We’ve always maintained that social media will play an increasing role in organizations, and that’ll happen in various domains not just learning. We’re putting our money where our mouth is – the Upside LMS is adding more social media features with every release. It’s simply about us striving to provide the best learning solutions, and social media is now necessarily a part of the blend.

The post Six Social Media Trends first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Instant reactions to this were typically disbelief, the impression that the computer/software actually observes the user, or that it’s some sort of trick. Typically users follow repeat the game a few times to see if the game can actually guess your numbers. Once they see it does so repeatedly, most move on. However, there were some individuals who went one step beyond – they immediately notice what most term as a ‘pattern’. They could see an emergent order though repeatedly attempting the exercise. Perhaps all games can be regarded as composed of patterns of play. To master the game is to master its possible patterns of play, and to implicitly understand the variables that determine that pattern, and be able to manipulate that pattern to a player’s advantage.

This mini game was extremely engaging, pointing to another aspect of the design of interaction. That engaging interaction is ALWAYS human focused, and that such interactions can be crafted without sophisticated graphics and programming.

Can you see the pattern in the Regifting game? If you can, my immediate question is ‘do you play games regularly?’ I’d really be interested in knowing, leave us a comment here. I’m forming the impression that regular game play influences (perhaps enhances) an individuals’ ability to perceive and interpret patterns.

Spoiler Alert: How did I find the pattern?

I tried a few random numbers first

11:-   11-1-1 = 9
23:-  23-3-2 = 18
47:-   47-7-4 = 36

Couldn’t see any emergent pattern there right away, though I might have had I been observant enough to observe all resultant numbers are multiples of 9.

So I went on to check a few numbers in series; this is the typical brute force approach to try to interpret a pattern.

88:-   88-8-8 = 72
87:-   87-7-8 = 72
86:-   86-6-8 = 72
85:-   85-5-8 = 72

There it was – the pattern I was looking for. For all two digits numbers beginning with 8, the result is always 72. Similarly, for two digit numbers with 7 its 63, for 6 it’d be 54, so on. If you look at the table, you’ll notice you always have to choose from one of these numbers.

The post Patterns at Play – Fundamental to Games first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Some of the comments were enlightening and we’d do well to quickly recap of what emerged from the discussion.

The post What are Serious Games? A Follow-up Post first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

In India, the mobile phone has revolutionized communication and India is now one of the fastest growing markets for mobile phone services, with growing usage and increasing penetration. According to TRAI, there are 286 million wireless subscribers in India, June 2008, of which 76 million were capable of accessing data services. The increasing ubiquity of the mobile phone begs for it to be used as a learning tool. It would be a shame if we were unable to leverage it to improve socio-economic conditions in our vast population.

Mobile phones are not just communications devices sparking new modalities of interaction between people; they are also particularly useful computers that fit in your pocket, are always with you, and are nearly always on. Like all communication and computing devices, mobile phones can be used to learn. The content delivered would depend on the capabilities (features) of the device accessing it.

There are many kinds of learning and many processes that people use to learn, but among the most frequent, time-tested, and effective of these are listening, observing, imitating, questioning, reflecting, trying, estimating, predicting, speculating, and practicing. All of these learning processes can be supported through mobile phones. In addition, cell phones complement the short-attention, casual, multitasking style of today’s young learners.

Without proper research its hard to arrive at the worth of the m-learning market in India, any projection is unfounded; and is also due to the improbability of being able to predict the rate of technological (read network) adoption and penetration. However, empirically, we are seeing an increasing interest in mLearning. This example of mobile learning shows an application designed for women in villages without access to proper prenatal care.

Similar to India, it’s hard to quantify adoption in more developed markets. It’s well known that Asia and Europe are far ahead in terms of mLearning adoption compared to the North American market. The US market for Mobile Learning products and services is growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.7% and revenues reached $538 million in 2007. It would be fair to say that revenues in Europe and Asia will be equal to if not greater than the North American market.

Almost every sector will benefit from the use of m-learning, however we feel three primary areas that will feel the biggest impact: Education , Agriculture and Healthcare

Additionally, rural communities will benefit tremendously not just from mLearning, but the mobile technology as a whole. Mobile devices are far cheaper than personal computers and do not depend on a continuous power supply to function.

There is a definite appeal in gaming for learning using mobile phones. Currently, several companies are experimenting with game-based learning technology for mobiles. However, the feasibility of such an approach depends on the cost of development and deployment of such applications, which are quite high at this time. With increasingly capable hardware and connectivity available and dropping costs, it’s only a matter of time before learning games on mobile become commonplace.

In the future, we will see mobile phones, computers and various other computing/media devices (iPods, Digital Cameras, PDAs, etc.) we use converge into a single personal mobile computing device. At such a time, the differentiation between eLearning and mLearning will cease to exist; all learning will be electronic and mobile.

The post Mobile Learning in India first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Additionally, the application needed elements of randomization from a question bank and a timer based quiz.

Approach:
Typically, these sorts of requirements lend themselves for development in Objective C language (the native language for developing IPhone applications). But when considered we realized that it be difficult to develop an animated user interface in the given timeframe. At one point, given the timeframe, we even thought about abandoning the project as not feasible.

But several internal team meetings later we thought of developing it in HTML, while realizing with this approach would not take full advantage of iPhone’s rich user interface. Ultimately we determined that a blended approach of using HTML plus Objective C function calls to iPhone components.

So by blending traditional web development with native iPhone development we were able to develop a cost effective mobile application. Feel free to try our approach in an appropriate situation and comment here.

The post How to Develop Cost Effective Game Applications for the iPhone first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Take a look:

The Cogain project was funded to the tune of 2.9 million Euros and has an objective to make this technology available freely to all. This is just what they’ve gone ahead and done; compatible with Tobii and ITU GazeTracker.

As I watched the playing of Warcraft without using hands, the immensity of this development struck me. This year has marked the emergence of spectacular human computer interfaces that don’t need peripheral devices, Microsoft showed off Project Natal earlier this year and now we see this particular example. In both cases, the interface has moved from devices that are held in your hand to devices that can track specific human activities. In the future we can be pretty sure that such interfaces will abound.

This technology was designed for and will substantially improve disabled access to computer mediated interactions. I wonder if it will affect the way interaction designers think about human computer interfaces and the dominance of the keyboard and mouse. Interaction designers have long considered keyboards and mice as the ONLY input devices for computers; with that changing, will designers challenge conventional graphic user interfaces driven by those input devices? Will there be a new wave of ‘more human’ interfaces?

The post Cogain – Look Ma, no hands! first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

This list isn’t categorized in any way, and it’ll stay that way until I figure out a good way to tag and qualify them in some way. Most often such a list brings up debate about the quality of content linked to. In putting this list together, I worked with Tony Karrer and his eLearning Learning site extensively to match links that are popular based on social signals, specifically in the Games and Simulation categories.

1. It is All Fun and Games…And Then Students Learn- Kapp Notes, July 30, 2008
2. Building Better Learning Games- Learning Visions, April 9, 2009
3. Gadgets, games and gizmos for learning- Clive on Learning, January 29, 2008
4. What Makes a Learning Game?
5. Serious Games Blog
6. mLearn08: MiLK: students building mobile learning games in higher education by Debra Polson- Ignatia Webs, November 12, 2008
7. Marc Prensky – Twitch Speed, June 17, 2009
8. Digital games and learning gains (PDF), June 17, 2009
9. Learning in Immersive worlds: A review of game-based learning
10. Immerse Yourself in Another Language- Kapp Notes, June 3, 2008
11. Resources: Games and Gaming in Education- Don’t Waste Your Time
12. Which name is better – Serious Games or Educational Simulations or…?- The Learning Circuits Blog, October 13, 2007
13. More Educational Games- Kapp Notes, August 7, 2008
14. The Art of Making Video Games- Kapp Notes, June 10, 2008
15. Linking Commercial Games with Defense
16. Colleges Play Games- Kapp Notes, May 27, 2008
17. Casual Games get Serious, June 17, 2009
18. Walk a Mile in My Shoes: Games Let You Do That- Kapp Notes, July 30, 2007
19. Educause
20. Good Video Games and Good Learning
21. Digital Games: A Motivational Perspective
22. Why Are Video Games Good For Learning?
23. Video games and the future of learning
24. moving learning games forward
25. 36 Learning Games to Change the World
26. Game Development Research
27. Yes You CAN Create E-learning Games- Bozarthzone , June 22, 2007
28. Apple Learning Games
29. And You Thought Mechanical Engineering was Boring- Kapp Notes, August 14, 2008
30. Adopting Digital Game-based Learning: Why and How- Upside Learning Blog, March 26, 2009
31. ZaidLearn: 75 Free EduGames to Spice Up Your Course!, December 11, 2008
32. A Theory of Fun- Clive on Learning, August 16, 2007
33. The treatment matrix- Clive on Learning, August 5, 2008
34. PDF: Serious games: online games for learning (PDF), June 17, 2009
35. Where games, sims and 3D worlds meet- Clive on Learning, June 24, 2007
36. Caspian’s ILS taxonomy- Clive on Learning, November 17, 2008
37. 24 Questions about computer games and education- The Learning Circuits Blog, August 8, 2005
38. Casual and Serious Digital Games for Learning – Some Considerations- Upside Learning Blog, April 17, 2009
39. Gadgets, Games and Gizmos: Learning Algebra in a Game- Kapp Notes, November 19, 2006
40. Games and the Gamer Generation: Keynote- Kapp Notes, August 10, 2007
41. Games and Learner Assessment- Kapp Notes, May 30, 2008
42. World Bank: Serious Games and Urban Planning, October 30, 2006
43. Top 10 Educational Games of the 1980s- Kapp Notes, September 20, 2008
44. Game Studies 0102: Cultural framing of computer/video games. By Kurt Squire, June 17, 2009
45. It’s Monday, Are You Stressed? Relax with a Unique Video Game- Kapp Notes, October 29, 2007
46. Confessions of an Aca/Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins: From Serious Games to Serious Gaming (Part Four): Labyrinth, November 14, 2007
47. Save Planet Helios from ecological devastation!-3D Game by IBM- Kapp Notes, August 29, 2008
48. Serious Games: Slideshow of examples from an event at Harvard Business School, December 13, 2007
49. Email Games, June 17, 2009
50. Gadgets, Games and Gizmos: MMORPG in ICT Education- Kapp Notes, January 16, 2007
51. GDC’s Serious Games Summit- Upside Learning Blog, April 3, 2009
52. Rapid authoring for immersive games and sims- Clive on Learning, January 26, 2009
53. Gadgets, Games and Gizmos: ESL in SL- Kapp Notes, February 13, 2007
54. TCC09: Digital Learning Environments: Context Sensitive and Imaginative Classes in Second Life, April 14, 2009
55. Why Most Off the Shelf Commerical Games Will Not Work in Education? And What Is The Alternative?, June 17, 2009
56. Textra Games, June 17, 2009
57. Predictions for 2009, December 30, 2008
58. Training Games, June 12, 2007
59. Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked, June 17, 2009
60. Serious Games, June 17, 2009
61. Social Sites, Design, Informal Learning, & Brain Games, May 4, 2009
62. Groupboard, May 7, 2008
63. Army is to Spend $50 Million in Edutainment for Troops, November 25, 2008
64. Playing with Our Heads – Why Video Games are Making our Kids Smarter-and more obedient, June 17, 2009
65. Fourteen Forms of Fun, June 17, 2009

I intend to continue to add links to these categories (eLearning Games & eLearning Simulations) over time. I’m open to suggestions: please comment here with links & descriptions and I’ll definitely take a look at the sites suggested and consider inclusion.

The post Top 100 Learning Game Resources first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

“The reason, I believe, is that it meets the standards we set for all software we develop. We call these standards the Four Is.
First, is it truly innovative – something different from what has come before?
Second, is it intuitive? Do the control of the game and the direction of gameplay seem natural?
Third, is it inviting? Do you want to spend time in this world?
And finally, how does it measure up in terms of interface? Can the player connect in new ways?”

My immediate reaction was to go back to all those games I played and continue to play. I realized that those are four elements that are essential to a successful gameplay experience. Core gamers demand games that are ‘innovative’ – games that push the boundaries beyond what has existed till that point in time. They’re willing to spend the time to learn to play a game and master its mechanics, but that’s only if its intuitive. There is a long list of games that failed simply because the game wasn’t intuitive enough, the one that springs to mind is Spiderman: Web of Shadows. Goes without saying that it’s got to be ‘inviting’, gamers won’t spend time in a environment they don’t feel comfortable in. It’s almost paradoxical that in some commercial games these are imagined, rule bound, and in cases violent and explosive environments; yet they seem inviting to core gamers.

The next was to relate those “Four I’s” to learning games Instructional Designers create in the course of delivering solutions to customers. Sadly, we fail miserably on all fronts. Over the years, we’ve seen games that have been innovative, intuitive, inviting and having great interfaces; these have been individual qualities. However, I’ve not seen a SINGLE game which embodies all four qualities at the same time. I wonder if the designer’s failings were a result of inability to think as game designers and NOT instructional designers.

It’s simply because game designers and instructional designers ascribe to different philosophies; have different training and lean differently when talking about the same thing – games. Game design and instructional design are as different as chalk and cheese. The Learning Circuits blog makes a similar comment about this difference between the values of Instructional Systems Design and Computer Game Design.

In his post on Learning Circuits, Mark makes an interesting closing “What is the answer? I don’t know. I know enough to listen though when a man speaks who has a set of design principles flexible enough to produce both Super Mario Kart and Brain Age.” Makes much sense to me; there is much wisdom for Instructional Designers seeking to design learning games in Nintendo’s 4I’s standard. We must attempt to appropriate and adopt these standards to apply to all eLearning.

The post Nintendo’s Four I Standard first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

We wanted to keep the packaging simple and easy to use. During the play-testing session the game creators and developers were around to guide players and make subtle modifications to the game environment, objects or rule-sets. Web-users downloading content will not have such inputs. Also, it was essential for the packaging to allow for easy printing, very different from the rough-hewn games the teams created using the resources provided.

I’ve always considered the design of computer based games as being more complex than that of a board game. There were a few realizations during this exercise that challenged my notions. You can’t expect humans to make millions of calculations as a computer can, this implies that your rules and rule-sets have to be simple enough for humans to process and be able to advance the game state. The game environment must have a limited number of positional options and there must be a limited number of objects to match in (a board game) that environment. All in all, the brute computational force of modern computers possess let them model extremely complex environments with dynamic rule-sets, which humans can’t. When designed, board games must account for basic human processing capabilities; that’s easier said than done. Perhaps the game that pushes those processing capabilities to the maximum is chess, an ancient game that’s evolved into the ultimate board game.

Enough about why it took so long, so here it is, the winning entry from Upside Learning’s board game building challenge. We hope you download, print, paste on card-board or mount board, cut and start playing. A single dice is required to play, not included. We’d like to hear about your experiences, good, bad or otherwise while playing this game. We’re especially interested in how you might have improved the game.

The post Upside Board Game Exercise – Download the Winning Game first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

So what’s Spymaster about – quite simply its leveraging Twitter’s people network, using Twitter APIs to provide a Mob Wars style game experience. By using OAuth , the game is directly linked to your Twitter account; you’ll use the same profile as on Twitter, no need to create an account unlike other web-games. You’ve probably been invited, click through an invite and you’re in Spymaster-land.

Choose your agency, from amongst the British M16, the American CIA and the Russian FSB. Like most strategy games, you have to do some tasks like collecting dead drops or assassinating individuals, you get experience points and money–in the currency of the agency you represent. With this money you can buy weapons and other goodies on the black market to increase your attack and defense points. The key – this is a social game, your attack and defense points are implicitly related to how many people are following you on Twitter and how many of those you manage to convince to join the game. I sent out several dozen invites, got less than half to join.

It’s interesting to examine the immense popularity of this game; in conversation with AV Flox on her blog, Darshana Jayemanne of the University of Melbourne, makes an interesting comment about that:

“The game is similar to some other stuff that’s going around on other sites, and there’s a lot that could be said in general about why these games work. In particular though, I think the sync between the espionage theme and Twitter in particular works very well–Twitter itself feels kind of clandestine, like you’re immersed in these minutiae of other people’s lives as well as sharing select bits of information yourself.

The Twitterverse exists parallel to the mundane world, a bit like Mail Art or the Trystero in Pynchon’s The Crying of Lot 49. The stress of just how much to share is central to the spy thriller genre in which various bait-and-switches, mirroring and foreshadowing techniques are similar to the feeling you get piecing together some-one’s life from a stream of terse messages.

An unexamined life is not worth spying on.

The other thing is that we all tend to carry around more devices than any ’60s supervillain anyway. And we love to use them for fun as well as business, to use our devices in support of our vices. It’s a quasi-fetishistic activity, in fact, what Walter Benjamin would have called “the sex appeal of the inorganic.””

That’s a fascinating comment, about the nature of Twitter – clandestine yet immersed in minutiae of people’s lives. That’s one thing that makes Twitter so powerful, it appeals to our nature of wanting to know and share, especially about others. In response to a question about what ‘drives’ a game like Spymaster satisfies:

“It’s all in the design. Games are set up to organize desires around reward structures. So the design sets up the drive. Once you’re hooked to the reward structures, and can compare your success or failure to others (through points or money or what have you), it’s a self-sustaining process. Or so the designers hope. The “become a vampire/werewolf/zombie/banker/whatever” game apps on Facebook got old quickly–their scope was too limited.”

I’m trying to draw parallels in the design of instructional games. How are ‘learning games’ set up to organize desires through rewards? Do we do enough to design reward structures that engage the learner? One aspect that occurs to me immediately is the need to include features like leader boards in learning games where players can compare and contrast their performance. Another is that there has to be a feature that lets players actually observe others performance in the game environment. Such observation helps learning, and let’s players analyze success strategies; understand some implicit game environment rules, and master advanced mechanics in the game.

As I keep mentioning in reference learning game design, keeping a game SIMPLE is never easy. Spymaster did well to keep everything in balance and engaged to the extent that the game is addictive. Try Spymaster, we’ll be seeing more and more of these asynchronous network based games. It’s only a matter of time before their mechanics and architecture seep into learning games.

The post The Spymaster Game on Twitter first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.