Let’s write a textbook

I’ve been talking with the folks at Flatworld Knowledge about the kinds of textbooks they’re looking for, and it was suggested that a world history textbook might be just the ticket. These things are typically in two volumes – before and after 1500. Who wants to write a textbook?

To my mind, writing another textbook that does the usual roundup of periods/cultures is not perhaps useful. As the Barenaked Ladies are wont to say, ‘It’s all been done before! ‘ A new medium of producing, distributing a textbook – a medium that allows for the content to be remixed by instructors at the coal-face, to suit their needs (read Flatworld’s material for more on that) it seems to me, needs a new approach. The folks at Grand Text Auto did a blog-based peer review for this book; perhaps a new world history textbook could be written via blog-based posts & peer review? Also, could it be written in such a way as to foreground networks & connections between times, places, and peoples: a 21st century textbook? Horden and Purcell’s volume from a few years back is apposite here; also is Urry’s Sociology beyond Societies…

…I’m just thinking out loud. Your thoughts?

Masters and Doctoral Theses on Serious Games

A list maintained by Katrin Becker at SFU, ‘Serious Games Pathfinder‘:

The following is a list of Master’s and Doctoral theses that have been completed that have to do with serious games (and in some cases more broadly with digital games). Doctoral Theses are marked in bold. You can get more info on each thesis by clicking on the associated ‘details’ link.

Note: I am just starting to develop this list. So far, almost all the theses are Canadian ones. If anyone has a thesis they would like me to add, please let me know the following:

Name, Title, Year, Degree, Country, Institution, Department, Abstract, URL to the thesis (If you are willing, I’d like your nationality too).

Please send info on theses that are about DIGITAL GAMES ONLY (I am not interested in theses about Game Theory (i.e. math), ELearning, Virtual Spaces, Social Websites, Blogging, Graphics, AI, … UNLESS they specifically focus on applications to or for digital games)

I reproduce below the listing she has for 2008:

2008

details	Applications of CSP solving in computer games (camera control)	Ali, Mohammed Liakat
details	The invention of good games: understanding learning design in commercial video games	Becker, Katrin
details	Gamers as learners: Emergent culture, enculturation, and informal learning in massively multiplayer online games	Chu, Sarah
details	Consistency Maintenance for Multiplayer Video Games	Fletcher, Robert D. S
details	Homeless: It’s No Game – Measuring the Effectiveness of a Persuasive Videogame	Lavender, Terrance
details	The “Heat Game”: an augmented reality game for scientific literacy	Rees, Carol
details	Beyond Fun and Games: Interactive Theatre and Serious Videogames with Social Impact	Shyba, Lori
details	Believability, Adaptivity, and Performativity: Three Lenses for the Analysis of Interactive Storytelling.	Tanenbaum, Joshua Glen
details	Adolescent problem gambling: relationship with affect regulation, Internet addiction, and problematic video game playing	Taylor, Robyn N
details	Video game expertise and visual search and discrimination	Wu, Sijing
details	Computer-aided exercise	Yim, Jeffrey W.H

Visualisation in Archaeology

An interesting project hosted by Southampton in the UK and English Heritage – see the full website here. They’re hosting what looks to be a fascinating wee conference in October:

Visualisation In Context:
An Interplay of Practice and Theory
22 – 23 October 2009
Hosted by the University of Southampton

The 2009 VIA Workshop is designed to probe the intersections between theory (which might traditionally be represented in terms of critique – linear and written) and practice (which might increasingly be expressed in terms of production – non-linear and visual) within the field of archaeology as well as other disciplines from the humanities and the sciences.

Check out the VIA  showcase:

Online Research Showcase

Centred on the visualisation of data in both archaeology and the wider fields of the social sciences, arts, and science and technology studies. Like the bibliography, these summaries aim to link practitioners across disciplines, highlight innovative visual projects, and offer a platform for future planning and discussion of best practices around archaeological visual method and theory.

		Archaeology and Community Museology: Ancient Egyptian Daily Life Scenes in Museums
		Gemma Tully University of Southampton

		Choreographic Morphologies: Interdisciplinary Crossovers in the Use of Digital Visualisation Methods in Dance and Archaeology
		Helen Bailey, Stuart Dunn, James Hewison, Martin Turner King’s College London University of Bedfordshire University of Manchester

		Fractured Media: Challenging the Dimensions of Archaeology’s Typical Visual Modes of Engagement
		Sara Perry University of Southampton

		Framing Machu Picchu: Science, Photography and the Making of Patrimony
		Amy Cox University of Florida

		Imag(in)ing the Other at Dura-Europos
		Jennifer Baird Birkbeck College, University of London

		Institutionalising Images: Early Visualisation Networks in Aegean Archaeology
		Deborah Harlan University of Sheffield

		Interactive Panoramas and 3D Modelling Based on Panoramas
		Karol Kwiatek, Martin Woolner, Simon Standing, Jes Martens University of Plymouth, Institute of Creative and Cultural Industries University of Oslo, Norway, Museum of Cultural History

		OKAPI Island in Second Life
		Ruth Tringham, Noah Wittman, Colleen Morgan University of California, Berkeley

		Pervasive Gaming, Education, and Cultural Heritage: Emplaced Interpretive Games at the Presidio of San Francisco
		Ruth Tringham, Colleen Morgan University of California, Berkeley The Presidio Archaeology Lab

		Reflexive Representations: The Partibility of Archaeology
		Andrew Cochrane, Ian Russell Cardiff University University College Dublin

		Representing Prehistory: The Biographies of the Robenhausen Lake Dwelling Collections at the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (2008-2009)
		Katherine Cooper University of Cambridge

		SahulTime: Rethinking Archaeological Representation in the Digital Age
		Matthew Coller Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

		Scandalous Artefacts
		Alessandro Zambelli Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London

		Strategies of Visualisation in German Archaeology, 19th-20th C
		Stefanie Klamm Max Planck Institute for the History of Science Humboldt University, Berlin

		The Archaeological Eye: Visualisation and the Disciplinary Foundations of British Archaeology
		Sara Perry University of Southampton

		The Gateway to Sarup
		Niels H. Andersen, Maria Isenbecker, Camilla Bjarnø, Jan Solheim Moesgård Museum, DenmarkSamsøgades Skole, Denmark Supported by the Danish Ministry of Culture and the Danish Ministry of Education

		The Remediated Places Project
		Ruth Tringham, Michael Ashley, Steve Mills, Eric Blind, Jason Quinlan, Colleen Morgan University of California, Berkeley

Top 100 Learning Games, according to Upside Learning

From the Upside Learning Blog

1. It is All Fun and Games…And Then Students Learn- Kapp Notes, July 30, 2008
2. Building Better Learning Games- Learning Visions, April 9, 2009
3. Marc Prensky – Digital Game-Based Learning
4. Gadgets, games and gizmos for learning- Clive on Learning, January 29, 2008
5. How to Delight and Instruct in the 21st Century
6. What Makes a Learning Game?
7. Serious Games Blog
8. mLearn08: MiLK: students building mobile learning games in higher education by Debra Polson- Ignatia Webs, November 12, 2008
9. Marc Prensky – Twitch Speed, June 17, 2009
10. Using computer games in education- ThirdForce Blog, January 30, 2009
11. Digital games and learning gains (PDF), June 17, 2009
12. Learning in Immersive worlds: A review of game-based learning
13. Army War College – digital game resources
14. Immerse Yourself in Another Language- Kapp Notes, June 3, 2008
15. Resources: Games and Gaming in Education- Don’t Waste Your Time
16. Which name is better – Serious Games or Educational Simulations or…?- The Learning Circuits Blog, October 13, 2007
17. Interactive learning with game-based design principles
18. More Educational Games- Kapp Notes, August 7, 2008
19. Examples from TWITCHSPEED.COM Digital Game-Based Learning, June 17, 2009
20. The Art of Making Video Games- Kapp Notes, June 10, 2008
21. Linking Commercial Games with Defense
22. Colleges Play Games- Kapp Notes, May 27, 2008
23. Casual Games get Serious, June 17, 2009
24. Aspects of Game- Based Learning
25. Walk a Mile in My Shoes: Games Let You Do That- Kapp Notes, July 30, 2007
26. Educause
27. Digital Game Based Learning
28. Good Video Games and Good Learning
29. Digital Games: A Motivational Perspective
30. The use of computer and video games for learning
31. For a Better World: Digital Game and the Social Change Sector
32. Games for Change – Toolkit
33. Lego Games
34. Additional Resources for Digital Game-Based Learning
35. Why Are Video Games Good For Learning?
36. Teaching Educational Games Resources
37. using the technology of today, in the classroom today
38. Simulation Games – A Learning Tool
39. Video games and the future of learning
40. moving learning games forward
41. 36 Learning Games to Change the World
42. Game Development Research
43. BBC School Games
44. Yes You CAN Create E-learning Games- Bozarthzone , June 22, 2007
45. Apple Learning Games
46. And You Thought Mechanical Engineering was Boring- Kapp Notes, August 14, 2008
47. Adopting Digital Game-based Learning: Why and How- Upside Learning Blog, March 26, 2009
48. ZaidLearn: 75 Free EduGames to Spice Up Your Course!, December 11, 2008
49. A Theory of Fun- Clive on Learning, August 16, 2007
50. Games e-Learners Play, April 29, 2009
51. The treatment matrix- Clive on Learning, August 5, 2008
52. PDF: Serious games: online games for learning (PDF), June 17, 2009
53. Where games, sims and 3D worlds meet- Clive on Learning, June 24, 2007
54. The Top 5 Platforms for Creating Educational Video Games « Educational Games Research, June 17, 2009
55. Caspian’s ILS taxonomy- Clive on Learning, November 17, 2008
56. 24 Questions about computer games and education- The Learning Circuits Blog, August 8, 2005
57. Casual and Serious Digital Games for Learning – Some Considerations- Upside Learning Blog, April 17, 2009
58. Clark Aldrich’s Style Guide for Serious Games and Simulations: costs for simulation, December 11, 2008
59. Gadgets, Games and Gizmos: Learning Algebra in a Game- Kapp Notes, November 19, 2006
60. Latest Issue of The Escapist Focuses on War Games and Gaming, September 23, 2008
61. Games and the Gamer Generation: Keynote- Kapp Notes, August 10, 2007
62. Games and Learner Assessment- Kapp Notes, May 30, 2008
63. World Bank: Serious Games and Urban Planning, October 30, 2006
64. Top 10 Educational Games of the 1980s- Kapp Notes, September 20, 2008
65. Game Studies 0102: Cultural framing of computer/video games. By Kurt Squire, June 17, 2009
66. It’s Monday, Are You Stressed? Relax with a Unique Video Game- Kapp Notes, October 29, 2007
67. Confessions of an Aca/Fan: The Official Weblog of Henry Jenkins: From Serious Games to Serious Gaming (Part Four): Labyrinth, November 14, 2007
68. Save Planet Helios from ecological devastation!-3D Game by IBM- Kapp Notes, August 29, 2008
69. Serious Games: Slideshow of examples from an event at Harvard Business School, December 13, 2007
70. Email Games, June 17, 2009
71. Trends with Games, December 23, 2008
72. Learning Circuits – ASTD’s Online Magazine Covering E-Learning
73. Learning in Video Games
74. Hong Kong Digital Game Based Learning Association
75. Gadgets, Games and Gizmos: MMORPG in ICT Education- Kapp Notes, January 16, 2007
76. GDC’s Serious Games Summit- Upside Learning Blog, April 3, 2009
77. Rapid authoring for immersive games and sims- Clive on Learning, January 26, 2009
78. Gadgets, Games and Gizmos: ESL in SL- Kapp Notes, February 13, 2007
79. What is a Game? The Art of Computer Game Design, June 17, 2009
80. TCC09: Digital Learning Environments: Context Sensitive and Imaginative Classes in Second Life, April 14, 2009
81. Why Most Off the Shelf Commerical Games Will Not Work in Education? And What Is The Alternative?, June 17, 2009
82. Textra Games, June 17, 2009
83. Shootorials: Kongregate Teaches You How To Make Your Own Games, October 22, 2008
84. Predictions for 2009, December 30, 2008
85. Simulations – Are They Games (PDF), June 17, 2009
86. Serious Games Enhancing The Rehabilitation Environment, June 17, 2009
87. Training Games, June 12, 2007
88. Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked, June 17, 2009
89. Computer Games and the Military: Two Views, June 17, 2009
90. Serious Games, June 17, 2009
91. Social Sites, Design, Informal Learning, & Brain Games, May 4, 2009
92. Groupboard, May 7, 2008
93. Why Do People Play Games? – The Art of Computer Game Design, June 17, 2009
94. Video games are good for you!, February 13, 2009
95. Army is to Spend $50 Million in Edutainment for Troops, November 25, 2008
96. Playing with Our Heads – Why Video Games are Making our Kids Smarter-and more obedient, June 17, 2009
97. Federal Consortium on Virtual Worlds, November 19, 2007
98. Examples of Games Based Learning, June 17, 2009
99. Interesting Web Sites for Game-Based Training, e-Learning and Education:, June 17, 2009
100. Fourteen Forms of Fun, June 17, 2009

JOLT: Best Practices for Integrating Game-Based Learning into Online Teaching

Seen today in JOLT

This article presents ten guidelines for the effective use of video games in online teaching environments for post-secondary instructors. These guidelines include: taking advantage of existing resources, asking students to be producers instead of just consumers, avoiding being overly prescriptive, being aware of non-media-intense and non-electronic games, staying focused on learning—not technology, orienting and debriefing students as to the value of gaming activities, embracing interdisciplinarity, taking advantage of serious games, considering collaborative technologies and virtual worlds, and playtesting. Recent research in game-based learning is considered to help guide these best practices and numerous ideas for incorporating games into the virtual classroom are provided. Although empirical research about the effectiveness of online video games as educational tools is an important component for sustainability and for improving online learning games, this paper focuses exclusively on the theoretical and applied issues associated with online game-based learning. The authors contend that such teaching practices are useful for engaging with student audiences and encouraging them to take intellectual risks in comfortable and familiar territory.

Keywords: video games, engagement, play, game theory, teaching, pedagogy, applied research, game-based technology, guidelines, best practices

On Learning in Video Games

The incomparable Escapist has another excellent article that we, who are interested in serious games for teaching and learning, would do well to consider:

When I was a tutor in college, my biggest challenge was dealing with students who thought my job was to make learning effortless and fun. They were often incensed that I could only help them if they were already willing to work hard. Over and over they’d ask in a tone reserved for bad wait-staff at a restaurant, “Hey, isn’t it your job to make sure I learn this?” Fortunately, a poor grade on a quiz or assignment was usually enough to remind them that learning was ultimately their responsibility, not mine.

Game designers, on the other hand, have no such luxury: They must constantly strive to make the learning process in games as fun and painless to players as possible. And paradoxically, the better they have gotten at teaching gamers the mechanics of their games, the less patience gamers have for instruction. This race between diminishing attention spans and less intrusive training has been a major force in gaming’s ongoing evolution, influencing which genres have flourished and which have foundered.

[read the rest of the article here]

Canadian Historical Review – article on game for history

I’m happy to say I had a hand in this article.

History computer games have become an economic and cultural phenomenon, and historians should seize the opportunity to participate in their development. Players of history games are interested in the past and in the big questions that drive historical scholarship. In this way, games have the potential to draw players into the discipline if we can discover the best way to express history though simulation. But what research do we draw on as we study how to accomplish this transformation? This essay is the product of a meeting of historians, educators, and gamers who joined previously separate lines of inquiry to identify literature and models that we believe form the foundation for developing a theory of good history through gaming.

Résumé:

Les jeux vidéo à thème historique sont devenus un phénomène économique et culturel, et les historiens devraient saisir cette occasion de participer à leur développement. Les personnes qui jouent à des jeux historiques s’intéressent au passé et aux grandes questions qui mobilisent la recherche historique. Par les jeux, il est peut-être possible d’attirer les joueurs dans la discipline, si nous parvenons à découvrir la meilleure façon d’exprimer l’histoire par la simulation. Mais à quelle recherche faisons-nous appel quand nous étudions les moyens de réaliser cette transformation? Cet essai est le produit d’une réunion d’historiens, d’éducateurs et de spécialistes du jeu qui ont relié des pistes de recherche jusque-là indépendantes afin de repérer les études et les modèles qui, croyons-nous, serviront de base à l’élaboration d’une théorie de bonne pratique de l’histoire par le jeu

Get Interacting With Immersive Worlds

From the Conference Organizers….

Interacting with Immersive Worlds 2009 is only a few days away.  We are excited by the remarkable response to the conference, and are looking forward to hearing presentations by delegates from Canada, the United States, and Europe.  We are especially thrilled to welcome four remarkable keynote speakers:

Janet Murray, author of the seminal book, Hamlet on the Holodeck
Espen Aarseth, one of the world?s leading game theorists
Geoffrey Rockwell, a leader in multimedia education who directs the country?s most successful digital humanities research project
Debora Todd, a bestselling author and game designer, writer and producer.

Read more about these remarkable speakers, and see the full conference schedule at: http://www.brocku.ca/iasc/immersiveworlds/index.html

You can register, until Friday, June 5, at:
http://www.brocku.ca/iasc/immersiveworlds/register.html

See you on June 15!

The Interacting with Immersive Worlds 2009 Organizing Committee

I was a participant last year, and it was a great conference. Can’t go this year: baby daughter to look after!

Don’t Knock the Aztecs: Civ for History, WoW for German

Still have folks in your department who dismiss games as…, well, games? Then you need to check out this article in the latest edition of the Escapist.  Todd Bryant has been experimenting with using games like Civ IV in history classes. This is no unthinking use of the game, though. For Bryant, the value lies in exploiting the gap between ‘real’ history, and the way that history is modelled (or argued, as it were: see Bogost) in the game:

A student came to my office last week and asked for help setting up a LAN game of Civ IV in one of the college’s computer labs. He was going to play my Age of Conquest mod scenario with some friends that afternoon. While I showed him in the menu how to set up a multiplayer game, he shared his strategy to play Spain and attack the Aztecs. It’s a bad idea.

[...]

For the class, students had to play the game in addition to their readings and discuss whether the scenario accurately represented the period. One of the key concepts students should have learned about was the role of belief systems as described in the book “The Conquest of America: The Question of the Other.” In essence, the book and the game make the same argument: Had the Aztecs viewed the world differently, their clash with the Spanish conquistadors would have been radically different.

He goes on to describe exploration of language teaching through immersing students in a German server for World of Warcraft. Mein Gott! Das ist wunderbar! (all that I remember from a freshman German class; that and a song set to the Blue Danube… perhaps if I’d been gaming language, things would be different…)

There are people doing similar things with Latin, as it happens (I had experimented with old school text adventures for Latin teaching, but this might be a bit more *sigh* exciting) … sign the petition now!

E-learning in Canada: Report

Because these things sometimes contain interesting nuggets:

State of E-Learning in Canada
May 21, 2009

CCL’s State of E-Learning in Canada was written to improve Canadians’ understanding of e-learning—particularly of its challenges, limitations and benefits—so that Canada may move forward in appropriate and relevant ways. [...] Why should we care about e-learning?

E-learning can substantially increase our access to knowledge and information and, as studies suggest, improve access to education, formal and informal learning, and employment opportunities.

The proportion of courses delivered online in Canada is one of the highest among countries studied; however, research suggests that Canadian post-secondary institutions have been slower than those in many other countries to incorporate significant online components into their programs. Likewise, e-learning has not become a standard feature of employee training. Various surveys show that by 2005, the percentage of workplace training delivered online ranged from 15% to 20%

And the report itself:

News Release
E-Learning Profiles
Report (PDF, 779 KB)
Executive Summary (PDF, 95 KB)
Fact Sheet (PDF, 110 KB)

From the Canada Council on Learning website.