Developing Games for Use on Mobile Phones and Using Games for Education

Abstract

PCF5: Cross-Cutting Theme // Gaming developments and advancements are becoming increasingly pervasive and utilized. Over 30 million people have access to mobile phones in South Africa. In general, in 2004 in sub-Saharan Africa 52 million people had access to mobile phones, while only 5-8 million had access to the internet. In terms of the three screens of technology (television, internet and mobile phones), people living in Africa may have access to television and mobile phones, or only mobile phones. In addition, mobile phone usage is growing the most rapidly in the developing world, where the technology does not depend on existing landlines. This level of ‘reach’ rivals only the radio. // As a model of education support, games on mobile phones are being investigated. In this vein, three questions are pertinent: what happens while the learner plays the game that is of use to educational methodology and learning, can existing gaming platforms be used to deliver educational curricula, and what aspects of existing games need to be replicated in ‘educational’ games? In essence, what can educators learn from gaming? Are there existing games that have educational value and if so, what is this? How can we replicate traditional gaming’s success and position gaming within an educational setting? It is important to clarify that gaming in this context is gaming in a technological format, as games have been used in education for countless years. // The current research project developed two innovative educational games for use on mobile phones and positioned these within the context of Mindset Learn’s educational content platform. Mindset is a not for profit organisation that provides ICT educational, curriculum aligned content free of charge to learners and teachers. // Paper ID 81