For a more subtle but no less collaborative approach to shared public experiences check out subtlemob. In stark contrast to the recent flashmobs that have swept major cities in the past year which tend to be marketing campaigns for major brands, subtlemobs are designed to blend in to everyday life as the participants listen to an mp3 soundtrack and experience a magical ‘invisible cinema’.

There is a zone called Scilands where a variety of institutions including NASA have created virtual experiments and scientific experiences. Member organisations share borders of their individual regions in the hope of forging links between disciplines. One of the most compelling of the Scilands is that which enables the visitor to fly through a hurricane.

Part of a grass roots movement among teachers to bring appropriate new ICT tools into the classroom to support learning and engage young learners, Dawn Hallybone has been trailblazing the use of Nintendo DS handheld computers with her colleagues for a range of learning activities including ‘brain training’ for maths

http://www.agent4change.net

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I’ve never been to a Digra conference before. It’s an experience as the speakers range from devoted game players who care that they have missed x% of the game play despite completing Resident Evil 5 in 40 hours. Others reflected on how surveillance cameras impact geocaching (more chance of being seen by muggles). While others have been looking at grannies in OAPs homes that have been introduced to the Wii’s – it seems that bowling is more enjoyable than ski jumping.

Instead of typing up my pages of notes I’ll just share a few thoughts about what caused me to rethink how I view and analyse games. Diane Carr also followed Richard Bartle’s advice that one can only produce a perspective based on one’s own experience. She advocated the idea of “player-as-analyst”. This implies a continuum of game play – from an individual game player at one end through the designer at the other with the whole game experience in the middle. This intuitively seems correct if one is writing about a game, especially given that one is responding to the avatars and therefore influencing the game. It also ties in with game design – certainly for Resident Evil where you’re ranked as amateur, normal, veteran or professional which all impact on play.

I was also fascinated by the world of professional video gaming. I don’t think I had quite grasped how large the Major League Gaming circuit was, and how male dominated. In Nicholas Taylor’s talk he described how there was only one girl in the gaming club he followed. Interestingly she was the only one who mentioned that gaming had to fit in with school and required parental permission. I wondered if this was true of the boys but they were too macho to admit it.

However, I think my highlight was Mark Healey and Kareem Ettouney from Media Molecule. They were telling us about the design of LittleBigPlanet. Which Mark did half design with the idea it would be something he could play with his new child. I liked the idea that one sets out to create a game that appeals to the whole family given my current research project Gaming in Families (however I refrained from asking him to take part in the field work on the basis that he might not be representative of a gaming dad.)

Finally, some fascinating facts:

> 95% of Flo (dash) gamers are women – and this casual game had two papers devoted to it in the conference…
> There are no zombies in Resident Evil 4 – as a zombie is undead – whereas these villagers had some parasite in their brain.
> There are two genres of fan fiction around tetris – those that believe they are blocks and those that become totally addicted to the game.

We are particularly keen on receiving ideas that:

• stimulate ideas about the future direction of education and technology
• push the current boundaries of how technology is used for learning
• challenge assumptions about how teaching and learning happen.

For more information and to download the application form visit www.futurelab.org.uk/ideas

This year we’re asking for ideas that fit two themes.  They’re themes we’ve a lot of experience in, as part of past Calls for Ideas, but also in other work – from literature reviews and free resources to conference presentations and handbooks.  But they’re areas we’re keen to explore even further.

The first theme we’re particularly interested in is ‘meaningful games’.  These are games that aim to achieve serious social results by enabling learners to engage with important issues such as learning, democracy, environment and sustainability, their local community etc etc.  They’re games that afford the opportunity to explore and interact with important topics that can be difficult to engage with – topics that are important personally, locally or nationally and internationally.  We’re looking for new forms of meaningful games to engage players as learners, and learners as players: the key is that we’re looking for new, exciting ideas for games that can support learners in developing their understanding and actions within these important issues.

The second theme we’re particularly interested in is mobile games.  These are games that are primarily developed for use while learners are on the move or interacting with the places, objects or people around them.  These games can make use of a mobile devices (phones, mobile consoles etc) but also fixed artefacts so that the mobile learner can be engaged in the game whether by interacting with digital systems or maps, physical objects, or other players (in real or virtual spaces).  Mobile Games for Learning can provide opportunities to learn through interaction with ‘real’ spaces, histories, maps, and people in public and outdoor spaces that are not traditionally seen as sites of learning.  There are opportunities to explore how Mobile Games for Learning could promote healthy lifestyles and wellbeing as well as offer more approaches to learning that include learners who do not always succeed in mainstream education.  What we learn and how we learn are both important to the construction of successful Mobile Games for Learning.

Our aim is to develop the best idea further so that it can be showcased, perhaps modelled in a way that lets people try it out, or that possibly helps prepare it for a larger stage of development.  Ideas are sought from absolutely anyone in the UK and if selected by our expert panel, we will either help you develop it, or support the idea and help it find funding via our network.

The call will officially be announced in a few weeks and ideas can be submitted throughout September – this is an early warning for those who know us already.  So, thinking caps on…

Perhaps a way forward is to use technology. For example, i.play, which is a new range of playground equipment designed to make outdoor play a more interactive experience using the premise of a video game. Physical activity is measured by the equipment as pupils are encouraged to reach targets and new levels based on previous play. i.play (developed by researchers at Loughborough University) joins the Nintendo Wii™ as part of the latest generation of physically interactive technologies that can be used both inside and outside the classroom. Another example is Cyber Coach, a virtual fitness club which uses dance mats to engage larger groups in physical activity. The project has now moved on from its initial base in health clubs into schools with classes designed around the National Curriculum.

This new generation of games and applications is growing rapidly to meet the increasing demand for responsible games which encourage both activity and interaction. Could they offer hope to the next generation in the fight against obesity, regardless of whether or not they are able or inclined to take part in outdoor activities?

For a more in-depth article on how technology might be used to support learning about health and fitness and for more information about i.play, Cyber Coach and other initiatives for engaging pupils in physical activities, see ‘Learning your way to health’ in the latest issue of VISION magazine.

Channel 4 Summer education conference

What Comes Next?

The Channel 4 Education Summer conference gathered together an eclectic mix of digital media and education professionals to consider how the UK Education system “struggles to respond to ever increasing demands, new policy initiatives, new demands from parents and students, and all the innovations in pedagogy, technology and neuroscience.”

This was a timely event given the announcements the same day from the Government about 21st Century schools and the White paper, the recent ministerial changes in DCSF and BIS and the uncertainty around funding and a growing awareness of the rapidly emerging “more for less” concept facing the public sector in general.

Zenna Atkins, Chair of OFSTED opened the day with a reflective and honest appraisal of the need for the inspection regime to be sensitive to the need for 21st century learning and there is an interesting piece by Merlin John on his blog agent4change.(link below)

Professor Rose Luckin from the London Knowledge Lab drew on the increasing body of evidence which supports technology enhanced learning but still warned of the “illusions” of technology, organisations and knowledge.

Matt Locke the commissioning editor at channel 4 outlined some of the successful projects they have supported such as Battlefront, which has succeeded using digital technology to help young people explore community, campaigning, and communications.

Donald Clark spiced up the late afternoon with his usual passionate perspective on young people, technology, gaming and learning.

Finally the Teach meet concept came to channel 4 as a variety of practitioners shared their nuggets of effective practice in bite sized chunks without the use of PowerPoint!

Channel 4 seem to be filling a space (the event was sold out) surely it is time the education sector answered back?

Links;
http://www.channel4learning.com/
http://www.lkl.ac.uk/cms/
http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/
http://www.teachmeet.org.uk/
http://www.agent4change.net/

Some top-line stats may surprise you about the average 12-24 year old (or not, if you are one):

They personally own 8 devices (including MP3 player, PC, TV, DVD player, mobile phone, stereo, games console, and digital camera)
They frequently conduct over 5 activities whilst watching TV
25% of them agree that “I’d rather stay at home than go on a holiday with no internet or phone access”
A quarter of young people interviewed text or IM (instant message) friends they are physically with at the time
They have on average 123 friends on their social network spaces
And the first thing the majority of them do when they get home is turn on their PC

No surprises for our family with a 15 and 19yr old but poses some questions for their teachers and lecturers?

http://blogs.channel4.com/platform4/2009/05/26/technology-kids-and-telly/

This report was mentioned by Roy Pea when he spoke at the BECTA Research network conference last month in Sheffield and strengthens the need for a serious discussion about the role of education in the digital information age and has particlular relevance for the BSF and PCP programmes.

The full report can be found here:

http://www.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7BB0386CE3-8B29-4162-8098-E466FB856794%7D/DML_ETHNOG_WHITEPAPER.PDF