liveblog @ectel2015 Grounded serious game design on scientific findings: the case of ENACT on soft skills assessment

Grounded serious game design on scientific findings: the case of ENACT on soft skills training and assessment (EU project)
Davide Marocco (Plymouth uni)
Enhancing negotiation skills through online assessment and training methods.

Goal: assessment and enhance negotiation competences based on psychological modelling and embed it in modern ICT such as elearning, mLearning, augmented reality...
Idea is to create an online stand-alone game that will enhance negotiation competences.
(and luckily) the team also wants to make an innovative and scientifically sound assessment methodology.

Negotiation competence as social-intra-interpersonal competence (soft-skill) that can be improved and impact the personal and professional life of people.

The game is role-playing game: a bit like a virtual role playing game. Role playing was chosen as it is a proven format for these types of online skill training.
Mix of converging and diverging situation and gender.
8 role playing scenarios for practising and testing negotiation skill
There are user actions, and characters and behaviours that come up.

The core is the concern for self versus the concern for others, which can be either high or low resulting in different compromises (based on Rahim & Bonoma, 1979, psychological reports, 44, 1327.
Assessment validation: with Rahim test to see which type you are resulting in 88 items  (adding demographic questions), correlation with Big Five (20 elements), Assertive efficacy (6 item), self-efficacy (8 items).
450 users, with 2350 scenarios was total population, but filtering was done to increase validation of the project.

Conclusions
flexible system: in simulation setup we can cntrol, add and remove several variables
people remains concentrated utnil the end of the game
the position of the sentences in the UI has no effect
the gender of the virutal player and the conflict type of negotiation have no effect
correlations with Roci are acceptable ony for dominating and integrating

Have a look at the game here http://www.enactskills.eu

Question from the audience: the theory is rather old, so maybe how technology has changed since then, it might have an effect on the outcomes? And a big overlap with another EU project called Target?

Answer: indeed, but we choose to use Rahim to see what it results in and then move on from there. 

liveblog from @EcTEL2015 a framework to design educational #mobile based games across multiple spaces

I choose to sit in on this session as the combination of integrating multiple contexts into mobile learning design is quite a challenge. And just one of the contexts that matter to the whole set of learning contexts. So, I do think there might be a generic framework in this, or a basis to add this design framework and add other contexts to it.

Carmen Fernandez-Panadero (UC3M - Spain) takes the stage and immediately dives in with enthusiasm. Content cration and technical deployment are the two keypoints she will focus on. But first the abstract:.

Abstract: The adoption of mobile devices and context-aware technologies offers the opportunity of designing educational mobile-based games across multiple spaces that enrich the learners’ experience. But producing these games is challenging from both the authoring and technical points of view. This paper proposes a framework to facilitate the design of these games. The framework consists of two elements: (1) a narrative structure, and (2) a platform for its deployment. Both elements defined as a set of templates to be completed for facilitating both the authoring of the narrative and the design of the platform. In order to show a usage example, the framework has been used to develop a mobile-based game for a museum. The game designed has been piloted with 10 students between 6 and 12 years old. The results of the pilot show that it is technically feasible to use this framework to design a mobile-base game across three spaces: a museum, home and a classroom. The students found the activity a good and engaging learning experience.

Questions
How to extend the museum experience to other spaces (home, school)?
How can we reinvent permanent exhibition and provide different experiences with the same modules.

Learning experiences: 3 phases: before/during/after

Before: record video illustrating the main experiment (science experiment). The teams are 5 - 6 students. Each tema prepares and uploads a self-contained video.
During the visit: presenting an adventure delivered to mobiles
1st act: adventure.
5 missions, with 5 teams.
All the teams need to find out who was kidnapped.
In order to solve the adventure tthere is an 'agent kit': tablet, map and decoder.
2nd act: conflict rising: each team member has a role to solve part of the mission.
3rd act: denoument
After the visit: in-class activities, personalized reports (e.g. a comic illustrating the full process of the adventure and solving it).

This led to Content creation and Deployment
The Hero Journey is a book that was build once the author realised that adventures are always solved in similar narrative patterns.

the technology used: [m]Gauge: mobile games for augmented education
Ruby on rails, php for server technology and mobile gap for tablets

Future of Ed #AI DeepMind computer teaches itself to play Atari 2600 games

How do we see the world when Artificial Intelligence takes over work that we find 'humanly satisfying'? What about game-based learning? Is it really such a game-changer, and if it is, than what do we think about computers teaching themselves to be better (than us humans in these games)? Education might get under pressure, as automation and learning creeps in from the digital world. Will Art be the last job standing? All of these ideas are fine with me, as long as we readjust society to cope with these new, upcoming - and more than often based on learning - realities. Can we rethink our place as humans in this increased technological world, and in such a way that we will all still be able to have a sense of intellectual satisfaction? Or will we get globally depressed once we acknowledge that our brain can be outrun by any improved AI DeepMind next generation computer or algorithm?

DeepMind takes over Atari high scores 
Google's DeepMind is something to be reckoned with, and an technological evolution that will push  us to rethink society (at least, that's what I think). The DeepMind algorithms are very interesting, as they can be seen as self-adjusted learning/teaching algorithms. DeepMind is used in DeepFace in the form of DeepLearning (earlier blogpost on it here), and now DeepMind cracked the teaching/learning code to get better at simple video games (yes, this does relate to the tech teenage movie WarGames, the movie from 1983) as The New Scientist (and others) reported today.

Announcing the next evolutionary step: a tiny baby now, but growing
This is a great breakthrough in technology, but potentially one that can influence learning/teaching and society. First of all, I am all for it. Evolution is needed, especially when looking at the boundaries of humanity (evidence-based research seldom results in other more durable approaches (think climate, hunger relief...), war is still a major driving force although we all know the downsides of it). So in a way, my hope rests in the next phase of existence, which might just be fully digital, with us humans as reservation or zoo kept animals, that are provided toys just like our closest biological sisters and brothers, the apes.

Education as savior to get us from human-biological to computational-digital  
But there is a downside as we are in a transition zone, where AI is not yet capable of taking over, and humans are decreasingly needed. The shift from the biological to the computational needs to be made more pleasant. Allowing people all over the world to be have their little piece of Eden, before the fully computational revolution takes over. Education can help, especially lifelong learning, as this will allow us to re-evaluate which opportunities are still open to us humans, and how (or where) we need to turn to reshape our knowledge, or take on a new identity that will allow us to live a satisfactory life in this transition phase between the human-biological and the computational-digital life. Education would as such no longer need to be job-focused, but more life-focused: sustaining and supporting that which makes us humans feel satisfied, intellectually balanced, good.

Online learning as one of the tools to guide and shape us
Elearning or online learning with multiple devices, across location and time is a good option to re-adjust life to fit these new, upcoming artificial intelligence changes. At best, online content is shaped by cooperatively working on a particular subject. Multimedia files, content, contextualized authentic learning experiences... all of these can be brought together much quicker then ever before, and built by all of us putting our heads together (standing on the shoulders of giants comes to mind). So, in a way, online learning can offer quick responses to new societal changes. Providing new opportunities, new ways of looking at the rapid changes, and at our human identities against the backdrop of a changed, more AI oriented society.

(image source: https://juandomingofarnos.wordpress.com/2014/08/11/inteligencia-coolhunting-la-sabiduria-digital-de-e-learning-inclusivo-educacion-disruptiva/)

Whistly Bird? Flappy bird with a whistle, procrastination

A friend of mine told me about his gaming project a couple of weeks ago. He was all excited, and almost could not wait for his game to be full proof in order to shout it out from the rooftops: Whistly Bird!!!! So I told him, just give me a hands-up when you finish testing it, and I will gladly try it out.

And finally he let me know - proud as a peacock - yesterday evening. And indeed it is fun (read: solid procrastination!). So I gladly send it out to the world, as that is what friends do, and the more we procrastinate, the more peace we all have :-)

Whistly bird is build around the concept of Flappy Bird, but with an audio twist. You need to whistle to direct the bird in between the pipes.

The game information and download options can be found here at OceanshipGames.

So find your microphone set, get a glass of water (to use in between whistles ... I needed it) and get whistling. As a bonus: it practices the mouth movements, so it must have a linguistic or speech specialist benefit as well. But I must confess I found it hard, and I wished it had an adjusted speed for whistling responses. I simply do not seem to have a steady whistle in me (yet).

The short trailer gives the idea behind the game.

Free #mobile learning webinars @imlws

Next week the Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) group will be providing a great set of speakers to any of you interested in mobile learning and its frontier use. It is a 3 day webinar series, starting on Tuesday 20 May until Thursday 22 May 2014. You can register for this seminar here.

The speaker line-up is quite impressive, bringing the best mLearning practitioners from around the globe together, the full schedule with links to the content and profiles of all the speakers can be found here, but gladly sharing the overview:

Opening Remarks / Welcome Presented by Dr. Kristy Murray
9:05am – 9:15am EDT	Agenda Overview, Webinar Requirements & Etiquette Presented by Jason Haag
9:15am – 9:45am EDT	Games-based Mobile Learning: Presented by Dan Magaha
10:00am – 10:30am EDT	Making The Move to Multi-device Design Presented by Imogen Casebourne
10:45am – 11:15am EDT	Digital. Mobile. Augmented. Reality - How Emerging Technologies are Redefining Context and Reshaping Our Views About Mobile Learning Presented by Geoff Stead
11:30am – 12:45pm EDT	Lunch Break
1:00pm – 1:30pm EDT	Beyond the Small Screen: Designing Mobile Experiences that Engage the World Presented by David Gagnon
1:45pm – 2:15pm EDT	Contextualizing Mobile: MLearning In the Larger Picture of Organizational Performance & Development Presented by Clark Quinn
2:30pm – 3:00pm EDT	Enhancing Performance through Wearable Devices Presented by Eric Sikorski
3:15pm – 3:45pm EDT	Strategies for Implementing Mobile Learning into Existing Training Programs - Lessons Learned About Infrastructure and Instructional Design Presented by Christine Hudy
3:45pm – 4:15pm EDT	Using EPUB3 and xAPI for Mobile Learning Presented by Tyde Richards

Day 2: Wednesday, May 21, 2014
9:00am – 9:05am	Opening Remarks / Welcome Presented by TBD
9:05am – 9:15am EDT	Agenda Overview, Webinar Requirements & Etiquette Presented by Jason Haag
9:15am – 9:45am EDT	Mobile Learning at Abilene Christian University: What we learned and what we are still learning Presented by Scott Hamm
10:00am – 10:30am EDT	When Learning Becomes Working – How xAPI Blends the Two Presented by Chad Udell
10:45am – 11:15am EDT	Title: TBD Presented by Kellian Adams Pletcher
11:30am – 12:45pm EDT	Lunch Break
1:00pm – 1:30pm EDT	Learning in the Open Presented by Michael Sean Gallagher
1:45pm – 2:15pm EDT	JKO Mobile Use Cases and Demo Presented by Mark L. Willman
2:30pm – 3:00pm EDT	mLearning, 3D and Augmented Reality for Army Combat Medics Presented by David Metcalf
3:15pm – 3:30pm EDT	From Legacy Content to Device-independent Presentation Models Presented by Mayra Aixa Villar
3:45pm – 4:15pm EDT	Structured Content Strategies for Mobile Presented by Reuben Tozman
4:15pm – 4:30pm EDT	Closing Remarks Presented by Jason Haag

Day 3: Thursday, May 22, 2014
9:00am – 9:05am	Opening Remarks / Welcome Presented by TBD
9:05am – 9:15am EDT	Agenda Overview, Webinar Requirements & Etiquette Presented by Jason Haag
9:15am – 9:45am EDT	Patterns of Mobile Learning: From Mobile Content and Blended Learning to Mixed Reality Simulations Presented by Christian Glahn
10:00am – 10:30am EDT	How People Really Hold and Touch (their phones) Presented by Steven Hoober
10:45am – 11:15am EDT	Tools for Mobile Design Presented by Sarah Gilbert
11:30am – 12:45pm EDT	Lunch Break
1:00pm – 1:30pm EDT	Instructional Design for Mobile Learning Presented by Peter Berking
1:45pm – 2:15pm EDT	(Re)Designing Learning for Mobile Presented by John Traxler
2:30pm – 3:00pm EDT	Framing Instructional Design for Collaborative RLOs with the CSAM Framework Presented by Rob Power
3:15pm – 3:45pm EDT	Mobile Learning as part of a Blended Approach Presented by Mike Brock
3:45pm – 4:00pm EDT	Closing Remarks Presented by Jason Haag

Join the first #FutureLearn #MOOC courses

The first courses will be going live on FutureLearn platform, the first UK-led provider of massive open online courses (MOOCs). FutureLearn is the result of nine months intense work and testing since its initial launch. For those interested in the business set up: FutureLearn is an independent company owned and spearheaded by The Open University, but in collaboration/partnership with top UK, Ireland and Australian universities. From today, some of the courses from our 20-plus partners will be showcased at a media event at the British Library, in London; but some of the courses will also be open to the public. Those courses will be public beta courses, so courses that are open to critique, improvements, and overall learning to get better. 

So for all of you experienced MOOC'rs out there, feel free to visit www.futurelearn.com and join the public beta testing of FutureLearn. Give feedback, share tweets, blogs, ... adding to the insights we all need to improve the courses even more, and become one of the potential standards of (x)MOOC (e.g. Coursera, EdX, Udacity). There will be videos, trailers of the courses to come, descriptions... and all of that stuff. But what we are interested in is what you feel is missing? 

• Are the FutureLearn courses truly mobile accessible?
• Do the courses provide a seamless learning experience (where you can leave the course and pick it up again easily)?
• Are they social enough to learn from peers, share experiences with others?

The trailers can be seen on each course page, or you can simply subscribe to the FutureLearn YouTube channel and get an idea of what is available.
As an example I put up the "Begin programming, build your first mobile game" course provided by the University of Reading. The trailer can be viewed below:

Summer schools on serious gaming and video use

Two interesting summer school courses arrived in my mail box: one on video in research (3 week course in Finland) and one on serious gaming (one intense week in Austria), open for master and PhD students, and researchers.

VIDEO IN RESEARCH ON LEARNING AND EDUCATION SUMMER SCHOOL COURSE 2013CICERO Learning Network will be organising a three-week summer school course in Helsinki on 6-22 August for the fifth consecutive year. The Video Research course is designed for students and researchers  
interested in using video-based methods and technologies in research on learning and education. The course focuses on current trends and phenomena in video research.  Participants are also encouraged to share their experiences of video research tools and projects. The course is an excellent opportunity for students and researchers to network while developing their understandings about the possibilities and challenges of video research in diverse settings. The course is part of the 2013 Helsinki Summer School (HSS) and the language of instruction is English.

For more detailed information (timetable, eligibility criteria):
http://www.cicero.fi/sivut2/news_CICERO_summerschool2013.html

Helsinki Summer School (application forms and practical information):
www.helsinkisummerschool.fi/home/index

GALA SUMMER SCHOOL ON SERIOUS GAMING
2-6 September 2013, University of Graz, Austria

The summer school course will include lectures and workshops at least on:

• - serious game design theories and practices
• - serious game development tools and techniques
• - serious game research methodology

The course will be an insightful and inspirational opportunity for young researchers and professionals get to know the realm of serious gaming.

The organizing committee has managed to attract some great speakers, including Harri Ketamo (SkillPixels Ltd) and many others from fine institutions such as Coventry University (the Serious Games Institute), Nottingham University, Utrecht University, Herriot-Watt University, Delft University of Technology.

For more information and registration:
http://academy.seriousgamessociety.org/summerschool

Organiser: Games and Learning Alliance (GALA)
http://www.galanoe.eu/

#mLearn12 Lauri Jarvilehto on #games the learning playing brain

Learning as Fun: introducing gaming pedagogy by Lauri Jarvilehto.
www.filosofianakatemia.fi

Wonderful keynote linking gaming to pedagogy to neuro-science!

We can reproduce relevant information, because we engaged in it previously.

Games that truly engage children and high quality substance, might result in the best possible learning.

Flow channel: learning and engagement (Milhaly Csikszentmihalyi) sits on an axis of challenges and skills.

Boredom: (interesting Tedtalk Robinson related to ADHD non-accurancy) versus anxious.
Flow = total immersion of something that is happening now (cfr the Zone).

As teachers, you can redirect children into the flow.
We all have the neural mechanisms to get into the flow, but we need to be lucky!

Learning and the brain
Learning => new neuron connections.
The brain is constantly evolving.

Concentrated work: you need to switch of outside impulses.
Creative thinking is pushed by games, colorful things...
=> due to constant dynamic of our brain and how it is wired.

Dopamine is the most rewarding hormone => works at optimal level, giving a good feeling, it pushes our prefrontal areas to concentrate better. The neural links are strong and lasting, so being engaged and happy strengthens your learning and knowledge durability.
But overactivating the dopamine level => getting anxious.
Brain study of emotion has shown that emotion pushes learning (ex. sick by soup => no longer soup).

2 successful learning: having fun or dictatorship system => both result in emotionally constructed learning. Example: tiger mom approach (VERY strict raising, ex. Agassi's dad, forced to play tennis).

So how do we get our children into learning and play
Playing is an evolutionary requirement of every living creature (Stuart Brown: how it shapes the brain, 2009).

Experiment: stop playing (no intrinsical motivation), only do 'serious work'. By the end of one day, the majority of people showed sever symptoms of depression. Playing is at the very heart of what we are.
Play is also optimal for getting into the flow. And play can push us just a little bit further, hence learning.
Neuroplasticity is one of the major neuro-science fields of today (e.g. the brain can restructure, if a certain area is disconnected, other parts of the brain can take over, BUT the challenges first need to be lowered to get back into the flow).

Games (and horror) rise the dopamine levels in the brain => affecting learning.
Good games automatically adjust to the gaming actors.

Danger of non serious games: a game without substance will lift the dopamine level, but without a learning award (e.g. Angry birds (classic), there is Angry birds Space (substance)).

Substance is VERY important to get a meaningful, rewarding experience.
Example dragonbox: algebra application with really complex algebra, and based on dragons and boxes.

We all have all the tools available, so let's see what we can out of this.

(Inge, look at this flow model for your own learning!)

Tryout this #Android #mLearning game and alter it for your setting

David Parsons from the Massey University in Auckland, New Zealand has developed a mobile business consulting game. The game is not yet fully finished, but he and his team offer us the means to go and install the game on our Android mobile phones and give it a try.
The nice thing is, if you are a bit familiar with XML, you can adapt the code to fit your Google map based location and play in your setting. The game also has augmented features, so it is nice for a variety of reasons.

How to download the game to your Android and tweek it to fit your setting, can be seen in this recorded webinar (26 min). The zip-file of the game and the configuration documentation can be found at this wikipage:
https://mobimooc.wikispaces.com/Serious+mLearning+games

The webinar is part of MobiMOOC2012 a free, open, online course on mobile learning that ran in September 2012. 

Serious Games? Join the free #mLearning course #MobiMOOC

With the start of MobiMOOC getting closer, all the course pages become populated. (The free, open, online course MobiMOOC starts on 8 September 2012. Not registered yet? Simply become a member of MobiMOOC google group to become a participant in MobiMOOC).

In the third week of the course (23 - 29 September 2012) David Parsons from the Massey University in New Zealand will take us on a one week journey into serious games. He will ask all of us participants to exchange experiences, challenges and ideas on games for education and showcase a game he has been developing.

To get an overview of the essential factors of why games stimulate us for learning and which implications this have I gladly link to a wonderfully inspiring presentation by Sebastian Deterding (seriously, it is mind blowing beautiful and intelligent!). Make sure you look at the presentation in full screen, as the comments Sebastian provides in his presentation are what makes it an inspiring slide set.

Don't Play Games With Me! Promises and Pitfalls of Gameful Design from Sebastian Deterding

Join the facilitators of the free course on #mLearning MobiMOOC

MobiMOOC is a free, open, online course on mobile learning (mLearning) which will be running between 8 and 30 September 2012. The course wiki (http://mobimooc.wikispaces.com ) is gradually taking shape. 

Covered mLearning topics: augmented learning, mobile gaming, corporate mLearning, train-the-trainer, building a mLearning curriculum, global mLearning issues, mobile health (mHealth), ICT for development, mlearning strategies/pedagogies and we will start with a look at the basics of mLearning including how to set up a mobile learning project.

Interested? Join the free course by becoming a member of the MobiMOOC google group(registration point of the course).

With the start of the course still two months away, our grand group of facilitators was completed last week and here are the guides-on-the-side for all the upcoming mobile learning topics (in completely random order). All of us cover 4 continents and 9 different mobile learning topics:

Mobile learning theory/pedagogy: Geoff (Stead) is a mobile massive brain from Cambridge, UK, with an enormous amount of zest and creativity. Who better to provide an overview of mobile learning theories and pedagogies then his creative mind?

Corporate learning: Amit (Garg) from India has inspired companies to go mobile based on strong business plans, goal oriented design and intuitive learning. He shares what he knows with all that want to hear. Amit is a true enlightened entrepreneur who embraces the ancient old wisdom that sharing will lift all of us to a higher plain within our human capacities.

Train-the-trainer: Jacqueline (Batchelor) from South Africa uses all of her blond haired charm to get every teacher trained simply by using mobile devices and … a lot of educational insight. She is a silent, calm, yet a very thorough expert that explores new frontiers of teacher engagement and paves the way for all of us.

Mobile activism/learning: Sean (Abajian) from sunny California is a mobile activist believer. He lifts crowds to march for better adult education, he is an activist pur-sang and with a heart of gold and understands the benefits of educational technologies. He knows that long-term activism coincides with quick learning.

Mobile gaming: David (Parsons) from Australia is an old school new school mobile programmer, now completely emerged in mobile gaming. He will guide us in our first contemplations to create serous mobile games.

Augmented learning: Víctor Alvarez pours his Spanish passion into innovative augmented learning applications. He sees beyond our everyday world and adds extra layers of interest that enhances the moments, locations, and understandings we currently live in.   

Setting up a Mobile Learning Curriculum Framework: Adele (Botha): straight from South Africa, she knows how to own any room she enters and grab the attention with her mobile knowledge and persona. She will push us forward with any mobile learning curriculum we want to create.

ICT for development: Michael (Sean Gallagher - UK/Korea) combines a literary pen with a mission to provide a mobile solution to anyone living in a challenged environment no matter where you are in the world. He will share solutions that will get you up and ready to tackle low resource settings with a great set of tools.

mHealth: Malcolm (Lewis - Australia) has a diverse background across a range of social movements and social services. In the mid-1980s, he was involved in the early days of the internet working to bring the wonders of email to the NGO sector in Australia. For the past 14 years, he has been working in the field of health promotion and technology.

Global mLearning issues: John (Traxler): He has got more air-miles than George Clooney in Up in the Air, John gives new meaning to the word mobile and researches it in all its meanings. Amateur ornithologist, mountain climber, and professor in mobile learning!

And me from Belgium, well….. me focusing on an introduction to mLearning and planning a project!