Add a PC, deduct some marks?

Tony Forster noted a wee while ago a study which appears to show a strong and statistically significant result demonstrating that “computer ownership has a negative impact on child academic and behavioral outcomes.“

Not content to simply discuss the findings, Tony has delved into the detail, and noted that the statistical method used has conditions which are not met by the data - i.e. to calculate the results of the study, a method was used which is not valid for the data being studied. Head over to Tony’s blog for more details. A nice piece of investigative blogging!

The future of self-improvement is in games

CasualGaming.biz has an interview with Marie Marquis, the nutritionist who consulted for UbiSoft on My Health Coach. She argues that games may be better than books and/or videos for promoting self-improvement. The ability to set short term goals with the minimum of information/discussion is one strength. Having a more personal one-to-one interaction is another:

We can use technology to give challenges to the players to change their behaviour – without them feeling that a figure of authority is prescribing anything.

The challenges in My Health Coach show what people can handle in daily life and are clearly accessible to them. If the challenge is ‘tomorrow, I will eat vegetables at dinner’, that becomes part of their life – in a way, their life in an extension of the game.

Edutainment for the masses

Proof (if any was needed) that commercial serious gaming is here hit me last night when I saw adverts for UbiSoft’s My Health Coach on television - a Nintendo DS game that comes with its own pedometer! The ‘game’ advises you on your diet and daily exercise, providing advice and encouragement to keep a healthier lifestyle. From a series of My Coach ‘games’ that include the likes of My Word Coach (improve your word-power) and My Life Coach (improve everything, presumably).

Meantime, global games publishing giant Electronic Arts are taking the (apparently well known in the US) Brain Quest school curriculum based card decks to DS -

Brain Quest is EA Casual Entertainment’s first educational game and we are thrilled to bring this beloved brand into the videogame space,” said Robert Nashak, VP of Casual Studios, EA Casual Entertainment. “By adapting the series to the DS, we are able to reach today’s tech savvy children and provide them with an educational experience that is interactive, engaging, and fun.

I don’t think anyone would have predicted this Dr Kawashima effect - educational games are now fully part of the mainstream. That didn’t take long…

Digital Interactive Symposium: Edinburgh

The second Digital Interactive Symposium: Edinburgh (DIS:E)

When: August 12, 2008: 14:00 - 18:00
Where: Edinburgh Intenational Conference Center

This year’s symposium will be co-located with the Edinburgh Interactive Festival at the prestigious Edinburgh International Conference Center.

The purpose of DIS:E is to create a dialogue between practitioners, thinkers and policymakers, to discuss issues concerning the interactive entertainment industries now and in the future.

This year the focus on DIS:E will be on education and training.
- What skills and knowledge does future developers and artists need?
- What is the purpose of academic training?
- Are we educating artists for self-expression, or should the needs of the industry be imperative?
- How can innovation be fostered by educational institutions? And what should the relationship between academia and industry be like?

As the Scottish government has recently announced it is placing game design and development on the national curriculum, what impact may this have on the interactive entertainment industries in the future?

Keynote Speaker: Professor Richard Bartle.

Skills shortage hits games firms

From the BBC article of the same name, and further discussion on the Develop magazine website.

The UK games industry is claiming a skills shortage is impairing growth. While there has been a huge growth of games development degrees, David Braben claims that

95% of video gaming degrees are simply not fit for purpose. Without some sort of common standard, like Skillset accreditation, these degrees are a waste of time for all concerned.

(An opportune moment for me to mention that the course here at UWS is one of only four courses to have that Skillset accrediation… and that at least 3 of the small cohort of 9 students due to graduate next month have already accepted job offers)

Meanwhile I have to agree with Dan Hodgson of Northumbria when he notes that:

We do have people who don’t have the right mindset. We consistently tell them that this is one of the hardest courses we offer at this university. It’s certainly not for the sort of people who want to laze around and play games for three years.

Which is perhaps why we have a small graduating class - many of our students transfer to other courses which demand less technical and mathematical skills part way through the degree. The problem is not likely to be easy to fix, with the (noted elsewhere) decline in maths and physics in schools. Hopefully this is a trend that can be reversed.

SL vs. WoW

On Friday I attended the Second Life v. World of Warcraft workshop at the London Knowledge Lab, which turned out pretty well and gave me a chance to catch up on a range of work. The title for the day was slightly tongue in cheek, asking us to consider the relative merits of SL vs those of WoW for learners - though the debate did heat up after one well placed question!
Highlights below…

Second Call for Papers: ReLIVE08

Second Call ReLIVE08

The Open University is pleased to announce a second call for abstract submissions for the international conference for Researching Learning in Virtual Environments to be held at its campus in Milton Keynes on the 20th and 21st of November 2008.
If you are currently researching learning in a virtual world, for example There, CyberTown, Second Life etc, then we invite you to submit an abstract to ReLIVE08. We are seeking presenters and participants who have experience of designing and delivering learning in virtual worlds, and the ability to reflect on and share that experience within an analytical framework. Please note that the closing date for the second call is the 20th of June.

With researchers and practitioners attending from around the globe, this excellent opportunity for networking promises an interesting, stimulating and exciting 2 days. The conference will begin with a reception on the evening of the 19th November, and the first full day will see the opening keynote from Edward Castranova and an invited panel debate chaired by Sara De Freitas, Director of Research at The Serious Games Institute, as well as a varied programme of paper presentations and workshops. The conference gala reception and dinner will be supported by a variety of entertainers, including a digital caricaturist, live music and an after dinner speaker (details to be announced shortly), and the second day of presentations and workshops will be wrapped up by Roo Reynolds. All delegates will receive a conference goodie bag and an electronic copy of the conference proceedings. Selected papers will be invited to submit chapters for an edited book with a major publisher in the field (tbc).

Please find more details at our website on http://www.open.ac.uk/relive08

We hope to see you in November.

UK Universities on iTunesU

Three UK universities have started adding materials to iTunesU. I’ve not looked back at iTunesU for a while, but when I did previously I was very disappointed with the very poor browsing/search capabilities. Not at all helped by many of the lectures/podcasts failing to include descriptions of the content beyond the course name and “Lecture 1″, “Lecture 2″. Not being able to search for all content in a particular area was a big minus - the blame split somewhere between Apple’s iTunesU and the universities providing the content.

This news is enough to make me look again - the Open University material in particular tends to have very high production values, and will likely include a lot of video materials. Will try to report back when I have the chance…

Educación en Mundos Virtuales 3D

Errm, I think I can just about follow the title of this post - which is Spanish for ‘Education in 3D virtual worlds’.

Which is the special theme of the current issue of ‘Learning Review España‘.

Include interviews with Claudia L’Amoreaux of Linden Lab, yours truly talking Sloodle, and quite a few more other features and interviews. It looks like Ruth Martinez has done an impressive job on the special issue content, though my Spanish skills aren’t really up to following it…

Commercial health and education games

French games publisher UbiSoft has announced a line up of casual games which include a game to help you quit smoking, and a game for children to play teacher. Its clear that they are following the lead of Nintendo’s huge success with Brain Training, Nintendogs and the like - but also indicative of the recent leaps made (with the help of these games) towards games becoming socially acceptable. Or at least, certain types of games…