Gaming & Learning

The market has witnessed a surge in the mental fitness software industry. More companies are purporting to be the best at training your brain and helping to sharpen cognitive or thinking skills.One primary concern for this industry is to create software that is both fun and personally relevant. In fact, a primary focus of FitBrains is to be the leader of fun and personal relevance within the industry of mental exercise software. I believe that games can be both fun and have real life and personal value to a consumer.

We are all confronted with life’s daily challenges, each of which places demands on our brain for solutions or action. It is within this arena that FitBrains has captured the personal value: creating games that actually tap into real world challenges for the consumer. How many times have you lost a pair of socks in the laundry, forgotten the name of someone you met, misplaced your car keys or perhaps the car itself in the parking garage? Life provides us with real world games and the opportunity for real world mental exercise.

FitBrains takes this reality and champions mental exercise for the fun and personally relevant. We believe your arousal level will increase and you will be more deeply engaged in the mental exercise. Why? The task is more valuable or meaningful to you as a person. Companies that simply develop memory games or language games without the value of personal relevance are simply tasks to be completed. Personalization sparks long term commitment by the consumer for a healthy brain.

Author:  FitBrains, 28th February 2008

I have just recently returned from a trip to Japan, and was astounded
by the sheer volume of educational games that are available for the
Nintendo systems (Wii and DS in particular.) In addition to games
teaching the fundamentals of raising pets, Brain Age, and other games
that have managed to make it into international markets, they have
shelves of software dedicated to virtually every topic you could think
of. They have tutorials teaching the fundamentals of Mah-Jongg and
Shogi, science and history curricula, software that converts your
Nintendo DS into a handheld electronic travel dictionary, and even a
program that teaches the basics of stock trading!

Fortunately for those who can speak and read Japanese, the programs
are compatible with any Nintendo system, not just those sold in Japan
(compatibility problems used to exist between Japanese and US versions
of older systems.) Still, as happy as I was that I could still use
the software myself, I was frustrated that this trend has yet to
really catch on more in the US. The few programs like Brain Age that
have made it into the US market have been wildly popular, but we need
more that take advantage of the system’s capabilities to teach other
subjects.

While on a separate trip to Japan last year, I bought a DS program
that teaches all 2,000 of the basic kanji (characters) required to
read the average newspaper. Passing the tests is extremely difficult,
but as a lifelong gamer I can attest to the fact that no other method
of study has made the kanji stick as well as this has. Fortunately,
my supervisor was impressed enough by the software that she now allows
me to use it for up to an hour a day at work to improve my literacy (I
am a translator by trade, so it only makes me better at what I do.)
This year I saw that they had even expanded this program to include a
full kanji dictionary in the software as well.

This is just one example of the kind of potential this medium has. If
you enjoy gaming and support learning, I highly encourage you to
support these new software ventures from Nintendo and encourage others
to try them out. Nintendo is still the most family-friendly brand out
there among the game systems and has the greatest likelihood of being
accepted in an educational environment because of its reputation. I
have played (and still own) other systems, and do not represent
Nintendo in any sort of official capacity. I just applaud the company
for taking a chance on a new kind of gaming and hope others will
support its efforts.

Author: Wren Hosoi, 24th February 2008

A few days ago there was yet another blow for the Building Schools for the Future programme with press reports claiming that only 9 new schools are open instead of the 100 that are supposed to have been completed by now. Surely it shouldn’t just be a numbers game. OK so only 9 schools have been built, but what of those 9 schools? Have they transformed learning like they were supposed to? There are other, arguably much more fundamental and important questions we should be asking — for starters, who and what schools are for? — instead of just churning out new buildings for the sake of it.

The BSF programme could and should be such a massive opportunity — to rethink education and to transform learning for so many people for who education didn’t work or isn’t working for. I really worry sometimes that we’re going to miss our chance and make many of the old mistakes again. I’m sure many people involved in the process are well intentioned, but whether these good intentions and big visions are making an impact on the buildings that are being designed, commissioned and built right now is questionable.

Workshop at Futurelab

Last week we held a small half-day workshop here at Futurelab to begin to explore the some of the issues around personalisation and the design of learning spaces. We had representatives from a variety of fields including: architecture, policy, teaching, construction/design and technology. One of the activities was to think about the key issues that might underpin a ‘design brief’- for a learning space for a) one single group or class; b) a ‘year group’ and c) a whole school. There were probably more questions than answers but there were some really interesting issues raised.

No one knows exactly what the future holds but surely we shouldn’t just wait for it to happen to us and then lament that our buildings aren’t right – surely we should at least endeavour to pre-empt what changes lie ahead - and maybe shape them even?

Perhaps some of the questions that arose out of the workshop last week might stimulate debate and creative thinking for those embarking on redesigning their learning spaces.

The design process

• Why do students seem to be largely if not totally excluded from the process – after all they are the ultimate consumer?
• Shouldn’t the design/re-design itself be seen as a valuable learning experience?
• Do teachers and students really know what technologies are available now or possible in the near future?
• How can we help/support schools to think more radically and longer term in their designs?

The spaces/buildings

• Can we develop a ‘learning building’. In other words where the structure and infrastructure, walls, floors ceiling and outside spaces are actually artefacts from which we can learn?
• Can we develop more ‘intelligent’ and reactive, sustainable and flexible buildings?
• Do we need fixed internal walls? Do we need fixed spaces?
• Does a learning space have to be just one site?

Users

• Should schools become places the whole community can use equally or regularly?
• Does everyone have to be there all the time?
• Can anyone use the facilities for learning purposes?
• Should we think in terms of ‘a community’ rather than classes when we design learning spaces?
• Are schools currently under-used – should they be multi-use, multi-function spaces?
• How much space can be personalised by learners – and what exactly does that mean?

Technology

• Shouldn’t there be more focus on the technologies, such as video and teleconferencing or tools that allow greater collaboration that allow these links rather than using fixed ‘walled’ technologies largely used as one way content delivery technologies?
• How will locative technologies, GPS, cell technology and so forth change our view of where and what learning takes place?
• What are the possibilities in terms of touch screen technologies and how might we consider the tactile and multi-sensory stimulation that they afford as part of the design in learning spaces?
• Can/should learners use their own devices?
• Should technology be like a ‘utility’?

A full write up of the workshop will be available soon from the Futurelab website.

Author: Tash Lee, Flux, 14th February 2008

Channel 4 Education caused a bit of a stir last year when they announced that they were going to focus more on using the media 14 to 19 year-olds actually use, rather than continuing to make television programmes nobody was really watching. They’re planning on using a whole range of platforms, from ARGs to MySpace widgets: their first product came out a few days ago.

Part of the “City of Vice” season, Bow Street Runner is a Flash-based point-and-click adventure game that plays as if the creators of Another Code and Phoenix Wright fell asleep reading Smollett and James Ellroy. There’s a warning that the game is “designed to be historically accurate and therefore the game’s content and its setting may not be suitable for younger players”, which is true: it’s gory and people swear from time to time. But that’s part of the authenticity that runs throughout the game: the streets are filthy, taverns don’t have a well-bred clientele and prostitution is a fact of life. The game’s well-executed: it looks wonderful, the live acting is credible (unusual in a browser game, though you’d expect it from a national broadcaster) and the language throughout is a delight (gin “holds all London in its disgusting and fetid grip”). And it’s fun.

It’s not breaking any boundaries: if you’ve played this sort of game before then you know what to expect, including the odd frustration (though any adventure game of this sort will have you crying, “look, I’m not a mind-reader!” at the designers). And when they say it’s a “broadband experience”, they aren’t joking. My poor stabbed harlot expired before I could stitch up her wounds, as the lag on the Trauma Centre-style minigame prevented any sort of fine control. I’m not sure the Bow Street Runners felt like such a mix of CSI and Charlie’s Angels, with missions being handed out by a shadowy head of department (though Fielding was blind, so the smoked glasses are authentic). From a gore and pedagogy point of view, too, Homicide (from 2002) pushed things further in both departments.

But it’s got a real feel for the period, it’s fun to play and I’m looking forward to my next mission on Monday. Perhaps the real reason it seems such an encouraging start, though, is that it made me stop on my way to work this morning and take this photo. John Baker was a Bedminster policeman who started work a few decades after the Bow Street Runners were established. I was wondering what sort of world he worked in, and how it differed from Fielding’s London of the previous century, and if a web game can make me think about the lives of real people then I reckon it’s worth playing.

Author: Richard Sandford, Flux, 15th February 2008

It ‘s a controversial point but are headteachers the right people to lead on their school’s development under BSF?

The daily life of a headteacher must be a difficult one: reporting requirements, staffing issues, delivery of a plethora of national and local initiatives, sick, missing and ‘problem’ children, maintenance, CPD, Governors, local authority and estates - to name just a few of the problems and challenges faced on a daily basis.  Then someone decides whilst you have to keep this particular plane flying, that you have to start planning and building a new one - with the whole new gamut of changes, disruption and chaos that this will bring.

What’s more, you have to deliver this mammoth project - a process the like of which you’ve never encountered before - to a tight budget with significant time restrictions, and with little time for any real trialling or piloting. Add into the mix the fact that you’re dealing with a range of new external ‘suppliers’ – including architects, designers, developers, contactors and engineers – probably for the first time in your professional career. So, you’ve a lot on your plate and you are about to embark on probably the biggest project of your professional career – you have to retain your profile and that of your school and you need to deliver both a good current school despite the disruption, as well as a brand new building at the end of all of this.

As a head you know too well the shortcomings and issues with the current school, where the quick wins are that would alleviate immediate pressures and which might contribute to the improvement of the environment and the day-to-day activities within the school. With little time to complete the project, there may be some consultation but is it enough?

How can you work to engage stakeholders with a radical, transformative vision of a learning space that will embed the pedagogy and practices of a truly personalised educational future? The answer is: “With great difficulty”. It is accepted knowledge that our developed and internalised ‘habits of the mind’ - that are created through practices and approaches to pragmatic problem solving - can and do limit our ability to be innovative and think of alternative approaches outside of ‘what is known’. If you ask anyone ‘what will the school of the future look like?’, you will get a school to all intents and purposes. And the closer you are to the various machinations and day-to-day workings of the school you are, the more difficult it may be to see things another way - which could result in missed opportunities.

So, with this in mind, are headteachers the right people to lead in the development of visionary educational models of the future when much of their time is focussed on delivering against the needs of today?

Author: Tim Rudd, Flux, 18th February  2008

Hello!  My name is Mark Baxter, and I am a Co-founder and the Vice President of Product Development here at Fit Brains.  I have a background in Psychology and have over 8 years of experience in the Games & New Media Industry creating top-quality games for broad audiences, including several hit titles on entertainment portals including Shockwave, Yahoo! and RealArcade.

I will be regularly blogging on a variety of perspectives related to Health and Entertainment, with a significant focus on Brain Fitness.  As such, I will be exploring topics relating to Psychology & Mental Wellness, ‘Serious’ & ‘Casual’ Gaming, and Online Social Communities.  Serious Games – defined as interactive content that uses entertainment for the purpose of education and/or training – has only recently gained wider acceptance with the advent of industry gatherings like the Serious Games Initiative in 2002.  This genre is growing quickly and covers a wide range of topics, including: education, corporate training, health and environmental awareness, to name just a few.

Increasingly our society is becoming aware of a concept that has long been at the foundation of effective children’s education: fun can be a great motivator for learning and growth!  Fortunately, at Fit Brains we very much believe that the value of fun as a motivator applies to adults as well.  If we can make important aspects of our daily routine more accessible and engaging, we are more likely to do things we might not be as motivated to do – especially items like long-term health goals that are often difficult to maintain.

For instance, do you have greater interest in enjoyable physical activities like golf or rollerblading, or a prescribed fitness regimen?  Are you more likely to stick to a diet with food that’s healthy but bland, or food that’s healthy and tastes good?  For most, the answers to these questions are self-evident; any task that can be made more enjoyable will also be easier to integrate more consistently into our daily lives.  In the coming weeks and months, I will be exploring a variety of ways that Serious Games are gaining mainstream acceptance, and also take a look at the growing body of research that demonstrates their value in our everyday lives.

We believe that entertainment is a great motivational tool for healthy living.  Our goal is to provide you with a wide variety of entertaining games & activities that have a solid foundation in cognitive science.  At Fit Brains, we harness the power of FUN to help you keep your mind healthy and sharp!

Author: Mark Baxter, FitBrains, 3rd December 2007

Mental Activity 

By now you are well aware of the importance and power of “brain reserve,” the buildup of protective neuronal connections across the lifespan. Brain reserve is one outcome of brain health and is believed to be able to delay the onset of neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). I have proposed a five factor brain health lifestyle that includes Socialization, Physical Activity, Mental Stimulation, Nutrition, and Spirituality. Each of these major factors is critical to the health of everyone. As an integrated and proactive lifestyle, the activities and behaviors within each factor can help to shape a healthy brain, beyond what is generated from a passive brain.Mental Stimulation is one of the major brain health lifestyle factors. Most people think of the brain as a cognitive or thinking system. While this is certainly true, your brain is far more than simply a thinking system. Your brain is responsible for your emotions, movement, sense of well being, imagination, creative and artistic side and so much more. The brain as a thinking system is certainly well accepted and deservingly so.Research has underscored particular activities that reduce the risk of dementia (brain healthy) and fit well into the mental stimulation slice of my brain health lifestyle. These include:

• Reading and writing
• Learning a second language
• Sign Language
• Travel
• Board Game Playing
• Computerized Brain Exercises
• Puzzles
• Musical instrument playing

Obviously, FitBrains provides an important tool and resource for you to stimulate your brain on an ongoing basis. The key element to making mental stimulation a brain health activity is to engage in the “novel and complex.” Tasks that represent the novel and complex for you probably will stimulate your cortex and lead to the development of new neural connections. This is what leads to the buildup of brain reserve. In this scenario, mental stimulation using activities such as FitBrains can be considered a health promoting activity, and one that should be included in a proactive brain health lifestyle.

Author: Dr. Paul Nussbaum, FitBrains, 17th December 2007

Dr. Nussbaum has used this blog to articulate his five part brain health lifestyle for all to consider. These five components include Mental Stimulation, Physical Activity, Socialization, Spirituality, and Nutrition.  Research has provided specific activities and behaviors that fall into one or more of the five components of the lifestyle. The critical thing for readers is to review their own lifestyle currently and try to incorporate the research based activities into a proactive approach to brain health. Spirituality is a broad term that I use to refer to turning inward, slowing down, and introspecting. This process of slowing down may be important to brain health as research indicates animal brains stop developing when exposed to environments that are too stimulating. Baby boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964, are notorious for a fast-paced life with multitasking and stress production. While this type of lifestyle may be necessary at times, it also has its consequences, particularly on health.

Dr. Nussbaum supports 30 minutes a day to slow down, turn inward, and to simply turn off the environmental input. This might actually include turning your phone, ipod, and other communication device off! Research indicates slowing down can reduce stress which may then have positive effects on both the heart and the brain.

Daily prayer enhances the immune system, attending a formal place of worship relates to a longer and happier life, and U.S. physicians indicate prayer is important to the overall wellbeing to their patients. Meditation and relaxation procedures have also been shown to relate to positive health outcomes. These and other ways of simply slowing down are both advised and necessary.

Have a great night sleep!

Author: Dr. Paul Nussbaum, FitBrains, 25th January 2008

As we enter a new year, I like to reflect on the past year and what that means for the one ahead. It’s been five years that I have been developing the brain fitness market, and have seen a lot of changes - both positive and negative. When I first started, there was minimal interest in the concept of exercising your brain. In the last two years however, there has been an explosion in interest from adults of all ages and media coverage and I have been interviewed by leading publications such as the Wall Street Journal, NY Times, Women’s Health.

This has been great news for both the industry and the general public. We are witnessing a shift in society, and a general awareness about the importance of brain fitness. We saw a similar shift in the 1980s with the physical fitness movement. Researchers and the medical profession pushed the positive health benefits of physical activity, but it took a while for society to fully integrate physical exercise into daily life. Thanks to recent scientific research we now know that the brain is malleable and we can build brain connections at any age. Just ten years ago, this was not thought possible.

Nintendo has also helped open up the brain fitness market with their extremely successful Brain Age game. This has, of course, created numerous copycats and flooded the consumer market with one-off and weak products. Yet, I am thankful to Nintendo as they were able to bring awareness of brain fitness to the general public. They had seen the success of their game in Japan and realized there was an aging population worldwide. In addition, they had the resources to market Brain Age and tap into this underserved area. Many people in the scientific and brain fitness community scoff at their game, finding it scientifically weak and a disservice to the consumer. I would have to agree that their product is scientifically weak and I have many of my own complaints. However, Nintendo has hit on something that I understand. They implemented the concepts of “engagement” and “fun factor” and it is one of the main reasons for their success.

So, what does this mean for 2008 and the next five years? There are those who say that the brain fitness market is becoming saturated and is in its later stages. I have seen the market develop up until now, and couldn’t disagree more. Brain fitness is still in its infancy and will see real growth in the next five years. Awareness about brain fitness has now passed the tipping point but we are still falling short in the area of “adoption” into our daily lives. The companies that truly understand what individuals are looking for will be rewarded with enduring customer loyalty. For us at Fit Brains, we believe the “adoption” of brain fitness will be answered through “relevancy”, “motivation” and a “fun factor”. Yes, it is possible to have fun and be scientific too - it just hasn’t been done! Some doctors and people might argue this, but it’s the key to full integration into daily life. People don’t stick with things they don’t enjoy, especially things like long-term health goals that are often difficult to maintain. If we can make an important aspect of a daily routine more accessible and engaging, people will be more likely to do them.

The team here at Fit Brains is extremely excited about 2008! We plan to have our first launch very shortly. Fit Brains will provide a full and varied brain workout that is fun and engaging. We hope people of all ages adopt a brain fitness routine so that we can keep our most important asset strong and healthy!

Author: Michael Cole,  FitBrains, 7th January 2008