground sewer, and various "establishments" that house particular kinds of science activities, such as the Crime Lab. Who: The citizens of Science City, the Mayor of Science City, the Mayor of a rival "city"? What: Something has happened in Science City.
Why: (Here's the hard part because it is the game's solution.) Anyway, that's about as far as I've gotten. Thanks! Digital literacies.