How To Spark Remote Learning

“Second Life,” the online world that brings players together from across the globe to socialize, shop and even fly, is developing a second career as a hot spot for learning English as a second language (ESL).

It’s a classic innovation–a novel way to use a tool created for an entirely different purpose, namely to have a good time. That’s still the reason why most players come to “Second Life,” but English-language instructors who spend time with students there say they’re combining fun and learning–and getting excellent results.

Author: Bonnie Ruberg, Forbes Innovations, 19th March 2008

Full article available here.

Game sends teenagers drink alert

The game shows all the dangers that go along with binge drinking

A computer game based on the dangers of drinking has been developed by pupils from two Renfrewshire schools. It is estimated more than a third of 15-year-olds binge drink every week and the game aims to tackle alcohol abuse.

In it the player has to find and help a friend who has been drinking and whose condition is constantly deteriorating.

S1 students at Paisley Grammar School and St Andrew’s Academy designed the concept, features and sound effects for the ThinknDrinkn game.

The project was developed with the help the University of the West of Scotland’s School of Computing.

What we tried to do was create a realistic scenario in a city-scape Andrew Dickie Teacher

It will also go on Glow, the national schools intranet, to be used by schools all over Scotland and can be used on mobile phones.

Author: BBC News, Scotland, 17th March 2008

Full article available here.

See also ThinknDrinkn post.

ThinknDrinkn - game-based education with school children

ThinknDrinkn

ThinknDrinkn is a game created by S1 pupils at two local Paisley schools to raise awareness of many of the issues around alcohol consumption. The game was created in collaboration with UWS (my institution) and a local games company, KodeTank. It was launched just the other day, and got some coverage on the BBC.

There is also a more detailed gameplay video on TeacherTube.

Author: Daniel Livingstone, Learning Games Blog, 19th March 2008

Full article available here.

See also BBC News post on the game.

How to use a Quiz Game

Oak Hill High School recently acquired The InQuizitor from 3MRT Software. The concept of the game is very simple. So simple that at times people have questioned me as to why would I want to use a quiz game in the high school classroom. Well my answer has multiple levels.

Author: Dave McDivitt, 18th March 2008

Full article available here.

Interactives - The Rock Cycle

Interactives: The Rock Cycle

How much do you know about rocks? Well, if you are a bit unsure about distinguishing an igneous rock from a sedimentary rock you’ll certainly be on solid ground after taking a tour through this feature created by Annenberg Media. Visitors can make their way through graphically-enhanced sections that include “Types of Rocks”, “How Rocks Change”, and “The Rock Cycle Diagram”. In the “Types of Rocks” area visitors will learn about the basic types of rocks and they can even check out a handy chart that will give them some of the finer points of rock identification. The “How Rocks Change” area provides a basic overview of the processes involved with rock creation and transformation through a heady blend of Flash animations and straight-forward prose. Finally, the “Rock Cycle Diagram” provides an illustration of rock transformation over time. This site will be quite useful to educators and anyone who has peered at a rock and wondered: “How did you come to be?”

From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout 1994-2008. http://scout.wisc.edu

Author: Ray Schroeder, Educational Technology Blog, 18th March 2008

Annenberg Media - some other great interactive learning pieces are available on their site too.

4th Annual Innovations in e-Learning Symposium (June 3,4,5)

(seriously, Sid Meier is a keynoter and it only cost $250 for the whole conference!)The George Mason University Instructional Technology Program and the Defense Acquisition University invite you to attend the 4th Annual Innovations in e-Learning Symposium to be held on June 3, 4 & 5, 2008 in the Johnson Center on the Fairfax Campus of George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
The topics for this year’s symposium are:
* Mobile Learning and Gaming
* Web 2.0 and Cyber-infrastructure
* Innovation Design and Research Partnerships
* Collaboration in a Virtual World

Author: Mark Oehlert, e-Clippings Blog, 18th March 2008

Full article available here.

Newtoon Update

Newtoon update… (last mentioned here)A video has been added to the page at Futurelab, so you can see Newtoon being used/played by students - and being discussed by the developers. I have to say that I’d still be more tempted to use Phun based on what can be seen here. Phun looks far more powerful, and based on open-ended play.Author: Daniel Livingstone, Learning Games Blog, 12th March 2008

Full article available here.

Game-Based Learning Website - supersmartgames.com

I recently came across www.supersmartgames.com through my research and it looks promising. It provides links and ratings of learning-based games which you can sort by age group, subject or platform. Some of the games from what I have seen have the commercial game look and some are actually commercial games. The remainder are mini games but ones that which incorporate elements of game design to an extent.

You can view the maths games available by the following link:
http://www.supersmartgames.com/blogcategory/61/

Here are some examples I picked out from the maths games on the website which illustrate the varied products.

Arcademic Math Games

“These educational video games offer an innovative approach to teaching basic academic skills by incorporating features of arcade games and educational practices into online games that motivate, intrigue, and teach!”

Maths games by Arcademic Skill Builders include multi and single player and are simple but aesthetically pleasing mini games. They have a clean simple casual game feel but have a strong focus on learning. You can have a look at the games available on their website.

I think these games are definitely an improvement on the common dry content quiz type of elearning with some graphics slapped on. However, with simple maths like addition and subtraction it is hard to get away from actually showing the sum. With more complex maths, and an audience who are used to playing complex commercial games, the dry content needs to be presented in an interesting way.

DimensionM by Tabula Digita

“Shipwrecked at sea, Darienne Clay, daughter of a brilliant scientist at the University of Hawaii’s new biotech program, washes up on the shore of an abandoned island after the university’s summer school research vessel she was on meets with disaster.”

None of the demos work on my PC! You may have luck on a Mac. The website can be found here. See the demos under ‘Games > Game Demos’ and detailed video clips of how the system works under ‘How It Works > Video’.

Tabula Digita seem to have ticked all the boxes, except that it wasn’t clear from the videos how the games cover other aspects of maths. All that was shown were line equations and coordinates. The polish and gameplay seem to be of a high commercial standard and the learning and maths is integrated very well into the context of the game. Tabula Digita, from what I have seen, seem to be far ahead of the others when it comes to educational games. They have included instructional modules and assessments in the game which are completed pre-missions and acumulate data on the child’s progress and scores. They run through the main rules behind the maths theories and make sure the students understand them before starting their next mission. Additionally there are monitoring tools available for the teachers to keep track of data and convert them to other usable formats.

Tabula Digita have developed an extremely powerful tool and I do think these are the kind of games that should be developed to aid learning. Of course subject matters do differ but this provides an example of how well learning material can be presented using game design techniques and by this, truly engaging the audience.

Great Geometry Adventure

“In Gary the Swamp Frog’s Great Geometry Adventure, you play through a total of seventy-five levels of geometric madness encompassing shape recognition, perimeter determination, area computation, and volume calculation. Study hard and learn well to use your knowledge to free your friends”

No demo available but there is a little bit of information on the website. To me this looks like another quiz type game but with more immersive graphics. Questions come up on the screen with typical multiple choice answers. Quite disappointing after seeing what Tabula Digita are doing!

Timez Attack by Big Brainz

“Timez Attack is an amazing new video game exclusively for kids to easily learn multiplication tables. You have got to see this game to believe it.

It is easily the best game we have ever seen for teaching the times tables. Timez Attack is as high-tech and entertaining as any of the best video games. It is engaging, fun, and highly effective.”

Have a look at their website here. Despite the maths being plonked into the game in quite an obvious way I think this works for its target market. The gameplay replicates many 1st person adventure pc games and motivates and engages the player making them want to play more. Not much notice is given to the maths while playing as the main goals of the player are to find keys to open doors and explore the worlds. The maths is put to the sidelines in the players’ minds as the graphics are so immersive, kind of like a clean Doom.

Author: Alexandra Matthews, Gaming & Learning, 10th March 2008

Bullying Games

Games are, as we know, often picked on as being the cause of all that is wrong in modern society. When a McDonald’s chief blames games for obesity, we know that games come pretty low in the acceptability pecking order. And now the BBC has posted a piece about the new-edition of Bully being released (formerly released in the UK as Canis Canim Edit).

And it’s shocking stuff:

It features a teenager who adjusts to life at a new boarding school by harassing others, including teachers.
The abuse includes dunking pupils’ heads in toilets, photographing them naked and physically assaulting them.

Shocking indeed. In fact, given that the game has been playable since last year, I’m very disappointed that the BBC are happy to present the game as though the point of it is to become a bully and harass others - when as would be known to anyone who’s gone as far as actually reading a review of the game (a step the reporter ought to have taken), or possibly even play it, it’s pretty much the exact opposite…

Author: Daniel Livingstone, Learning Games Blog, 7th March 2008

Full article available here.

Big Basket of Stuff #2

…in which even amnesiacs can remember games…students get connected and wikis get adopted..

Readers should get game-literate - Far from spelling the end of proper storytelling, video games point towards its future: “When the popular novel was as new an idea as video games, the great and good were certain, as they were with early cinema, that no sophistication could come from this prose business, especially the sort of filth Samuel Richardson scribbled about.”

Replaying the Game: Hypnagogic Images in Normals and Amnesics: ” Robert Stickgold caused 17 different people to have the same dream. In doing so, he added to evidence that the purpose of sleep is to process information — to take the jumble of a day’s events, filter it, and send important impressions to the brain’s memory centers. (Tetris Effect)

Author: Mark Oehlert, e-Clippings Blog, 5th March 2008

Full article available here.