Introduction:
The term Ocean Literacy, defined as "…the understanding of the ocean’s influence on humans and of our influence on the ocean…" – was firs t discussed in 2004 after a group of scientists brough to the surface a concern that the general public had a lack of understanding about the importance of the Ocean which could hinder the uptake of knowledge around its importance
. We have now entered the UN decade of Ocean Science, where we will work global mobilization of the ocean community towards "The ocean we need for the future we want" – directly contributing to the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) – even beyond Nr 14 – Life Below Water. The term "Serious Games" dates back only half a decade
, but the logic behind comes from military strategic applications called wargaming
, which has a long and rich past. Although non-military games used for learning generally, and ocean literacy specifically, has developed gradually since the 70s, it was not until the popularization of digital games, around the turn of the millennium, that serious games rose to prominence in academia
. Since then, vast amounts of serious games-research have been published each year
– chiefly on digital games, but also increasingly for hybrid and analog games
. In this article, the potential benefits of serious games for learning and motivation within the context of ocean literacy, the UN decade of ocean science and the sustainable development goals will be presented alongside an approach to using serious games as a tool for unintrusive data collection.
Material & Methods :
In 2020-2021 , high school students from three different cities in Norway participated in a total of six Serious Game sets (two in each city) called MoreGoJelly! The game was developed through a collaboration with game developer House of Knowledge and the research institute SINTEF Ocean in Norway. The game was played live, with game boards for the participants in Trondheim and Tromsø , Norway, and it was played digitally with participants from Bergen, Norway. The latter was a pandemic need, because of demands for social distancing. The digital version was developed to simulate the board, game pieces and game setting as close as possible. The logic of the game centred on an assessment of a Serious Game as a communication tool for ocean literacy, with an emphasis on assessing similarities and differences between groups of future generation representatives from three different geographical regions in Norway (western-, mid- and northern- Norway) and diverse backgrounds. The game was to be played as a multi-player game with no more than four players, to ensure that all players were given ample time to discuss and participate in the game. They first had to fill in a personal questionnaire, and then as a group, they were presented with four sustainable development goals (SDGs 3 – good health and well-being , 8 – decent work and economic growth , 12 – responsible consumption and production and 14 – life below water ) that they had to rank the top three in terms of importance within the game context of assessing microplastic pollution and jellyfish blooms in terms of how either and both affect coastal communities in Norway.
Because of this contextual setting, the game was set up around a map of Norway, and with game cards that first gave background information, preparing the students to play. The game board also had three fields for where they had to place the SDG goals they chose to prioritize – and in which order. This first step was followed by game cards that first gave the players a scenario where they had to assess how this event would affect social, economic and environmental sustainability of the region. They were then presented with three governance options, where they also had to rank how their governance choice would affect the three sustainability pillars. All in all, they were presented with nine events and nine governance cards (total of 27 governance options). They were given three opportunities throughout the game to change the order of their SDG cards.
Results:
In the first ranking, all groups in all cities placed SDG 3 as either number one or number two. Further, all but one of the groups from Bergen had positioned SDG 12 as either number one or two. The group from Bergen chose SDG 14 instead. In the second round of ranking, only one of the groups from Trondheim changed their order of the SDGs. On the last card, when they for the third time were given the choice to re-rank - one of the two groups from each city (3 out of 6 groups) changed their positioning of the SDGs. Two of the three groups changed the position of two goals, while the last group moved all of the goals. All groups ended with SDG 12 on either first or second place, except for one group from Bergen who instead chose SDG 14. All but one of the groups from Tromso ended with SDG 3 in either first or second place. The group from Tromso had chosen SDG 14 instead of SDG 3 as the others. SDG 8 was positioned last in four out of six groups, and in third by the two remaining groups.
Discussion & Conclusion :
Consciously designing for each of these concepts around SDGs for ocean literacy can help leverage the potential benefits of serious games. However, it is the interaction between them that creates a lasting experience for players. For instance, social interaction is a crucial aspect of situated learning
especially for tacit knowledge
, connected to the base need of relatedness
, and as a potential strength when employing experiential learning – drawing on sharing of and learning from varied experiences
. Experiential learning can also be further strengthened when mapped to the antecedents of flow
– both of which can be seen as related to the self-determination theory need for competence
. Furthermore, despite the perceived importance of these concepts, there are of course several other potential benefits a game can have over traditional learning, such as multimodality, self-explanation
, personalization, and adaptivity
to name a few. Ensuring the ocean science community can also contribute towards the implmenetation of the SDGs will take moving beyond traditional methods and including future geneartions in the discussions. Part of that move includes ocean literacy – ensuring "…the understanding of the ocean’s influence on humans and of our influence on the ocean…" – and that this understanding is reached at a younger age so that the future decision makers already have a thorough understanding of the importance of the Ocean.
References:
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