EDIT 797-5T4 – Affinity Bundle
The Affinity Bundle (AB) presented here is designed to present a collection of websites, video games, or media products based on the topic of “Emergency Preparedness.”
The rationale and evaluation rubric for the AB and the selections of its elements are as follows:
Rationale: This topic was chosen largely due to my current employment (Department of Homeland Security) and two decades of work history (United Stated Coast Guard) which has focused on preparing myself and others for successfully prevailing through manmade and natural disasters.
Strategy: Using basic web search tools and knowledge of the industry, I decided not to focus simply on any ONE type of media, but to present a varied collection of items and only required that the item be internet accessible.
Audience: The items of this AB are intended to be most useful for individual ages 16 and higher. I chose this cutoff as somewhat arbitrarily based on my educational background in Adult Education. I chose age 16 as one sociological determiner as it is when young men and women typically begin to make more decisions for themselves (e.g., driving, dating, etc.). Their attitudes towards Emergency Preparedness may be influenced at this point, although they may have a background depending on their upbringing. From this age forward, I generally believe that we have the responsibility to care for others more junior, hence why I am NOT focusing on items which may have more appeal to ages younger than 16.
Because, and this begins to demonstrate my research interests in general, I believe that Adult Learning Theory and Game Design are linked, I have provided a brief overview of six popular tenets of Adult Learning Theory to demonstrate the applicability of these principles insofar as they support quality game design and the evaluation of the items of this AB.
Evaluation: Where appropriate, I used a derivation of the Children’s Interactive Media Evaluation Instrument found at the Children’s Technology Review (http://www.childrenssoftware.com/rating.html).
The modified Instrument or Evaluation Rubric, in order to provide increased relevance for the intended audience, is attached. Each of the six measures was rated on a Likert scale of 1-5, with 1 being Poor and 5 being Superior, 30 being the top score.
On the AB Table, scores are reflected by each measure: Ease of Use (EU), Learner-Centered (LC), Educational (ED), Entertaining (EN), Design Features (DF), Value ($).