Spatial storytelling using tablets and Oculus rift

Interactive spatial storytelling with iDNA app
[Picture by Apelab]

Swiss startup company Apelab focuses on innovative ways of using digital media for storytelling. One particularly interesting project is iDNA.

Using an tablet or Oculus Rift, the user sees an interactive animation movie. The user can explore 360 degrees of each scene by moving the device around. Depending on which element in the scene the user focuses on, the story seamlessly takes a different path. The viewer gets the illusion of being right in the middle of each scene.



The paper book might be on the decline, but storytelling will find interesting new ways.

What is the difference between a toy, a game, a puzzle, and a sport?

The distinction between toys, puzzles, games, and sports is often not clear - but they differ from each other in certain key features.

The main difference between toys, games and puzzles is the amount of constraint and authorship the player has over the experience. The more authorship the player has over a puzzle, the more it becomes like a toy. The more the player is the actor following the strict guides of the toy, the more the toy becomes like a puzzle. (In my view, it is unfortunate that Lego moved from offering toys (by providing generic bricks that you could turn into anything you could imagine) to selling puzzles (pre-made movie merchandise kits that come with a construction manual). 

Changing the role of the player changes the experience: When you add a goal to toys it will become a game. For instance, when you say "create the highest tower using these Lego bricks", it becomes a game. When you say, "build an exact duplicate of this tower using these Lego bricks it becomes a puzzle".


Game designer Tj'ièn elaborates:

• With puzzles, there is usually only one answer, one solution. The player’s role is confined to finding the answer to the puzzle. Like a riddle, the puzzle challenges the player to find the answer. The player is limited. Examples, jigsaw, Sudoku, Rubik's cube, Tower of Hanoi.

• With toys on the other hand the player is completely free in the way it handles them. There are no hard rules that tell the player what to do or how to do it. The player creates its own experience.

• Games fit snugly in the middle between toys and puzzles. They allow for more freedom then puzzles and are more confined then toys. In a way, games are puzzle-toys.

• Definition: There are many definitions for 'game', for example 'A competitive activity or sport in which players contend with each other according to a set of rules'; 'A period of competition or challenge' (Dictionary.com)

Illustration by Tj'ièn 

• Creative expression is art if made for its own beauty, and entertainment if made for money.

• A piece of entertainment is a plaything if it is interactive. Movies and books are cited as examples of non-interactive entertainment.

• If no goals are associated with a plaything, it is a toy. (Crawford notes that by his definition, (a) a toy can become a game element if the player makes up rules, and (b) The Sims and SimCity are toys, not games, or alternatively, simulations (read about the difference between simulations and models here) or toys (no given goals.) If it has goals, a plaything is a challenge.

• If a challenge has no "active agent against whom you compete," it is a puzzle; if there is one, it is a conflict. (Crawford admits that this is a subjective test. Video games with noticeably algorithmic artificial intelligence can be played as puzzles; these include the patterns used to evade ghosts in Pac-Man.)

• Finally, if the player can only outperform the opponent, but not attack them to interfere with their performance, the conflict is a competition. (Competitions include racing and figure skating.) However, if attacks are allowed, then the conflict qualifies as a game.

Definition of game (by Chris Crawford)

Different types of games (by skill): Physical, mental, or luck

Also confusingly, it is called the Olympic 'Games' instead of Olympic 'Sports'. In this case, the 'Games' is the overall event that consists of competitions in specific sports.
In computer games, a 'sports game' is a video game that simulates the practice of traditional sports.
Interestingly, the games 'chess' and 'bridge' are recognized as 'sports' (or sometimes called a 'mind sport') by the Olympic Games Committee. However, an UK court decided that Bridge is actually a game and not a sport (Is chess a sport or a game? Is bridge a game or a sport?) (following the distinction of game and sport above). Chess is competitive but does not require physical skills, so it is a game.

Another distinction between toy, game, and puzzle by computer game designer Chris Crawford (Source):

Crawford's definition can be summarized of games as an interactive, goal-oriented activities, with active agents to play against, in which players (including active agents) can interfere with each other.

To extend on the above distinctions, different types of games can be distinguished:
What is the difference between a game and a sport? Again, this is another difficult distinction because of overlapping definitions and multiple meanings (Source).

Sports can be defined as a specific form of physical skill game (requiring physical skills and governed by a set of rules) that usually includes physical exertion (and the possibility of injury) and competition in front of spectators (Dictionary.com) (which distinguishes them from other skill games such as dart or lawn bowling).

A bit confusingly, you can play a game of sports, but you can't sport a game; You can play a game of basketball and you can pursue basketball as a sport; Football is a sport, and when you watch it (a particular match), it's a game of football.
In this context, the word 'game' can have several meanings. For example:
-Game as a reference to a specific type of game, e.g. the game of chess (chess in general)
-Game as a reference to a specific match, e.g. a game of chess between friends




Addendum: Stamp collecting or knitting do not fall into any category described above and are considered 'hobbies'. There is no physical exertion, no game aspect, it can be done 'at your leisure'.

Using video game design for education

Gamestar Mechanic Website

In his Edutopia blog post, teacher Andrew Proto discussed the online tool Gamestar Mechanic to use video game design for education.

Gamestar Mechanic is a browser-based tutorial for video game design. After an interactive tutorial about game mechanics (such as setting goals for your players, having clearly defined rules, and different styles of games), students can use a simple drag-and-drop interface to create their games. Students can share their games with the Gamestar community to get feedback.

Gamestar mechanics has been named one of the American Association of School Librarians Best Educational Websites of 2012.

For teachers, Gamestar Mechanic offers instructional material at gamestarmechanic.com/teachers. Gamestar offers teachers a discount for classrooms, with student registration available at a fraction of the normal cost.

Andrew Proto suggests that video game design projects can be used in an variety of subjects. For example:

• After reading a book in class, have your students recreate major scenes in the form of a video game.
• Ask students to design a game that teaches other students a specific scientific concept you've been studying.
• After studying ratios, ask students to create a game that contains a certain ratio of coins (for the player to collect) to enemies.
• Recreate famous myths from different cultures that have been studied in history class.
• Have students create a game that consists of a level for each stage in a butterfly's life cycle.

Test your web searching skills

Connected information
[Picture source: http://www.scientificamerican.com/media/inline/semantics-searching-intuitive-internet_1.jpg]

The internet offers vast amounts of information. The challenge is to find desired information quickly.

These two fun online applications will test your abilities to locate information fast:

"A google a day": Using the google search engine, how quickly do find the answer to question to a given question?

"The Wiki Game": This game asks you to locate information within Wikipedia. The answer can only be found by clicking through related information within Wikipedia pages. The fewer jumps the better.

Want to improve your search skills? Click on the infograph below for helpful Google search tips. [See original infograph here]

The Gamification of Education

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

How toy advertisements reinforce gender stereotypes

Blogger Crystal from Achilleseffect.com gathered key words from television toy advertisements targeted towards boys or girls. The gender stereotypes are striking when looking at the wordle pictures below.

Toy advertisements for boys

Toy advertisements for girls

Read more here: Word Cloud: How Toy Ad Vocabulary Reinforces Gender Stereotypes | The Achilles Effect

Can you name the spoken languages?

This language game plays soundclips from 30 different languages from around the world. How many can you identify? Click here to play: Can you name the languages spoken in the sound clips?

[Thanks to Stian Haklev for this interesting link]

Chess becomes a compulsory subject in primary schools in Armenia

Armenia is to make chess a compulsory subject in primary schools. Children from the age of six will learn chess as a separate subject on the curriculum for two hours a week. The authorities led by President Serzh Sarkisian, an enthusiastic chess-supporter, have committed around $1.43 million to the project.


Supporters of the project hope that learning chess would "foster schoolchildren's intellectual development" and teach them to "think flexibly and wisely".

Chess is of great importance in Armenia: The national team won gold at the biennial International Chess Olympiad in both 2006 and 2008, and the country's top player, Levon Aronian, is currently ranked No.3 in the world, according to the World Chess Federation.


Read more here: Armenia makes chess compulsory in schools | News.com.au

Five things you did not know about Pac-Man

Pac-Man has been around for over thirty years now.

• Did you know that Pac-Man was originally designed to get women to play computer games?
• Did you know that each ghost has a name and follows a different algorithm?
• Do you know where the name "Pac-Man" comes from?

Find the answers in this interesting blog post: Five things you never knew about Pac-Man - Video Games Blog Plugged In - Yahoo! Games

A Short History of Video Games

A short history of videogames:

History of Gaming from Florian Smolka on Vimeo.

This video was produced by a group of game-design students from Munich, Germany.

Computer games to increase boy's learning motivation

Instructional designer Ali Carr-Chellman spells out three reasons boys are tuning out of school in droves, and lays out her bold plan to re-engage them: bringing their culture into the classroom, with new rules that let boys be boys, and video games that teach as well as entertain.



See original post here: Gaming to re-engage boys in learning [Video]

US video gamers use as much energy per year as San Diego

U.S. homes have about 63 million video game consoles, and together they use about as much energy as San Diego does in a year, according to a 2008 study by the Natural Resources Defense Council.


Some video game consoles use much more energy than others. For example, Nintendo's Wii system uses a sixth of the power of Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's Playstation 3, according to research from the Electric Power Research Institute.


Many video gamers show great motivation and perseverance (See discussion on games and motivation here). The open question is what the effects of extensive video gaming are, and if/how video games could be used for educational purposes.


Read full article in Scientific American.

South Korean government might ban young online gamers after midnight

South Korean Children playing online games

The South Korean Government is concerned with growing internet addiction among young people and considers banning youngsters from playing online games past midnight. South Korea is one of the world's most wired societies, and the government estimates that there are over two million web addicts in South Korea.


A bill to be submitted to parliament as early as this month will require South Korean online game companies to cut off services at midnight for users registered as younger than 16, the culture and family ministries said.


Young S.Koreans face midnight ban for online games - Yahoo! News

Action games can improve visual attention

A research study conducted at the University of Rochester found that video computer gamers consistently perform better at visual attention tasks than non-gamers. Visual attention tasks consisted of picking up on a specific image within all the visual detail that falls into one's vision, such as the ability to quickly spot a friend’s face in a crowd. The effect was strongest among gamers who play action games such as first-person shooters.

Full article here: Action games “improve visual attention”

You Fix the Budget NYTimes Puzzle

The New York Times has put together an interactive puzzle wherein you can attempt to balance the national budget and keep the deficit from ballooning even further.

From NYT: Today, you’re in charge of the nation’s finances. Some of your options have more short-term savings and some have more long-term savings. When you have closed the budget gaps for both 2015 and 2030, you are done. Make your own plan, then share it online.

This relates to game designer Jane McGonigal's TED talk in which she describes her plans to use games to solve real-life problems. For more information, see the blog entry on game-based learning.

Budget Puzzle: You Fix the Budget - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com

Reflections on Education, Games, and Motivation

Reflections on Education, Games, and Motivation
by Beat A Schwendimann


Students are motivated to spend hours playing computer games, but many don't like going to school. Could school be structured in way that is more motivating for students? The The Federation of American Scientists claims that videogames can reshape education. A 2006 University of Michigan study found that by age 21, the average US-youth has watched 20,000 hours of television and played 10,000 hours of video games (eSchoolnews, vol 11, No 6, p51). Computer games give a user virtual control over a world, giving him a feeling of control and self-efficacy. This can especially appealing to teenagers who have limited control over their lives. In addition, computer games are relevant to the students because they are competitive and motivating through direct feedback and an opportunity for socialization. This fascinating video by the NY times show the level of immersion,focus, and motivation of videogame players.

What is a game? There are many definitions for what a game is. My broad definition is :A game consists of one or multiple players that show competitive behavior following a certain set of rules to overcome certain challenges in order to achieve a certain goal. There can be a number of different motivations to play games.


According to this definition, formal education is a game. Schools have a large set of rules. Students are faced with challenges, for example exams, which they try to overcome in order to achieve a certain goal, for example a graduation certificate.


Psychologists describe this as extrinsic motivation: People are motivated to do something either to get an award or avoid punishment (both which come from outside oneself). Idealistic educators insist that motivation for learning should be intrinsic: Students should not learn to get a gold star or a diploma, but because they are interested in the subject matter itself.

Attending a formal school setting itself is an external motivation (expect maybe for students at Summerhill). Student attend school because their parents and the law make them. On the other hand, informal education, for example going to a museum exhibition, watching a science show TV, looking up interesting science information online, is intrinsically motivated. In informal settings, people learn about things they are personally interested in. Hobby enthusiasts and fans often have vast and in-depth knowledge about the subject of their interest (without getting academic diplomas for it). So it seems somewhat odd to insist on exclusively intrinsic motivation in a setting, formal schooling, that is inherently based on extrinsic motivation.


So the questions remains: Why not use extrinsic motivation to get students to learn? Harvard economist Roland G. Fryer started an experiment in which students receive cash money for good grades. At the end of each month, students receive a pay check up to $50, depending on their performance. Students all agreed that receiving money for doing well on a test was a good idea, saying it made school more exciting, and made doing well more socially acceptable.
Nationally, school districts have experimented with a range of approaches: Some are giving students gift certificates, vouchers for McDonald’s meals, class pizza parties, or play-money that can be spent in the student store. One could argue that continuous extrinsic motivation gets the job done; First through grades in school, later through money and career progress.
Critics of such extrinsic incentives approaches fear that an overjustification effect might occur. The overjustification effect is a decrease in a person's intrinsic motivation to perform a task while receiving an external incentive, for example money or gold stars. (This classic joke illustrates the overjustification effect).
Motivation research found that money alone does not improve peoples' motivation, at least not after their basic needs are covered (Article on how a salary above $75'000/year does not increase happiness). Beyond their basic needs (as outlined by Maslow), people seem to be motivated to work for self-actualization on tasks that allow them to get into the flow state.


Another approach to simulate extrinsic motivation is using computer-based environments. Research on online games can give an idea of the power of virtual incentives: A recent infograph reported that Facebook users spend an average total of 927 million hours per month (!) playing Facebook games, a majority of them is playing the game Farmville.


Some examples:

• Professor Lee Sheldon from Indiana University successfully implemented a game-based scoring system in his college course to replace traditional grades (see blog entry on Lee Sheldon).

• Seth Priebatsch of SCVNGR presents an interesting TEDx talk about adding a game layer to the digital world. SCVNGR uses a number of "secret" game-mechanisms to motivate players to use their application. Cracked.com also list some of the game-mechanics behind videogames.

• Former Disney Imagineer and Carnegie Mellon University professor Jesse Schell describes his vision of a game-like reality in this fascinating talk.

• Game designer Jane McGonigal believes that games can be used to save real-life problems.

If education is seen as a game, then competition is a central part of education. Education in Asia (for example China, Japan, or South Korea) is much more competitive than in the US. Students are constantly ranked and compete with each other for admission the the best higher education schools (to "level up"). U.S. K-12 education on the other hand follows the democratic principle of equality. Every student should have equal chances for success, which includes ideally not only equal opportunity to learn (input) but also equal opportunity to excel (output). Low performance is U.S. schools is associated with failure of the school-system, bad teachers, or disadvantageous socio-economic backgrounds. The belief is that all students can academically excel, given the right support and opportunity.


In other countries, the belief is that schools educate and select the students that show academic excellence, while other students enter vocational training. As the U.S. does not have a vocational school alternative, K-12 education became a try-to-fit-all solution. The president of Bard college, Leon Botstein, suggests that junior high schools should be removed and replaced with a K-10 school, and the graduation age of 18 should be dropped to 16. At the age of 16, students can either go to college or get a job.


An example is Switzerland that established a dual-education system (and wikipedia on dual education system): At the age of sixteen, students choose to follow an higher academic education or the enter an apprenticeship. Apprentices are employed by companies and receive a small salary. They work for their employer while spending 1-2 days each week at vocational school where they continue their general education and learn skills related to their craft. After completing their apprenticeship, students can decided to remain in their craft or attend a professional university. Professional university offer bachelor and master degrees equivalent to the traditional university. Professional university graduates are often in high demand as their portfolio includes both practical experience and theoretical knowledge. Swiss craftsmen are among the highest skilled in the world and they frequently win international craftsmen championships.


This post discussed two different ways that could make schools (or learning in general) more interesting: First, game-mechanics could be used to increase extrinsic motivation to increase performance in school. Second, through situated learning like internships, apprenticeships, and project-based learning, students could gain real-work-life experience which might improve their intrinsic motivation for further education as they see a real-life purpose for their learning.

Experience points instead of grades

Lee Sheldon

Professor Lee Sheldon from Indiana University developed an innovative system to grade student performance. Instead of giving traditional grades, students receive experience points that allow them to "level up" (get a higher letter grade). Students choose how much effort they want to invest in the course by choosing from a number of experience points activities.

The system seems to work well, as grades and attendance were higher than with the traditional grading system (- which could be a novelty effect or a Hawthorne effect). It would be interesting to see how that would work on a langer scale: Over longer periods of time and across multiple courses.

Below is Sheldon's Grading procedure (from his course syllabus):

-------------

Grading Procedure
You will begin on the first day of class as a Level One avatar. Level Twelve is the highest level you can achieve:

Level	XP*	Letter Grade
Level Twelve	1860	A
Level Eleven	1800	A-
Level Ten	1740	B+
Level Nine	1660	B
Level Eight	1600	B-
Level Seven	1540	C+
Level Six	1460	C
Level Five	1400	C-
Level Four	1340	D+
Level Three	1260	D
Level Two	1200	D-
Level One	0	F

*Your level will be determined by experience points (XP) on a 2000 XP scale. You gain XP by defeating mobs, completing quests and crafting.

· Solo: Craft your own game proposal. (Written, 50 pts.)
· Solo: Present your game proposal to the class. (25 pts.)
· Solo: Sell your game proposal to the class. (Extra credit. 25 pts.)
· Raid: Guild reading presentation (75 pts. each person, 1 of these per guild)
· Pick-Up Group: 2-Player reading presentation (150 pts. each person, cannot team with fellow guild member) OR
· Solo: 1-Player reading presentation (150 pts. but easier than above)
· Solo: Craft 3 page report on MMO article (Written, 75 pts.)
· Solo: Craft 3 page analysis of MMO-based research topic (Written, 100 pts.)
· Solo: Craft 5 page analysis on MMO of your choice (Written, 125 pts.)
· Solo: Defeat Five Random Mobs (5 written reading quizzes, 250 pts. total, 1 extra creditquestion per quiz)
· Solo: Defeat Level Boss (Midterm Exam, 400 pts.)
· Guild: Paper Prototype Presentation (50 pts. each)
· Guild: Craft Final Project: Video Game Concept (Written, 400 pts.)
· Solo: Class attendance (300 skill pts. total, 10 to start. 290 additional pts. at 10 pts. per day of attendance)
· Extra credit for early completion of final proposal (10 pts./Monday; 5 pts./Tuesday; see calendar)
· Solo Camping: Glossary Building (Extra credit. 1 pt. per entry. 50 pt. cap per player. First come first served. Each mob only spawns once.)
· Group: Peer Review Secret Ballot (Extra credit. 0-100 possible XP as follows:

1. Guild Leader 100 pts.
2. Raid Leader 75 pts.
3. Solid Guild Crafter 50 pts.
4. Needs Rez 25 pts.
5. Leroy Jenkins 0 pts.

Grading is rigorous. Spelling, grammar and punctuation must be proofed. Points will be deducted otherwise.

________

See full Syllabus « Gaming the Classroom here.

Infograph about Facebook Game Statistics

50% of all Facebook users play games on Facebook, 69% of them are female. All together, Facebook gamers spent 927 MILLION hours per month playing online games in Facebook! Mind-boggling!!

Click on the picture to see the whole infograph.

Shogi Computer beats human master

A shogi (also called Japanese chess) computer program, created by a team from the University of Tokyo, beat the female shogi master Ichiyo Shimizu. While the shogi algorithm still has to repeat its playing strength, it is impressive, as shogi as more complex than western chess. 

One challenge is still open for computer scientists: Creating an algorithm that can beat a human in a game of Go.

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20101012p2a00m0na012000c.html

Infograph (by Rob Beeson) distinguishing seven types of gamers

Infographic, entitled The Gamer Brain: The science and the stories behind a Gamer's brain, distinguishes seven different types of gamers, their motivation for playing, and what brain parts are activated.

A Gamer's Brain- By Rob Beeson

View more documents from Rob Beeson.