Earlier this week at Game-Based Learning 2010 I was talking about how play mechanics and attitudes could perhaps do as much offline as on (Part 1; Part 2), in terms of raising expectations of how young people and adults learn, socialise and live... with some sense of enjoyment and engagement. Via Rory at Ogilvy comes news that the winner of the FunTheory call to action on YouTube is the example, above, of how to make people keep to the speed limit.

What play theories or fun theories could we introduce in your schools to help Good Things Happen?

[A summary of my Game-Based Learning talk, with all the bits that I didn't manage to cover in 18 short minutes]

Gaming affects and infects so much of our lives to the extent many of us don't recognise its beneficial effects any more. It's no surprise that educators need to push a "games-based learning" agenda just to help education communities and leaders start to realise some of the untapped  potential that comes when we look at games from the point of view of creating systemic changes in learning and learning spaces.

For a start games seem to raise our expectations from the moment we launch them, like a Hollywood blockbuster, and then engage us for as long, sometimes longer. I'll long remember the day I returned from a day teaching to find my wife, newly adorned with a copy of the Sims, still in pyjamas and rather hungry - she'd been too busy feeding, washing and dressing her virtual friends to do any of the above to herself. Or my mother, who, on a stay over with us could still be found at 2am fighting Eastern European-type terrorists in Call of Duty.

The fact is that the opening of a game lets us know that we're in for as much joy as the drah-drah, drah-drah of the 20th Century Fox drums:

Challenge is different from fun

Games also manage to help us achieve two things that are also essential for learning. Firstly, we get quite quickly into a sense of flow where, like my wife playing Sims, we lose track of time around us and are absorbed into in-game time. Secondly, we're provided with challenges that are, it seems, perfectly pitched at our zone of proximal development - not quite too hard to understand, not quite too easy to make them boring.

The result of these three factors - raised expectation, flow and Vygotskyism - is a level and intensity of engagement with content that film, TV, books, even live football matches fail to achieve to quite the same level. I'll take suggestions of any of the above that achieve the emotion of a video-game for 20 straight minutes - about the least amount of time we spend on one.

Take a look at the Toledano pictures, above, that illustrate what I mean.

But these faces are not just exhibiting 'fun', and in some cases would suggest the opposite. Games offer more than just fun, and for leaders this is vital to understand. It might even be worth stressing that fun is of secondary importance of all to the notion that games challenge in ways traditional linear media (from feature films to textbooks to PowerPoint presentations) generally do not at such regularity with such power and impact.

Gaming as part of a wider media literacy

Gaming is not just about offering challenge, which nearly always indicates learning. Gaming, and specifically play, make up a large part of our understanding of media literacy, and engaging the senses on more fronts would, I'd like to suggest, make for some fascinating transmedia learning experiences.

A good model to think about where gaming fits into the new media literacies our youngsters (and their parents and teachers) need are Henry Jenkins' New Media Literacies. They can be summed up thus:

• Play — the capacity to experiment with one’s surroundings as a form of problem-solving
• Performance — the ability to adopt alternative identities for the purpose of improvisation and discovery
• Simulation — the ability to interpret and construct dynamic models of real-world processes
• Appropriation — the ability to meaningfully sample and remix media content
• Multitasking — the ability to scan one’s environment and shift focus as needed to salient details.
• Distributed Cognition — the ability to interact meaningfully with tools that expand mental capacities
• Collective Intelligence — the ability to pool knowledge and compare notes with others toward a common goal
• Judgment — the ability to evaluate the reliability and credibility of different information sources
• Transmedia Navigation — the ability to follow the flow of stories and information across multiple modalities
• Networking — the ability to search for, synthesize, and disseminate information
• Negotiation — the ability to travel across diverse communities, discerning and respecting multiple perspectives, and grasping and following alternative norms.

Some games make no attempt to teach our youngsters about the wider connected world, being more about skills development in a particular (subject-focused area) e.g. Dr Kawashima's Brain Training. But generally, video games are  superb at hitting a lot of these new media literacy bases, beyond the obvious ones of play, simulation and multitasking. In this paragraph from a stream of enthusiastic consciousness about game-based learning in a Scottish nursery/kindergarten room, we see that the game itself is secondary to game-inspired activity, and this is how games tend to hit so many of our literacies framework:

Caring for goldfish in playrooms, bringing in fish from fish counters on ice and investigating these, children’s drawings and paintings inspired by pet pictures by artists such as Monet and Andy Warhol, visits to Pet shops, visitors in to nursery linked to pets, photographs by children of their own pets and home links, use of video camera and digital camera by children in playroom, pet corner made and designed by children where they dress up as pets to be sold, use money etc etc, sensory area with linked activities, emergent writing and mark making at all areas in the nursery where the children record what they are doing, the list goes on.

This is why an over-emphasis on 'play' as a reason to harness the potential of gaming could be unhelpful in understanding why games are so powerful as learning contexts or tools; there's a lot more than play involved in effective learning that has gaming at its core or point of inspiration.

Therefore, to make sure we can stretch the literacies of our youngsters we, as teachers, might think about how we shape the social and learning environment in our classrooms and online to start filling in some gaps.

Why bother learning new media literacies in the first place?

Good question, with an easy answer. The creative industries are the fastest growing and already significantly large sector in most of the Western world, and increasingly in the Far East, too. In South America it has arguably been the profession of choice for many years, creating a world-class advertising and marketing industry throughout the continent.

Yet, I feel, the largest differential in this set of industries, spanning fashion to design to technology to games manufacture to filmmaking, will not be the cost of doing business - quality counts above price for the products and services of these industries, and outsourcing is generally done to highly paid niche experts, not to lowly/under-paid mechanical Turks on the other side of the planet. The differential factor will be the ability of its practitioners, accounting for a pace of growth twice that of the rest of the British economy, to continually out-smart competitors with a global understanding of these wide skills bases. Filmmakers have to understand the potential of gaming, game-manufacturers will have to understand how data sets and social networks can make their experiences ever more rich and realistic, fashion designers will have to understand how core technology can make their clothing better or help sell it more effectively.

'Hybrid talents'

Therefore, the largest differentiator is possessing 'hybrid talents'. Hybrid talents are ones that understand the potential of other sectors' work, but also where it fits within a larger systemic understanding of how users/customers/learners operate within a complex set of literacies. Without this latter understanding, how are we going to produce media that is both challenging while not being out of the user's depth, and how are users of that media (learners or customers) going to be able to understand ever more complex games and narratives of the kind Janet Murray describes in the brilliant Hamlet on the Holodeck?

This is a genuine challenge. In the past two years I've seen that the success ratio for digital media to gain investment is about 1.5%. That is, for every 250 ideas generated by people only 4 manage to bring that understanding of the wider digital ecology in which they will survive. A lack of hybrid talent means most people lose out, it means our creative industries lose out.

Creating games that fit in the wider media ecology

Games that achieve this understanding of the wider digital ecology meet with phenomenal success. While most of the Routes Game flash minigames played in isolation through Miniclip receive huge numbers of plays, the repeat engagement with the subject matter remains far less than when those same games are played embedded within the context of a long-line narrative, community challenges and a murder mystery.

Sneeze, pictured, a game designed to understand the spread of disease, is an example of this phenomenon, having received over 15m plays alone.

Similarly, traditional linear movies are increasingly using games as a means not just to market the film but to add to the experience of watching the film. Last year's Sherlock Holmes release was accompanied by an online flash game 221b.sh.

The agency who created this were at pains to make sure that the film/brand of Sherlock Holmes would "be in a better state after their work than when they picked it up". That is, the game they produced had to extend the storytelling in ways linear film could not. If you take one of the many comments of players/viewers of the film, they succeeded:

Why games & playfulness are particularly good at changing behaviour

If you were to only read the red-tops you'd believe that the only behavioural change that games can engender was one of feral violence and sleep deprivation. Looking closer, though, we can see how the ingredients of good games can work in the real world, by making 'fun', engaging and even challenging acts as simple as choosing to take the stairs instead of the escalator:

Adding play to signage is more likely to achieve the desired result, too (picture, right). Across the UK we see anti-speeding signs that achieve results not by telling us off, or snapping us and punishing us at a time long after the offense, but by smiling or "looking sad" when you speed. The results of this playfulness have been disproportionately more successful than punitive measures.

Likewise, a gaming philosophy underpins our attitudes towards the punishment for speeding. In the UK, it is nearly a machismo statement to claim you have earned three or six points on your licence. In Italy, where any measures to reduce machismo in driving will be used to great effect, you start off with 12 points and then lose them as you speed or break the law in other ways.

More directly, we see gaming elements at play in social apps designed to inform, educate and spread around the web, creating more change in habits - MirrorMe is a good example of this.

More in part 2...

[This is Part 2 of a summary of my Game-Based Learning talk, with all the bits that I didn't manage to cover in 18 short minutes. Part 1 was published earlier, and explains some of the terms used here.]

One of the things that I always find helpful is to take 'standard' ways of thinking, standard documentation, and then do a "find and replace" on it, borrowing ideas from another sector.

What happens when we take gaming, which we've seen has so much promise for learning, and take the national curriculum or guidance documents (I've borrowed the new English primary curriculum), and then make a new curriculum? I think the results are interesting, and I wouldn't mind trying to design a curricular approach along these lines. Swap curriculum for 'game', curriculum phase for 'level' and, vitally, learner for 'gamer':

The statutory game should establish an entitlement for all gamers and promote high standards.

The purposes of having a statutory game are:

• to establish an entitlement for all gamers, regardless of social background, culture, race, gender, differences in ability and disabilities, to develop and apply the knowledge, skills  and understanding that will help them become successful gamers, confident individuals and responsible citizens
• to establish national standards for gamers’s performance that can be shared with gamers, parents, teachers, governors and the public 
• to promote continuity and coherence, allowing gamers to move smoothly between game levels and phases of gaming and providing a foundation for lifelong gaming
• to promote public understanding, building confidence in the work of game levels and in the quality of compulsory gaming.


In particular, the game should:

• promote high standards, particularly in literacy, numeracy and ICT capability
• provide continued entitlement from early years to a coherent, broad and balanced game
• instil in gamers a positive disposition to gaming and a commitment to learn
• promote and pass on essential knowledge, skills and understanding valued by society to the next generation
• be relevant to gamers and prepare them for the here and now, for the next phase of their gaming, and for their future
• widen horizons and raise aspirations  about the world of work and further and higher gaming
• make gamers more aware of, and engaged with, their local, national and international communities
• help gamers recognise that personal development is essential to wellbeing and success.

What other curricula around the world make more sense, and will engage more learner-gamers-teachers, when they're find-and-replaced?

Pic: Andrew Mason

A few weeks ago I was listening in on a session from the Swedish arm of agency DDB, who had undertaken some experiments for VW on how one might inject fun into products and life: The Fun Theory. Two experiments made me smile, and I began thinking how ingenious they'd be for helping students in schools happily do the things we'd prefer them to.

For years, one of the behaviour touch points in classrooms and schools has been on the administration of movement and organisation. We've told kids: don't run, don't walk the wrong way up those stairs, don't bring the dirt into school - wipe your feet, take your jackets off when you're in the classroom... All this despite knowing with fifty years experience that telling people not to do stuff doesn't work.

With three videos, I started having some subversive ideas about how we could help youngsters change their behaviour at school and have great fun at the same time:

Management of movement:

Management of clothing:

Management of feet:

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• The Fun Theory (dulemba.com)
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I'm normally not a fan of anything that proclaims to predict the future, let alone a future that's 10 years away. In digital media terms, that's a lifetime or three. However, a new weekly video podcast series - 20 on 2020 - is providing some fascinating insights from an incredibly varied bunch of people working at the sharp end of change and technology.

Eriksson are curating these videos and insights as part of their own research and development, seeking ideas from people they have admired, though don't necessarily agree with. The result is a high quality set of insights from some genuine thought leaders revealing where they think the changes and opportunities are coming in the run up to 2020.

There are currently eight of the twenty up which you can find on the site and on the YouTube channel, and they include

• Hans Rosling explaining population and poverty with lego bricks,
• Carlota Perez on why we depend on technological advance for our future, and
• Jeffrey Sachs on how mobile telephones will reduce poverty in Africa.

Ever wish you could discuss how a blog post might actually be applicable in your own school? Now's the chance, with an opportunity to join a phone chat with me and other educators from around the world this Wednesday.

Earlier this month I published my thoughts to date on what works best for school leaders (or anyone, given a word-change or two) wanting to bring their staff on board for behavioural, procedural or technological change. It's the first of a series of thought pieces with practical next steps for Cisco's GETideas platform.

My GETinsights 'Office Hours' chats

This Wednesday, at 9:00 AM PST/12:00 PM EST/4:00 PM GMT, you can join me and fellow educators for a discussion of the points raised there on the telephone and/or on the computer, by registering for the 45-minute Q&A session beforehand.

My "Office Hours" session is designed to take the wide brushstrokes of the blog post and talk about how it might apply itself in your own setting - the idea is that we can all learn from each other's stories, barriers, and opportunties. It's also a chance to challenge or pick up on points that need expanding from the blog post.

I hope you can join us. If you're West Coast US, it's the beginning of your day, East coasters can join at their lunch break and European teachers can pop in at the end of the school day. Those in the Far East can think of it as their bedtime story ;-) Any questions, just leave a comment here.

Picture Credit: Ewan McIntosh photography workshop, Shanghai 2008 from Brian Lockwood

In a break for our normal service (and any chance of getting real work done this Sunday morning) I bring you Piano Improv on Chatroulette. There's a wee bit of naughty language but, contrary to most of my own Chatroulette experiences, no rude body parts. You will laugh, maybe even be amazed by a guy with some talent and free time on his hands. I'm not going to suggest that music classrooms around the world start using Chatroulette for edyoocashun, but we can giggle a little at the curricular move that might have been...

Update: After a particularly productive morning I've discovered that the talented guy with piano and some time either is Ben from Ben Folds Five, or a good lookalike. The real Ben Folds has since responded to the User Generated inspiration and thus reinvented U2's penchant for the ritual phone call to Presidents and Prime Minsters: he now Chatroulettes with random members of the public during his 2000-seater concerts, creating witty and nsfw songs for them. Brilliant. And that means I've discovered the party piece we'll force Derek Robertson to do at Games-Based Learning in a fortnight.

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