Name
e-Learning and Entertainment program
Description
The entertainment business of today is booming. Not only digital or video games penetrate all walks of life, digital media all over has become an almost indispensable part of modern western society. With that, an increasing variety of entertainment applications can be found throughout the World Wide Web, ranging from simple avatars in business or health applications to complex creatures in multilayered storytelling in virtual worlds as well as in YouTube clips and social media. Clearly, the media device is not an issue anymore soon most applications will be accessible from any wireless device, in particular via small mobile devices (e.g., smart phones, iPad), making them available anywhere and everywhere. Thus, the role of entertainment in media use, learning and development can hardly be overestimated while the omnipresence of current entertainment fare provides insuperable options for top-notch research and applications in a variety of fields. CAMeRA's research program e-Learning and Entertainment aims at an in-depth understanding of the entertainment functions, uses and effects in learning and development, both from a fundamental and applied perspective. Research pursued in this program is interdisciplinary in scope covering the schools of social sciences, computer sciences, humanities, and psychology. Oftentimes, we also develop materials, tools, and measurement devices in collaborative efforts to meet our goals (e.g., games for diagnosis, training, health coaches, or experimental variations). Research initiatives within CAMeRA cross-bridge a variety of insights, theories, and methodologies from various disciplines to enrich and strengthen each other's research efforts and develop innovative, cutting-edge research in studying the opportunities and challenges that today's new media offer for communication in its broadest sense. Entertainment has a profound impact on and shapes social behaviour of particularly the young; however, entertainment media applications increasingly intrude in the lives of the elderly (e.g., the project Ambient Assisted Living). An important question studied within the research program e-Learning and Entertainment is how entertainment media may serve or hinder individual well-being and well-being in society at large. In general, a better understanding of how entertainment may support or hinder learning processes en what underlying cognitive and affective processes serve such functions, will be helpful in applying appropriate entertainment tools in various applications in the entertainment industry, but also in health, business, commerce, learning, and training environments. Virtual environments as an interface for learning and enjoyment, but also the development of robots with human-like cognitive and empathetic abilities is one of the lines of research within this field with respect to media-interaction. Another line focuses on the effects of the continued growth and widespread use of various media, for example, on language development, aggression, morality, health, relationships, and emotion regulation. CAMeRA's use of entertainment media for research and application are often integrated into the virtual technology that we develop in-house (e.g., see 'Games as research and training tools' below), accessible to all researchers engaged in CAMeRA. The e-Learning and Entertainment program closely collaborates with the e-Health and Care program in terms of the applications but also with e-Language for societal impact and to a lesser extent with e-Heritage on media-semantics.
ParentProject
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Sub-Projects
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Hyperlinks
Project Data
Identifiers
NARCIS_OND: OND1349893
Institutes involved

Network Institute UU,
Netherlands, Amsterdam (Secretariat)
NARCIS_ORG: ORG1242872

Universiteit van Amsterdam,
Netherlands, Amsterdam

Persons involved

Prof.dr. E.A. Konijn (Project leader)
NARCIS_PRS: PRS1287159

Start Date
2012-01-01
End Date
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PhD Project
No
PhD Students involved
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NWO Disciplines
Computer Science
Philosophy
E-health
Game Studies
Media Studies
Research Activities
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Research Techniques
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Research Objects
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