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EDUTAINMENT IN
CARTOGRAPHY
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Edutainment
Education + entertainment
It is difficult to define its characteristics,
but nowadays if the creators want to be
successful the entertainment part is to be
more evident then the education part.
We have to take into account that without
proper guidance, most users (kids, pupils,
students) will deal with only the most
entertaining elements of the program and
neglect the rest.
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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The good edutainment
Basic elements
•educational content,
•interactive components (real time
response),
•attractive interface that can catch the
attention of the users.
The essence of the games is the interactivity
which practically implemented as the rules of
the game.
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Early edutainment
The main types of traditional cartographic
edutainment are the following:
• Puzzle: the elements can be equal in size, but
can be geographic units of the map
(administrative areas like countries or counties).
• Outline (unlettered) map game: the players
have to identify map features, or have to
position them on a map.
• Cross-words: this is the combination of the
normal cross-word and the outline (unlettered)
map.
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Early edutainment
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Early computer games: Commodore
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Early computer games: Amiga
North and South
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Storm across Europe
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Early computer games: Atari
Earth viewes
Agent USA
Earth Views is the first program you can
buy for any personal computer that depicts
a 3-D image of the earth in rotation on any
axis. It's also a geography lesson, trivia
quiz, atlas and adventure game.
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Carmen Sandiego
1986
1988
1989
1991
1993
-
Where
Where
Where
Where
Where
in
in
in
in
in
the USA is Carmen Sandiego?
Europe is Carmen Sandiego?
Time is Carmen Sandiego?
America’s Past is Carmen Sandiego?
Space is Carmen Sandiego?
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Computer games (puzzles)
Learn Europe
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Asia Map Puzzle
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Computer games (edutainment-like)
Europa Universalis
The game covers the
European history from
1419-1820.
War, trade, economy,
corruption, rebellions,
diplomacy, religion, culture,
colonies, exploration etc.
Students should approach
history as a dynamic
process – see how facts
and events came to be.
In the short run the game
is historically accurate, but
the inaccuracy increasing
in long run.
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Computer games (edutainment-like)
Civil war
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
SimCity 4
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Computer games (orienteering)
Navigate
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
WinOL
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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CD-ROM as an important step
From 1985 the CD-ROM has been used as a
computer storage device, but the price was
very high, which didn’t allow fast distribution.
The first CD-ROM products for PC-s were
different dictionaries, handbooks,
encyclopedias (e.g. Microsoft Bookshelf,
1987).
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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CD-ROM – multimedia
Multimedia was the most promising new
function in the first part of 90’s.
Sound, video could be part of the product, but
at that time very few users have invested on
real multimedia PC-s.
• National Geographic Picture Atlas
of the World (1992)
• World Atlas (vector maps)
Hungary, based on a German
product (1994)
• Microsoft Encarta (1995)
• Klaus-Perthes: Mit Alex CD-ROMS
(1997-)
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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CD-ROM – edutainment
Mit Alex auf Reisen
Manó Magyarország
(Troll series: Hungary)
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Encarta
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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CD-ROM nowadays
CD-ROM is the common media for software
distribution. DVD-ROM has much higher
capacity, but due to the different standards
this media is still less popular (except
movies).
For edutainment products the internet
became more important.
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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The web
In the 80’s the Internet was a common place
of researchers, scientists, peoples in higher
educations.
From the beginning of the 90’s the web
became even more important factor of the
computer industry.
Since 1995 the web has influenced the
development of the industry: everybody
wanted to be present on the web, all the
software must be connected somehow to web
based features.
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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The early web development
The most important factor of the 90’s was the
limited bandwith of internet connection. The
majority of internet users were able to use only
modem connection which doesn’t let using rich
multimedia elements. The developments of
hardware industry were able to improve the
connection speed of the internet users (including the
wireless connection).
When Tim Berners-Lee invented the first browser
and the whole web strategy in the beginning of 90’s
the internet was a very static media. Only few
standard file formats were supported (html, gif, jpg).
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Web development
The new techniques of the late 90’s, like Flash, Java,
JavaScript, VRML, SVG let the developers using
multimedia elements to change the static web pages
into dynamic websites.
The standardization effect of the web is also very
important: only the most popular, industry standards
file formats are accepted (plug-ins can give chance
for less known formats), but these formats can
transfer more rich content then ever before.
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Web edutainment - samples
http://www.landkarten-spiele.de/
http://www.dannyg.com/javascript/puzzle/IEmapgame.htm
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Web edutainment - samples
http://www.topocopter.com
http://www.agameaday.com/rainfolder/raingame3.htm
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Web games nowadays
The new trends can give more chance for
edutainment in the web environment. Not every
user is keen on playing complicated, 3D games
which use virtual reality, but these users prefer
simple, easy-to-use, non-violent, relatively short,
intellectual type of entertainment.
Several websites offer these kinds of games.
The majority of internet games are using new
methods: the most amazing and recent element of
internet games is the animation.
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Honfoglaló (Settler) - A popular web game
http://www.honfoglalo.com
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Honfoglaló (Settler) - A popular web game
A strategic game-like edutainment about the 1848 Hungarian revolution, 2004
(sponsored by the Ministry of Education) – the engine is based on Honfoglaló
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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The future of the edutainment
The appearance of the web has altered the map
publishing because on the web the map user is
generally unknown to the map producer, publisher
and their map reading skills are also unknown.
The cartography have more “users” then anytime
before, so the cartographic edutainment now has
better chance then ever before if we take into
consideration the special opportunities of the web
environment.
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.
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Thank you for your attention
László ZENTAI
Associate Professor
Eszter DOMBÓVÁRI
PhD student
[email protected]
[email protected]
Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics
Eötvös Loránd University
Pázmány Péter sétány 1/A, Budapest, Hungary
LÁSZLÓ ZENTAI–ESZTER DOMBÓVÁRI  Edutainment in Cartography
Joint ICA Seminar, Madrid, 6-8 July 2005.