Vikas Nath
email: vikas.nath@gmail.com

Artash Nath

Environment Monitoring using Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Technologies A Case Study of the Odd-Even Rule for Pollution Control in Delhi

Keywords: Climate Change, Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Technologies, Delhi, Environmental Monitoring and Policies, Information and Communication technologies (ICT) Odd-Even Rule, Particulate Matter, Pollution, Sensors

195 countries gathered in Paris in 2015 to conclude the legally binding climate agreement to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Continuous environment monitoring is a prerequisite for designing policies which can reduce global climate emissions. Only a handful of countries have the capabilities to carry out advanced climate measurements. Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Technologies can lower the technological and financial barriers for developing countries to monitor climate emissions. The authors made use of environmental COTS technologies along with information and communication technologies (ICT) to assess the impact of pollution control initiatives rolled out by the Delhi government on experimental basis.

Introduction

The historic climate agreement concluded in Paris in December 2015 commits all nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. 195 countries adopted the legally binding global climate deal. Developed nations will provide US $100 billion financing every year from 2020 to fight climate change while all countries will be required to submit to external monitoring of their progress in reducing climate emissions [START_REF]Framework Convention on Climate Change, Conference of the Parties, Twenty-first session, Adoption of the Paris Agreement[END_REF]. The global "stocktaking" will happen every five years, starting in 2023, where countries will be assessed for their performance in cutting emissions compared to their national plans. Significantly, developed and developing countries will monitor, verify and report their greenhouse gas emissions using the same global system. A "Capacity-Building Initiative for Transparency" has been set up to enable developing countries to meet the enhanced data and tracking progress requirements. Continuous monitoring of emissions is the first step to meeting the goal of keeping increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels. It yields scientific data and evidence to assess the effectiveness of existing climate action plans and policies, and in designing newer ones. It compels countries to walk their talk on climate change; share their action plans on mitigating climate change, be transparent in their implementation mechanism, and compare outcomes and performances with other countries.

The climate deal opens up enormous opportunities to use Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products and technologies to set up robust mechanisms for monitoring greenhouse emissions and feed the results in policymaking process.

Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) Technologies

Commercial off-the-shelf products and technologies are standard manufactured rather than custom-made. These are readily available, open to sale to the general public and are less expensive than their custom made counterparts. They have high levels of dependability as they have been tested on a large scale. Support, documentation and compatible technologies are readily available. COTS products and technologies cut down the costs and complexities of creating prototypes and bringing new products into the market. Semiconductor based electronics such as integrated chips and micro-controllers are examples of COTS products that can be purchased cheaply, and are able to withstand temperatures ranging from -40 centigrade to +85 centigrade allowing their operations in industrial environment.

With the growing use of COTS products, designers are engineering them to be more rugged and be able to operate in extreme environments. For instance, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) backed PhoneSat project converted an Android phone into a small satellite for low-cost earth observation bringing down the total hardware cost to $3,500. It showcases how off-the-shelf; commercially available technology can be used for advanced applications.

Environmental COTS

Our planet is being continuously monitored for environmental changes. These include measuring rise in sea-levels, change in ocean temperature, shrinking of polar ice caps, concentration of greenhouse gases in the upper atmosphere, changes in ozone levels and increasing rates of deforestation. Such monitoring is expensive and require technological and financial capabilities which are beyond most countries. Only a handful of countries have the capabilities to deploy weather and meteorological satellites to undertake remote sensing and climate monitoring. Even for gathering ground-based data, developing countries lack the know-how and financial resources to set up multiple environmental monitoring stations. For instance, Delhi -the populous and sprawling capital of India has only 10 stations to monitor pollution data which gives an incomplete picture of the air quality index. Outside Delhi, the data is even scarce.

Access to environmental COTS such as sensors for measuring concentrations of carbon dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, methane, ozone and particulate matters in the atmosphere will improve and democratize environmental data collection. Anyone can purchase a set of sensors, hook them to a microcontroller or even a mobile phone, and upload readily available program to start gathering local environmental data and share the date online. It will be possible to set up a mesh of sensors using COTS technologies such as WI-Fi, ZigBee, Bluetooth and Radio Frequency to aggregate and triangulate the data being gathered. Low cost of new COTS products such as drones and quad copters makes it possible to attach sensors on them and fly them over highways, coastal areas, lakes and forested areas to get detailed environmental data. Access to this 24/7 and on-demand data can trace the source and type of emissions, reduce their volume, check economic losses, and improve public health.

Pollution in Delhi

The world is rapidly urbanizing. More than half of the world's population currently lives in cities, and by 2050 over two-thirds will do so. While cities generate 80 percent of global GDP and are hive of employment, innovation, creativity, and commerce, they also emit almost 71-76 percent of energy related carbon dioxide emissions, and account for 37-49 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions [START_REF]Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report, Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change[END_REF]. Delhi is no different. With a population of over 20 million -the traffic volume is high, the traffic speed low and vehicles idle for a long time at traffic lights. Delhi air is heavily polluted from smoke, dust and exhaust of motor vehicles. As it is a landlocked city surrounded by industrial and agricultural zones, there is very little capacity in the atmosphere to clear itself of the pollutants. It is mainly dependent on rainfall to bring a sudden drop in particulate matter concentration.

Delhi pollution effects everyone -young and old, rich and poor, political class and common people. It is not uncommon for major newspapers and media channels to regularly carry briefings on pollution, the particulate matter count in the air, and its effect on the health of people. It does not help that India still follows Bharat Stage-III equivalent of Euro-III specifications which are 14 years behind the vehicular emission norms followed in Europe.

Odd-Even Experiment in Delhi: Using COTS for Measuring Pollution

On 1 January 2016, the Delhi Government embarked on a two-week Odd-Even experiment to bring down pollution levels. It meant that on "even numbered dates", cars with even numbered registration plates would run while on "odd numbered dates", cars with odd numbered registration plates would run. Similar experiments have been tried out in other cities in the world, including in Mexico, Paris and most noticeably in Beijing where the odd-even formula was imposed ahead of the 2008 Olympics with convincing results. In Delhi, there were several exemptions from the rule, namely two wheelers, public vehicles, cars powered by compressed natural gas (CNG), and cars driven by women could be on the roads at any time.

As we are "makers" and love building things, we planned an experiment while the Odd-Even rule was in effect in Delhi. The objective of our experiment was threefold. First, measure the decrease in pollution levels while Odd-Even rule was in effect. Second, determine how pollution levels vary at different times of the day. Third, come up with findings to reduce the effect of pollution on our health.

We built a "Pollution Sensor" using COTS, namely an Arduino -a low-cost, off-the shelf micro controller, and an Optical Dust Sensor (Shinyei PPD42NS) which is mass produced for measuring pollutants in the air. The Sensor uses infrared scattering to measure particulate matter concentration in the range of 2.5 microns -particles of this size have the greatest effect on human health. We wrote a program to get raw data from the sensor and convert it into particular matter readings (particles per 0.01 cubic feet). The program was uploaded to Arduino. The Arduino instructed the Optical Dust Sensor to take readings every 20 seconds and send it to our laptop. Later we added another low-cost COTS -a temperature and moisture sensor to our "Pollution Sensor" to take more detailed measurements. The data was imported into Excel to make graphs and draw conclusions.

Our experiment ran from 29 December 2015 to 7 January 2016. We took our pollution sensor to different places in Delhi including Paschim Vihar, Punjabi Bagh, Janakpuri, Red Fort, Raj Ghat, Kasmeri Gate, Delhi Domestic Airport, Dhaula Kuan, Safdarjung Enclave and Narela. These venues were in West, East, North, Sound and Central parts of Delhi to get fair representation of pollution levels in the city. The sensor was also taken outside of Delhi to Panipat (Haryana state) and Mumbai (Maharashtra state) to get comparative data for analysis. We even took the sensor high up in the air (in Spice Jet and Indigo airlines) to get cleaner air data for calibration. Observations taken ranged from 30 minutes to 30 hours continuously.

Observations from our Experiment

The particulate matter concentration in Delhi ranged from a thousand particles per 0.01 cubic feet in quiet residential areas to 40,000 particles per 0.01 cubic feet in busy intersections (near Punjabi Bagh and Dhaula Kuan). Fig. 1 shows the average count to be 25,000 particles per 0.01 cubic feet in the busy Chandni Chowk area and never went below the 10,000 mark. In comparison, Fig. 2 shows that the concentration was less than 1000 particles per 0.01 cubic feet in the airline cabin of Spice Jet airlines from Delhi to Mumbai at the cruising height. Fig. 3 shows that particulate matter count was lowest during late morning and afternoon and climbed up rapidly in the evening. Particulate matter concentration was higher at the intersections and where traffic movement was slow. Even though Mumbai has lesser number of vehicles compared to Delhi, the pollution levels were higher (up to 45,000 particles per 0.01 cubic feet) at some of the intersections (on the way from Chakala to the domestic airport) because of slower moving traffic and greater number of diesel vehicles. We did not observe any significant difference in pollution levels when the Odd-Even rule was in effect. In part because variables such as temperature, moisture, sunlight and wind speed change rapidly and measuring their collective impact on pollution level was beyond the scope of the experiment. We found that the particulate matter concentration decreases when temperature increases and increases when the moisture level in the air rises as shown in Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 respectively. This explains why pollution count is low in late mornings when the sun is out and the moisture levels are lower.

Interestingly while our Sensor measured data in particles per 0.01 cubic feet the data collected by the Government through the System of Air Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research stations (SAFAR) collected data was in micrograms per cubic meter. Nevertheless, the trend in pollution levels (of 2.5 micron particles) aligned with each other in most instances. Second, the best time to step outside the home is in late morning when the sun is out and temperature is higher and humidity is low. It is advisable to come back by evening. The worst time to go out is late in the evening when pollution levels starts to rise due to lower temperature and higher humidity.

Third, pollution count changes with local factors. The bursting of fire crackers at the midnight of 31 December 2015 to celebrate the New Year increased the pollution count significantly. The pollution count was found to be lower in areas where trees and bushes are planted. Local actions to curb pollution matters and everyone should do their part.

Suggestions

Odd-Even rule in Delhi brought awareness on the need to act to curb pollution. Health and lives of people are at stake. There should be follow-ups and piloting of other projects and strategies to make Delhi air cleaner. Based on our experiment, we have three suggestions to bring down pollution levels in Delhi and elsewhere. First, there should be more COTS based pollution sensors fielded by NGOs and citizen scientists to gather detailed local data on emissions. This will allow us to identify the major sources of pollution and validate air quality data provided by the government. Second, growing hardy shrubs and bushes on road dividers and trees on the road sides can cut down exposure to particulate matters. Third, free the pavements from commercial encroachments and create cycling paths to promote walking and cycling as an emissions free mode of transport.

COTS and Environmental Sector Start-ups

As climate change affects everyone, it opens up huge markets for products, technologies and services which can reduce the impact of climate change and allow people to lead better quality of lives.

From farming to clean water, and from food supply chains to energy access, the startup sector is growing -boosted by the interest and financing from angel investors and venture capitalists. Disposable pollution masks vending machines, wearables that repel pollutants, collar sensors that warn people when entering high pollution zones, and mobile air purifiers are COTS based products that are already in the market. Innovative products and services are also being developed through hackathons, in incubation zones, maker spaces, and in garages and basements of young entrepreneurs. The spread of environment maker fairs and the rise of sharing economies can only catalyze the adoption and scaling up of COTS for addressing climate change.

Fig. 1 .Fig. 2 .

 12 Fig. 1. One-hour Pollution Level Count at Chandni Chowk. Delhi. India (5 January 2016)

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. Pollution Levels Peak during Evenings and Drop in the Afternoon (36-hour observation from 31 December 2015 -1 January 2016)

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. Pollution Levels Decrease with Temperature (26-hour observation from 11 am, 6 Jan to 1 pm, 7 Jan 2016)

Fig. 5 .

 5 Fig. 5. Pollution Levels Increase with Humidity (26-hour observation from 11 am, 6 Jan to 1 pm, 7 Jan 2016)

Fig. 6 .

 6 Fig. 6. The Mask Effect: Face mask cuts pollution intake by half


Leonel Morales Díaz

Laura S Gaytán-Lugo

Computer Animation as a Vehicle for Teaching Computational Thinking

Keywords: computational thinking, computer animation, programming languages, animation patterns

des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

Introduction

Introductory programming languages often categorized as first programming environments, like Scratch [START_REF]Lifelong Kindergarten Group at the MIT Media Lab[END_REF], Alice [START_REF]Alice.org[END_REF] and others, can be used to produce moving images and animated stories that range in quality from the rudimentary to highly complex and elaborated. In fact, children, teenagers and adults enrolled in courses that use these environments end up creating animations even if the purpose of the course was to merely teach them how to program. Producing digital animated films is a task that requires, among others, skills in graphic design and computer programming among others [START_REF] Hegg | The Art of Programming in Computer Animation[END_REF], [START_REF] Parent | Computer animation: algorithms and techniques[END_REF]. Several concepts and techniques applied in computer animation are employed by users of first programming environments without realizing that fact. Duration of movements, coordination of several acting agents, change of scenes, interactions between characters, appearance modification, simultaneity, parallel programming, camera movements and several others appear naturally without fancy names in environments like Scratch, Alice, Kodu Game Lab [START_REF]Kodu Home[END_REF], Stencyl [START_REF] Stencyl | Stencyl: Make iPhone, iPad, Android & Flash Games without code[END_REF], and Snap [START_REF]Snap![END_REF].

If attendants to computer programming courses that use those environments knew in advance that they would be creating animations and that the skills they learn would actually be of use in a prospective career in computer animation they would feel more motivated to enroll. Knowing only the information the course name provides it is difficult for them to infer that. The importance and effects of choosing a meaningful and attractive title has been studied in other contexts as presented in [START_REF] Hairston | Successful Writing[END_REF].

On the other hand, if the name of a course on computer programing is going to be changed to something like "computer animation" then the teacher has to be sure that they are is actually teaching the subject. For that purpose, a switch in the emphasis has to be made from teaching programming structures to practicing animation patterns.

In the following sections we will discuss in more detail these three ideas: animation patterns instead of programming structures, utility of the approach to acquire skills that are valuable for the animation industry, and attractiveness of animation in contrast to that of "pure" computer programming to young audiences. The research paths that can be followed to develop these approaches will also be portrayed.

The viewpoints presented in this work are rooted in several years of experience conducting computer animation workshops using first programming environments, aimed precisely to introduce students to computational thinking at the same time. A special section describing these experiences is included.

Because computational thinking is regarded as a fundamental skill in the 21 st century world [START_REF] Wing | Computational Thinking[END_REF], instructional approaches that make it more accessible to young audiences are important to explore and include in the research agenda especially in those countries and regions where the positive impact of technology is expected to be the greatest.

Animation Patterns vs. Programming Structures

Traditional introductory programming courses are based on syllabi that include explaining algorithms and several programming structures like decision, loops, variables and types, procedures, definition, etc., that are common to many programming languages [START_REF] Gaytán-Lugo | Joint Task Force on Computing Curricula[END_REF]. Examples of use are presented with each structure hoping that students will understand the general idea behind each one. First programming environments can be used to teach programming in that way [START_REF] Resnick | Scratch: Programming for All[END_REF], [START_REF] Flanagan | Introduce Programming in a Fun, Creative Way[END_REF] but also to teach computer animation [START_REF] Dann | Education: Alice 3: concrete to abstract[END_REF].

If the emphasis is to be switched to computer animation then instead of structures the syllabus could be based on teaching and practicing animation patterns. Each pattern represents a technique to create an animated scene and actually provides an opportunity to employ programming structures, only within the context of animation. The approach does not guarantee that all programming structures will be covered, although there is no reason to think that it is not possible, most likely only a subset of them will be constantly used and practiced.

An important difference regards learning the syntax of a programming language. In the traditional approach the syntax plays an important role. It has to be learned at the same time that programming structures have to be understood burdening the attention of students [START_REF] Lahtinen | A study of the difficulties of novice programmers[END_REF], [START_REF] Jenkins | On the difficulty of learning to program[END_REF]. In introductory programming environments the syntax is much less demanding or even completely taken care of, like in block programming [START_REF] Flanagan | Introduce Programming in a Fun, Creative Way[END_REF], [START_REF] Dann | Education: Alice 3: concrete to abstract[END_REF].

Animation Patterns

An animation pattern involves specific movements and effects that are useful and significant in the context of a story told with computer-generated images. The pattern is abstract and requires programming to be implemented with particular characters or objects. The animation patterns thus provide the context to make the programming relevant and meaningful.

Patterns range from the most basic frame by frame and loop through images, to multi-character scenes with interactions among objects that decide in each step what their next movement will be. To use the patterns in a course they must be previously collected, classified according to difficulty or relatedness, and exemplified in an animation that students can build during a class. The goal is to develop in them the ability to use any pattern with any character or scene whenever is needed, which requires a flexibility of mind, a competence for abstraction, and of course programming skills. A suggestion for pattern classification follows:

 Basic patterns with a single character: movement, turns, flips, bouncing, resizing, sudden appearance, fading, color changing.  Compound patterns: advancing and jumping, moving and turning, resizing and appearing-disappearing.  Interactive patterns between two or more characters: conversation, coordinated movement, approaching, contact, dancing, contrasting movement, races, collisions.  Patterns involving backgrounds: switching background, moving background behind still images, adding elements to background.  Patterns that use randomness: random movement, random turns, random drawing, random movement over one axe, random resizing.  Patterns of interaction with the user: responding to clicks, responding to keypresses, basic games.

Programming Structures through Animation Patterns

As students practice with patterns they employ repeatedly the programming structures needed for the pattern. Advancing a pattern or innovating on it can lead the student to learn autonomously the new programming structures needed or ask the teacher for guidance. Teachers have to be well versed in how to use the different programming structures available in the environment being used, and also they have to be ready to use the questions students make to introduce those structures [START_REF] Assiter | Exploratory learning with Alice: experiences leading a computer science workshop for girl scouts[END_REF]. Not being properly prepared for such situations can be detrimental of the educational process [START_REF] Bayón | Formación del profesorado con scratch: análisis de la escasa incidencia en el aula[END_REF].

Value of Computer Animation Skills

Although some first programming environments are well capable of generating high quality animations and video effects they are not the tool of choice for professionals in the industry. It is highly improbable that a person that masters Alice, Scratch or similar, could be hired in an animation company only on that basis, or at least common job descriptions in the industry so suggest (confront for example [5]).

On the other hand animation concepts used in professional settings are not that different compared to those that can be learned using first programming environments. Finding if students that already master animations in first programming environments are more prepared to learn specialized animation software and tools would provide a strong argument not only for learning animation with first programming environments but also to hire young apprentices in animation companies provided they already do animations in those environments and will complete instruction inside the company. The proposed animation pattern set is subject to fine-tuning to align with industry requirements [START_REF] Dann | Education: Alice 3: concrete to abstract[END_REF].

Attractiveness of Computer Animation

It is very easy to assume that computer animation would be more attractive for young learners than computer programming. It seems that the concept of computer animation is closer to them thanks to the film industry, video games and the pervasiveness of animation in web pages. Finding if in fact when presented with two options for a course, one framed as computer animation and the other as computer programming, students would prefer the first option is a research challenge by itself. Offering courses on computer animation may also have an effect on future enrollment in computer programming because a first contact between students and programming environments would already be made. Confirming or rejecting these hypothesis would require long term studies. Nevertheless, even if enrollment is not increased the value of computational thinking instruction is by itself a goal worth seeking especially in less developed regions because an important portion of current and future requirement of every job position is related to that skill [START_REF] Hu | Computational thinking: what it might mean and what we might do about it[END_REF].

On the other hand we have some experience accumulated after several years offering free computer animation workshops using Scratch or Alice for middle and high school students (Fig. 1) and sometimes also for teachers in which case the pedagogical approach is emphasized.

These workshops have been successful in providing an enjoyable first experience with computer programming through computer animation. In the case of Alice workshops, we have recently started paying special attention to how students engage with the language and found that they do in one of four possible waysas described in previously published works [START_REF] Diaz | Interaction Styles in Alice: Notes and Observations from Computer Animation Workshops[END_REF], [START_REF] Diaz | Profiling styles of use in Alice: Identifying patterns of use by observing participants in workshops with Alice[END_REF] and shortly described in the following subsections.

Alice Styles of Use

The styles of use or styles of interaction with Alice are particular and distinct ways in which students engage with the platform after an introductory lesson. They become especially apparent when participants are invited to explore freely the environment and build the animation of their choice. The identified styles are four: instruction follower, scene designer, dialogue storyteller and action animator.

Instruction Followers. Students that prefer to follow instructions and copy the actions and choices of the instructor through all the workshop. They tend to use the same characters and to place them as similarly as possible as the instructor is doing on her screen. When they are told to explore and work freely they keep working on the same animation in order to make it a better copy of the model. Usually all students start the workshop following instructions but instruction followers persevere for most time. In fact they seem to enjoy achieving the perfect copy.

Scene Designers. Some students seem less interested in adding movement to their animation and prefer to use Alice as a kind of artist composition tool to create beautiful scenes. These are scene designers. They enjoy adding elements and decorations, changing colors, rearranging components and moving the point of view of the scene using camera movements.

Dialogue Storytellers.

A popular style among girls although not limited to them. Dialogue storytellers enjoy placing characters in the scene and making them chat using the "say" and "think" commands. Their code usually includes long sequences of those instructions. They like to modify the dialogues and watch the resulting story.

Action Animators. Some students seem to have a special ability to understand the programming model in Alice and start using advanced commands to create complex animations in which the story is not the central element but the intensity of the action. These are the action animators.

A Reflection on Styles of Use and Computer Animation

The study of the different styles of use is still a work in progress, although it allows a brief reflection: would such styles have become noticeable in a setting in which computer programming is emphasized instead of computer animation? If a computer animation course teaches computational thinking as well as a computer programming course but also adds the benefit of being friendlier with different mindsets of students then the computer animation approach seems to be more beneficial. Once again, this idea deserves a specific research effort.

Conclusions

This paper has outlined the general idea of using first programming environments like Alice, Scratch, Kodu Game Lab and others, to teach computer animation instead of computer programming but at the same time introduce many concepts and practice structures that are usually part of a computer programming course. One of the points of the article is that computer animation leads to learn computational thinking at the same time.

Three ideas were discussed: animation patterns in computer animation courses replace programming structures as the component units of the syllabus, the expected value of skills and concepts learned with first animation environments for the computer animation industry, and how the attractive of computer animation courses could be greater than that of pure computer programming courses. Each of these ideas induces questions and opens paths of research.

The different styles of use in the particular case of Alice were briefly explained as a first result after some years offering free computer animation workshops with that environment. A computer animation perspective seems to be better suited to accommodate the spontaneous apparition of those styles leading to a more pleasant experience for a wider audience, but at the present time this remains a hypothesis pending validation.

There could be other approaches to teach computer animation that do not require first programming environments but the high availability and the increasing familiarity with them that schools and teachers have, makes them an option worth considering. Additionally the introduction and exposure to computational thinking that is possible with first programming environments seems to make them a better choice in regard of the requirements of modern world technology and labor market.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Computer Animation Workshop for middle school students in Guatemala, using Alice.


Eduardo Ramírez Elizondo
email: eramireze@uned.ac.cr

Identification of Design Patterns for Serious Games in an Educational Videogame Designed To Create Awareness on Dengue and Malaria Fever

Keywords: dengue, malaria, design patterns, educational videogames, serious games

An educational videogame may sound like the perfect solution to combine an educational process with a fun experience. Even though this holds true in some cases, most of the times educational games do not guarantee positive results in the cognitive development of the player. This is because they are designed to contain educational-related topics but do not focus on the real impact that is achieved on the player. In this paper, we identify different design patterns in the educational videogame "Pueblo Pitanga: Enemigos Silenciosos" and we share the results of applying these patterns and the impact the players. This videogame was designed to create awareness on Dengue and Malaria fever in young kids and teenagers. It was designed and developed by Green Lava Studios for the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO).

Introduction: Creating Fun and Educational Experiences

Nowadays, videogames are part of everyday's life activities in popular culture. They are available in personal computers, mobile devices and specific gaming consoles (e.g.: PlayStation 4, Nintendo 3DS, etc.). These products are getting more popular in current generations, as they have become a basic product of consumption [START_REF] Lewis | Motivational Game Design Patterns of 'Ville Games[END_REF]. Younger generations, like Generation X and Y, grew up with these technologies, making these technologies a natural and straightforward environment of virtual interaction for them. Videogames have an important role as entertainment resources for these generations. Through a videogame a player can get involved in decision making processes. This very important characteristic allows the player to learn from a good or bad decision, which enables the player to go through the natural process of learning, as a result of previous actions.

Educational games, also known as Serious Games, are known for being used for purposes outside simple entertainment, e.g.: advertising, military training, social studies, science learning, etc. Serious Games have the potential to adapt the decision making requirements in order to teach a specific topic to a player. For the aforementioned reasons, an educational videogame may appear as the perfect way to educate younger generations. Even though this holds true in some cases, most of the times educational games do not guarantee positive results in the cognitive development of the player. This is because they are designed to contain educationalrelated topics but do not focus on achieving a real impact on the player. Moreover, there is a lack of assessment tools to analyze serious games and there is insufficient knowledge on their impact on players [START_REF] Mitgutsch | Purposeful by Design?: A Serious Game Design Assessment Framework[END_REF]. According to Huynh-Kim-Bang et al. [START_REF] Huynh-Kim-Bang | Design patterns in serious games: A blue print for combining fun and learning[END_REF], a way to achieve positive learning results from an education game is by using appropriate design patterns for educational games. The different design patterns that were considered in this paper are described in Section 2.

The main objective of this paper is to identify the design patterns that were applied in the educational videogame "Pueblo Pitanga: Enemigos Silenciosos" and to analyze if positive learning results were achieved in the players after playing the game. The videogame is an action/adventure platformer game. It was designed to create awareness, in young kids and teenagers, of vector-borne diseases like dengue fever, malaria, and diarrhea. Using a dynamic dialog system inspired by "The Secret of Monkey Island" by LucasArts, the game tells the story of a boy named Fabio. The developers used an approach similar to MDA (Mechanics, Dynamis, Aesthetics). MDA is a formal approach to understanding games that attempts to bridge the gap between game design and development, game criticism, and game research [START_REF] Robin | MDA: A formal approach to game design and game research[END_REF], (see example in section 3.2.1). Plot of "Pueblo Pitanga: Enemigos Silenciosos": Fabio, the main character, finds out that his sister Luisa is in the hospital because of a mysterious illness. Now he must find out all about this disease. As Fabio starts his journey many other residents of Pueblo Pitanga also start getting sick; however, this time they are showing different symptoms to those that Luisa had. During the journey, Fabio and a group of friends will identify different diseases and will recognize the poor hygiene conditions in the town, all while learning how to solve these problems. In the end, the problems are solved thanks to the joint effort of all the neighbors, the government, private entities and schools. The main goal is to teach the players how to maintain a town free of pest breeding grounds. In order to do this, Fabio, with help of the town's community, learns the process of eliminating mosquito hatcheries in a proper way.

Outline of this paper: This paper is outlined as follows. Section 1 presents the introduction, Section 2 summarizes the work developed by Mitgutsch et al. [START_REF] Huynh-Kim-Bang | Design patterns in serious games: A blue print for combining fun and learning[END_REF], from which the design patterns for educational games that are applied in this paper were obtained. Section 3 identifies the specific design patterns that were applied in the game "Pueblo Pitanga: Enemigos Silenciosos" through concrete examples of the game. Section 4 presents results about the impact of the game in the learning process of the users and their cognitive development in the topic. Section 5 presents the conclusions of the paper.

Design Patterns

An educational system must be able to successfully implement a learning process in order to teach and transmit knowledge to the user. Serious Games need to include such a learning process during the gameplay time in order to successfully teach the specified topic to the player. A way to implement this is by using the design patterns for educational games identified by the authors of the paper "Design Patterns in Serious Games: A Blue Print for Combining Fun and Learning" [START_REF] Huynh-Kim-Bang | Design patterns in serious games: A blue print for combining fun and learning[END_REF].

Design patterns allow a more effective design of an educational game. In the work of Mitgutsch et al., design patterns were identified using an empirical method to understand the difference in patterns used in videogames and serious games [START_REF] Huynh-Kim-Bang | Design patterns in serious games: A blue print for combining fun and learning[END_REF]. The authors identified and classified common methods to create fun and educational fun environments. They identified which elements were ludic (playful) and which conducted to the learning process.

The design patterns were arranged in six main categories and they were organized by the level of abstraction: Context, Learning Agents and Fun Aspects. In Table 1, the six categories are represented with letters A, B, C, D, E and F, each category is sub-classified in design patterns (each bullet point is a design pattern). These patterns should be applied during the game design.

Table 1.

Pattern classification, as proposed in [START_REF] Huynh-Kim-Bang | Design patterns in serious games: A blue print for combining fun and learning[END_REF]. The patterns that were identified in the game analyzed in this paper are underlined.

CONTEXT LEARNING ASPECTS

A-When do you need to combine entertainment and learning?

B-How to make interaction instructive?

Pattern Identification

In order to identify the design patterns in the game "Pueblo Pitanga: Enemigos Silenciosos", the description of the design patterns presented in [START_REF] Huynh-Kim-Bang | Design patterns in serious games: A blue print for combining fun and learning[END_REF] were thoroughly studied and afterwards recognized in the videogame. It was possible to identify that the developers applied several design patterns in their videogame. The design patterns that were distinctly applied and recognized are listed below: The identified patterns are underlined in Table 1. In this paper, each of the identified patterns is described with the help of an example taken from the videogame "Pueblo Pitanga: Enemigos Silenciosos". Due to the fact that multiple design pattern were recognized in the game, including patterns related to context, learning aspects and fun aspects, it is expected that results of the impact in the users will be positive. The results of the evaluation of the impact in the players will be shown in Section 4.



Context

Pattern A: When do you need to combine entertainment and education?

Pattern: Game-Based Learning Blend. As it is described in [START_REF] Huynh-Kim-Bang | Design patterns in serious games: A blue print for combining fun and learning[END_REF], this approach is achieved by involving teams with different expertise: the game experts and the knowledge experts. In this case, Green Lava Studios was in charge of the entertainment and the medical doctors in PAHO were in charge of providing the knowledge related the different diseases. In this project, Green Lava had creative freedom to create a proposal. The doctors provided basic ideas about how the game had to be played. In the end, both parties proposed their different solutions and decided that a dynamic dialogue system was the best choice to blend the educational information and humor in a simple flowing conversation with the different characters. At this point, Green Lava took the decision of simulating the style of Monkey Island´s humorous dialogue system.

3.2

Learning Aspects

Pattern B: How to make interaction instructive?

Pattern: Questions and Answers. This approach is mainly used when the amount of information that will be included in the game is not yet defined or clear. The implementation of questions and answers during the gameplay provides flexibility, since content can be adapted easily in this way [START_REF] Huynh-Kim-Bang | Design patterns in serious games: A blue print for combining fun and learning[END_REF]. Since the dengue problem includes a wide amount of factors, it was decided to adapt the content using this pattern. This was implemented by inserting questions during the conversations with characters. In the game, three options are given to the player in order to answer the character´s question, see Fig 1 . If the player selects an incorrect answer, the progress to complete the level gets slower. Green Lava designed the dialogue system in a way to allow the player perceive the questions as a regular conversation, this falls under the MDA approach. Pattern: In-Situ Interaction. According to Mitgutsch and Alvarado [START_REF] Huynh-Kim-Bang | Design patterns in serious games: A blue print for combining fun and learning[END_REF], to make learners more aware of abstract concepts, it is useful to let them experience narrative and emotional contexts. Dengue and Malaria are problems that are related to bad hygiene of a community. These communities often face poverty and have a bad infrastructure. In order to make learners more aware of the abstract concept of this problem, the scenes were made with high details in terms of narrative and emotional context, for example: there is a neighborhood in the game where characters with good intentions want to collaborate to fight the mosquito spread, but they are not on a financial position to fix their own roofs (the player experiences the associated limitations).

Later in the game, the city mayor helps fixing these roofs in order to keep the rest of the town safe.

Fig. 2. Example illustration the pattern

In-Situ Interaction. In this case the conditions of the neighborhood are experienced by the player.

Pattern C: How to initiate the reflective process?

Pattern: Time for Action / Time for Thought. The method of this design pattern is to create intensive action phases and to conclude with a less intensive phase dedicated to thought and reflection [START_REF] Huynh-Kim-Bang | Design patterns in serious games: A blue print for combining fun and learning[END_REF]. The topic that was identified to use this method was the fumigation process during a mosquito breeding emergency. Even though fumigation is used for mosquito control, the community must be aware that this action is needed only in extreme cases. This is because fumigation has a negative impact in the environment and because mosquitoes can gain resistance to the venom. In the game, the player controls a fumigation machine in order to kill mosquitoes. After this action phase, the player discovers that a beekeeper has lost his small business because "something" killed all his bees. At this point, the purpose of the scenario is to make the player reflect on the fact that fumigation can affect other species, and that it is better to avoid fumigation when possible. A solution is fighting against the mosquito in an earlier phase of the mosquito breeding emergency. Pattern: Reified Knowledge. Sometimes, the educational topic is an abstract concept that is hard to be identified as "gained knowledge" by the players. To make the player aware of this "gained knowledge", the "gained knowledge" should be represented as an object or game item [START_REF] Huynh-Kim-Bang | Design patterns in serious games: A blue print for combining fun and learning[END_REF]. An example of this kind of concepts, is the learning process of communicating a message to a community. In the game, the player must alert other neighbors about the presence of the mosquitoes, the threat they represent and the way in which they should fight them. After successfully completing this task, the player will receive "the communication medal". In this way, the game shows the player that a new knowledge was acquired.

Fun Aspects

Pattern E: How to motivate users?

Pattern: Fun Reward -Object Collection. During the gameplay, diamonds are given to the player when they complete a task. The player can buy additional mini-games inside the game and complete achievements. These games are not related to the main topic of the game, they are designed for pure entertainment. This gives the player a different motivation to finish the game.

Results and Analysis

In order to evaluate if the videogame provided more than just entertainment to the users, several testing sessions were made during and after the development of the game. As described in Section 3, it was identified that several patterns were implemented in the game "Pueblo Pitanga: Enemigos Silenciosos" in order to increase the chance of success during the learning process. The objective of this section is to show if a considerable difference in the knowledge of the students was be observed before and after they played the game.

In this paper we have considered that a difference in correct answers of more than 10% with respect to the first attempt is considered successful. This percentage of 10% was selected by the design team. The tests were made with a focus group of 80 Costa Rican students from 9 to 16 years old. These tests consisted on a set of questions in a separate paper about the educational material. The same set of questions were asked before and after playing the game.

The game itself was evaluated as "excellent" by 90% of the students (see Figure 6). Also specific elements of the game, such as graphics, characters, music and sounds were evaluated as "excellent by more than 75% of the students. Additionally, 90% of the students considered the game itself "very fun", therefore the goal of making a fun game was achieved. Regarding the learning experience (see Figure 7), before playing the game, the correct answers from all the players gave a total of 54.7%. Once the players finished the game, the total of correct answers increased to 75.3%. An increase in correct answers was observed in 100% of the students of the focus group. An improvement of 20.6 percent points was achieved. This indicates that the objective of the game was attained and that the application of the design pattern proved to create positive results. The game not only provided entertainment, but did comply with the requirements stated by the PAHO and the expectation of the designers.

In future work it would be interesting to analyze if a correlation with age and background exists. The designers of the game agree that the application of the selected identified patterns were crucial for the success of the results.

Conclusions

The main objective of this paper was to identify the design patterns that were applied in the educational videogame "Pueblo Pitanga: Enemigos Silenciosos" and to analyze if positive learning results were achieved in the players after playing the game. Design patterns are strong tools for the game design and development of an educational or serious game. They help the game experts and knowledge experts to simplify tasks in order to communicate and teach a specific topic in the game, always looking for a balance between fun and learning. The patterns and results exemplified in this paper help to understand how to correctly implement game mechanics and educational topics with different techniques or methods. Depending on the topic of the serious games, the implementation of these patterns are always subject to the amount and quality of detail of the educational material that the knowledge expert intends to teach. The game experts are the ones in charge of finding a balance between education and entertainment using these design patterns. The game experts will need to identify the desired pattern in relation with the type of knowledge or data that the player must learn.

From the results it can be observed that there was a significant improvement in the answers of the students. An improvement of more than 20 percent points in good answers was obtained in the test after the students played the videogame "Pueblo Pitanga: Enemigos Silenciosos". The designers of the game agree that the application of the selected identified patterns were crucial for the success of the results.

In future work it would be interesting to compare two versions of the same game, one in which the educational design patterns are applied and one in which they are removed. This would allow an even more precise quantification of the benefits of using the described design patterns.

  CONTEXT: A: Game-based Learning Blend  LEARNING ASPECTS: B: Questions-Answers  LEARNING ASPECTS: B: In-Situ Interaction  LEARNING ASPECTS: C: Time for Action / Time for Thought  LEARNING ASPECTS: C: Reified Knowledge  FUN ASPECTS: E: Fun Reward/ Object Collection

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. Example illustration the pattern Questions and Answers. Please note that for every question there are three possible answers. The progress in the game depends on the answer.

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. Example illustration the pattern Time for Action / Time for Thought. The first illustration shows the action (fumigation) and the second illustration the consequence (bees been killed).

Fig. 4 .

 4 Fig. 4. Example illustration the pattern Reified Knowledge. The first illustration when Fabio is receiving a "communication medal" after completing a task.

Fig. 5 .

 5 Fig. 5. Example illustration the pattern Fun Reward -Object Collection.

Fig. 6 .

 6 Fig. 6. Results of the answers given by the students about the videogame

ASPECTS C-How to initiate the reflective process? E-How to motivate users?

		Serious Games		Instructive Gameplay
		o Game-based Learning Blend		o	Questions-Answers
					o	Pavlovian Interaction
					o	In-Situ Interaction
					o	Microworld Interaction
					o	Social educative Interaction
					o	Teachable Agents
					o	Varied Serious Gameplay
					New Perspectives
					Rapid Feedback
	FUN 	Time for Action / Time for Thought
		Fun Reward o Serious Boss o Graduating Ceremony		o o Advanced Indicators Debriefing Reified Knowledge
		o o o	Object Collection Local Competition Protégé Effect	D-How to convey information without disturbing game immersion?
		o	External Competence Validator		Hollywoodian Introduction
		Fun Context		Museums
		o	Fantasy World		Informative Loading Screen
		o	Comic relief		On the grapevine
		o	Serendipity
		o	Narrative Structure
	F-How to help users advance in the game
		Smooth Learning Curve
		o Tutorials
		Pace and path choice

Acknowledgments. The author would like to thank the Pan American Health Organization for their support during the execution of the project and the Universidad Estatal a Distancia for the support during the making of this paper.


Paul Thabano

Tapela Nleya
email: nleyapt@mopipi.ub.bw

Transformative Applications of ICT in Education: The Case of Botswana Expansive School Transformation (Best) Project

Keywords: Activity theory, change laboratory, developmental work research, expansive, transformation and ethnography

des établissements d'enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés.

Introduction

The Government of Botswana hosted WITFOR during 2005 organized by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) in Gaborone. The general theme of the forum was ICT for accelerated development and one of the sub-themes was Education. The work on this theme was based on IFIP's expert group declaration of July 2005, the Stellenbosch declaration: ICT in Education: make it work [START_REF]IFIP: The Stellenbosch declaration[END_REF]. The declaration described the challenges of ICT use in education in the developing countries and gave a number of important recommendations. It highlighted the need to use ICT for integrating education to the real world. It also recommended bridging the gap between technologies as well as developing and understanding the use and the effects of ICT in education. The WITFOR Education Commission sought to pursue this trend by launching the Best project. The Botswana educational system is organized into three levels: primary, secondary with the junior and senior divisions (3 year junior and 2 year senior high), and post-secondary education of diverse types. Primary is organized into standards and currently takes seven years. The study Change Laboratory (CL) studies focused on one junior and two senior secondary schools

Objectives of Study

The objectives of the Best Project were identified taking into account that more systematic understanding of educational change is needed in the area of ICT [START_REF] Wagner | Monitoring and Evaluation of ICT in Education Projects: A Handbook for Developing Countries[END_REF]. They proposed that education projects should aim to coordinate the introduction of computers with national policies and programs related to changes in curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, and teacher training, and respectively, start to think in terms of combinations of input factors that can work together to influence learning. In addition, capacity building should be at the heart of the renewal of effective and high quality work in ICTs and education. The objectives of the BeST Project were discerned into four categories:

 To enhance teachers' capabilities to perform as change agents in the era of ICTs.

To carry out developmental interventions in collaboration with local practitioners and academic researchers and design required pedagogical transformation and reinvent school-community relations aimed at preparing students to be competitive in the global employment market through broadening their learning perspectives using ICTs.

 To facilitate school transformations related to creative use of ICTs. The research component to focus on the pedagogical use of ICT's in schools and the advancement of collaboration between schools and the surrounding community. To extend the infrastructure of intellectual capacities for school renewal and establish innovative learning and knowledge communities that stimulate, support and advance school and community experiments and local developmental actions. To go beyond borders through the construction of genuine interaction between schools, community development and academic research in order to make possible learning and systematic knowledge creation on the ICT's use in schools and communities.

 To build collaborative human capacity infrastructure between the University of Botswana and Helsinki University. In reaching these objectives, the project is not designed to transfer models of using ICTs from developed countries, but utilizes their experiences as resources for reflecting innovatively on the current practices and future trajectories of the development of schools in Botswana [START_REF] Serpell | Multiple Perspectives and Constraints on Progressive Social Change: A Commentary[END_REF]. An implementation plan was made where the CL method, and its use in the development of school activity and the pedagogical use of ICT's in schools were introduced. An inter-organizational interest group, the Activity Theory Interest Group (ATIG) was involved in the negotiations to direct and guide the use of CL in schools. The Government of Botswana had previously selected ten schools to act as pilot schools of the Best project. In each school, a heterogeneous (across curriculum) group of teachers was formed to assist in the implementation of ICTs.

Excerpt 1 (Speaker from university): the best way is to go and build a net, you know, a small interest group around ourselves so at least at the end of the day we have multiplied, you know this cascading, so here the department is very committed because we are transforming it.

Excerpt 2 (Speaker from non-formal/community education): It could be nice if we have already conceptualized ourselves as one thing. I mean different individual parts of a system where we will be all contributing to the larger Botswana system posed at the university.

Inspired by the work done by WITFOR Education Commission, an international group of researchers was formed for supporting teachers' ICT competence in Southern African Developing Communities (SADC). The Academy of Finland granted a two-year research grant for a feasibility study (2007)(2008). A substantial research plan was prepared in collaboration with researchers from Helsinki University and the University of Botswana through negotiations with representatives of the Ministries of Education, Communication Science, and Technology, as well as specialists in distant and non-formal learning sectors of education in Botswana. Based on this collaboration, the Academy of Finland further allotted a four-year funding (2009 -2012) for the project.

In developing country contexts, there is a lack of research on the application of ICTs to teaching and learning in school-based settings and only few examples of investigations into how mobile technologies can be used in education [START_REF] Serpell | Multiple Perspectives and Constraints on Progressive Social Change: A Commentary[END_REF]. Being school-based, the Best Project has significance of investigating the ways in which new forms of technology can enhance teachers' capabilities and improve knowledge and professionalism in Botswana and delineate own way to modern information society. Four interconnected developmental processes have been intertwined in the project: 1) the development of activity in ten pilot schools from which three schools were studied by using Change Laboratory method; 2) the development of a group of change agents at the University of Botswana and its capability to carry out developmental interventions in schools; 3) the development of boundary crossing collaboration and object-oriented interagency among participants (including officials responsible for school development, teacher training, and ICT implementation), and 4) the develop-ment of collaborative activities between Finnish investigators and those of SADC region.

Theoretical Frameworks

The Best project is based on the expansive learning theory and Developmental Work Research, which have their foundations in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. Activity Theory has an emphasis on semiotic and cultural mediation of human conduct, and human development [START_REF] Leach | IMPACT: An ivestigation of the use of Informationa Communication and Technologies for teacher education in the global south[END_REF], [START_REF] Vygotsky | Mind in society. The Development of Higher Psychological Processes[END_REF], [START_REF] Luria | Cognitive Development. Its Cultural and Social Foundations[END_REF]. The theory originates from psychology, but is nowadays a multidisciplinary paradigm that has gained popularity as an approach that takes into account the cultural and organizational context and also directly focuses on day-to-day practical work, thus providing an alternative socioecological and unifying approach [START_REF] Leont'ev | The problem of activity in psychology[END_REF], [START_REF] Cole | Culture in Mind[END_REF].

Vygotsky is known for formulating the general genetic law of cultural development, which has strongly affected pedagogical-philosophical views of Activity Theory. According to this formulation [START_REF] Leach | IMPACT: An ivestigation of the use of Informationa Communication and Technologies for teacher education in the global south[END_REF] every function in the child's cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first between people (inter-psychological), and then inside the child (intra-psychological." This formulation invites the notion of mediation, which offers the way that phenomena of human conduct and people's activities are studied. Mediation has formed the basis of the method of double stimulation by which the mental functions are studied with the aid of two sets of stimuli. These two sets of stimuli fulfil different roles vis-àvis the subject's behaviour. One set of stimuli fulfils the function of the object on which the subject's activity is directed. The second function serves as signs that facilitate the organization of this activity [START_REF] Leach | IMPACT: An ivestigation of the use of Informationa Communication and Technologies for teacher education in the global south[END_REF]. Vygotsky's method implies an intervention, which operates with "the second stimuli", the mediating means, by which people are solving an original task, the first stimulus. These theoretical ideas have formed the foundation which has been applied and used in significant ways in studying organisational learning, knowledge building and professional development. Currently, the framework has been used and considered valuable in studies which focus on technology-mediated and technology-enhanced activities in education.

Three features of a framework found relevant for the BeST project are outlined. Firstly, for a systemic analysis, it offers a unit of analysis, which corresponds to people's activity. As such a unit, the model of activity system depicts the constituents of activity within a triangular form of activity (Figure 1). The activity system serves as a dynamic, continuously changing and developing whole of elements of activity. The model represents relationships between subject (actors), object of work/outcome and instruments used in the activity, as well as social determinants of the activity, such as community, rules and division of labour. The forms of change of an activity system are related to inner contradictions between elements of the activity. The analysis of contradictions provides some basis of an expansive re-conceptualization of the activi-ty. Secondly, the framework entails the cycle of expansive learning, relating to how to study change as a process of professional development and capacity building. The expansive cycle consists of six steps that are conducted in collaboration between the practitioners of studied community or organization and academic interventionistresearchers. Each phase consists of finding answers to specific questions in the analysis and design process [START_REF] Engeström | Learning by expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research[END_REF].

ANALYZING THE SITUATION:

-How did we work in the past (history)? -What are our present troubles and contradictions?

CONCRETISING AND TESTING THE NEW MODEL:

-What changes do we want to try next month?

IMPLEMENTING THE NEW MODEL:

-Putting into practice the first steps -Pushing for the next steps

SPREADING AND CONSOLIDATING:

-Teaching others what we learned -Codifying the new rules, etc.

CREATING A NEW MODEL:

-How do we want to work five years from now?

These steps can be used in the research design, where participants of the study can push the development further if they name the nature of the change with the help of the expansive cycle, recognize its inner contradictions and find ways of overcoming them. In each phase, a different challenge is faced. Thirdly, a central feature of the framework is multi-voicedness, which means horizontal and vertical dialogue as well as local experimentations for developing new practices in the context of societal and educational transformations. The dialogue in Botswana aimed at creating and conceptualising new understanding of school activity in the era of ICTs. The key participants and stakeholders shared experiences in organizing expansive learning. The BeST project concentrated on how to make capacity building with the teachers without losing the relationship between policy implementation represented by governance and educational technology skills offered by the University of Botswana.

Methodology

The research design is based on the CL intervention which is an ethnography method that enables a series of interventions to take shorter calculated periods. The CL consists of six to twelve well-prepared weekly sessions of two to three hours carried out in the school. In addition, a varying number of follow-up sessions after a period of about two month's experimentation with new solutions is recommended. CL is a novel research design for transforming work; a tool and method of crossing the boundary between academic research and practice of any field of activity. It focuses on the daily shop floor practice while still keeping the point of view analytical and systemic. The collaborative analysis and design of a new activity is aided by a set of tools that help participants of the project to share and jointly process their observations and ideas. Figure 3 visualises the CL design as wallboards that are divided horizontally into three columns, providing the research tools as well as vertically into rows representing the past, present, and future of the activity. The 'Mirror' board in the right column represents and examine concrete data concerning the activity. The mirror of the present activity includes cases that enable the analysis of changing work situations. The mirror of the past outlines data denoting historical changes in the activity. The mirror of the future represents follow-up data relating to participants' experiments with the new concepts and tools, which they have created and with which they begin to build the future form of the activity. The 'model/vision' board is used for modelling the historical forms of the activity with the help of the model of activity system. As participants progress between the mirror (based on ethnography), and the theoretical model of activity, they generate generalizations concerning transformations of the activity and its present form and contradictions. The 'ideas' and 'tools' board is reserved for representing the intermediate-level products of design of the activity discussed in the CL sessions.

The design of CL aims at creating a dynamic interplay between participants' personal involvement, commitment and research-based intellectual distancing as well as a multi-voiced dialogue. Participants move between concrete observations concerning their own practices and the more abstract system of joint activity in which they participate. The CL is informed by the expansive cycle of development with its six main phases as illustrated in figure 4, where the need for change is identified, and some analysis of the historical situation done to identify existing contradictions. Then developing a new model and testing the model regarding the changes required before implementation, to push for the anticipated changes and finally disseminating the new model.

Ethnography and Qualitative Research Strategy

Change Laboratory as an ethnography and developmental work research technique, usually adopts a case study research approach that is based on qualitative research strategy. Qualitative research is also appropriate in the realm of developmental research, due to the ecological, contextual, phenomenological, historical or dynamic perspectives of its processes. Case studies have features such as, featuring smaller numbers of units (at times one), data being mostly collected in naturally occurring environments, and either being quantitative, qualitative or both, the aim being to understand and theorize through the unfolding research literature. Case studies allow for questions regarding why and how to be answered with an understanding of the nature and complexity of the systemic phenomena. In all three schools, ethnography studies were mainly carried out by an employed international researcher. Both the Department of Educational Technology and Ministry of Education Department of Teacher Training and Development played an active role in making preparations for the school visits for CL activities. Activity Theory Interest Group members collaborated with the international group on trips to the schools where CL activities were taking place. Some government 'Kitsong Centres' designed for ICT use by the respective communities within the three schools were also visited in the process to adopt an integrated approach.

Ethnography studies were realised in two-three week sessions using CL technique conducted by the trained practitioner at the schools. The data gathering included video-recording of some school activities, carrying out interviews and spontaneous discussion with teachers, principals, community institutions, students and parents. The interviews were videotaped and voice recorded and observations written down into field notes. The interviews were transcribed during the same day and analysed for missing data and noting issues that the recorded data revealed. This information partly guided further data collection. Usually interviewees would mention something that would catch the researcher's interest, and the researcher would follow up until the lead was exhausted. The value of ethnography using CL technique was obvious in the international project where the participants did not share unique contexts of history, geography, language use, organizational patterns, conventions, and others.

Data Collection

The Change Laboratory design requires some multiple kinds of data collection. These are above all ethnography investigations (i.e. interviewing key persons and video recorded CL sessions). To stay within the limits of funding frame of the BeST Project, only three schools from the selected ten pilot schools were covered using CL. These schools were selected to represent a variety of regional circumstances and diverse school-based resources and cultures.

Excerpt 3 (Speaker from policy making): We looked at the five regions, and we said what are the critical challenges that we can pick from the schools and set up a national picture? But then we said that we cannot only look at the schools; we need to look at the ministry person there. These are driving forces, the people who are mandated with providing infrastructure or guidelines . . ." Key persons from the selected ministry groups were interviewed and video-recorded. Also looking for examples of school-based applications of ICT, the headmasters, heads of the Computer Department, computer studies teachers, and librarians at the schools were also interviewed and video-recorded. The conducted CL sessions at the three schools and meetings held were video and voice recorded. These data were important for self-reflective purposes of the CLs in progress, and also later for scientific analyses, evaluative and documenting purposes of the project.

Limitations

Due to international partners' limits to stay in Botswana, the number of sessions had to be limited without much time to follow activities in the schools after the completed set of CL sessions and therefore to support the development and experimentation of new solutions. For the same reason the time between the sessions was tightened to more than one session per week. This schedule meant that teachers had difficulties finding time to be present in every session. However, the use of the CL technique, with its structured data collection procedures provided a strong base for the processes. The funding situation also limited the degree to which follow-up activities at the project venues could be made for purposes of monitoring and support.

Outcomes of CL Intervention and Lessons Learned

The BeST Project was a multiple-case study where each school-based case resulted in CL intervention where relationships between learning, change and development are complex. The framework of expansive development of an activity implies that learning and development were related to the production of transformative knowledge about the activity. A CL intervention seldom brings up a dramatic immediate change. It rather, leads to learning that produces new concepts and practical tools and the immediate change is in opening a development process that the new tools make possible, in other words, opening a Zone of Proximal Development of the change agents. The application of the new activity takes a longer time, and calls for management of developmental activity. The change therefore does not take place in a simple linear progress. Rather, in contact with other members and organizations, the ideas should be discussed in several phases of developing the new vision, new tools with experimentations, and new rules. It is within this context that the outcomes were anticipated.

The three conducted CLs varied amongst each other, due to the region and circumstances in the school, and also how the CL was conceptualized in each school. Although the CLs resulted in different outcomes, they do not challenge each other, but rather show complementary facets of a prism that is organizing our thinking about complexity of transformations, facets which are linked to the globalized education reforms and information ecologies [START_REF] Engeström | Development as breaking away and opening up: A challenge to Vygotsky and Piaget[END_REF]. All three CLs have taken the first steps of explorative enterprises toward a new school infrastructure, which supports and promotes professional collaboration and partnership, and constructs links from school to the outside world. This has paved the ground in order to implement creative and efficient use of ICTs in Botswana schools and trained the participants to be change agents in their educational environments. From the outcomes of the three CLs, it is critical to solicit funding to scale up the next step of the project's strategy for redesigning school activity in Botswana and the SADC region as was initially anticipated. In the light of the identified objectives for the project, the outcomes and lessons learned from the project were as follows:

─ Enhancing teachers' capabilities to perform as change agents ICT era Teachers were active participants and ready for making their own designs through mirror data, analyzing, and sharing practices, including double binds, which have connections to their own work experiences at the schools. Leson 1: The need to facilitate CL environments in schools and develop teachers' activities to transform and enable boundary crossing from of old ways of working and thinking together.

─ Facilitating school transformations related to creative use of ICTs. Extending the notion of learning technology was based on the perspective that the development of mobile technologies allows capitalizing on lighter technical infrastructures. Prevalence of mobile technologies in all spheres of life may play an important role in accelerating educational transformation.

Lesoon 2: Rather than waiting for overall educational transformation to take place, it is essential to put efforts for creating local ecologies of technology-mediated learning and instruction, using available mobile technologies which will provide models and frameworks for going through the transformation as was done succesfully at one school in the BeST project.

─ Building human collaborative capacity infrastructure between the University of Botswana and Helsinki University. During 2010 and 2011, the University of Botswana and University of Helsinki proposed a Master's programme. Results of needs analysis survey conducted reported a dire need for a Masters' degree in educational technology. A collaborative Masters' degree programme was developed to the satisfaction of the collaborating partners. Several logistical problems regarding collaborative teaching and supervision of students that existed were also resolved before the programme was launched. The program has since been approved, but not launched due to financial situation in the institution. The Master's programme was also intended to include the SADC region. Lesson 3: Establishment of collaborative Master's degree programme could provide capacity building in Activity Theoretical frameworks and the possible establishment of an Activity Theory Centre, and related virtual facilities in collaboration with Helsinki University to provide the required expertise.

─ Establishing virtual ICT based tools. The CLs revealed the institutional tradition of organizing teaching and learning that brought about the constraints for creative use of ICTs at the pilot schools. In terms of such a contradiction, the training of a separate group of students for ICT literacy in the subject-based (computer studies) environment of testing worked against the use of teachers' increasing professional capability to improve quality of teaching (pedagogy) and learning of all students with novel ICT-based practices. Lesson 4: The present project brings to light the contradictions existing between democratic policy vision in Botswana's education, and old centralized regime with a strong testing and examinations culture, originating partly from colonial history and guiding school activity.

Lesson 5: On the overall, it was evident that the application of new activity within schools takes a longer time, and calls for management of developmental activity.

Summary Findings, Conclusion and Recommendations

Mahupu School

The leading contradiction in the ethnographic data revealed that the school was rather isolated from the community. Teachers questioned parents for a lack of interest in the children's education, which they said was manifested by a lack of school function attendance and alcohol abuse of the parents. Parents also felt they had little control over their children and little contribution to do with their school going as shown in the excerpt: Excerpt 4 (Teacher): It is something like she said, mind your own business. It is like parents are not very much supportive to the program for the school, so the parents live their own life there, teachers live their own life separated from the school, other people in other government departments also lived their own life and people do not come together and support one another. It is like there are some barriers in between; if the school asks for assistance from the community … they come with a different mind to be against what the school is trying to do or to try to be on the side of the kids.

The CL participants discussed the changes that had taken place in child rearing practices between home and school in the village and began to question the present situation. With the actions of designing school activity, CL had effect to infusing the school subjects and integrating human resources within the community. The teachers of this junior secondary school had positive attitudes toward using ICTs, but the role of new technology remained minimally touched in the presented BeST project plans.

Malefi Senior Secondary

Since the researcher-interventionists came from different cultures, the preliminary data collection was planned to be broad and exploratory [START_REF] Serpell | Multiple Perspectives and Constraints on Progressive Social Change: A Commentary[END_REF]. The CL data revealed that teachers felt they were unable to motivate many of their students. Suggested causes for the lack of motivation were social problems such as alcohol abuse, drugs, and teenage pregnancies. There existed among students a growing number of orphan children that the teachers felt were not interested in school. They blamed children's social background and parents for their problems with the students [START_REF] Nardi | Information Ecologies with Heart[END_REF]. The various ideas that the CL work groups produced in the seven sessions conducted are presented as elements in a model of a new form of a teachers' activity system (Figure 4). The figure is an analysis of how teachers sought to achieve more individualized teaching as a way of resolving contradictions identified in the school. Teacher work groups prepared a plan of how and when they would experiment with the new solution they had prepared. The main inner contradiction in the activity was one between the more heterogeneous student population with more social problems than earlier and the teachers' tools that were predominantly based on mass teaching that did not allow enough attention to be paid to individual students' specific needs and interests. The main tool used by teachers to manage the increasingly heterogeneous group of students and the performance criteria had been the categorization of students into single, double, and triple science syllabus track groups and to subsequently focus their efforts on the latter two groups [START_REF] Virkkunen | Breaking the vicious circle of categorizing students in school[END_REF].

Excerpt 5 (Participant): The frustrations for the students: they hate being beaten; they seem not to like the way they have been categorized according to the sciences, that's what we picked from the audio. And they are also frustrated by the bad grades they get. Fig. 4. Ideas identified for new solutions in teachers' activity system model (Source: Virkkunen, J. and Newnham, D, 2013, P.165) [START_REF] Virkkunen | The Change Laboratory. A Tool for Collaborative Development of Work and Education[END_REF] The contradiction was aggravated by the demoralizing effect of the categorization on the single science students and because the variance of student's performance was increasingly due to social problems. Tabulawa [START_REF] Virkkunen | Breaking the vicious circle of categorizing students in school[END_REF], also observed in another school in Botswana, the apparent neglect of the cultivation of students' substantive study motivation based on their interest in the subject matter. Mirror data presented in the Change Laboratory made the teachers more conscious of this problem and stimulated them to find solutions to it. Excerpt 6 (Student): Especially when you are doing single sciences they just think that they have to give priority to the triple sciences and maybe double sciences, and if you say that you are single sciences, they just say hey you aggg.

Excerpt 7 (Teacher): It is a bit of a problem because the computer lab there is only one, and there are something like 20 computers and there are 80 students doing computer studies Researcher: So other students who are not doing computer studies are not having, don't have access to computers? Teacher: Ya they do not have.

Participants increasingly took responsibility for developing new solutions and all groups carried out at least one experiment and the joint developmental work continued further. Group members of CL sessions, fifteen months after the CL, reported continuing the experimentation with the new tools, and that they were planning to establish a new structure to ensure that experiments would be carried out accompa- nied with a progress report every fortnight on future and present challenges to be overcome.

The most radical of the new solutions developed was the dialogical study planning tool and process that would help the teachers deal with students' varying needs and interests including their social problems and a remarkable breaking away from the prevalent authoritarian and unidirectional teacher role. This experiment also demonstrates the ideas of re-mediation, collaborative teaching as well as the idea to add into the curriculum subjects, other than sciences, that would be relevant to the students' vocational interests, addressed directly the central contradiction in the activity system [START_REF] Nardi | Information Ecologies with Heart[END_REF]. The researchers do not have follow-up data on what happened to its development after that, but clearly, the group that was developing it would have gained from an internal-to-the country support group of researchers after the first experiment. Tabulawa [START_REF] Tabulawa | Teachers' perspectives on classroom practice in Botswana: Implications for pedagogical change[END_REF] has alleged that Botswana's Revised Policy on Education issued in 1994 is based on two contradictory concepts, one highlighting the objective of producing independent, innovative, and flexible personalities, and the other, a behaviorist model of a revision of the curriculum. This duality is seen in the development projects that the CL group formed. Dialogical study planning and collaborative teaching clearly correspond to the first line of the policy. The following two, policy implementation and development of Audio Visual (AV) teaching materials, are more in line with the latter although these teaching aids could later expand to become tools for students' inquiry.

The new system that the teachers created, can, on the one hand, be seen as an elaboration and implementation of the traditional top-down system of school development in Botswana 1 [START_REF] Tabulawa | Educational reform in Botswana: Reflections on policy contradictions and paradoxes[END_REF]. On the other hand, it can be seen as the development of a system of internal problem solving and development in the school, a step towards that is a prerequisite of overcoming the contradiction. However, the contradiction cannot be overcome through a one-time change, but calls for continuous internal development and learning in the school community.

Mater Spei College

The school was considered by the research team to be ahead in many aspects in ICT use compared to other schools because the local mining company was sponsoring the school with computers, smart board and educational software. Anchoring on teachers' practice, the project produced an object for negotiations and for an expansive cycle of developing a school activity in an ICT era. The essence was to search for alternatives to the exclusive school-subject interpretation of ICTs within test-oriented pedagogy and, thus, challenge long-established curriculum practices. The alternative policy in the context of purposeful efforts for managing the large-scale developmental 1 According to Tabulawa (1998, pp. 250-252), the prevalent model of managing pedagogical change in schools has in Botswana been based on a top down, expert-centered, technical approach that ignores the teachers' views, experience, and voice and puts them in the role of a passive adopter and implementer of teaching strategies developed by experts without input from teachers.

cycle was found to be using mobile technology. The CL focused on using various freeware net-based tools in order to rely more on digitalization and mobile technology, Internet and social media such as Facebook, Diigo, Google Maps, Google Calendar and Skype.

Excerpt 8 (Teacher): "I'm familiar with PowerPoint and Excel software." Teacher's expectations to CL are "to improve the use of ICT-learning, stuff in Internet that I have not used to make classes, not only websites, but some other tools."

The use of mobile technologies not only enabled a lighter technological infrastructure, but also allowed teachers to show their competences in the creative use of ICTs. The community of practice at the school prospered for the rest of the study period and used an alternative approach enabling innovative use of more ubiquitous technologies where fixed laboratories were no longer a handicap. At the end of the project, participating teachers in the school were denominated as digital ambassadors by policymakers for showing respect for teachers' knowledge creation potential.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The CL process at the schools showed that focusing on the object as well as the historical changes in the activity can disclose the associated central developmental challenges and needs in the activity that the new technology could help to meet. Learning to master new technological tools, such as ICTs can open up a broad perspective of expansive development for the actors (hybridization). New models of teaching (pedagogy) are not easy to create, as they involve the questioning of current ones and making plans to changing them. The motivation for developing desired models arises from a possibility to overcome existing contradictions in the current activity. This aspect is often not taken into consideration when planning to integrate ICTs into school systems. The advantage of using the CL method is its systematic developmental procedures that guide practitioners' transformative agency to focus on the expansive development process that they undertake. Most of the time, ideas of ICT use are either beyond the realistic zone of possibilities of the expansive development of the activity, or below it and thereby providing only an alternative way of continuing the existing pedagogical approach.

The increasing collaboration between teachers and ICT professionals as well as the development of various kinds of hybrid roles of pedagogically oriented ICT specialists and ICT oriented teachers is a natural line of further development [START_REF] Barowy | The complex of school change: Personal and systemic codevelopment[END_REF]. The unit of development in the pedagogical use of ICTs should thus not be considered to be a school or a network of schools, but a heterogeneous network of schools and agencies of pedagogical and technical development.

Given the lessons learned from the CL process described in this paper, it seems that a CL process within the school and the establishment of objects of joint pedagogical development in it could be a good first step for building such collaboration as was the case in the CL studies presented in this paper. While the results of a CL are initial-ly local, their spreading, diffusion and possible utilization follow the logic of invention and innovation in an open development context. The CLs of the BeST Project worked on school-based conceptualizations and brought forth information about the micro-genesis of novel solutions and possibilities and obstacles that will be encountered during transformation processes. Small cycles may remain isolated events if they are not processed by the concentrated efforts to manage the diversity of sources in knowledge creation in the context of the overall expansive cycle of development. Several information sharing workshops for all the ten selected schools were therefore conducted to achieve this goal. However, the funding situation prohibiited stake holders to follow-up on CL processes at the respective venues as was desirable.

Recommendations

The need to follow-up on CL activity conducted under the auspices of the BeST pilot project to develop technology-enhanced teaching and learning practices at the selected schools so as to sustain the established communities of practice and build a strong base for an epistemic knowledge-building approach.

Integrate the BeST Project knowledge-building approach with Ministry of Education & Skills development innovation system and policy development strategy so as to generate seed funding locally to scale-up the project. Integrate developmental work research practices on technology-enhanced practices in schools within the ThutoNet education policy initiative which is a component of the national MALITLAMO ICT policy.

Forging another link with Helsinki Centre for Activity Theory in order to investigate sustained processes of knowledge advancement using novel research theories (i.e.Activity Theory) and instruments/tools (i. e. Change Laboratory and Developmental Work Research) required as benchmarks and leading to possible establishment of Activity Theory Centre at the University of Botswana as was initially envisaged.

The BeST project has therefore made a significant contribution which WITFOR should pursue further and assist in soliciting funding to support the scaling-up of the project to SADC as was initially envisaged.

Fig. 1 .

 1 Fig. 1. The model of activity system (Source: Engeström, 1987, pp. 73-82; reproduced with permission from Cambridge University Press) [9].

Fig. 2 .

 2 Fig. 2. The Steps of expansive cycle (Source: Adapted from Engeström et al., 1996, p. 11 [10].

Fig. 3 .

 3 Fig. 3. Prototypic layout of change laboratory (Source: Engeström et al., 1996, p. 11 [10].

  Establish a longitudinal research proposal based on BeST project principles to be submitted for funding to varied local as well as international research entities (UB-Office of Research & Development, Ministry of Education & Skills Development, Southern African-Nordic Centre (SANORD) WITFOR, Higher Education Institutions Institutional Cooperation Instrument (HEI ICI) 2016-2018 etc. etc.).

  To create sustainability through collaborative effort and bilateral research and development collaboration between The Centre of Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research in the Helsinki University (recently named The Centre for Research on Activity, Development and Learning (CRADLE) and the Department of Educational Technology in the University of Botswana.

	 To establish virtual ICT based tools for collaborative research and development
	activities and learning based on horizontal collaboration between schools and re-
	search institutes. Also to provide an open-source-based and technology-mediated
	learning environment for the schools.

ICT in education. Activity Theory, Development Work Research and Change Laboratory were underpinning frameworks used.