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Rebecca Davis

Xenos | Learning Games Network - 2 views

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    Xenos-ISLE is an open-source language learning portal - an online universe where people can gather and practice using a second language in natural and authentic ways through game play. Students are free to roam the world, chat and communicate with those they meet along the way.
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    names mean stranger in Greek
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    Which is nice - it's neither the target language (English) nor the students' original tongue (Spanish). So it emphasizes strangeness equally.
Bryan Alexander

Anthropology of Social Behavior in BioShock - 2 views

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    While playing BioShock, we are conducting an anthropological investigation that has a direct effect on how we interact with the narrative and the choices we make. Similar to Fallout 3, as discussed in Trevor's post, we are given the chance to explore a world, make our interpretations about what it means, and directly apply these to the game.
Rebecca Davis

Game Center researchers to reinvent computer games :: UC Irvine TODAY - 0 views

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    New center for computer games and virtual worlds
Ed Webb

Thoughts on gaming and learning | TechTicker - 1 views

  • These sorts of enviroments are a fascinating phenomenon to me, not necessarily from the standpoint of the environments themselves, or the experiences they help facilitate, but with the degree of engagement, dedication and time investment that people willingly and independently put into them.
    • Ed Webb
       
      I concur - this has always been my main driver of interest in gaming and education - the sheer energy, focus, and ingenuity people will invest in games.
  • why the obsession with delineating where learning stops and open-ended fun begins? Why must there be a distiction?
    • Ed Webb
       
      My mantra: learning IS fun (i.e.there is no distinction)
    • Bryan Alexander
       
      That's a powerful mantra, Ed. Or even a koan.
Ed Webb

There - There - 3 views

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    via @bruces via @mkapor
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    Recession destroys world
Bryan Alexander

"Building a Collaborative Online Literary Experience" - 1 views

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    University of Richmond's virtual Poe project.
Rebecca Davis

Techne » Virtual Programming Addresses Technology for Teaching Global Cultures - 0 views

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    mentions several games used for teaching global cultures
Ed Webb

Virtual Organizations as Sociotechnical Systems (VOSS) NSF 10-504 - 0 views

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    Oooh. We can haz? A study of learning in gaming organizations?
Ed Webb

Virtual Worlds, Simulations, and Games for Education: A Unifying View - 2009 - ASTD - 0 views

  • It is more useful, and perhaps more complete, to see virtual worlds, games, and simulations as points along a continuum, all instances of highly interactive virtual environments (HIVEs).
  • The ease with which the children in the pool, the students in the virtual class, and the pilot in the flight simulator move from exploratory virtual-world behaviors to structured but simple games to taking on rigorous simulation challenges illustrates both the differences across these three instances and the connections that link them. It is only by building from open experimentation to increasingly rigorous rules, structures, and success criteria that children learn transferable water survival skills and pilots learn critical flying skills.
  • A virtual world will not suffice where a simulation is needed. The virtual world offers only context with no content; it contributes a set of tools that both enable and restrict the uses to which it may be put. An educational simulation may take place in a virtual world, but it still must be rigorously designed and implemented. Organizations routinely fail in their efforts to access the potential of virtual worlds when they believe that buying a virtual world means getting a simulation. Likewise, a game is not an educational simulation. Playing SimCity will not make someone a better mayor. Some players of, for instance, World of Warcraft may learn deep, transferable, even measurable leadership skills but not all players will. The game does not provide a structure for ensuring learning. Just because some players learn these skills playing the game, that does not mean either that most players are also learning these skills or that it should be adopted in a leadership development program. Conversely, a purely educational simulation may not be very much fun. The program may have the three-dimensional graphics and motion capture animations of a computer game, but the content may be frustrating. Specific competencies must be invoked, and students' assumptions about what the content should be, likely shaped by their experiences with games, will be challenged.
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  • One example of the commonality across all HIVEs is the need for introductory structures. These asynchronous, self-paced levels or locations allow students to learn and demonstrate basic competencies in manipulation, navigation, and communication before moving on to the "real" exercise.
  • the need for communities around games and simulations
  • Virtual environments provide a natural way for people to learn by nurturing an instinctive progression from experiencing to playing to learning; instructors should encourage the shifting across experimentation, play, and practice in which students naturally engage. In fact, instructors can exploit that behavior by providing stages that accommodate each stage. Light games and self-paced introductory levels can be used to get students comfortable with basic concepts and the interface necessary to exist in the virtual world, and the complexity can be increased to encourage students to move on to play and practice stages.
  • While best practices in content structuring may be transferred from stand-alone educational simulations to virtual world-based simulations, metrics and learning objectives for the different contexts should be different. Learning objectives and assessments around games, for instance, should be focused on the engagement, exposure, and use of simple interfaces while those for educational simulations should measure the development of complex, transferrable skills.
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    via @timbuckteeth
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