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Gamification - What is it, and why is it useful?

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Gamification - What is it, and why is it useful?

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Gamification is defined by the Oxford Dictionaries as

'The application of typical elements of game playing (e.g. point scoring, competition with others, rules of play) to other areas of activity, typically as an online marketing technique to encourage engagement with a product or service'

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/gamification

By creating an element of fun to learning, Gamification encourages increased engagement in learning. Most of the studies done on Gamification apply to classroom, or corporate learning environments, but the principles can also be borrowed to educate people about the importance of nature, and to drive engagement in the Foliage Festival.

The following articles provide an idea of how Gamification can benefit education.

http://www.ssec.si.edu/blog/gamification#.VWsJ98-qpBc

http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/reference-material/five-benefits-of-adding-gamification-to-classrooms/

http://www.cio.com/article/2384745/it-organization/5-key-benefits-gamification-brings-to-your-business.html

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This competition is targeted towards teenagers and young adults, and is designed to get them excited about creating a greener spaces.

This competition will encourage people to take photos of spaces which are devoid of trees and plants. They will upload these pictures through the app. Local artists will then edit the photos and add plants and trees, showing what the space would look like if it were green. This competition is designed to educate people on the aesthetic value of green spaces in our urban environment.

The resulting 'before and after' photos will be displayed on the website, at the festival itself, and through other media channels. Additionally, if someone who has the app installed on their mobile device passes and area where there is a 'before and after' photo is available. The app will notify them and they can see the potential transformantion on their phones.

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To encourage involvement from children, and to help educate children on different plants in the area, the app will also include a foliage identification competition.

This competition brings an element of Gamification to the Community Arts Project (see separate panel for definition and benefits of Gamification) to encourage children to learn about plants and trees by making the process of learning fun.

The premise of the competition is simple. Children take photos of various plants they find and upload them to the app and identify them. They receive points for every unique plant they identify. Certain rare species will award bonus points, and if the picture is of them planting a tree, then they receive further points.

This competition will educate children about plants, and also encourage them to take an active role in creating green spaces.

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The mobile game will the called 'Green Spaces' and will be a basic simulation game akin to Farmville.

https://zynga.com/games/farmville

The premise of the game is that the player plays as a child who's family have bad coughs because the air is too polluted. To help their family get well, the player must grow and cultivate a garden to improve the air quality. The garden will start as a drab concrete slab, and the player will add plants to the garden and will have to maintain them. The player will be encouraged to log on to the game at least once a day to maintain the garden. Failure to maintain the garden will cause it to degrade.

The game will have 3 basic currencies the player will need to manage to ensure their garden is healthy.

1 - Sunlight. The player will have a limited amount of sunlight allocated to them each day which they need to purchase new plants.

2 - Water. The player starts with a basic water supply allocated each day. This can be increased by adding features like a water tank to their garden.

3 - Fertiliser. Once again, the player will receive a small amount of fertiliser to help their plants grow larger. Certain plants and features will attract wildlife which then add to the players fertiliser allowance each day.

The game will have a leaderboard which players can post their garden's score on to encourage healthy competition and to allow players to share their gardens with others.

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by Shel Silverstein

This an illustrated children's book which encompasses the circle-of-life concept. It illustrates the role of foliage in relation to humanity and appeals across all age groups. I have used it as a reference in preparing the Design and Concept Brief because it is a simple story with relevance to the message of our foliage festival.

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Discipline: Humanities Pathway

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We recognise the relevance of local Aboriginal history to the Foliage Festival. Hornsby is rich in Aboriginal history having over 200 Aboriginal sacred sites in the Hornsby Shire, including carvings, paintings and a burial site.

The Design and Concept will reference the Aboriginal mythology of the area, especially that of Dreamtime and Spirituality, as we acknowledge the importance of the traditional landowners, the Guringai and Darug people.

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The Design Brief will go out to our Graphic Designers, Writers, Artists, Illustrators to develop a visual theme for the Foliage Festival including logo, colour themes, typefaces.

We need to incorporate the idea of foliage as part of the flora/fauna/biota which benefits all in our local area (in this case Hornsby).  The idea that when we nurture and encourage foliage, it in turn cares for us by providing aesthetics, shade, shelter, clean air, in some cases fruit and food, but generally as beneficient to humans and animals.  Also promoting the utilisation of the (Hornsby) outdoor natural environment space and promoting a sense of communal living.

Mandatory inclusions include location, dates, times, any stakeholders and sponsors logos.

We want the community to engage with the festival.

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Everyone living and working in the Hornsby area, including children, especially primary school aged children.

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Visuals and Concepts examples

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These books deal with a storyline of ecology, environment, and our responsibility as caretakers of the land. Such books would be an ideal prize for the competition.

The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry

Last Tree in the City by Peter Carnavas

The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

The Tree by Gav Barbey

Run Tree Run by Kelly Alsop

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Celebrate the role trees play in people’s lives, in fauna conservation and Aboriginal life.

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Celebrate the role trees play in people’s lives, in fauna conservation and Aboriginal life.

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To pay respect to the former owners of the Hornsby Shire and to acknowledge their ties to the land, we pay homage to the Aboriginal Dreamtime. Within any urban area there appears to be a struggle to maintain a balance between the need for homes and nature.  We have all seen suburbs that are barren of large scale vegetation and the effect that has, both aesthetically and functionally - little  shade or greenery and a severe reduction in birds and insects.  While Shires such as Hornsby have striven to preserve trees on urban properties and includes large tracts of bushland such as the Galston Gorge, the 2013 bushfires prompted a new clearing rule to preserve property and life.  This resulted in a dramatic reduction of large trees and underlying vegetation regardless of whether they presented a bushfire hazard or not.  Therefore, we want to remind the Community of the unspoken part that trees play in the everyday lives of the Hornsby residents, and that the bush is not there waiting to be developed into more housing but rather supports an ecosystem that brings beauty and sustenance to us all.

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The iconic Australian Angophora is part of the Eucalyptus genus and this type of gorgeous picture would make a great booklet cover.

http://northernbeachesherbarium.com.au/gallery3/index.php/Trees/Eucalypts-bark-smooth/Angophora-costata/Angophora-costata-1628

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The Children's Drawings for the fly sheet

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The Children's Drawings for the fly sheet

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To Help navigate the festival

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In conjunction with the project design members, we would design a booklet that includes snippets of data, links to other sites, and beautiful photography. The fly leaf of the booklet would feature a collage of the children's drawing competition, making it a souvenir for the parents of the children who made it in the top 20. The cover would feature a tree.

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This is another sample of a lesson that could talk about a book that deals with environm,ental issues.

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Another idea for the school lesson would be to use storytelling and question time, reading the class a book about a tree. This reference comes from Teacher Notes. The children would then draw their own picture about a tree for submission to the competition.

Reference:

http://www.newfrontier.com.au/depot/teachingnotes/202_lasttree.pdf.

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This is a sample powerpoint presentation as an idea of what could be used as a springboard for the children to tell their story and draw the pictures.

http://www.tesaustralia.com/home.aspx

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In researching ways in which to present event information to a wandering audience, I came across a website that specialises in event brochure design. They note that ideally the booklet should contain some historical background, biographical information on contributors, event focus and have a consistent theme throughout. I also sourced the map picture from this site.

http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design/10-tips-designing-eye-catching-event-brochure-11135296

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An exhibition is the perfect way to highlight the beauty and appreciation of our surrounding flora. It could draw members from the art community that may have not been previously interested in our festival, as well as evoke emotion in those already there! Also a viable way to raise money for future festivals/projects. Including (but perhaps not limiting to) local artists would attract their family + friends, as well as support and promote people in our community.

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Examples of exhibitions as fund/awareness raisers 

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Examples of exhibitions as fund/awareness raisers 

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http://www.internationalanimalrescue.org/news/amazing-art-exhibition-australia-aims-raise-funds-iar’s-orangutan-centre-ketapang

http://www.racs.org.au/events/crossing-borders-at-the-national-art-school-an-exhibition-to-raise-funds-for-racs-legal-service/

http://www.asthmaaustralia.org.au/ACT/Events/Charity_Art_Exhibition.aspx

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My contribution to the Foliage Festival will be to create a mobile app and incorporate elements of interactive media into it. The idea to use mobile and interactive media is designed to engage with a younger audience who are increasingly mobile and demand information on their mobile devices as well as media that they can engage with. It is important to engage with younger demographics as they are the ones who will be shaping the future and as such getting them involved early may shape future cultural attitudes toward green urban spaces.

The app will be a free download and will have integration with the website and social media elements being created by John, Janna's story telling contest, as well as the ability to access any other material created as part of the project. Alongside the integration with the contribution of others on the project, the app will also have a mobile game, and two interactive competitions designed to appeal to different demographics.

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Mobile Social Media has fast become a integral part of any organisations marketing and publicity strategy. This article from PC world shows that even in 2009 Mobile Social Media was already shaping the way the public interacts with any organisation.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/167177/mobile_social_networks.html

More up to date material on the benefits of Mobile media can be found at the following sites:

http://www.abn.org.au/business-resources/benefits-mobile-apps/

and

http://www.thoughtwm.com/twm-blog/2014/12/10/mobile-marketing-benefits-brands-consumers/

Whilst a lot of the research into Mobile media is related to businesses building brands and engaging with their customers, the same principles apply to a community arts project. By allowing the community to be engaged with the festival at all times, we will drive engagement and help to build the brand of the festival. Additionally, but utilising the in built geotagging and GPS functionality of mobile technology we can ensure that not only is the community able to retrieve information but also able to be involved in contributing to the festival and providing a sense of community ownership.

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Discipline: Internet Communications

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My role is to develop a Design and Concept for the look and feel of the Festival.

This will be used across all the promotional information and informative material which we develop including: logo, brochure, website, app, social media inc. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, outdoor (billboards, street flags, bus, rail), radio, games, school and art competition forms.

The Design and Concept we adopt for the Festival will unify all the different pieces we are developing as a Team and unify our project.

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Example of Aboriginal sites within the Hornsby Shire

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Example of Aboriginal sites within the Hornsby Shire

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Aboriginal Artist: Tony Albert; recent work- tribute to Indigenous Diggers

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Aboriginal Artist: Tony Albert; recent work- tribute to Indigenous Diggers

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Tony Albert's 'confronting' tribute to Indigenous Diggers unveiled in Sydney's Hyde Park

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Conceptual brief to Installation Artist: 

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Conceptual brief to Installation Artist: 

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Working with an Indigenous Australian Sculptor / Installation artist to develop a conceptual brief that would be centred around the importance of the land (trees and fauna) as seen through the eyes of the traditional land owners (i.e. Dreaming). The sculpture would draw upon the knowledge of elders, quotes by Indigenous Artists and Writers, and their own knowledge and links to the land.

The purpose of the sculpture will be to educate and impact on their own perceptions of the Dreaming and their personal links to the land. The education aspect of the installation is to raise awareness of the Indigenous heritage within the shire and provide scientific back up on why it is important to preserve their environment.

Aboriginal Artists that could be considered:

* Tony Albert

* Dale Harding

* Marina Murdilnga

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Menagerie - Contemporary Indigenous Sculpture

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Aboriginal Heritage within the Hornsby Shire and link to Festival:

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Aboriginal Heritage within the Hornsby Shire and link to Festival:

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It is estimated that only 35% of Australian's believe they have a high level of knowledge about Aboriginal Culture. Within the Hornsby Shire there are more than 200 known aboriginal sites dating back 15,000-20,000 years. These sites have great significance to the Darug and Guringai people - the traditional land owners. The Aboriginal Dreaming and their strong links to the land is greatly unknown. A quote by Eddie Kneebone summarises their connection:

"Aboriginal spirituality is the belief that all objects are living and share the same soul or spirit that Aboriginal share...After death a person's spirit returns to the Dreamtime from where it will return through birth as a human, an animal, a plant or a rock. The shape is not important because each form shares the same soul or spirit of the Dreamtime".

Additional information on the Hornsby Shire and its Aboriginal Heritage can be found on the following websites:

www.hornsby.nsw.gov.au/community/community-services/aboriginal-services

www.environment.nsw.gov.au/nswcultureheritage/AboriginalPeopleAndCulturalLife

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Sheltered from the rain Aboriginal story teller Uncle Wes Marne talks about how Aboriginal families used caves and the land as they moved through on their journeys. Inspired by the ancient drawings and stencils on the walls of the hidden cave Uncle Wes tells a story about the Rainbow Serpent.

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I have also researched the newspapers that are available in the Hornsby Shire. I came across various newspapers: The Bush Telegraph, Sydney Observer, and The Hornsby Advocate – which is also known as The Hornsby and Upper North Shore Advocate. Upon consideration, I decided the article would be most appropriate for The Hornsby Advocate. My reason for choosing this newspaper is because it had the broadest delivery area in comparison to the others. This is important as we need as much of the community as possible to know about our festival.  If the article reaches a large customer base we will have more of a chance at a large turnout for our event, plus more people will be educated through the article on the importance of the topic of our event. The Hornsby Advocate also has a twitter page with over 1,000 followers: https://twitter.com/hornsbyadvocate,
plus its newspapers are also accessible online, which would further expand the audience of the article. Below I have attached the online newspaper viewer that my article would be published in, in conjunction with the traditional paper version. This website allows you to search any newspaper, including the Hornsby Advocate, and view it online.

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Since the article I am planning will outline the importance of the local fauna, and how the local flora and fauna connected to and support each other, I have researched the fauna in the area and discovered a number of endangered species in Hornsby Shire. These animals, in the form of an image similar to the example pasted below, will feature in my article to reiterate the importance of our local fauna and their protection. These animals are an integral part of the ecosystems in the Hornsby Shire and without them they would be left imbalanced. A number of problems have led to them becoming endangered, including development and the introduction of non-native species and feral cats.

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In researching the demographic of the Hornsby Shire, I have collated useful statistics and information to allow me a greater insight into the community and in turn give me enough background to create an article that is appropriate to the community. The population of the Hornsby Shire is 168,614 and the population density is 3.65 persons per hectare. The median household income is 1,824 and the largest age group is 45-49, which I will particularly keep in mind when deciding the tone and language used in the article. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population was listed at 565 in 2011. Below is a more in depth look at the population.

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Population, dwellings & ethnicity | Hornsby Shire | profile.id

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The Census usual resident population of the Hornsby Shire in 2011 was 137,261, living in 49,929 dwellings with an average household size of 2.82. Access in-depth demographics for the Hornsby Shire from the population experts, id.

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My contribution to the Foliage Festival will be to conduct research on the demographic, and the importance of the flora and fauna in the Hornsby Shire. This research will be used to draft an article for a local newspaper; the demographic research will allow me to make my article appropriate for its target audience. The purpose of this article will be to provide the community with information outlining the importance of the local flora and fauna and its role. This article will also introduce our event to the community, providing information on its purpose and necessary details for the community to gain a clear idea of the nature of our event.

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Discipline: Communications and Media

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Apart from the contributor event information I think some scientific evidence would assist in giving the Festival some credibility in its theme. The following articles outline how flora benefits us and could be referenced in the booklet.

"Children's Active and Passive Interactions with Plants Influence Their Attitudes and Actions toward Trees and Gardening as Adults."  HortTechnology 15 (3):472-476. by Virginia Lohr and Caroline H. Pearson-Mims. 2005. This article describes how children's interaction with plants has a long lasting effect by later encouraging them as adults to be more focused on gardens.
"Can a park reboot your brain?" McClatchy - Tribune Business News, 04/08/2013 Apr 08. by Jeff Stickler
http://search.proquest.com/docview/1324370041?accountid=10382. In this article testing of mobile heart monitors had an unexpected benefit in that as the testers wore the monitors while walking through a park, their blood pressure dropped.

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Children always add a sense of honesty and enthusiasm to any event. To give some structure and educational value to the primary children, I wanted to provide the outline of a lesson to give to a grade 2 class. For example, it could be about the effect on our environment of cutting down trees. A sample of a possible slide show, taken from TES Australia, shows a power point slide, outlining what happens when a tree is cut down (Adapted from a resource contributed to TES Connect by Steffster http://www.tesaustralia.com/home.aspx ). The children would then be asked to write a little story about a tree and to draw a picture relating to their story and this would be their contribution to the Story Telling competition. Competition Judges would consist of a panel of members of the Hornsby Council, and the top 20 entries would be displayed prominently at the Festival. The Mayor of Hornsby would award prizes to the top 3 winners, who receive the selection of books dealing with Trees, as a memento of the Festival.

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Discipline: Pathways to BA (Literature)

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I feel it is important to tell the story of our Festival, so that the many parts tie together and send out one message, that of our mission statement: Celebrate the role trees play in people’s lives, in fauna conservation and Aboriginal life. Like many parents, I enjoy seeing my childrens' contributions to events. Therefore, my contribution to the event is to organise a booklet and a primary school story telling competition, the results of which will be displayed during the festival. The booklet will be a collation of the team's contributions, thematically consistent with the design team's brief, featuring a short description of the exhibits during the festivals. It will be available to visitors of the Festival and will outline the function and exhibitions. I will also organise a primary school based story telling competition. This involves creating a lesson plan for the teachers and the competition entry form.

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My contribution to the event is organising an exhibition/ catalogue featuring local artists. It will outline the beauty of flora and its influence & appreciation in the creative world. The artworks will be (hypothetically) for sale- as well as a catalogue, with a portion of the proceeds going toward a regeneration project in the local area! I will be posting local artists + artworks to the padlet including information that would be published in the catalogue.

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Discipline: Visual Culture

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The scope of the project is “to educate the locals about the importance of trees in their lives and the lives of the local fauna”. The festival must therefore go to the people as they may not be motivated to come to it. The site should be in an area of dense population, a place people normally visit and with good public transport. Several parks are obvious as they are popular and already treed. They would form an ideal background, but they all have their drawbacks.

Hornsby Mall seems to be the obvious location as it fulfils all of the above criteria.

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Discipline:

· Past – Conservation and Land Management.

· Changing to – Aboriginal Studies

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I would like to develop fauna fact sheets for some of the common fauna reliant on trees. I envisage that there will be minimal facts, such as their size and their interaction with trees, and mostly images so that artists can identify particular design elements, such as colour, pattern and

shape, for art works. I will select images that particularly capture the jizz (overall look) of the animal.

Information on the web is sometimes a little difficult to collect as it is often too technical and the image search can quickly lead to wrong animals if one is not already familiar with the animal in question.
YouTube videos or mp3s will be attached to assist musicians.

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Hornsby Shire Council’s web site has common indigenous trees listed and pdf fact sheets. It also has an electronic herbarium which enables one to search for trees under the heading “General Type”. The Northern Beaches Herbarium web page enables a rapid image search for local trees and their key features (Use the “Identify plants from photos” key).

These web pages should enable artists to select appropriate design elements to engage the local community in the importance of trees.

These web sites should be attached to the web site for the festival.

http://www.hornsby.nsw.gov.au/environment/trees-plants-and-bushland/trees/indigenous-trees

http://www.photosau.com/hornsbyherbarium/scripts/home.asp

http://northernbeachesherbarium.com.au/index2.html

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Trees have many benefits and some of these are not immediately obvious. There are many books and websites that elaborate on these benefits but I am including several sources of information on the Padlet. These sources should be sufficient to trigger informed and creative artworks.

A simple summary of the benefits includes:

· Improvement of air quality

· Provide shade to cool areas

· Reduce wind speed

· Reduce expenditure on energy bills

· Reduce the intensity of stormwater runoff

· Psychological and social benefits

· Improved health

· Habitat value for fauna

These three links are a useful starting point for the benefits of trees in urban areas.

http://www.yourhome.gov.au/passive-design/shading

https://www.treepeople.org/resources/tree-benefits
http://www.asla.org/sustainablelandscapes/vid_urbanforests.html

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I will provide background information on the benefits of trees and information on the local flora and fauna to the project artists. There is a huge array of web sites, containing both written text and images, but these are often difficult to interpret without existing background knowledge. Hopefully this information will provide inspiration for artists to create technically correct, educational and engaging works. I also suggest a venue for the festival.

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Website Design Brief: Design a website which contains the dates times and content of the Festival; a blog area that allows feedback about the Festival; a link to a Festival Facebook page and a link to a Festival Twitter account. Administration: Appoint a website designer to implement the design brief and a media manager to initiate an email campaign to make people aware of the Festival and to register as Festival supporters on the website. Considerations: 1.My colleague Jeff is developing an app as part of the online program. This will be accessible through the website and the Facebook page. 2.The Hornsby Shire has a relatively young population with the majority being under fifty years so it is expected that the online activities can be readily taken up by a large segment of the population. However placement of advertising and stories in traditional media, letter boxing and community noticeboards should not be overlooked. All printed material should have a QR code linking to the website.

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To work with an installation artist to develop a large to very large scale installation where people can walk through. voices of the elders will be heard telling the stories of their ties to the land and that within each living and non living thing is the spirit of ancestors. There will also be a voice of a scientist in the end that will speak to the benefits of preserving our environment for future generations of all people. A video introduction will be placed at the start of the installation so patrons can gain an understanding before entering.

The proposed benefit to the community is increased awareness of the importance of their environment i.e. trees, fauna and the raising of the awareness of Indigenous Australian heritage within the Hornsby Shire.
A video introduction would be positioned at the entry.  The video would provide a brief explanation of the installation i.e. The dreaming and the Indigenous heritage of the shire, and the scientific view of why it is important to preserve our environment.

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Discipline: Visual Culture

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The online presence for the Foliage Festival should reflect its objectives and reaches its target market. To achieve this an interactive website will be designed to work alongside key social media tools, Facebook and Twitter. The design will allow maximum community participation and feedback in the lead up to, the duration of, and aftermath of the Festival. This will be my contribution to the Foliage Festival.

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Discipline: Internet Communications