Location

2105 Hornbake Building, South Wing, 11am-12pm

Abstract

Several new genres of narrative-based play have emerged in recent years. These experiences allow participants to imagine themselves as participants in an unfolding fictional world that intersects our everyday lives. Many of the properties that make these experiences entertaining and novel, also make them uniquely suited to meet educational goals. In this presentation, I will discuss recent work on the design of 3 different, yet related, educational mixed reality experiences including: alternate reality games, escape the room experiences, and narrative-based simulations. I will offer a glimpse into the current state-of-the-art and highlight new opportunities and open research questions in this emerging space.

Background

Derek Hansen is the Abell Professor of Innovation at Brigham Young University’s School of Technology. His research and teaching focus on the development and analysis of novel social technologies for the public good in domains such as education, citizen science, and health promotion. Derek received his PhD in Information from the University of Michigan and is a former faculty member at the University of Maryland’s iSchool.