Archive for May, 2008

OK, the video’s been out for a while but here’s another reason social networks are important. Can’t everybody just get along?
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From the number of inquiries we receive and the projects we’re managing lately — blogs, forums, wikis, user content sites, multi-player games and sims — it’s clear there’s tremendous demand for social networking. Out of curiosity I pinged Indeed.com and found this trajectory for social networking jobs:

Considering the dates (1/05 to 4/08) some of the curve must represent the growth of Indeed itself, but still. Yet it’s hardly surprising. We humans are a highly social species (ever count the number of names we have for social groups?) so it was only a matter of time before the web caught up. Now that we have open source platforms like Wordpress and Joomla! and so many commercial services — MySpace, Facebook, Ning, Orkut and Twitter among many others — the possibilities are nearly endless to enhance brands, engage consumers, enhance learning, deepen understanding and build community.

Does what you experience and learn in virtual environments like MMOGs and videogames have any relevance to real life?

Thought leaders like Jim Gee and researchers like Jeremy Bailenson, director of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL), assert that it does. Bailenson has been studying ways that online behavior affects daily life (.pdf) and in The Skills of Digital Avatars (.pdf) he makes a convincing argument that virtual representations of professors can be more effective than the real thing (doubtless a cause to celebrate for anyone looking at a tuition bill lately).

For more on Jeremy Bailenson’s work read Time Magazine’s coverage of Bailenson’s work in How Second Life Affects Real Life, listen to NPR’s nterview with Bailenson, or watch a video of his lecture on Transformed Social Interaction in Virtual Reality.

The new convergence of products that combine aspects of online games and simulations, social networking and user generated content in the service of learning was the topic of our panel at the SIIA’s annual Ed Tech Industry Summit:

• Krista Marks, Chief Executive Officer, Kerpoof
• Carly Shuler, The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop
• Dave McCool, President, Muzzy Lane, Inc.
• Lee Wilson, Principal, Headway Strategies
• Richard Carey, Human Engagement Engineer, RC/A Digital Media Solutions (moderator)

Downloadable slides and links to websites referenced in the session are posted on the Resources page.

While students embrace mobile always-connected media and devices, virtual environments, and social networks in their daily lives, schools still rely on teaching methods that were used generations ago. This short video Learning to Change, Changing to Learn, which was produced by CoSN and the Pearson Foundation, argues that this dichotomy signals the death of education as we know and the birth of learning. May it be so. As one viewer wrote: “As an educator myself I hope that more people realize how times have changed and how the way kids learn is ever-changing… I was skeptical in the beginning, but now am a believer.”[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/b4VhoWGZ2eA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

A shout out to Eliane Alhadeff for her recent post Search as a Serious Game which highlights a seriously cool search interface from SearchMe.com. A picture says a thousand words so file this under User Experience and go take it for a spin to see what web search + gamer centered design might look looks like. For more visit the SearchMe blog.

As a cold-war baby one of my favorite cartoon strips was Mad magazine’s Spy vs. Spy. That all flashed back to me a few years ago at the second Serious Games Summit in Crystal City, VA, just across the highway from the Pentagon.

There, it didn’t take long to realize — with equal measures of horror and fascination — that nearly half the conference attendees were either CIA, DIA, another spookier breed of __IA, or were soldiers in cammies on state-side rotation. Then, the business, training and education verticals were sorely lacking. Today, between forums at the Game Developers Conference, the Virtual World Summit and sessions at SIIA, AEP, FETC and other conferences, all I can say is what a difference a few years make.

In their on-going coverage of games for purposes beyond entertainment, Wired Magazine recently ran a story called U.S. Spies Use Custom Videogames to Learn How to Think. As much as it reminded me of the conference in Crystal City, it also shows how far we’ve come in the acceptance of games’ power to inform and motivate:

Given a choice between a droning classroom lecture or a videogame, the best method for teaching Generation Y was obvious. “It is clear that our new workforce is very comfortable with this approach,” says Bruce Bennett, chief of the analysis-training branch at the DIA’s Joint Military Intelligence Training Center.

In one of the games anti-terrorist forces land by helicopter in Sudden Thrust. The goal of the games is to focus players on epistemology. [...] The titles may conjure images of blitzkrieg, but the games themselves are actually a surprisingly clever and occasionally surreal blend of education, humor and intellectual challenge, aimed at teaching the player how to think.

[...] Each game only takes about 90 minutes to three hours, and has multiple story lines that branch depending on a player’s actions. All DIA analysts will eventually play them, from rookies to old hands who will use them for refresher training. The DIA has about 2,000 analysts, but the agency has been tasked with training another 2,000 in the U.S. military’s combatant commands, many of whom work overseas far from training facilities. With classroom space and instructors at a premium, Bennett estimates that every hour spent training with a game saves one hour of classroom instruction, plus travel time and expense. Read the full article here >>>

Though Spy vs. Spy came to mind when I attended Serious Games Summit and first read this story, that isn’t the point. What’s key here is to recognize that games are a seriously effective tool for reaching the digitally native learner and for motivating the digital immigrant.

Just as back in the day the Defense Department spawned the Internet through its DARPA program, they’re again showing the way forward. Companies like IBM are getting the message and so is Cisco who use games to train new engineers. Children’s technology and entertainment executives are tuning in big time and soon finance, pharma and professional education will be on the bandwagon as well. Clearly the digital natives are restless and the games are beginning.