Educational Gaming Commons - Press Start

Wow - something I can drive to!

See http://www.gameeducationsummit.com/ges_press_2009.php for the conference info. Not much there yet, but at least you can mark the dates on your calendar.

Of course, now I'll probably have to choose - GLS Conference or this one? Funny to think that a decade ago there was no choice at all.

Looks like SL is surviving the fickleness of virtual worlds choice and is starting to be used for great learning experiences. The exploration phase is ending; now people are making decisions on how to use the space and are implementing their choices.

Do read the summary, then check out the full report.

This event recently concluded.

See http://www.disti.com/SGSC/ for the results.

The winner was Burn Center. Burn Center is a fast-paced, medically-accurate simulation of mass-scale casualty burn treatment. Burn Center was developed to help lead the growing trend for electronic recreation of medical procedures and tactics, making the precious understanding of life-saving techniques both attainable and memorable. An advanced step forward into the future of medical training, Burn Center not only provides the immersive (and much-needed) experience of a full-scale, chaotic triage situation, but it also features an extensive resuscitation mode that follows patients over the course of 36 hours of treatment on an intensive care unit following a disaster event.

Burn Center was developed by 360Ed, a company that specializes in educational games. It's not clear how to get access to the game on the site. :(  I've written to the company to ask for access. Once I have that, I'll take a look and get back here with another post.

Read all about it here.

Wow. This seems like a great move for SL - hopefully we'll see innovation around SL and education.

Sounds like a contradiction, does it not? Games are active, engaging, designed to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Passive games turn all that a bit on it's head. In a passive game, you start the game up, then sit back wait for an event to happen. This can take several minutes. During that time, you are free to do... whatever.

So far, I've played two of these games. One is named Dungeons and Dragons: Tiny Adventures:

The other is named Fish Wrangler!

Both these Facebook games are designed to augment your online browsing experience. Start the game, browse about, and check in periodically to see how things are going. Whatever happens, happens. You have some control over events by setting things up between events, but not much.

Interesting concept. I've no clue how this will play out. Will it be a big hit or a dud? Do people want to play games where they have little continuous input? Are these truly games?

If you just can't get enough of Virtual Worlds, subscribe to Virtual Worlds Weekly. Well worth it! Full of what's happening in the industry.

This is totally cool! Snow World was developed to help burn victims deal with their pain. Watch the video - it's more proof that games have the ability to affect us in profound ways that other form of media just can't match.

People are always asking - why games? While this is not strictly educational, it does show how gaming can affect us and open up mental pathways.

People at PSU are always asking me about game-related courses. So, here's one coming up in Spring 2009:

I've attached the PDF of the flyer that contains more information. I hope to hear from some of you that take this course!

You have to check out his video:

 This is an example of how new technologies can be used in very cool ways we've only dreamed of before. I'm very excited to show this to Music Ed faculty.

If you have an iPhone or iTouch (you need a headset/mike for the iTouch), you can get the app from http://rjdj.me/ .

Arriving at the IST building this morning, I found this poster:

We've been trying to track down contacts at EA for a while regarding our initiative, specifically our lab.  I was happily surprised to stumble on to the Facebook group and find a Penn State EA rep as the founder of the group.  Mail has been sent, hopefully in the next few days we'll find ourselves talking with some fine EA folks about our initiative and opportunities for collaboration.