Native Dancer

Diabetes Health Care

Education Game

Dr. Brian M. Slator, Computer Science DepartmentNorth Dakota State University

Immersive Role-based Environments for

Education

NDSU WWWICNDSU WWWICWorld Wide Web Instructional CommitteeWorld Wide Web Instructional Committee

WWWIC’s virtual worlds research supported by NSF grants DUE-9752548, EAR-9809761, DUE-9981094,

ITR-0086142 and EPSCoR 99-77788

WWWIC faculty supported by large teams of WWWIC faculty supported by large teams of undergraduate and graduate students.undergraduate and graduate students.

Paul Juell

Donald SchwertPhillip McClean

Brian SlatorBernhardt Saini-Eidukat

Alan WhiteJeff Clark

• MultiUser

• Exploration

• Spatially-oriented virtual worlds

• Practical planning and decision

making

Educational Role-playing Games

“Learning-by-doing” Experiences

Balancing Pedagogy with

Play

Games have the capacity to engage!

• Powerful mechanisms for instruction

• Illustrate real-world content and structure

• Promote strategic maturity (“learning not the law, but learning to think like a lawyer”)

The Projects

The Virtual CellThe Virtual CellDollar BayDollar BayLike-a-Fishhook VillageLike-a-Fishhook VillageDigital Archive for ArchaeologyDigital Archive for ArchaeologyOthersOthers

The Geology ExplorerThe Geology Explorer

The Geology Explorer

The Virtual Cell

Fort Berthold and Like-A-Fishhook VillageFort Berthold and Like-A-Fishhook Village

Photo of Arikara Photo of Arikara Lodge, Form-Z Lodge, Form-Z Extrusion, VRML Extrusion, VRML modelmodel

The Geology Explorer:The Geology Explorer:Assessment ProtocolAssessment Protocol

Pre-course Assessment:Pre-course Assessment:400+ students400+ students

Computer Literacy Assessment:Computer Literacy Assessment:(244 volunteers)(244 volunteers)

Divide by Computer Literacy Divide by Computer Literacy and Geology Lab Experienceand Geology Lab Experience

Geomagnetic Geomagnetic (Alternative)(Alternative) Group: Group:

(122 students)(122 students)

Geology Explorer Geology Explorer TreatmentTreatment Group: Group:

(122 students)(122 students)

Non-Participant Non-Participant Control Control Group:Group:

(150 students, approx.)(150 students, approx.)

CompletedCompleted(78 students)(78 students)

Non-Non-completedcompleted(44 students)(44 students)

CompletedCompleted(95 students)(95 students)

Non-Non-completedcompleted

(27 students)(27 students)Post-course Assessment:Post-course Assessment:

368 students368 students

Example: Fall, 1998Example: Fall, 1998

Mean Post-Intervention Scenario Scores for 1998 Geology Explorer - NDSU Physical Geology Students

Grader Grader GraderGroup No. One Two ThreeAlternate 95 29.3a 27.0a 42.6aControl 195 25.1a 25.5a 44.5aPlanet Oit 78 40.5b 35.4b 53.4b

Within any column, any two means Within any column, any two means followed by the same letter are not followed by the same letter are not significantly different at P=0.05 using significantly different at P=0.05 using Duncan’s multiple range mean separation Duncan’s multiple range mean separation test. test.

Native Dancer

Diabetes Health Care

Education Game

Diabetes and Native Americans

Diabetes Epidemic: approximately 33% of Native Americans have some form of diabetes22% of White Earth people have Type II Diabetes (so-called adult onset)Typical onset, 10 years ago: 42 years oldToday, youngest case: 9 years old.Increased 32% in ages 15-19

Nutrition and Physical Activity

“Reduction in incidence of type 2 diabetes with lifestyle intervention or metformin” (New England Journal of Medicine, 2002)Percent reduced incidence of diabetes

17% placebo31% metformin58% nutrition/physical activity

Why a video game? Don’t video games…

Encourage sedentary behaviorOften have themes that glorify:

Violence (You name it) Space Invaders, Mortal Kombat, Doom,

Golden Eye - 007, Quake I-III, Return to Castle Wolfenstein,Area 51, etc…

Sex Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, Freestyle BMX, Street Fighter, Tomb Raider, etc… Other anti-social behavior

Grand Theft Auto I-III, Midnight Club, Twisted Metal, etc…

Yes, but video games:

Reach the target audience: 10-18+“proclivities of youth”

Provide virtual/safe environment to experiment & learn

New, emerging genre of healthy video games

Dance Dance Revolution

Dance Dance Revolution1-2 users match the footsteps of a dancing game character on a Dance Grid in front of a large video screen

User must exercise to play the game

Users have lost up to 100lbs playing DDR

See USA Today Online Article and Video News Story at:

http://atl.ndsu.edu/articles_online/

The Sims

A game where you makechoices about your character’s lifestyle that may or may not negatively or positively affect the ability of the character to function as a person.

Then, what is Native Dancer?

DDR meets the Sims

Flow: health

Lifestyle choices competition performance

regalia reward

competition standings

Friendly Competition Drives Learning

Students strive to learn diet and lifestyle to do better in dance competition

Assumes dance aspect of the game is fun & engaging

Proper choices are rewarded with Powwow Regalia that allow dance character to gain more points in each competition

Benefits

Immediate:provides a non-threatening, and easy exerciseinteractively engages child in health education process

Cultural:encourages pride in child’s cultureteaches cultural dance skills to children

Provides: a culturally relevant map to long-term healthy lifestyle and diabetes management

Measuring Daily Life Opportunities and Decisions

Youth summer life data:Interviews and observations

Youth school life data:1. In-school survey: grades 5 through 12

1. Attitudes, behaviors, computer literacy (1 hour)2. Age-appropriate questions, confidentiality

guaranteed3. Overall results available to schools, WERTC, and

interested others

2. Computerized diary from (selected?) youth

Outcomes

Assess change in nutrition behaviorAssess change in physical activity behaviorAssess change in attitudes toward individual healthCreation of baseline dataset for longitudinal studies

Native Dancer Team Contacts

Lisa Brandt, PhD, AnthropologistLisa.Brandt@ndsu.nodak.edu701-231-6498

Monte Fox, WERTC Diabetes Project Director

Montef@whiteearth.com218-983-3285 ext. 412