Abstract
This newsletter touches on several recent developments, opportunities, and events in gaming, simulations, gamification, and serious games—for example, The De Montfort University Games Festival, Gamification Workshops in Malaysia and Thailand, Thaisim 2013 and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Workshop, Call for Workshop Proposals GALA (Games and Learning Alliance) Serious Games Conference at Dassault Systemes HQ, Paris, ImREAL Augmented Virtuality Video, Machinima for Business Communication, Caspian Learning White Papers on Games-Based Learning, Unity Serious Games Website, Upcoming Conferences and Seminars, Heroes Gallery—Cathy Davidson and Rohit Talwar.
Keywords
March and April kept me busy with the organizing and running of the De Montfort University (DMU) International Games Festival and gamification workshops in Malaysia and Thailand. My Research Fellowship contract at DMU was completed at the end of March and I am now seeking fresh challenges in the United Kingdom and internationally while continuing my partnership relationship with Imaginary, the serious games specialists based in Milan.
I am now able to offer a customized Gamification Workshop in a variety of formats from half-day taster sessions to intensive 3-day workshops which include some hands-on development exercises. The charge for these workshops is negotiable depending on the numbers involved and any ongoing mutual business opportunities the workshops might generate. An example of a 2-day workshop structure can be downloaded at http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/gamification-workshop-structure
DMU International Games Festival, February 2013
Annette Crisp, De Montfort University (DMU) senior lecturer in criminology with her avatar.
DMU held its first international games festival from February 25th to 28th in which 24 presenters from the United Kingdom and Europe came together to showcase the practical application of games technologies and methodologies across a variety of sectors.
February 25th—Culture, Heritage, and Tourism Agenda
February 26th—Health and Well-Being Agenda
February 27th—Community Empowerment and Engagement Agenda
February 28th—Creativity Technologies and Immersive Experiences Agenda
There were many highlights over the 4-day conference which was organized in partnership with DMU’s annual Cultural Exchanges Festival.
In the afternoon session, Jacqueline Cawston, Projects Director at the Serious Games Institute, described serious games applications to support cultural heritage in Shakespeare’s Stratford Upon Avon and Nelson Mandella I South Africa. John Martin of DMU discussed a serious game called “Beat the Ministry” on the theme of Wartime Farming. The day closed with Adam Russell of Birmingham-based WallFour showing an innovative crowd interaction application.
The afternoon session began with David Burden’s presentation on the use of virtual worlds for health care. David is the Managing Director and Founder of Birmingham-based Daden Ltd., one of the longest established and leading virtual world specialists. The final session came from Cat Oxley and Kate Owen of Great Ormond Street hospital who jointly told the story of how they developed a training application in Caspian Learning’s Thinking Worlds to teach nurses the correct use of a hoist for immobile patients.
The afternoon session was opened by DMU’s Professor Ernest Edmonds discussing the human factors in engagement and he was followed by Sean Clark of Cuttlefish on bridging art and science. Tre Azam of MyndPlay gave a fascinating insight into the use of brainwave technology for innovative serious games. The final presentation of the games festival was delivered by Dylan Menzies, a DMU senior lecturer on the topic of “Next Generation Environmental Sound Synthesis for Virtual Worlds.”
All the presenters have expressed a willingness to share their presentations and/or respond to further enquiries.
Gamification Workshops in Malaysia and Thailand
Gamification workshop presentation at Universiti Putra Malaysia, March 2013.
A 4-week trip to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia and Bangkok in Thailand began with gamification workshops at the Grand Millennium Hotel in Kuala Lumpur and the Universiti Putra Malaysia at Cyberjaya. Both workshops ran for 2 days and focused on the use of gamification methodologies to address some of the challenges of 21st-century learning.
The Grand Millennium workshop was delivered to corporate training specialists on behalf of the Global Knowledge Group who provide event and education services to large organizations in the public and private sector across Asia. The Global Knowledge workshop participants were senior training managers from corporate organizations. Their primary interest was in the impact of technology on their training challenges and all had direct experience of some of the most common challenges faced by human resources and training staff across the globe:
Generation Y Digital native’s demand for more engaging learning experiences;
Staff turnover and loss of training investment;
Shift from classroom-based knowledge transfer to learner-centric collaborative learning;
How to use emerging technologies to best advantage;
Role of serious games.
The structure of the 2-day version of the workshop can be downloaded. The cost of delivering the “Play With Purpose” workshop ranges from £400 for a “Breakfast Boardroom Briefing” executive taster to £4,500 for a fully customized 3-day workshop which would include some hands-on development. Please contact me at
The second workshop took place on the campus of Universiti Putra Malaysia where the delegates were academic staff across several faculties exploring the value of incorporating gamification and serious games within the university’s course offerings and teaching practices. There was a very positive reaction and a lot of enthusiasm for further development of these practices.
Thaisim 2013 and ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Workshop
Professor David Crookall working with Thaisim workshop delegates.
The annual Thaisim conference on games-based learning and educational technologies is one of the very few conferences that I would automatically include in my calendar if at all possible. The enthusiasm of the delegates and the level of interactivity in the sessions are unparalleled anywhere in the world. This is to a very large extent due to the involvement of Professor David Crookall from Nice University in France. David is a highly experienced practitioner in the use of games in education and has been developing all kinds of games-based learning activities for many years both with and without any technology.
Thaisim began with the 1st ASEAN region workshop for leading teachers and students across the ASEAN region. This took place at the Cholapruek resort in Nakhonnayak, outside Bangkok. Around 100 delegates were chosen from across the whole of South East Asia. All of the games exercises run by David were paper based and collaborative but the workshop did include a technology-enhanced session developed to help with a forestry management project and designed to be used by farmers as a tool to support sustainable development.
The Thaisim 2013 conference began immediately after the ASEAN workshop and was located in Bangkok. Images and videos from both the ASEAN workshop and Thaisim 2013 can be viewed at http://www.davidwortley.com/conferences.html. The conference concluded with an awards ceremony at a major exhibition venue in Bangkok and featured a beautiful vocal tribute to the ASEAN workshop by a young student—see http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/thaisim-certificate-ceremony-student-tribute-to-asean-workshop
Call for Workshop Proposals GALA (Games and Learning Alliance) Serious Games Conference
Microsoft Research Program Manager Donald Brinkman at VS-Games 2012 in Genoa.
I have agreed to act as the chair for the workshop sessions at this year’s GALA conference which is to be held on the campus of Dassault Systemes HQ in Paris from October 23rd to 25th. Last year’s conference included an excellent practical workshop run by Imaginary and some super keynote presentations, including a fascinating insight into a gamification of further education project from Microsoft’s Research Program Manager Donald Brinkman.
I will be running a gamification workshop at the GALA conference and I welcome any proposals for practical and interactive workshop on serious games and gamification themes. Please email any draft proposals to me at
The GALA conference brings together industry and academia and this year’s event in Paris is an excellent opportunity to experience some leading edge 3D immersive technologies being developed by Dassault Systemes.
Invitation for European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL) eLearning Video Interviews
HP Training Manager Devan being interviewed in Kuala Lumpur.
The EC-TEL is due to be held in Paphos, Cyprus, in September. Details of the conference and registration can be found at https://ectel2013.cs.ucy.ac.cy/. I am working with Imaginary to develop a short video compilation of industry’s views of some of the challenges of 21st-century learning and the role of technology in addressing these issues. I would like to invite readers of this newsletter to take part in these interviews which we can organize via a skype video call. The questions we will be seeking views on are shown below:
What is your name, job title, and organization?
How many staff are you responsible for training?
What sector does your organization operate in?
What skills do you need to develop for them?
What technology do you currently use to enhance learning?
How do you support distance learning?
What technology do you use to enhance face-to-face learning?
Do your trainers act as knowledge disseminators or facilitators for peer-to-peer and/or self-directed learning?
What impact do you see Generation Y having on training?
What is your biggest challenge in learning and development today?
What do you think will be the next technology you will employ to enhance learning in your organization?
In the longer term, are there any emerging technologies that you see as having a major impact on Technology Enhanced Learning?
How can you ensure that your learning activities have a long-lasting impact?
If you would like to share your views on these issues, please contact me at
ImREAL Augmented Virtuality Video
Opening screen of ImREAL Project Video.
The ImREAL is a European project funded under the Framework 7 program. ImREAL aims to close the gap between the “real world” and “virtual world” by developing a simulated learning environment that focuses on simulation systems for interpersonal communication in multicultural business environments.
The latest video developed by Imaginary, the projects serious games development partner, is designed to give a quick insight into how “augmented virtuality” can provide an alternative approach to the development of interpersonal communications in multicultural business environments and act as a growing corporate knowledge repository.
The video is accessible on YouTube at http://youtu.be/fywNuRZztUY
The Use of Machinima for Business Communication
Screenshot from Steve Thompson’s presentation on the use of machinima to secure project funding.
Machinima is the use of video games and virtual worlds technologies to create videos that represent and communicate activities and ideas that would be impossible, impractical, or too expensive using traditional means. One important application of machinima is its use to inform or persuade viewers without spending large sums of money.
One of the most popular platforms for recording machinima is the virtual world Second Life which I used some years ago to create a virtual tour of the Serious Games Institute that could be accessible anywhere in the globe. That video is available to view on my slideshare page at http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/serious-games-institute-tour
Steve Thompson of Teesside University is a very skilled user of machinima and Second Life as a platform for social enterprise projects in the North East of England. Steve presented some of his work in this area at the DMU Games Festival and his full presentations are available online at http://bit.ly/st-dmu and http://bit.ly/st-dmu2
I have posted a video Steve created with the support of leading politicians and community champions that illustrates how effective this approach can be—see the Supermayor video at http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/machinima-example-project
The ImREAL video produced by Imaginary is another good example of machinima best practices and if you would like to discuss its use in your own organization, you can contact Imaginary’s Valentina Ionadi at
Caspian Learning White Papers on Games-Based Learning
Screenshot from Caspian Learning Case Study.
Caspian Learning have won numerous awards for their games-based learning development platform Thinking Worlds. As one of the longest established and most respected companies in the sector, Caspian has a very useful repository of white papers and case studies on game-based learning. They are now making these available free of charge to anyone registering on their website at http://www.caspianlearning.co.uk/whitepapers
Totem Learning’s Launch Offer
Totem Learning has recently offered a launch promotion to develop a customized serious game at a very affordable cost for small to medium businesses. Totem were recently formed as a result of the management buy-out of one of the industry’s most reputable games-based learning companies—PixeLearning and bring with them highly experienced staff and a very strong development team.
You can find details of their launch offer at http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/totem-learning-personalised-serious-game-offer or by contacting Victoria Rose at
SoundSelf Kickstarter Project
SoundSelf website banner.
Accessible technologies such as social networks, virtual worlds, and creative development tools make it possible for independent and small developers to produce highly successful commercial serious and casual games. Funding for these projects is available through “crowd sourcing” and social network communities such as Kickstarter. SoundSelf is an innovative development project that will allow users to control personalized graphic animations with their voice.
The business model of Kickstarter project offers different types of packages to investors depending on how much money is pledged. To get an idea of how this works, visit the SoundSelf Kickstarter page at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/soundself/soundself?fb_action_ids=10151601444839532&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582
Unity 3D Serious Games Website
One of the most popular and successful platforms for games development is Unity 3D which is free to download for noncommercial use. Unity has been adopted as something of an industry standard, not least because of the visual realism that can be achieved within the platform. Unity have recently launched a serious games website—see http://unity3d.com/company/sim/
Upcoming Conferences
Below is a list of forthcoming conferences—also accessible at http://www.davidwortley.com/events.html
Heroes Gallery—Cathy Davidson and Rohit Talwar
Cathy Davidson
I first met Cathy Davidson at a workshop on games and immersive technologies in Daejong, Korea, several years ago. Cathy was one of the keynote presenters at the conference. Since that time, I have followed her passionate contributions to bridging science and the arts through the HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Advanced Collaboratory) community. Cathy is a genuine global thought leader whose positive influence will be felt across the globe.
Rohit Talwar
Rohit is the editor of the Futurescape Newsletter. I have known his work over a number of years. He is a very respected futurologist and, like Cathy Davidson, is a very influential global thought leader whose views on the impact of technology on business and society I share. For more details of Rohit’s work, visit his FastFuture website.
Archived Presentations, Images, and Videos
I am archiving as many of my previous presentation, videos, and event images as possible. You can access these from my website at http://www.davidwortley.com/conferences.html or visit my Slideshare page at http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/
If you would like any presentations, videos, or documents circulated to my network, I am happy to provide this service free of charge for any material relevant to readers of this newsletter. If you are interested, contact me at
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this newsletter.
Funding
The author received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this newsletter.
Author Biography
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