This week the Learning Technologies show (2010) took place at the Olympia exhibition Centre (The 27^th and 28^th of January). Working for a company that offers a number of products in this field I spent both days exhibiting at the event. This gave me an excellent opportunity to contrast where the corporate world is in terms of e-learning (technologies and usage) with how e-learning is used in the academic setting (having been on the course for two weeks now).

It seems as if the corporate world is still using the “traditional” e-learning of two decades ago: the number of companies still offering e-learning authoring (“click on the 'next' button 30 times and you are done”) is phenomenal. On the administrative side the main products being offered are LMS systems (which are mainly responsible for scheduling the presence of employees in classrooms or when they need to go through e-learning packages). In other words while interfaces have changed and systems have been speeding up there is little change in this field from the 1990s.

The buzz words of yesteryear – Mobile learning has now become more common (being used mostly for performance support and just in time knowledge) and so while many companies offer something in this field it is no longer a main attraction.

There is however some good news for corporate learning: the main product which seems to be making tracks is the e-portfolio. In fact, in a number of conversations that I have had during the show it seems as if corporates are finally starting to understand that being able to schedule employee A in classroom B at time C (with an LMS) does not actually mean that employee A has learned anything. Therefore, e-portfolio (and 'Talent management') systems are becoming of greater interest as they offer a mixture of skills and competency management (“what does the employee know” rather than “what does the employee need to learn”).

According to researchers such as Jay Cross most learning is informal. In such a case managing the skills and competencies of an employee rather than what they need to learn is very good news for learning in general. Over the next decade I believe that we are going to see the LMS become a subset of the e-portfolio system (it will still be needed to track learning for compliancy reasons).

The second trend that was obvious at the show is all about “social learning” on the one side this is closer to what is happening in the academic environment but it also acknowledges the way that younger employees (those currently joining the workforce) live their digital lives. The theme of “Google is today's main learning application” is a recurring one appearing in Barbazon's “the University of Google” and other sources. However, we have to remember that these books have all ready been out for a while (3 years in Barbazon's case) and the younger generation look at Facebook, MySpace and Twitter as their main port of call. In other words we have gone from learning from a teacher (with the book) to learning from an infinite library (searching it via Google) to learning from our peers. An example of this is given by Steve Johnson in his article “How Twitter will change the way we live”: describing an instance where a certain celebrity (Oprah) asked for help removing ticks from her dog.

I think that the main significance of this 'peer learning' to the corporate environment (and this is the main point which interests me personally) is that it brings closer the learning organisation as described in such books as Peter M. Senge's - “The Fifth Discipline” and Argyris and Schon's “Organizational Learning II”. Achieving the state of a learning organisation is not possible without the help of technology due to the simple reason of mass – the amount of data generated, updated, stored, queried and retrieved on a daily basis is by far too much for a non-technological system to handle. In his article “How Twitter will change the way we live” Steve Johnson claims that the value of twitter (and this apply to any system which generate great volumes of data) is not in the data it helps create but in the tools that allow users to manipulate and search it and so transform the data into information. I will be following closely the development of these systems for the corporate environment and their impact.

On a personal note, now that the show is finally over the weeks of preparation has paid off and I can finally returned (Begin) to make a more regular contribution to this blog and my studies in general. I look forward to this end to the reduction in day-to-day pressure.

James Paul Gee's 5 Learning Principles are extended here:

http://mason.gmu.edu/~lsmithg/jamespaulgee2

 

 

I found the Greenfield article extremely engaging.

She begins by stating that moving visual imagery (p89) is important and is developed via the skills acquired during TV viewing - an activity still frowned upon if undertaken to extremes. But it is the interaction – being able to control the narrative in addition that creates the engagement or the fascination with videogames.  Other factors include, automatic score keeping, randomness, audio, speed (91)

I have an interest in gender roles, when considering any ICT (teaching S3 & S4 all boys classes) and was interested in her observation that the entry point to computing is a via gaming, which was predominantly male. (94)  I find that boys in mixed classes can often be heard discussing computer games, especially their collaborations/challenges online.  Spatial skills, said to better exhibited by males.

I was interested in the principle that the human brain looks for patterns as a way to discern the world: computer games call up inductive skills much more (100)  Pattern recognition is required, as is parallel processing – the assimilation of several sources of information at the same time.

Whitton notes that:  

• Pictorial – parallel
• Audible – serial

something which I am keenly aware of during my teaching practice. Also, one must consider the context/setting in interpreting “interacting dynamic variables” (102).

Which leads to the issue of ‘transfer’ – into other domains – and generalization of these skills.  How can this be achieved?  For an English Teacher, Fantasy Games allow for the creation of far more complex characterization.  This is useful in conjunction with any imaginative/creative writing activities - I have noted that the Neverwinter Nights has the feature(s) for users to create and build within the videogame domain.  Again, something that offer more features that allow for creativity. 

A LADDER OF CHALLENGES

Closely linked to the motivation and the maintenance of an optimal level of engagement:

• visible progress
• improved score
• next level progression, to a level of increased difficulty

during all of which, the user (children) need to feel control.

This seems to be the elixir of creative and successful education.

This is a reflection on this week’s reading, my experience of playing the platform games of this week, and how I am relating it to my own work on supporting qualitative analysis through the use of software tools such as CAQDAS e.g. ATLAS.ti, NVivo, MAXqda etc.

I found Whitton’s thesis that good learning activities share similar characteristics to games as illuminating.  While a game may have more or less of the characteristics she defines – competition, challenge, exploration, fantasy, goals, interaction, outcomes, people, rules and safety, so too, can learning activities share some of these characteristics.  She acknowledges that some of these characteristics need to be understood with caution when applied to education e.g. safety is not usually relevant as the outcome of a course will have real-life consequences – however, safe activities can be constructed to aid learning e.g. in this module, our contribution to the discussion board is not graded but people use it as a way to test their ideas.  Her premise is that we as educators can learn from good game design and I look forward to reading more of her book.

Newman’s discussion about the context of where games are played helped me understand my frustration with the platform games we played with this week – Pacman, Donkey Kong and Frogger.  They were originally arcade games, designed to be played on coin-operated machines to generate money for the arcade owners.  Given this function they can’t last that long.  But also playing them was a public performance and observers could learn about patterns and tricks by observing how others played.  The noise, which I found irritating when I played (I turned off the sound), was an essential attraction of the games. Newman reminded me of the arcade halls in British piers – Brighton is the one I know.  And the sound of the games and the flashing lights was a way to attract kids – it made the pier an ‘exciting place’.  There are quite a few Youtube videos on arcade games and there is a big nostalgia for them.  The comments on the Youtube videos below support that. I am of a different generation so missed out on playing games in arcades.  My step-children did (and my daughter is of another generation yet again).

A more polished tribute to arcade games.

In relation to my own work, Newman’s discussion around paedia and ludus is pertinent.  I do consulting and training on supporting people who are analyzing qualitative data (i.e. unstructured data, such as indepth interviews, videos, graphics etc.)  I have always talked about ‘playing’ with the data when starting an analysis.  The CAQDAS software platforms I support can be seen as ‘playgrounds’ where the data is located and can be played with.  Although I am currently exploring (and have recently published an article) on how Web 2.0 tools have the potential to do the same.  There is a tension though, particularly with new students, between wanting and needing rules and the freedom to play.  But this tension is also apparent in different epistemological stances towards data analysis. In particular, those of a post-modern turn have been turned off these software tools because of a belief that they impose some rigid structure – are rule-bound in some way – whereas in fact they are flexible generic tools that the analyst decides how to use – much the same way Newman argues that the player has control over moving between paedia and ludus.  While I have always thought of qualitative data analysis as about playing with the data, I never thought of the platforms as similar to games before.   This week has given me a lot to think about!

 References

Newman, J. (2004) Chapter 2, 'What is a video game? Rules, Puzzles and Simulation'. In Videogames, London: Routledge.

Whitton, N. (2010) Chapter 2, 'Recognising the characteristics of digital games'. In Learning with Digital Games: A practical guide to engaging students in higher education, London: Routledge.

‘Popeye’

‘Popeye’ is an arcade platform game, developed and released by Nintendo in 1982, featuring an 8-bit rendering of the eponymous cartoon character, and features Olive Oyl, See Pea’, Wimpy, Bluto and Sea Hag.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Popeye_(arcade_game)

This game draws upon existing cultural references and uses the relations and enmities between the characters as the strategies and mini-plots, which span three levels. 

Sherlock Holmes: The Secret of the Silver Earring (PC)

Pupils are required to produce a piece of journal writing in 5 minutes at the beginning of each lesson – applicable only to S1 and S2 pupils.

For most pupils, this would descend into the more mundane repetitive nature of listing the subjects they had visited or a window on their limited experience at the weekend in a small community.

The pupils are undertaking curricular study of a drama adaptation of a classic Sherlock Holmes story, The Mazarin Stone, so I decided to use one of the suggested titles by Whitton at http://digitalgames.playthinklearn.net/

Having acquired a ‘walkthrough’ and a copy of the PC game I decided to allow the pupils to play the game for five minutes and then spend a further 5 minutes producing a journal entry of the investigation to date in the persona of either Holmes or Dr Watson.

Pupils are in groups of 2-3, and each day a group undertakes the game control and scribing activities, whilst they participate in a whole class discussion of investigation.  I, as teacher and ‘omniscient prompt’ offer suggestions and instigate elaborations of suggestions. 

Pupils are:

• Collaborating
• Following instructions
• Deconstructing a flexible narrative
• Using higher-order thinking skills (i.e. deduction)
• Learning about and writing in register
• Reconstructing narrative(s)

To date, 3 periods - w/b 17^th to 22^nd January – have been successful; pupils have been confident to adopt 1 of the 2 offered personas; 1 has adopted a 3^rd person.

I will continue to monitor the interaction and final outcomes of this activity.

I am considering the suitability of narrative-rich games such as ‘Neverwinter Nights’ and ‘The Longest Journey’.

I experienced a combination of compulsion and frustration playing Pacman, Donkey Kong, and Frogger.  The compulsion was that I kept going – replaying the game, thinking this time I will get through to the next level.  Frustration was when I nearly made it but not quite.  I also experienced a kind of recklessness when I was close to completing a level – just rushing in to finish it instead of calming down and taking my time to finish.  There is definitely a physiological response – I found myself holding my breath, feeling slightly anxious and the adrenalin pumping around my body.  It was totally immersive but I partly resented this immersiveness.  The resentment is due to feeling that I was ‘wasting my time’ playing these games – although having to experience them for the course did give them a legitimacy for me. 

Newman looks at why do players play. He  cites Rouse’s key motivations: challenge, immersion and the fact that players expect to do, not watch.  Certainly, I have experienced the immersion.  It is interesting what Newman (2004) says about ‘challenge’ – that players expect to lose.  Maybe that is why I find them so frustrating – I don’t expect to lose (but I keep losing).  The pleasure he claims is through replaying and practicing until the performance gets better.  For me these platform games are too simple – in that I find the repetition too boring. Maybe I would enjoy it more if the rewards were more ‘real’ – rather than just getting to the next level.  Although I expect I would get elated if I ever make it to the next level.

 Newman, J. (2004) Chapter 2, 'What is a video game? Rules, Puzzles and Simulation'. In Videogames, London: Routledge.

As with Google Docs, are the developers and ROM collators involved in the MAME project acting in the best principles of preserving examples of our fledgling digital games culture? http://mamedev.org/ & http://mameworld.info/

 

 

 

“Mum, you’re not playing a game!”, my eighteen year old daughter exclaimed when she suddenly came into my study.  I quickly showed her my Digital Game-based Learning course book and explained that it was a module for my MSc in E-Learning course.  I think that sums up my starting point with games – playing games is not something associated with me and I am embarrassed to be caught playing a game!  

I was playing PacMan and it was the first time I played that game.  I was successful in getting to Level 2 at my first attempt but I did not realise that when I ate a large sphere and the ghosts turned blue that I could try to ‘eat’ them to earn extra points. I only learned that (and the fact that those things were ghosts) by later googling to find out more about the game. [Note: My getting to stage 2 at my first go was just beginners luck. I found it more difficult subsequently!]

I had a harder time with Donkey Kong.  The up key did not appear to work when I tried to make the man climb the ladder so I decided that I would have to make a number of points jumping over barrels before I could make it to the next level. But that did not seem to work. I got very frustrated and would have given up if I were not on the course. So again I googled ‘Donkey Kong pattern’ and gathered that the man could go up the ladder.  I realised that he had to be positioned exactly in front of the ladder in order to go up it.

Having done some of the initial reading about the definitions of digital or videogames, I realise that I have played some before. In particular, I have played minesweeper on my phone as well as brick???.  And I have played solitaire on my laptop.  I never thought of them as digital games – mainly because I didn’t play with anyone else – they were solitaire games. (And yes, I just used the word ‘game’.)  But I did not go out of my way to get those games – they came with my phone/laptop and I only played them when I was in transit when I was tired of reading.  But I enjoyed playing them (as long as no one I knew saw me playing them!).

I stumbled on this paper - http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123238095/abstract - which introduces the concept of uLearning (ubiquitous learning).  I've seen some nifty demonstrations of augmented reality and GPS-enabled phones, and I reflect on the ideas of "location of play" and "public performance" in the Newman paper from Readings Week 1.