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1 INTRODUCTION
The aim of European Commission funded project
REPLAY is to develop a gaming technology
platform to provide young people who have become
marginalised in society as a result of anti social
behaviour with a learning environment to facilitate
their reintegration into society. Although scalable to
a range of marginalised groups such as immigrants,
children with learning disabilities, retirees etc,
REPLAY will focus on the education and
reeducation of young people whose behaviour might
be a problem for the communities in which they live.
The project is funded by the European Commission
under the 7th Framework Programme. It is a
collaboration between seven partners in Spain,
Romania and the UK. The coordinating partner is
Brainstorm Multimedia, a technology company
based in Valencia. Brainstorm lead the game
development phase of the project. Innovatec, an
SME based in Alicante, provides an innovative
balance board interface into the game technology
platform. AIJU, a toy research institute also based in
Alicante, offers feedback throughout the process on
the efficacy of the game. Alexander John Cuza
University is the oldest academic institution in
Romania: the Centre for Applied Research in
Education participate in all phases of work. White
Loop, a London based consultancy, contributes with
particular focus on measuring the social and
organisational impact of the game and developing
pedagogically sound contents. The project has also
established three 'test beds' across Europe: in
Romania, Rotalent, an NGO involved in exploring
how giftedness affects behaviour and
marginalisation; in Spain, the El Cerezo Day Centre,
a facility whose main objective is to help reintegrate
troubled young people back into society through
actively encouraging the development of social
capabilities and values; and Woolwich Polytechnic
in UK, a large technology school in South East
London, who are participating as a volunteer
organisation.
2 CONTEXT
Anti-social behaviour is a significant issue in all
developed societies. In countries like the UK, anti-
social behaviour amongst young people is a political
as much as a social issue. There are many measures
in place across Europe that aim to deal with
instances of anti-social behaviour, many of which
mirror the approach taken to adult crime. This means
a mixture of penalising the offender through a
variety of punitive measures and attempting to
engage offenders in programmes of rehabilitation.
Furthermore, anti-social behaviour is seen largely as
the ‘first stage’ towards an individual becoming
involved in criminal activity when they are older:
there is, as it were, a rising scale of behaviour that
begins with low level anti-social behaviour in school
and can end in serious or violent crime.
Within this context, a view has emerged that
resources should be increasingly focussed on
identifying and addressing individuals with
behavioural problems as early as possible. A
significant body of evidence suggests that by dealing
effectively with children and young people who
display low-level anti-social behaviour, there is a
greater likelihood that these children will avoid
falling into criminal activity as they get older.
Enabling children to understand why they behave in
the way they do, and then helping them break their
behavioural patterns, can be hugely beneficial to the
individual, the school and the community.
Alongside the paradigm of anti-social behaviour is
the emergence, over the last 10-15 years, of
pervasive technology and, within that context, the
profound popularity of video games. Many studies
indicate that the level of interaction between young
people and video games – i.e. those who play these
games regularly – is around 90% if you look at an
age range of 10-14 year olds. As the technology has
developed, these games have become more
immersive in terms of graphics, sound and narrative
and, with the emergence of the Nintendo Wii, more
engaging in terms of physical game play.
Furthermore, engagement with video games is
particularly high amongst those with behavioural
problems, as gaming can provide a sense of control
and freedom to the player that they may struggle to
experience in other parts of their lives. Many
products are now emerging within the serious
gaming paradigm. However, at this stage, the
majority of serious games for children and young
people are focussed on a traditional notion of
teaching and learning: there are serious games to
teach geography, maths, languages, chemistry etc.
The acknowledgement of how positively many
young people respond to a gaming environment and
the associated benefits this can bring to the learning
process are well documented. However, thus far, this
approach has not be applied to the field of behaviour
change. It is here that the REPLAY game sits.
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