Abstract

There is ample opportunity for pro-social change in society. This proposal reports on the lessons from developing a 3-D video game to impart knowledge and transfer learning to promote pro-social behavior. The content of this game’s instruction is focused on international law, specifically the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) treaty. This game aims to offer the experience from a first-player perspective to impart empathy to change attitudes using the treaty as a road map. Gaming has been employed to educate about former U.N. treaties. For example, the U.N. called for the decade from 2005 to 2015 to focus on education promoting sustainable energy. Answering the call, Ball State University in Indiana planned the development of the Second Chance Game: Local Partnerships (University-Community) for Global Awareness and Responsibility. The results of the digital game-based learning (DGBL) initiative proved that imparting social knowledge and getting buy-in from key players to develop innovative educational strategies go beyond governments creating treaties or passing laws (Pacheco, Motloch, & Vann, 2006). Finally, the European Union Commission, EUROPA, created web-based free games designed to inform children about their rights in countries ratifying the CRC (Europa, 2011). No game exists yet to educate adults about this treaty and the countries that have (and have not) ratified it. This game will fill that gap.

Citation

Ensmann, S. (2024). A Game Designed for Pro-Social Change: A Way Home!. In J. Cohen & G. Solano (Eds.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 676-680). Las Vegas, Nevada, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved August 9, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/224019/.

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