[arg_discuss] ARG in South Africa

[Steve Vosloo]

Hi all,

[Apologies for the cross-post.]
                     
I'm considering running an ARG in South Africa next year, aimed at the 
12-14 year age group. I have more questions than answers now about how 
to implement it (go big or pilot small, in-school vs out-of-school vs 
both, choice of content to cover, etc).

Anyhow, given the recent ARGs in Charity and Education workshop in the 
UK, this is probably a good time to ask my questions:

1) It seems that for education ARGs a starting point is often the 
particular topic or skills that needs to be taught or learned. Sounds 
fair enough. But what about expanding the question to: what particular 
topic or skills are *not* well taught by a teacher (because the teacher 
might not be tech-savvy enough, or might not have enough credibility 
with the learners to engage in certain topics)? "While the ARGOSI 
project feels that there is a clear pedagogic justification for the use 
of ARGs in education, the team also recognises that alternate reality 
games are unlikely to engage all students." I think anyone will be 
hard-pressed to engage all students with any learning intervention. 
Perhaps then one should focus on reaching the kids who'd otherwise not 
be engaged because of teachers issues.

2) If we are to run the ARG it will most likely be in August '09. There 
is a conference happening at the end March called SciFest Africa, aimed 
at school learners and attracting almost 60,000 visitors for the week. I 
could run a short, limited ARG then (although time is running out to 
prepare for it). What I'm thinking is to i) use SciFest to create buzz/a 
player community for the bigger game in August, and/or ii) run a 
workshop where kids help to -- in a  participatory way -- design 
sub-sections of the bigger game. The latter option could also be a way 
to get a group of interested players going.

Which option (i) or (ii) is best?
Is the time difference too long (March to August) to sustain a buzz?

3) I believe that ARGs have enormous educational potential for Africa. 
Options are either to run a funded ARG (like the one in August) every 
year or 6 months and engage as many players as possible. This means that 
teachers, who often don't have time to plan or PM ARGs, can still engage 
their learners in conversation around the playing of an external game. 
Or, we go for the option of creating a toolkit that helps teachers and 
companies to run their own ARGs. In this way we try to open up the space 
as much as possible, even running competitions for the best designed ARG.

Do you think there is enough interest, as well as teacher willingness, 
in SA to independently create small-scale ARGs, or is it best to manage 
it all for them for a few rounds until they "get it"?

Thanks in advance!
Steve

-- 
Steve Vosloo
Fellow, Communication and Analytical Skills Development
The Shuttleworth Foundation

Tel: +27 21 970 1240 | Fax: +27 21 970 1241
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