Exploring the Renaissance Through Videogames

Shortly after Assassin’s Creed 2 came out, gamers noticed the rich historical detail included in the game’s setting. The protagonist who players guide through the game is sent back in time to Italy, AD 1499, there to prowl around buildings and streets and attack villains. The developers, self-avowed history nerds, hired consultants to ensure the buildings were rich in period detail. Here’s how The Wall Street Journal reported on their efforts:

They hired Renaissance scholars to advise on period garb, architecture, urban planning, weaponry and the like. They took tens of thousands of photographs of interiors and streets. They used Google Earth liberally to piece together the ground-up and sky-down perspectives through which the action flows. …

The game’s creative director, a Montrealer named Patrice Desilets, lived in Italy for some years, where he acquired a feel for the vivid intrigues of the Renaissance. He grew fascinated, he says, with the notion that “finally people can control time, and relive the past, through games.” The producer, Sebastien Puel, was born in the south of France, in the fortified medieval French town of Carcassonne, and grew up surrounded by history. The head writer, a Harvard graduate from Los Angeles and former screenwriter, Corey May, was driven, he says, by the challenge of “telling a story that feels real and is set among real people who existed.” …

Overall, though, Assassin’s Creed II is as close as we’ve managed to get to real time travel. The grown-ups can lap it up as a kind of virtual tourism. For the high schoolers, still the main audience, the video offers a kind of education by stealth. History matters more if your life depends on it, even as Ezio, and even if you’ve got lives to spare.

The amazing thing is developers of a highly anticipated release would even care to get most of the details right. If modifications of the game are allowed, it may find its way into history courses. It may find its way into classes regardless. Other academic efforts, such as Rome Reborn offer students only the opportunity to explore architecture. In AC2 students can fight bad guys while exploring.

Now, another major game focusing at least in part on the Italian Renaissance is due for release. This one is based on Dante’s Inferno. Yes, players will plumb the depths of hell, as envisioned by Dante, in this game from Electronic Arts. As you might imagine, hell is a bit graphic. Also, if you’ll recall, Dante described levels associated with the seven deadly sins. In the game, the level for lust is particularly graphic, replete with phallic symbols and nudity. This and other extreme graphics earn the game an M rating.

Producers are releasing a print edition of the poem illustrated by pictures from the game, hoping to encourage players to read Dante’s original work. Maybe kids who talk their parents into buying the game, despite its M rating, can actually learn something about the original work. But, I suspect parents would prefer the old-fashioned text version of the poem rather than an explicit video game.

References:
Kaylan, M. (2010, January 12). Time travel gets closer to reality. The Wall Street Journal, D7.

New 3D Learning Book by Karl Kapp

Karl Kapp is a longtime friend of this blog. His first comment was on a post comparing Second Life to World of Warcraft for educational purposes, way back in 2007, and his blog, Kapp Notes, has been on my blogroll ever since. Dr. Kapp is a full professor of instructional technology over at Bloomsburg University, and is a prominent thought leader and author in the field.

One of the things several researchers in educational gaming picked up on early was the facilitation immersive worlds featuring human-like avatars offered for teaching and learning. This idea has come to be generally termed “3D learning,” because the virtual gaming worlds in which it takes place are rendered in three dimensional graphics. It feels like you are in the world instead of simply playing a board game.

It seems to be a powerful learning tool, and has attracted a lot of attention from educational researchers. Perhaps, researchers suspect, there is something to the notion of transference, where players feels like they are experiencing what their avatar in the 3D virtual world is going through and go on to transfer knowledge from that virtual world to real life applications. Perhaps it is conducive to Csíkszentmihályi’s flow theory, where time becomes irrelevant in the pursuit of passionate tasks. Regardless, it’s an intriguing idea that researchers continue to investigate.

Karl Kapp’s latest book, co-authored with Tony O’Driscoll, explores the ramifications of teaching and learning within these immersive virtual environments. Aptly titled, Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration, provides a blueprint for corporate and educational professional development personnel when embarking on efforts to include this type of training in their organizations. Recently, Dr. Kapp made a digital preview of the book available to several bloggers, and embarked on a “virtual book tour.” I was honored to be included on the list, and found the book to be impressive.

I think one of the key contributions to the field this book makes is its insistence that 3D learning is a valid and valuable tool for both corporations and universities. For instance, the whole idea of role playing within virtual 3D environments is supported and reinforced in the book. Business personnel have long known the value of role playing within training regimens. I recall a conversation with someone familiar with the training program for the sales force of a Fortune 100 company. An artificial office environment was created, complete with cameras and recording equipment. The trainee would enter the office and attempt to sell the company’s products to another employee posing as a potential client. Trainers would later review the recordings and help the trainee hone techniques. This entire process is greatly facilitated through 3D virtualization, as the book makes clear.

On an entirely selfish note, I was glad to see the acronym “VIE” included, something I introduced to the field in 2007 in an article in the Journal of Technology and Teacher Education. I called it a virtual interactive environment, while Kapp and O’Driscoll use it to mean virtual immersive environment. Regardless, it amounts to the same thing, and I’m glad to see the idea spread. Education and corporations can use a lot more VIEs.

Naming the Plants of Pandora

O to be a professor in California who movie companies might tap for consulting purposes. Such was the delightful situation Dr. Jodie Holt, chair of the botany and plant sciences department over at UC Riverside found herself in when James Cameron’s people came calling for advice on plant life in the world’s most successful movie.

Dr. Holt advised Sigourney Weaver how a botanist would act in such situations as portrayed in the film. Also, she named the digital creations seen in the rich onscreen scenery, using standard taxonomies. She made up reasonable-sounding Latin names for the plant life, which is included in the official Avatar Pandorapedia and video game. A treatise she wrote, “The Avatar Survival Guide,” also was included in the Pandorapedia. It proffered an explanation for plant development based on environmental details provided to her by Cameron.

Alas, she has not spent much time with the video game. Here’s the relevant statement:

This project was very challenging but also a lot of fun. What botanist would not want to “discover” new plants and name them herself?

I understand that some of these Pandorapedia entries are also contained in the games that were released. However, my husband and I have not yet achieved much proficiency at the video game, so we have not been able to explore Pandora and learn about the plants that way. Hopefully, we can get my young nephew to help us.

Read the full interview here.

References:
Kozlowski, L. (2010, January 2). Inventing the plants of ‘Avatar.’ [Online.] Retrieved January 30, 2010 from http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-avatar-q-and-a2-2010jan02,0,5033714.story

Five Video Games for ESL and Language Development

Kathy Sargent, outgoing editor for TechEdge, (who is a great editor and has done a remarkable job over the years as Director of Communications for TCEA) recently accepted my article on “Virtual ESL” for the next issue. This post expands on the article with games suitable for ESL and the ongoing development of English skills. Certain video games are particularly well-suited to language acquisition and development, a point I made here a couple years ago. There is a heavy dollop of personal opinion in the assertions below, and I welcome dissenting views. Some of these suggestions are relatively expensive, some are free, and all but one are available online.

1. Second Life
   Second Life has a long history of educational adaptation, and the idea of using the environment for ESL purposes was adopted early. Like many efforts with no external motivations however, some formal ESL initiatives have fizzled over time. One still going strong is the Second Life English Community. Founder Kip Boahn had a nice article profiling his work in Forbes a while back. Players from almost 100 different countries regularly gather for such online ESL activities as phonetic treasure hunts through SLEC.

   The global reach, open nature, and ease of use offered by SL, (not to mention the fact it’s free), have helped academics around the world key in to the platform for language training. Since avatars can type or talk over a simple computer connection, engaging native speakers in an interesting 3D environment that is not overly taxing to most hardware results in an ideal environment for language learning.
   -+-

2. World of Warcraft.
   Of the millions of players frequenting the popular MMORPG, you might be surprised to learn there are some engaged in educational activities amidst all that medieval fantasy action. The most famous group devoted to exploring pedagogy in WoW is the guild Cognitive Dissonance, run by Lucas Gillespie and Peggy Sheehy. Lucas’ blog EduRealms follows his educational efforts in the game.

   It is very easy to start up groups and guilds in WoW, and while Asian gold farmers have annoyed North American players in the past, Dr. Edd Schneider over at SUNY-Potsdam gained considerable attention in 2007 for suggesting WoW was a promising platform for ESL in Asia, provided stateside supervised guidance was included.
   -+-

3. My Word Coach
   Although available for the Wii, the DS version of My Word Coach offers players an easier time writing, with its included stylus and touch screen. Plus, the “DS factor” makes it more portable and affordable for classroom or after-school use. It’s not promoted as an ESL product, but the vocabulary training couched in a gaming environment works just as well for non-native speakers.
   -+-
4. Webkinz
   The popular children’s game tied to collectible plush dolls offers a restricted communications feature. “Kinz chat” uses basic sentence elements for players to communicate. While Webkinz probably is not suitable to older ESL students, for the younger crowd it offers a fun and relatively painless way to introduce English. It’s also offered in 12 other languages, so gamers can play in their native tongue as well as the Queen’s.
   -+-
5. Whyville
   Whyville is the free online world designed for children learning, and it has an impressive pedigree with corporate and government sponsorship stretching back several years. Although its strengths lie in STEM games and activities, one of the key features of Whyville appealing to teachers is the sanitized chat feature where cursing is automatically edited out.

In the process of investigating the many mini-games out there, a couple of nifty titles rose to the top. The advantages to using online mini-games for ESL include the fact that teacher supervision is not as heavily needed as it is for the above examples. On the other hand, mini-games typically focus on a much narrower skill set, and kids may tire of them quickly.

A couple of my favorites in the mini-game category included Word Frog, which is a neat way to drill antonyms and such, ala Number Crunchers. I also enjoyed Grammar Ninja,which drills identifying parts of speech in a playful way.

Animating the News: How Videogame Technologies Can Alter Our Perceptions of Real Life Events

Before photography caught on in newspapers, artists rendered their conceptions of newsworthy events through woodcuts. These pictures served as a basis for shaping perceptions among consumers of the news.

Now, a Chinese company called Next Media has pioneered videogame animations to offer its readers artists’ conceptions of events through online animations. Gordon Crovitz over at The Wall Street Journal notes that millions have seen Next Media’s conception of Tiger Wood’s car wreck.

Just as in the 19th Century, when there was no camera present an artist visualized what the scene must have looked like, and presented it to the audience through the dominant medium of the day (newspapers). Now, when there is an incident not recorded by video camera, artists again are imagining what the scene must have looked like, how things transpired, and presenting it to consumers through the dominant medium of the day (the web).

As before, Crovitz notes, those on the tail end of this technological and media revolution are protesting, and are being dragged kicking and screaming into the new way of things. But technology keeps steaming along. Here’s Crovitz’s key paragraph:

These animations are the latest brainstorm of Jimmy Lai, the founder of Next Media, which launched what are now the most popular Chinese-language newspapers in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Reflecting on how newspaper stories have more background about events than television news reports have, as he told me last week, “I thought, hey, why not make those missing images of the background into animated images?” He hired 160 software developers and engineers in Taiwan, who spent more than two years perfecting the technique. Reporters describe their interpretation of what happened to engineers and actors who serve as the models for the animation. Mr. Lai says that his team can create an animated video in 90 minutes, producing about 20 a day.

Are there issues with this technique? You bet. For one thing, what if the reporters’ and artists’ conception of events is entirely wrong? If their video is widespread enough, the wrong conception may be permanently etched into public memory. One could see how public opinion could be greatly manipulated were this powerful new media tool misused. Probably only a matter of time: Crovitz indicates that Lai is working on advancing the technology, making the animations more realistic as techniques and tools develop. He is also intent on sharing the technology with other media companies across the globe.

References:
Crovitz, G. (2009, December 14). Tiger Woods and the animation of news. The Wall Street Journal, A23. [Online.] Retrieved December 14, 2009 from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB20001424052748703757404574592093833268688.html

Virtual CSI: North Carolina State Grant Lets Games Recreate Crime Scenes

Interesting developments on a $1.4 million National Science Foundation grant to North Carolina State: Researchers plan to develop virtualized crime scenes with the help of 3D laser scans and the Unity gaming engine. The grant’s product will be called IC-CRIME, for Interdisciplinary Cyber-enabled Crime Reconstruction through Innovative Methodology and Engagement.

Here’s the key section from Reuters:

The scanners can capture millions of data points at a crime scene within a few minutes and recreate highly detailed virtual crime scenes.

“The game world will be embedded within a Web page also containing data in the form of text and 2D graphics,” said Dr. Michael Young, associate professor of computer science and an expert in serious gaming at NC State.

“We’ll be building an easy-to-use interface on top of the game environment that will allow CSIs and other investigators to link locations in the crime scene to external sources of data, such as hair and fiber databases, finger print images and investigator notes.”

Via Joystiq.

References:
Gaudiosi, J. (2009, Nov. 27). Videogames find ways to help real CSI solve crimes. [Online.] Retrieved Dec. 1, 2009 from http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE5AQ0TR20091127

CFP: ED-MEDIA 2009

>> Call for Participation Deadline: December 19th <<

ED-MEDIA 2009–
World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications

* Please forward to a colleague *

http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/call.htm
_______________________________________________________________

ED-MEDIA 2009

World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications

June 22-26, 2009  *  Honolulu, Hawaii

(Sheraton Waikiki Beach Resort)

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION

** Submissions Due: Dec. 19, 2008 **

Hosted by the University of Hawaii

Organized by
Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)
http://www.aace.org

Co-sponsored by:
Education & Information Technology Digital Library
(htttp://www.EdITLib.org)
______________________________________________________________

** What are your colleagues saying about ED-MEDIA conferences? **
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/testimonials.htm

COLOR POSTER–ED-MEDIA 2009 CALL FOR PARTICIPATION
Available to Print & Distribute (PDF to print; 200kb)
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/ed09poster.pdf

>> CONTENTS & LINKS  (details below) <<

1. Call for Papers and Submission & Presenter Guidelines, Deadline Dec. 19th:
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/call.htm
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/submitguide.htm
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/PresenterLounge

2. Major Topics:  http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/topics.htm
3. Presentation Categories: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/categories.htm

4. Corporate Showcases & Demonstrations: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/corporate.htm
5. Proceedings & Paper Awards: http://www.aace.org/pubs
6. For Budgeting Purposes: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/rates.htm

7. Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii http://www.aace.org/conf/Cities/Honolulu
8. Deadlines: http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/deadlines.htm

INVITATION:
ED-MEDIA 2009–World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia & Telecommunications is an international conference, sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). This annual conference serves as a multi-disciplinary forum for the discussion and exchange of information on the research, development, and applications on all topics related to multimedia, hypermedia and telecommunications/distance education.

ED-MEDIA, the premiere international conference in the field, spans all disciplines and levels of education and attracts more than 1,500 attendees from over 60 countries. We invite you to attend ED-MEDIA and submit proposals for presentations.

All presentation proposals are peer reviewed and selected by three reviewers on the respected international Program Committee for inclusion in the conference program, proceedings book, and CD-ROM proceedings.

For Call for Presentations, connect to:
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/call.htm

All authors MUST follow the submission guidelines and complete the Web form at:
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/submitguide.htm

For Presentation and AV Guidelines, see:
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/PresenterLounge

PROGRAM ACTIVITIES:
* Keynote Speakers
* Invited Panels/Speakers
* Papers
* Panels
* Demonstrations/Posters
* Corporate Showcases & Demonstrations
* Tutorials/Workshops
* Roundtables

TOPICS:
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/topics.htm

The scope of the conference includes, but is not limited to, the following major topics as they relate to the educational and developmental aspects of multimedia/hypermedia and telecommunications:

1. Infrastructure: (in the large)
- Architectures for Educational Technology Systems
- Design of Distance Learning Systems
- Distributed Learning Environments
- Methodologies for system design
- Multimedia/Hypermedia Systems
- WWW-based course-support systems

2. Tools & Content-oriented Applications:
- Agents
- Authoring tools
- Evaluation of impact
- Interactive Learning Environments
- Groupware tools
- Multimedia/Hypermedia Applications
- Research perspectives
- Virtual Reality
- WWW-based course sites
- WWW-based learning resources
- WWW-based tools

3. New Roles of the Instructor & Learner:
- Constructivist perspectives
- Cooperative/collaborative learning
- Implementation experiences
- Improving Classroom Teaching
- Instructor networking
- Instructor training and support
- Pedagogical Issues
- Teaching/Learning Strategies

4. Human-computer Interaction (HCI/CHI):
- Computer-Mediated Communication
- Design principles
- Usability/user studies
- User interface design

5. Cases & Projects:
- Country-Specific Developments
- Exemplary projects
- Institution-specific cases
- Virtual universities

6. Special Strand:  ** Universal Web Accessibility  **

PRESENTATION CATEGORIES:
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/categories.htm
The Technical Program includes a wide range of interesting and useful activities designed to facilitate the exchange of ideas and information.

CORPORATE SHOWCASES & DEMONSTRATIONS:
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/corporate.htm

Companies have the opportunity to demonstrate and discuss their educational technology products and services in through Corporate Showcases and Demonstrations/Literature.

PROCEEDINGS & PAPER AWARDS:
http://www.aace.org/pubs
Accepted papers will be published by AACE in the Proceedings Book and on CD-ROM. Proceedings in this series serve as major resources in the multimedia/hypermedia/telecommunications community, reflecting the current state of the art in the discipline.

In addition, the Proceedings also are internationally distributed through and archived in the Education and Information Technology Digital Library, http://www.EdITLib.org Do You Subscribe?

Papers with high review scores will be invited for publication consideration by AACE’s respected journals, especially for:
- Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia (JEMH),
- International Journal on E-Learning (IJEJ), or
- Journal of Interactive Learning Research (JILR).

All presented papers will be considered for Best Paper Awards within several categories. Award winning papers may be invited for publication in the AACE journals.

FOR BUDGETING PURPOSES:
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/rates.htm

The conference registration fee for all presenters and participants will be approximately $395 U.S. (AACE members), $450 U.S. (non-members). Registration includes proceedings on CD, receptions, and all sessions
except tutorials.

All conference sessions will be held at the Sheraton Waikiki Resort ( http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/hotel.htm) located on the famous Waikiki Beach and in walking distance to the city’s shopping district – with magnificent views of the Pacific Ocean.  Special discount hotel have been obtained for ED-MEDIA participants!

WAIKIKI BEACH, HONOLULU, HAWAII
http://www.aace.org/conf/Cities/Honolulu

Whether your idea of fun is soaking up the sun on a pristine, white sand beach or nightclubbing in Waikiki, hiking the trails or sampling some of the fantastic Hawaiian Regional Cuisine, we know that you’re going to enjoy yourself on O’ahu.

Explore Hawaii online at:  http://www.gohawaii.com * http://www.visit-oahu.com

DEADLINES:
http://www.aace.org/conf/edmedia/deadlines.htm

Submissions Due:          December 19, 2008
Authors Notified:             February 23, 2009
Proceedings File Due:    May 1, 2009
Early Registration:          May 1, 2009
Hotel Reservations:        May 20, 2009
Conference:                   June 22-26, 2009

—————————————————————————-
To be added to the mailing list for this conference, link
to  http://www.aace.org/info.htm

If you have a question about ED-MEDIA, please send an e-mail to AACE Conference Services, conf at aace.org

Contact:
AACE–Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education
P.O. Box 1545
Chesapeake, Virginia 23327  USA
Phone: 757-366-5606 * Fax: 703-997-8760
E-mail: conf at aace.org  *  http://www.AACE.org
***************************************************************

Full Spectrum Warrior Used to Treat PTSS

We’ve talked a lot about how the military uses video games for training and PR purposes. Here’s an interesting video over at The New Yorker about how a popular military video game is being used to treat post traumatic stress syndrome for soldiers returning from battle. The game is basically a modification of Full Spectrum Warrior, called Virtual Iraq. The basic idea with immersion therapy and other such treatments is to provide repeated exposure to the patient so that the negative reflexes become muted. I was particularly interested to note that smells can be introduced to the regimen, including diesel fumes. The olfactory glands are the biggest in the brain, and can trigger strong reactions and memories. The work is spearheaded by Albert “Skip” Rizzo over at USC.

Rise of the Giant Simulators

Imagine an old style simulation designed to train newly hired air traffic controllers. The students gather in a large room, in the center of which is a model airport made of plywood. Different students grab toy planes and begin “flying” them around the room by holding them out at different heights and walking in circles around the airport. Students take turns playing air traffic contoller, shouting out altitude and speed instructions to the airplanes. Occasionally, a plane is ordered to land at the airport. When mistakes are made, the planes “crash,” and students start over again.

Sounds very 20th Century, doesn’t it? Hold your breath: air traffic contollers are still trained that way in 2008. But, things are starting to change as the technology for giant electronic simulators, essentially videogames played out on room-sized screens, matures.

We last discussed the technology back in November, when looking at the ship simulator used by the Texas Maritime Academy over at Texas A&M – Galveston. All manner of ships can be programmed for students to pilot into the world’s major harbors, using seven 15 foot screens and tilting floors to help provide the full pitching deck experience during virtual storms.

Now, Matthew Wald at The New York Times brings us an article on the giant air traffic control simulators used by the Federal Aviation Administration Academy in Oklahoma City.

The sophisticated video games are meant to address a serious real-world problem: Nearly two-thirds of the agency’s 15,000 air traffic controllers will no longer be working by 2017 when they reach the mandatory retirement age of 56. … As a result, the agency now must hire and train some 1,700 controllers a year for the next decade, a task the Government Accountability Office described as a major challenge. Experts say that having a high proportion of trainees and rookies in towers and radar rooms may reduce safety. To meet the challenges, the agency is turning to electronic tower simulators, which one instructor described as “a big Xbox.”

Wald reports administrators hope to shave 20-60% training time using the big video games. Six simulators run 18 hours/day training students, though Wald states the old style simulations are still used. When virtual planes crash, though, the resulting fireball lighting up the monitors makes a much more visceral visual impact.

The article concludes with an interesting summation of the videogames used to screen candidates. The games gauge how well a candidate can multitask and deal with distractions. A battery of tests are used, too, requiring mental math computation. Remember those word problems in grade school requiring you to compute the rates and times of two different cars, trains, or airplanes leaving different cities? Well, you get the picture. Finally, students “are also given a hyperactive version of Pac-Man to play in their spare time. The idea is to keep students’ skills sharp, instructors say, and hone their ability to watch several targets at a time.”

References:
Wald, M. L. (2008, October 7). For air traffic trainees, games with a serious purpose. The New York Times. [Online.] Retrieved: October 16, 2008 from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/08/us/08controller.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2&sq=serious%20game&st=cse&scp=1

The Rise of Photo-Realistic Animation

The bar keeps bumping up higher for quality animations in a videogame. Word came out this week that Afrika, a new safari photo hunt game for the PlayStation 3, would provide ultra-realistic shots of wildlife on the savannah and make good use of the PS3’s graphics capabilities. The game required a mere 25 developers, compared to the 100 or so that many big titles take, and Sony’s sales expectations are modest. Still, the possibilities revolving around photo-realism add to the expectations for future games: serious, educational, and traditional entertainment titles alike.

On the anthromorphological side of things, check out this video, She’s Not Real, from The Times Online in the UK. If you weren’t told ahead of time, it’s possible you wouldn’t know you were watching an animated human … at least at first. Toward the end of the minute long footage, the programmers give a taste of what they can do with an animated person, in a game for instance.