I’ve just got offline from the ALT / ELN  ”Instructional Design for Serious Games” webinar.

We set up the Twitter hashtag ‘#altgame‘ and the archive of tweets can be found using the Twapper services here – http://twapperkeeper.com/altgame

Thinking Worlds was one application/software that was mentioned a few times, as were;

• Unity - unity3d.com
• Open Simulator – opensimulator.org

Both look very interesting and worthy of future investigation into their abilities.

The ALT Repository will have the recorded webinar available online (soon) here: http://repository.alt.ac.uk/view/divisions/ALT=2FELN/

Food for thought.

PS. Also worth a read is the “The Art of Computer Game Design” by Chris Crawford.

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I’m looking for resources, research, papers, links, etc on games in education (all levels of education, not just eLearning or Higher Education). Any kind of game will do 3D, Second Life (and why), arcade, role-play, classroom, online, etc.

If you have, or know of any, please post a comment below (you don’t need to register, just type away).

If you know of any games in education that are used for assessment, they’d also be welcome.

… and thank you, in advance!! You’re wonderful.

PS. If you have something you’d like to share with me, but rather I’d not share it around (just yet) then pelase contact me privately and we can discuss offline.

PPS. I will collate results here and on Twitter replies ina future blog post … don’t worry, I will share (unless you don’t want me to!).

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I’ve not spent any time with Second Life so I know I am not in any position to pass judgement on it, but I have this ‘fear’ of such a large virtual world. I read lots of posts on blogs and Twitter about the pitfalls of using it, but every now and again I find something that raises my spirits.

Thanks must go to JISC who, once again, have come up trumps with their recent “Second Life guide helps lecturers teach in the virtual world“.

“‘’Getting Started in Second Life’ answers some common questions like how to set up in Second Life, what the rules of the world are, how to plan lessons and how best to help students use it effectively for learning. The aim of the guide is to present the basics in order to help lecturers experiment, rather than them getting lost in mastering the detail of the virtual environment.”

David White, who led the project, says:

“Virtual worlds are not going to be for everyone but it’s important to understand the genuine pros and cons rather than getting a skewed picture from the media. Teaching in these environments feels more like running an event than simply using a piece of software.  This [magazine] has been created to help educators make informed choices in their use, or non-use, of virtual worlds for teaching and learning.”

As I have said a few times before in previous posts it is imperative that we, as educators and facilitators, know and understand the world in which the today’s and tomorrow’s student lives.

Follow the discussion on Twitter with the hashtag #jiscsl09.

Second Life
Second Life is described as “a free 3D multi-user virtual world developed by Linden Labs in 2003, and is inhabited by millions of residents across the world. It is used as a platform for education by many institutions, such as colleges, universities, libraries and government entities, with over one hundred regions used for educational purposes. This guide is aimed at those who are wanting to use Second Life for teaching in further and higher education. It provides in-depth descriptions of all aspects of the immersive world for both direct useand facilitating others’ use.

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Following on from the presentation I attended last week with Angel Adrian (Education Enhancement Conference; Interactive Games), I thought I’d ask a question … have any of you created a game?

Any kind of game, whether it’s simple text-based or fully interactive and immersive (flash?) doesn’t matter, I’d be really grateful to hear from anyone – please reply to this post.

I am working with Angel to see if we can make the subject of Contract Law more interesting by using an immersive ‘game’ simulation. From the Learning Technologies exhibition in London earlier this year, and from this video/post about Caspian Learning; Game Based Learning 2009 we are in discussion to see if their technology will be appropriate for us;

• to be able to generate the game and scene/interactions ourselves,
• to link to external library and audio/video resources,
• to be simple and effective enough for all types of users to play and learn, and
• to be reusable.

According to the Thinking Worlds website the answer is a clear yes. The technical spec is very encouraging, publishing the game is easy and can be done for many different mediums (CD, SCORM, etc).

Why not play one of their demos, created with the very software that is available at a very good price (for academic uses) online; Rome in Danger.

While the students who will using the first version of the game(s) are not the typical 18-20 Generation Y students (it is being targeted at the mature students on the fully online International Business & Management degree) that does not mean it will be any easier. Far from it. If anything it will be more of a challenge as we will need to spend more time scene-setting and producing instructions and guides on what they need to do and how they do it.

Please let me know what experiences you have with games in education (using, playing, creating, storyboarding, etc) or with using the Thinking Worlds system from Caspian.

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I was quite excited to see BBC News recently doing a piece on Second life. The introduction said that Second Life is “being used by some organisations as an educational tool”. The news piece (available to UK residents online here: ‘Second Life to help real schools’) is only a minute or so long, but initially looked quite good.

However. It wasn’t.

The whole premise of the news item is not about Second Life as an educational tool, as was intimated at, but rather about a school using Second Life to showcase it’s new building. Although the person being interviewed obviously knows how Second Life can be used, and it’s possible advantage as a pedagogic and Web 2.0 tool, it is not being used as such at the moment. They are proposing to use it in future, but how far will this get?

Related Posts:

• Second Life in Higher Education?
• University 2.0

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Is Second Life an appropriate place to take education, specifically eLearning in higher Education?

What started as a game, or a gaming environment, has jumped into main stream life (people even get married in there). Second life is described as “a virtual world without theme, a virtual canvas for creativity”.

One problem that has been levelled at eLearning is that is it impersonal. Second Life offers the personal touch of the avatar-based interaction (your Avatar is “your persona in the virtual world”) ”virtual world education is highly interactive, providing the same convenience of not having to travel while providing a richer, more effective and more enjoyable experience. For such, many students would most gladly make the scheduled time for the virtual classroom”

Second Life offers the organisation that ability to ‘buy’ areas, islands even. Ted Wrightwrites that the common disadvantages of eLearning are now overcome with Second Life. “Educators are not slow to step into and embrace this present, simple to use, interpersonal and further developing media.” He continues by saying that it is highly recommended that virtual campuses, for educational institutions, should be private areas in Second Life, not open to the public. This will easily “facilitate a secure learning environment”.

The use of Second Life is not a new concept, many US and UK Universities have invested many millions of dollars/pounds in their virtual campuses.

Sarah Robbins writes on her blog that “it’s not always easy to see how Second Life can be useful for training. In many cases it’s just not the best tool for the job but sometimes a training need just matches perfectly” when talking about modifying face-2-face teaching for Second Life (SL as she calls it) activities.

I don’t know where I’m going with Second Life, but there is a need to meet the expectations of the student and if the student expects a more interactive and personal ‘approach’ to their eLearning, and it is something that Second Life can reach, then I am going to get more involved. More soon.

Suggested Reading:

• Is there a Second Life for teaching?
• Education in Second Life: Explore the Possibilities
• 101 Uses for Second Life in the College Classroom

Related posts:

1. Getting Started in Second Life (JISC)
2. 'Second Life' on the BBC
3. Reading: “Social Media in Higher Education for Marketing and Communications”