Library Game Lab of Syracuse

Teaching games at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam

March 17, 2009 5:53 am scottnicholson Uncategorized, presentation

My week as an Amsterdam professor

A Week at the Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA)

In the Information Technology area of the HvA, there are minors in Game Design and Game Technology. These minors are done near the end of a more general degree, but point the students toward a specific type of employment. Last week was their International week, where 10 international scholars were flown in to lead groups of students in two projects. The project I was involved in was Games can Change, where a group of students had to create a game in 5 days.

I was told that I had 20 students and could select the project specifications that I desired, so I wanted the students to work with the Amsterdam Public Library (OBA) to create an Alternate Reality / Locative game to help players learn about all of the library. Ahead of time, we set up a tour for the students on the first day. There were 3 other classes of students all making games on different themes for different faculty members.

I met the students on Monday morning and gave them a lecture on Alternate Reality Games and Locative games to set the stage. We then went to the OBA for a tour in the afternoon, and then the students had some time to work as groups. The library is really great, in that they have embraced the concept of becoming a community center. It is open and airy, and the first few floors are computers, magazines, music, movies, and games. The books are on the next two floors, and there is a very nice café up top. Most of the students had not been to the OBA before, so many were surprised that libraries were much more than just “boring rows of books.”
The students asked if they could meet at the OBA rather than the school for the rest of the week, and the library accommodated this. The library staff were very helpful and certainly willing to work with the students as needed. The students then got to work.
On Tuesday, each group presented their basic ideas, where they were, and posed questions. We helped the groups if they were stuck and let them continue away.

On Wednesday, there was no class as students traditionally have internships on Wedensdays. So, on Wedensday, I went to another branch of the HvA and talked with some of the faculty in the media and library programs, and gave a lecture to one of the classes on youth and media about gaming.
Thursday, I met with the groups again and learned about their progress. Most of the groups had some kind of a mystery theme going and one group, who was using a technology to project a 3-D image onto a live Webcam stream, had the “alien trapped in the library” theme. That afternoon, I went up to the Technical University at Delft and met with their games program and saw some of their serious games.

On Friday, 2 libraries from the OBA and 2 librarians from the amazing Library Concept Center (DOK) in Delft came down to see the presentations. The student groups presented their games. One group had a very complete plan about locating a missing book and had really thought through all of the games. Another group didn’t have much of a story but had hardcore puzzles. A third group had more simple puzzles all delivered through SMS. The fourth group improved upon their technology and made the opening part of the game and a movie. The DOK librarians really liked the alien group, while the OBA seemed more interested in the game that was fairly complete. At the end of the class, I asked students if anyone wants to continue working with the library, and 11 out of 20 signed up. I think and hope that some of them will continue their work and make these games a success.

That afternoon, each of the professors involved gave a lecture. I did a devotional overview of the Past, Present, and Future of games in libraries, focusing on how students could get involved. The speaker after me, who was originally happy to be going last, expressed his dismay that he had to follow my show.
After that, all of the classes had a fair where they displayed their games. The other classes all made electronic games, while our projects were hybrids with some online and some analog puzzles and games. The alien group won the “people’s choice” award and ended up being invited to present their work at an upcoming U Play U Learn conference.

It was an interesting experience. Gaming has been my hobby for some time and my research area for over 2 years, and this was the first class I was teaching to a group of savvy game folks. I seem to have held up well, though.

I came away with several things. The experience made me more eager to look at Syracuse about integrating gaming into our iSchool degrees and curriculum, perhaps through partnerships with other schools. In addition, I was inspired to start on a new grant proposal to design information & media literacy games for a public library setting using some whiz-bang technologies. I’ve been doing the ethnographic work for a few years now, and I’m ready to start applying it to create some serious games. It also gave me a chance to scout out some potential sites for me to be a visiting professor at for an upcoming sabbatical; I’m hoping the relationship between the HvA and the OBA develops over the next few years. Finally, it helped me to see a vision of a few libraries (Amsterdam and Delft) where they were fully embracing the concept of library as community hub in a way that will take them into the future; I will communicate this vision to my students. It was an enjoyable experience that I hope to repeat in the future.

I have video footage which I’ll create into something after I settle down from the trip.