Having been an enthusiastic user of Flight Simulator for the PC  since the mid 1990s, its been nearly 10 years since I last used Flight Simulator 2002... I skipped FS2004 (a.k.a "A Century of Flight" or FS9), and did not get FSX when it came out in 2006. But I returned recently as the Microsoft ESP (Environment Simulator Platform) is now being licensed and extended for serious simulations from underwater, to land, to air and near space by Lockheed Martin as Prepar3D. I had also previously created a number of science fiction vehicles based on the TV shows of Gerry Anderson, and especially Supercar for Flight Simulator, so I wanted to test if they were still operational and performing well. As the MSc in e-Learning Game-Based Learning course come to an end, and a new PC with much improved Nvidia GTX580 graphics card was acquired, it was timely to look back at Flight Simulator and see how it has progressed.

With a new copy of Flight Simulator X, now relatively cheap compared to its original release pricing, and the two service packs installed (SP1 and SP2) which were necessary to correct black parts on some add-on craft (including Supercar), I was ready to fire things up. And things look good with high frame rates at ultra settings for the displays. Its nice to see 3D models that improve over time in new releases of Flight Simulator without change to the basic visual model.

I have always liked the Lockheed Martin SR-71 "Blackbird" and North American X-15 rocket plane and am amazed that these craft designed and built in the 1950s could achieve such performance.  I take every opportunity to see the real craft at museums in the USA. An X-15 is in the Smithsonian in the Mall, and an SR-71 can be found in the Smithsonian at Dulles Airport and at the Intrepid Museum in New York for example.

Reasonably good free add-on craft are available for the SR-71 and X-15... but the improved visuals prompted me to try a paid for add on X-15 which is reported to be one of the best Flight Simulator add-ons.. and it really does look very good indeed...

   

J.K. Rowling has created an on-line experience for fans of the Harry Potter series of books... to accompany a site which is the only on-line source of Harry Potter e-Books... a potentially vast market.  The pottermore.com site has been in beta test for some months with over a million beta registrations, but has just now become available with open registrations.

The experience itself runs through in a chapter by chapter format for each of the books.  Myst style graphical elements are overlaid and respond to mouse clicks and interactions as the various features and artifacts are gradually exposed. Items can be collected into a "trunk".  After you discover Diagon Alley, and open an account at Gringotts Bank with an initial 500 "galleons", further gold galleons can be found in various places and saved in your account to purchase necessary supplies. Then you must explore Diagon Alley to get all the required items for your first year at Hogwarts.

Your wand will choose you at Ollivanders - makers of fine wands since 382 B.C. - via a set of questions and choices.

   

The its off via Platform 9 and three-quarters to Howarts.  And term starts.  Points can be earned for you and your "house" as you go along. The Great Hall shows the progress of all four school houses, your Common Room shows the progress for your own house, and your own profile area maintains all the information about your progress, skills acquired and artifacts collected.  You can also make friends and pass around gifts.

The currency used in the experience is all provided and does not require real money to play.  The e-books do cost real money. 

The University of Edinburgh Moodle Virtual Learning Environment is now available at https://www.moodle.is.ed.ac.uk

A playground for experimentation with Moodle for the School of Informatics distance education initiatives is now available with course name "Playground Informatics" (pginformatics).  The UoE Moodle is currently only available for such distance education courses as the service is built up.

People who would like to participate as a course teacher or student should initially contact Austin Tate and provide their EASE UUN, as all users are currrently being added manually.

Note that we also have our own experimental Moodle setup, running in Appleton Tower on an AIAI server... for testing use only as its on one of our manually managed windows desktop servers at http://virtual2.aiai.ed.ac.uk/moodle/

What game can do for us? A game can be designed with an educational purpose to not only guide the people to learn and to explore the world but also smooth the interpersonal relationships between different social groups. Brandes and Phillips(1977 p.5) indicate that “They can help social inadequacy by developing co-operation with groups; develop sensitivity to the problems of others through games needing trust, and promote inter-dependency as well as an independence of personal identity”.

 

In order to allow outcomes to be attainable, the types of games can be discussed first. Ellington, Addinall and Percival (1982) try to identify the game in three categories:

1.      Pure games: The features are ’competition and rules’.

2.      Pure simulation: The features are ‘represent a real situation and are on-going’.

3.      Pure case studies: The features are ‘in depth study’ and ‘illustration of special or general characteristics’.

They also believe that these can be combined in a mutual way. For example, ‘simulation games used as case studies’, which can be seen in some educational environment or teaching events.

However, it is relatively difficult to identify ‘game’. Same as the question that I keep in mind, will it still be considered as a ‘game’ without having the component of competition? Of course it is. For example, the online role play scenario will provide the players the environment to explore, however, not necessary to complete with others or even themselves.

 

How can it be considered as a well-designed educational game?

Whitton (2010 p.79) indicates six components to engage the players in the game:

1.      Completion - completing the game and collecting the set of game challenges.

2.      Competition - competing against others to solve challenges first or fastest.

3.      Narrative - immersion in the ongoing story.

4.      Puzzle-solving - solving the ongoing riddles and challenges.

5.      Community - the discussion boards and live collaborative events.

6.      Creativity - creative problem-solving or the development of artefacts.

For example, the ‘narrative’ and ‘completion’ can be usually seen in the online role play scenario through the conversation between the player and the computer. It is also quite common in commercial computer games.

 

Reference:

Brandes, D. and Phillips, H. (1977) Gamesters' handbook. 140 games for teachers and group leaders, London : Hutchinson.

 

Ellington, H., Addinall, E. and Percival, F. (1982) A Handbook Of Game Design, London : Kagan Page

 

Whitton, N. (2010) Encouraging Engagement in Game-Based Learning, International Journal of Game-Based Learning, 1(1), pp.75-84.

For my MSc in e-Learning IDGBL Game Design exercise I have created an exploration style game with a Na'vi/Avatar theme.

The web site for the game information and links to allow access to the areas in which some elements of it can already be played in Second Life are at:

• http://atate.org/mscel/gbl/MoonBloom/

 

More details of the elements that went into the design are in this blog entry - Game Design Preliminaries.

The University of Edinburgh has chosen Blackboard Collaborate as its virtual classroom. It provides Adobe Connect style tools with multi-way video and audio teleconferencing, particpants lists and profiles with hand raising and AFK indicators, and text chat with emoticons. A tools area can be used as a whiteboard with slide upload and markup by participants. It can also be used for application sharing and co-browsing.  The session can be recorded and played back.  Elements like the text chat, participants list and whiteboard contents can also be saved either during a live meeting or from a rercording.

One possibility for use could be to record a synchronised speaker and presentation, and make that available via the recording.  Screen capture tools such as TechSmith Camtasia can be used to capture off a recording to allow for transcoding into a regular video format for other uses, YouTube, streaming, etc.

   

I came across the concept ‘engagement’ in one of my courses last semester.

It is said by Saks (2006) that employees who are engaged exhibit attentiveness and mental absorption in their work. Wagner and Harter (2006) also indicate the engagement allow employees to display a deep, emotional connection toward their workplace.

 

Although it is related to the organizational performance, it does not directly link to the learning or motivation. While I am considering why immersion can lead people to learn, I think one of the possible reasons is because they are engaged in the game environment, and then they learn naturally with enjoyment.

So, engagement is a key. Why not learn through ‘games’?

After reading part of Gee’s work (2007), I think one of his arguments is as following. The reason why people generally believe that ‘playing video games is a waste of time’ is because video games belong to one of the semiotic domains, and they are not expected as the academic domains by some parents. As a result, they are not considered as valuable objectives in this society.

It seems to be reasonable, however, can people really learn through ‘immersion’?

Murray (1998 p.99) mentions about the enjoyment of immersion “In a participatory medium, immersion implies learning to swim, to do the things that the new environment makes possible.” In the MMOGs environment, we do learn how to navigate our avatar in a brand new environment. By immersing ourselves into the virtual world, we do actively learn how to communicate, interact with people, and gain sense of safety and respect from others.

Look closer to the narrative component of the MMOGs or games.

Murray (1998 p.100) argues that stories arouse the deepest fears and desires from ourselves. We feel satisfied when we project ourselves into a wonderland where the dreams are safe and sound. I believe it is why we are more willing to devote our times into game environment instead of listening to a lecture or attending a seminar. We feel being protected and being cared in the environment, and then we are engaged. Afterwards, taken for granted, we learn better.

“The great advantage of participatory environments in creating immersion is their capacity to elicit behavior that endows the imaginary objects with life”. (Murray, 1998 p.112)

I think that is where the simulation games can take advantage from it.

However, the key is how the learning can be transferred into the real-life content.

Well, to be honest, I don’t know, but I think I have learnt a trick. We need to escape from the real-world to stimulate our potential (a new ‘me’) to learn, but we still need to realize it new ‘me’ is not real, and we should remind ourselves of knowing the way back by seeing Harold’s moon. (Murray, 1998 p.103)

References:

Murray H. J, (1998) "Immersion" In Murray H. J, Hamlet on the Holodeck, pp.97-125, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press

Gee, J.P. (2007) What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy Palgrave Macmillan.

I am here trying to explain in my own words how people exactly ‘learn’ from participating in the MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) environment after reading the research paper of Steinkuehler in 2004.

 

The first reflection I would like to make is from the no.1 learning principle of Gee (2004), ‘Active, Critical Learning Principle’. Players “have to play to learn,¨ (Turkle, 1995, p. 70) Once the players choose to enter the virtual world, there is no longer obligation to force the players to learn. However, I still believe that a certain degree of engagement is still required for this informal learning in order to keep immerse in the virtual world. It is relative easy to access the MMOG world, and it is much easier for the players to quit playing it.

 

The second reflection from me is learning social practice through others. The players have to play and learn from others if they want “to develop genuine expertise.”(Steinkuehler, 2004, p.527) Taking myself as example, I have been used to be a solo online player even in an online environment of MMOG. I can still discover the virtual world quite well. Admittedly, I can learn faster through being coached by senior players. It brings the no.16 learning principle of Gee (2004) to me, ‘Mltiple Rotes Principle Depending on the learning styles the players have, they can choose alternative styles to make progress in the game.

 

Apart from that, I still believe that the interpersonal relationship building is a significant issue in MMOG environment. Turkle (1995) also mentions that the excitement of the game comes from having personal relationship and being part emerging politics and activities in community. Moreover, according to the no.22 learning principle of Gee (2004), ‘Intuitive Knowledge Principle’, some intuitive or tacit knowledge is often shared in an affinity group, which means you can easily learn from experienced players. Take the apprenticeship in the ‘LINEAGE’ as an example in MMOGs, Steinkuehler (2004) indicates that by modeling successful performance, key material, social, and contextual aspects that are crucial for learning are identified, and opportunity for practice and immediate feedback are allowed.

 

In this case, not only the social practice is constructed and learned from the players and their tutors but also the no.27 learning principle of Gee (2004) is brought out, ‘Explicit information On-Demand and Just-in-Time Principle’, the leaning can be applied and the feedback can be received both immediately. I believe that this principal makes enormous contribution to learning when applying learning and teaching to CBL(Computer-Based Learning) or CAL(Computer-Assisted Learning) environment.

 

References:

Gee, J (2004) What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy, New York ; Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan

 

Steinkuehler, C. A. (2004) Learning in massively multiplayer online games, In Y. B. Kafai, W. A. Sandoval, N. Enyedy, A. S. Nixon, & F. Herrera (Eds.), Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference of the Learning Sciences (pp. 521-528) Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

 

Turkle, S. (1995) Life on the screen: Identity in the age of the Internet, New York: Touchstone.

The Fellowship of MSc folks met at the Aerie Peak gryphon point to fight our way North towards Shadowfang Keep. Avoiding death is not an option on this journey, and you quickly become accustomed to making a little progress, dropping dead from the onslaught, appearing as a ghost in the graveyard, returning to your body, and placing yourself as far onwards as possible.  Then looking round for the baddies who may show as ghostly figures near you. Then resurrect and run as fast as you can onwards again. It takes a few goes to get through heavily fortified gates.

Shadowfang Keep is entered via a portal into an "Instance" of the game. These are special areas in World of Warcraft where your group or raid party is able to interact with a dungeon privately; that is, without interference from other parties. See http://www.wowwiki.com/Instance

I also learned that taking in plenty of food in advance, to sit down("x" key), and preferable to eat as well, is important to allow a quicker recovery. Free to play accounts cannot receive health boosts or food supplies from other players.

Good team support meant that weakening players, like my dwarf, were assisted when set upon by multiple "mobs". Carnage did at times occur.

The team prevailed and completed the quest.  We all now have stronger bows thanks to the rewards given by the grateful occupants of the Keep.

 

 

The Fellowship of IDGBLers met once more on 15th March 2012. This time to take on the challenge of a "Dungeon" available through a portal which takes you into a separate "instance" of the game.

I think we had fantastic teamwork. If we had just sailed in to the Dungeon with 4 strong players and even my short legged dwarf we could have wiped out everyone. Without much stratgey. But Coranich left to pick up a classmate.. and we all got wiped out! We tried again with much more care and planning and despite a few "deaths" we won through. Folks covered one another better, and we went to find lost characters - like myself once too. We had to learn new tricks for blasting open doors too. We were definitely in our ZPD.