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Design Challenge 2005
7-9 January 2005
In association with UCLES
Outcomes
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Video documentary
A short documentary of Design Challenge 2005 was made, following the teams as they took part in the various stages of the event.
Before clicking on the links below please note: the video files will download into your temporary folder and should then automatically open in a standalone QuickTime player (you may be asked to select QuickTime from a list). If you don't have QuickTime installed on your computer, please go to www.apple.com/quicktime/player.
watch Design Challenge 2005 video clip - broadband version (13.7mb file)
watch Design Challenge 2005 video clip - narrowband version (1.1mb file)
Summary
Design Challenge 2005 clearly built on the experience of the previous year. Extra contact time for the teams with mentors from industry and academia meant that the quality of the ideas took a leap forward; including learners in the feedback at an early stage gave new perspectives for the teams and an added depth to the ideas; and more explicit competition gave an added spice to the atmosphere of the event and the final presentation at the BETT 2005 reception. The overall quality of the ideas was superb and all were well illustrated for the final, proving again that a multi-disciplinary approach with early input from the intended audience makes for a winning design process.
The process
Team members met for the first time at regional workshops in early November 2004, where the brief was issued. Mentors from both industry and academia guided the teams whilst they were finalising their ideas. In late November the teams got together again for a weekend of further idea development, this time by designing a board game of their project; while at first this seemed alien to many, the thought process it invoked proved invaluable in clarifying the ideas. Throughout December the teams continued work on their ideas, again with mentors available to offer counsel.
At the hothouse in early January the teams had only three days in which to author a credible illustration of what their idea was and how it would work. Judges assessed the projects based on the educational design, innovation, interactive design, future potential and team work. The quality of the ideas and designs this year was such that the judges found it impossible to single out one project - Imagine and Red Jams were deemed equal winners. The enormous effort that all the teams put into creating their idea illustrations was evident in their output. None shied away from difficult-to-teach subject areas and all had innovative approaches in design, pedagogy or technology.
The projects
Team: Age0+
Game title: Re-view
Re-view is a large generalised system that uses children's love of text messaging to engage them in difficult subjects and encourages empathy, imagination, self-expression and independent learning.
Team: Agent X
Game title: Empathy
Empathy is a hybrid board game and computer game; a flat computer monitor is placed upright in the centre of the board. The board uses traditional techniques such as counters, squares and cards. The final piece is therefore an interesting combination of the complexity enabled by the computer system and the appealing tactility of a traditional game. The game engages children in disaster relief scenarios.
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