Browsing by Author "Tavernari, Cinzia"

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History-themed games in history education: Experiences on a blended world history course
(IEEE/Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc., 2018) Kuran, Mehmet Sükrü; Tozoğlu, Ahmet Erden; Tavernari, Cinzia; 0000-0001-8742-2799; AGÜ, Mühendislik Fakültesi, Bilgisayar Mühendisliği Bölümü; Kuran, Mehmet Şükrü; Tozoğlu, Ahmet Erden
In this paper we explain our experiences and observations on a blended world history course which combines classical lecture and discussion elements as well as video game sessions in which the students play strategy video games with heavy historical focus. The course, named Playing with The Past, is designed to experiment on how to integrate video games on teaching history especially in order to achieve a higher understanding of the contemporary social, political, economical, and technological context of a given era for a given nation. We ran the course four times between 2015-2018 with different video game titles having different historical models and observe the experiences and learning of students based on the quality of their written essays and articles. Our experiments and observations could be beneficial not only for the design of a general world history course, but also for a history course on specific periods, cultures, and nations.
On their way home ... a network analysis of medieval caravanserai distribution in the syrian region, according to an 1D approach
(Archaeopress, 2016) Palombini, Augusto; Tavernari, Cinzia; AGÜ, Mimarlık Fakültesi, Mimarlık Bölümü; Tavernari, Cinzia
The common theory on caravanserais states that they were built at one-day's march distance from each other. Such a pattern may fit some situations, but it does not seem to be present in Syria during the Ayyubid (1174-1260 CE) and Mamluk periods (1260-1517 CE), when most of the region's caravanserais were founded. Caravanserais built during these periods do not seem to follow a precise pattern of distribution along the communication axis of Syria and, as a result, the logic that underlines their distribution remains unclear. The authors face the problem through a GIS-based, network analysis approach that takes into account the building period of each structure and the one-dimensional criterion of distance to its nearest neighbour, also considered in relation to the closeness to urban centres. The results of the analysis are then compared to the historical Syrian caravan networks. The outcomes show interesting aspects both in terms of understanding the route organization, and of predictive methods for focusing on areas where structures not yet located may be expected.