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…

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…

Dr. Kawashima, Schools and Media

Having chatted with Derek Robertson recently, thought I would update on some Consolarium news.

Byron Report, Media coverage of games issues, and classroom use of Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training and Nintendogs all below…

Dissecting Club Penguin

I’m not the only one disconcerted by the extent to which childrens’ virtual worlds appear to be training grounds for tomorrow’s unthinking consumers. Via recent discussion at RezEd:

At Shaping Youth, the question is asked: Virtual Worlds Are Still Unwritten: Can We Move Beyond Consumption?

This is a good discursive post - and draws on a wide range of writing, reports and commentators to illustrate why marketers are stampeding towards the creation of virtual worlds for children - and why we need to be concerned.

At Feeding Change, Liam O’Donnel has similar concerns (some crossposting between the two), and Liam has gone so far as to create a second blog to host his studies into Club Penguin - to look at how Virtual Worlds are redefining literacy for children. Considering, for example, the literacy of status which seems to be a major force in the design/success of Club Penguin.

From all of which common themes emerge - children are engaging with new literacies of status and with messages that reinforce the idea that ‘you are what you own’. Something that educators and parents really should be more aware of.

US kids want games for learning

Alexandra Matthews has been busy collecting and collating stories related to games based learning from around the blogosphere, and from her ‘Heated debate on Game-Based Learning‘ post, I followed the link through to the article on NetworkWorld: ‘Most kids want educational video games in school, survey shows. … So?’

The original article by Paul McNamara is a fairly balanced report on the Project Tommorow finding, but the comments contain a fair bit of heated debate - some heavily biased against games, some comments going a little far the other way:

education shouldn’t be seperated from entertainment

I respectfully disagreed. Not that education can’t be entertaining or fun at least some of the time, but education shouldn’t focus overmuch on entertaining. My full reply:

CFP: Digital Games and Intelligent Toys Based Education (DIGITEL 2008)

I’m unlikely to manage Canada in November, but this looks very promising:

The Second IEEE International Conference on Digital Games and Intelligent Toys Based Education (DIGITEL 200

November 17-19, 2008, Banff, Canada
http://www.ask4research.info/digitel/2008/

Sponsored by IEEE Technical Committee on Learning Technology

The Conference Proceedings will be published by the IEEE Computer Society Press.

Submissions due: 30th May

CFP: Researching Learning in Virtual Environments - ReLIVE 08

It’s not often that I get to say “I hope to see you in Milton Keynes in November”, but this is one of those rare times…

Researching Learning in Virtual Environments - ReLIVE08

20th and 21st November 2008.

Keynote speakers: Edward Castranova and Roo Reynolds.

Games on the curriculum

I spotted this intriguing piece earlier in the week -” ‘Games’ to be taught in Scottish Schools”

The article doesn’t reveal much in the way of details but claims:

Scottish schoolchildren are to be taught the basics of video game design as part of the country’s new national curriculum - dubbed the ‘Curriculum of Excellence’.

According to the Press Association, the move is to designed to ‘create the next generation of young programmers’.

Schools minister Maureen Watt unveiled the scheme … and added that the new lessons will teach children how to use computer software to create animations and feature films.

The typo there is that it is the Curriculum for Excellence, not of Excellence. But more frustrating were my attempts to learn more about this. Eventually via an enquiry to LTS I found the relevant details here. I’ve had a chance to briefly review these, searched out the references to games, and given this a little thought…

More games please!

I’m starting to think that more of Prensky’s ideas about digital natives are becoming reality, albeit not for the generation he originally identified. While often technologically naive, game playing (and social virtual worlds) are perhaps now so commonplace amongst younger age groups (say six to 16) in the UK that the term ‘gamer’ is likely to become somewhat obsolete - or restricted to those who play the ‘hardcore’ games while other induldge in more casual gameplay.

Via PacRimX and simultaneous email from my friend Chris, a US survey has found that more than 50% of students in grades 3-12 would want to see more educational gaming in school. The figures still do reveal a divided audience however:

In fact, 64 percent of students in grades K-12 say they play online or electronic-based games regularly.

So, 36% don’t play digital games regularly. Still a substantial number, and a case against sweeping generalisations. My own (limited) experience of schools in the Glasgow area makes me believe the figure locally might be something like 90% regularly play digital games (ages 6-12), but I have no real figures to back this up.

More commentary here on eSchool news, or get the Project Tomorrow report itself.