Raffles Institution

Teacher Mentor: Mr Daniel Chua Danson (12), Kei Feng(15), Vint Seng(10), Nikhil(23)

2M

2011

DESIGN FOR CHANGE: ANTI-GAMING

ADDICTION

2

Contents

Chapter 1: Why DFC? --------------------------------------------------- 3

Chapter 2: Background Research -------------------------------------- 4

Chapter 3: Preparation for Action Week ----------------------------- 5

Chapter 4: Our Action Week ------------------------------------------- 6

Chapter 5: Reflections ---------------------------------------------------- 7

Bibliography ---------------------------------------------------------------- 9

Acknowledgements -------------------------------------------------------- 10

Appendix -------------------------------------------------------------------- 11

Research Notes

Survey Report

o Parent Survey Results

o Student Survey Results

Surveys

3

Chapter 1: Why DFC?

Our group has boldly decided to undertake this DFC project as we felt that through

this project, we would be able to bring about good to the society, helping the less fortunate or

solving societal problems. This would be a great way to give back to our country after all the

funding and support we have received from her in teaching us.

The objective of our project was to curb or reduce gaming addiction which is an

increasingly prominent form of addiction in our society today. Although this problem mainly

manifests itself within children or young adults, it is still a rather serious problem and could

lead to the breakdown of our entire society as the saying goes that the young are the future

pillars of our country. Hence, we decided that it would be good to do a part in controlling and

preventing such a disastrous condition.

For our action, we have decided to organize a one day anti-game addiction

camp/workshop for Primary 4 pupils from several schools, promoting sports as a healthier

replacement for video games as a source of fun and enjoyment.

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Chapter 2: Background Research

First, we researched on the symptoms of gaming addiction and found that they led to

many various social and health problems, such as frequent family quarrels as well as obesity.

We agreed readily that this was true as we also could feel for it through our personal

experience.

Generally, this form of addiction affects mainly teenagers(Source: http://i-am-a-

gaming-addict.com/gaming-addiction-who-does-it-affect)although groups of adults as well as

children are also affected quite severely. This condition is also more prevalent within males.

The situation in Singapore with regard to gaming addiction is growing more severe by day,

although still less serious than that of developed countries like the United States of America,

with almost 10% of the children showing pathological gambling ways just in the state of

Idaho itself.( Source: http://www.localnews8.com/news/28027512/detail.html) In Canada

also, addicted gamers form 80% of a counsellors workload in a certain counselling

organisation.

(Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction#Prevention_and_correction)

Online sources state that different countries have different methods of curbing gaming

addiction such as gaming addiction clinics, counselling, treatment facilities etc.

(Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction#Prevention_and_correction)Ho

wever, we felt that action should not be taken only when the condition has slipped into total

disaster as prevention is ultimately better than cure.

We also conducted a survey which yielded similar results.

Hence, we decided to go to the root of the matter. After consulting our parents and

asking around several friends, we decided in unison that most of us came into contact with

video games around primary school time. Due to the immaturity and lack of a certain level of

education in Lower Primary students, we have hence decided to target the 1st level of Upper

Primary students, the Primary 4s.

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Chapter 3: Preparation for Action Week

Generally, we allocated ourselves into 3 different sectors: Logistics, Activities as well

as External Relations cum Admin.

Logistics was in charge of the food catering, camp shirts as well as prizes for the

camp. Quotations had to be obtained for the shirts and the food and the shirt design was also

put under the logistics section.

For Activities, the section is in charge of organising the different activities for the

camp as well as settling the small details such as the venue of activities etc. Activities would

also be needed to type and print instruction sheets for each activity as well as the objectives

of each game.

Generally, our planning of time was quite messed up at first. We decided to postpone

our event in the end due to some personal commitments of a group member as well as a lapse

in foresight. However, in the end, we decided to set a date and placed weekly goals for each

passing week. Every week, we would get about a few things done, for example, getting

responses from the schools in 2 weeks and getting the quotations for the food and shirt

vendors in a week.

Regarding the matter of finance and funding, we charged the participants each $15 for

a shirt, a buffet lunch, as well as prizes which were given out at the end of all the activities.

For the aspect on manpower, we decided to get volunteers, calling all our interested friends to

join us too. We gave them a short briefing cum training and also did a dry run. Our event was

placed during the school holidays, therefore, there was not much problem with the timing.

Due to the fact that our event includes young participants from primary school levels,

we had to take notice of their safety and well-being during the entire camp too. Hence, we

took extra precaution in taking care of them and appointed 2 facilitators to follow the groups

around during their activities. Mr Daniel Chua was also present to ensure the smooth flow of

events.

We had a short survey before deciding all of the above actions to be taken so as to

find out the reasons for addiction and the common definition of addiction as defined by the

general public. The audience of our surveys are completely random and not picked purposely.

The survey report is attached in the appendix.

6

Chapter 4: Our Action Week

We started the day at 7am and set up all the games and equipment in wait for the

participants. The participants all came on time and we started at around 8.40am. The students

were all very attracted to our presentation and some even took down notes enthusiastically.

Then, we proceeded with the ice-breakers. The students were all extremely participative and

soon got very familiar with each other. Though many of them were new to the idea of a group

cheer, they were also greatly engaged and intrigued by such an idea and were very happy

when they finally crafted their cheers.

Then, we proceeded to the actual activities of introducing sports to them. All the

sports were generally well-received with everyone participating in them actively. However,

we could see that the girls had a greater preference for floorball as well as freesbie rather than

soccer or sepak takraw. On the other hand, the boys were excited about every sport, but were

the most excited about soccer.

After the day of activities, we sat down for a major debrief. We told them the

objectives of us introducing them to sports -- to increase the number of people committed to

various sports so as to reduce the number of people who are addicted to video games. They

understood and nodded happily. We also received positive feedback for the various games

and activities, with the children saying that they really had fun while learning.

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Chapter 5: Reflections

Generally, we feel that our objectives have been met this is because we feel that we

have been able to successfully get the message of through to our audience. The message that

gaming addiction is bad for a person, physically, psychologically as well as academically and

that sports on the other hand benefits the person physically and psychologically, resulting in

better results in the academics too indirectly.

We feel that our team has shown the 'I Can' attitude quite greatly when we decided to

undertake and follow through on this task of organising such a camp to guide the mindset and

understanding of primary school students regarding the matter of gaming.

The strengths of our team is that we really have some individuals who are willing to

spend more than their allocated amount of time and go out of their ways to try their best to

complete their parts in style. However, there are quite a few weaknesses in this group. Firstly,

we are not very on task and several of us actually keep deviating from the matter at hand

when we are discussing matters, putting us at a very great disadvantage and making us move

at an extremely slow pace. Secondly, the same few members are also very slack and do not

do much work. They do not have the initiative to start on things that are more than what they

have been allocated and also take an extremely long period of time to get their basic parts

done. Thirdly, a few of us also have too much personal commitments that we are unable to

meet up to datelines. These were also the main challenges and difficulties we faced

throughout this project -- the attitude problems.

Through this project, we have had many learning points. Firstly, we have learnt a

great deal about our own characters. We have realised that we take too long a time to decide

on things due to the attitude of perfectionism as well as constant procrastination. This

resulted in slow progress overall for the project. We are also relaxed and show little initiative

when we feel that the deadline is far away. This turned out to be our worst point and almost

prevented us from completing our project successfully. Lastly, we realised that we work well

under stress too. When we had only a few days left to the submission of the project final

report, we worked hard and hence could complete the report on time for submission and in a

rather substantial quality and quantity. Several of us from the group have also always thought

of primary school students as immature and mischievous, but after the interaction with them,

we have realised that majority of them are actually very mature in thought and know when to

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do the right thing. They also display a high level of self-discipline. Hence, we found that we

could actually handle them with great ease.

We feel that our project would not really greatly impact the situation of gaming

addiction in the world. However, we feel that we have made a tiny step in the right direction

and every great success starts with one tiny step. To ourselves, we have achieved something

we have not achieved before and hence we feel proud of it -- we have helped around 90

children to try and stay out of the destructive path of gaming addiction.

In general, we feel that we have taken the starting steps to a gaming addiction-free

Singapore/world. However, whether society really turns addiction free depends on the

determination and willpower of the people in curbing their desire for games. To impact the

society further in the aspect of preventing gaming addiction, we could do further follow ups

by giving talks at community centres and other places, engaging the community as a whole in

various activities to save, cure and prevent people from falling into the hands of gaming

addiction.

9

Bibliography

(2011). Association football - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 2011, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soccer

(2011). Floorball - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 2011, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floorball

(2011). Gaming Addiction Who Does It Affect | Gaming Addiction. Retrieved 2011, from

http://i-am-a-gaming-addict.com/gaming-addiction-who-does-it-affect

(2011). Sepak takraw - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 2011, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepak_takraw

(2011). Ultimate (sport) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 2011, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_(sport)

(2011). Video game addiction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 2011, from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction

(2011). Video Game Addiction Growing In Eastern Idaho - Local News Story - KIFI Idaho

Falls. Retrieved 2011, from http://www.localnews8.com/news/28027512/detail.html

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Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude towards:

Mr Daniel Chua for giving us advice and guidance throughout the whole process of our

project, understanding our tight schedules and various situation and constantly giving us

extensions.

Mrs Lim Yoke Tong who has also answered many of our queries very helpfully and gave us

valuable advice when we needed it most.

The principals of the various invited primary schools for their fast and good responses to our

appeal for participation.

The primary school students of Nan Hua Primary, South View Primary as well as Princess

Elizabeth Primary who were willing to come down during their school holidays to take part

in our programme, giving us a chance to impart our skills and knowledge to them and hence

making the event a succes.

All survey participants, who completed all the surveys with utmost seriousness and

concentration, giving rise to our relatively reliable survey results.

Last but not least, anyone and everyone who has contributed to this project in one way or

another and made it a success.

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Appendix A

Raffles Institution

Year 2 Research Education

Design for Change School Challenge 2011

Teacher-Mentor: Mr Daniel Chua

Team Leader: Lim Kai Bing, Danson 2M

Team members: Lee Vint Seng Hein Lin Htut 2M

Low Kei Feng 2M

Nikhil Puthran 2M

Use this template to record and plan the activities for the Action Week.

Day Date/

duration

Activity/Venue Resources required

1 Wk 3 Awareness Week --

Getting Volunteers

Poster

Manpower

2 Wk 3 Awareness Week --

Getting Volunteers

Poster

Manpower

3 Wk 3 Awareness Week --

Getting Volunteers

Poster

Manpower

4 1 day Anti-Gaming Addiction

Camp

Manpower

Logistics: Equipment, Venues, Prizes,

food, camp shirts, instruction sheets

etc.

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Appendix B

Survey Compilation Results

Age Gender Q2 Q2 Common Q3

Q3 Common Q4

Q4 Common Q5a

Q5a Common

K1 F a a b,c b,c a a b b

P1 F c c e (Phone) e (Phone) a a b b

P2 F d d e (NIL) e (NIL) a a b b

P3 M b b e (PSP) e (PSP) d d a a

P4 M b b c c a a b b

P4 F a | c | a | b |

P4 F d | e (NIL) | a | b |

P4 F b | e (NIL) | a | b |

P4 F e | c,e (iPad) | c | c |

P4 F c | c | b | c |

P4 F b | c,e (Wii, 3DS) | a | c |

P5 M e | c,e (Phone) c, e (Phone) b b c b

P5 F d | c | b | b |

P5 F b | e (Phone) | a | b |

P6 M e c b,c c a a,b b b

P6 M e | c | b | b |

P6 M c | e (Wii) | a | b |

P6 M c | c,e (Wii) | b | b |

P6 F a | c,e (Phone) | a | a |

P6 F c | c | b | b |

P6 F c | c | a | b |

P6 F c | e (iPad) | b | c |

S1 M c c c c d | a a

S1 F c | c | a | a |

S2 M b d a,c c a b b c

S2 M d | c,e (Phone) | a | c |

S2 M e | a | b | c |

S2 M d | a,c,e (Phone) | c | c |

S2 M c | c | b | c |

S2 M c | c,e (Phone) | b | b |

S2 M d | c | b | NIL |

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S3 M e | c c b | b b

S3 F b | c | a | b |

S4 M a | c c a a b b

S4 F d | c | a | b |

S4 F b | c | a | b |

JC1 M e | a | b b a |

JC1 F d | c | b | b |

JC2 F a a c c a a b b

Column1 Q2

Q2 common Q3

Q3 common Q4

Q4 common Q5a

Q5a common

a 5 2 4 0 21 7 5 2

b 8 2 2 1 14 4 24 9

c 11 3 29 9 2 0 9 1

d 8 2 0 0 2 1 0 0

e 7 0 16 4 0 0 0 0