OFFICIAL SESSION NAME: (6pm)
“Mining Student Interactions for Evidence of Collaborative Problem Solving.”
Ellen Strain-Seymour, Bob Dolan. Pearson Assessments
SUMMARY:
A delightful dissection of some serious statistics gathering – followed by a fun audience participation in a communication experiment.
ECAMPUS TAKEAWAY:
There were several ponderous examples of how-to-do feedback statistics gathering. There was a fun example of distance learning engagement in action. It is also interesting to ponder the specific terms and concepts they thought were worth tracking during the student experience.
RAW NOTES: Read the rest of this entry »
OFFICIAL SESSION NAME: (4:30pm)
“The Lost (But Critical) Art of Storytelling in Serious Gaming” David Versaw, WILL Interactive
SUMMARY:
Basically a demonstration of their branching video projects. Uh, I feel it’s pretty clear “interactive movies” didn’t catch on 10 years ago. shrug.
ECAMPUS TAKEAWAY:
We won’t be paying for these professional movie making services anytime soon, but it is always fun to keep the importance of “cinematic storytelling” in mind when creating our future videos. [random thought: it might be cool to try and rope some aspiring OSU filmmakers into experimenting with storytelling for our videos.]
RAW NOTES: Read the rest of this entry »
OFFICIAL SESSION NAME: (3:30pm)
“Reporting Real-Time Engagement and Learning Data Using Sensor Suites”- Robert Christopherson, Arizona State University / Sempre Learning
SUMMARY:
Thrilling overview of current state of biometrics/psychophysiology.
ECAMPUS TAKEAWAY:
Gathering massive amounts of data, and processing them in ways to divine trends (and deeper truths than you can get from simple surveys) is the future of evaluation. I’m deeply passionate about incorporating biometrics into the evaluation of our learning exercises.
RAW NOTES: Read the rest of this entry »
Official Session Name: (10:30am)
US Game-based Learning Market Forecast: All Roads Lead to Mobile
- Sam Adkins (Chief Research Officer, Ambient Insight)
Summary:
At first I thought I went to the wrong session (this was a last minute room change. and initial talk was more about “money making” reality than “education effectiveness” reality). But there turned out to be some interesting analysis, and much food for thought (including several interesting apps and consumer learning products I’d never never heard of).
Ecampus Takeaway:
Some interesting discussion of tablets and asian markets, interesting links, and ideas for mobile apps we should make.
Raw Notes: Read the rest of this entry »
Official Session Name: (4pm)
Game mechanics used for learning – Douglas Whatley (CEO Breakaway)
Summary:
Really interesting talk – exploring how “game mechanics” themselves can (and should) affect the player.
Ecampus Takeaway:
This session really nailed the idea that the ever-popular “jeopardy trivia game” is just a damned training exercise. It doesn’t involve true “learning,” and isn’t really a game! (Boom!)
Raw Notes: Read the rest of this entry »
speeches you may find interesting:
* This one’s about diagnosing learning disorders based on behavioral observation
(and how crazy that is – when you can look at the brain directly)
Aditi Shankardass: A second opinion on learning disorders
mostly about diagnosis.
* This one is about alternate approaches to learning in poor countries. kinda rambling. but. curious if anyone agrees with his criticisms of modern school systems. His talk is so global i’m kinda like “uh, ok. guess I’ll take your word for it, Dude”
Charles Leadbeater: Education innovation in the slums
(…and when anyone starts talking about “throwing out the established in favor of gambling on something new,” I get very nervous that they might be overlooking old-system side effects which may be invaluable). (i’m reminded of the Philip K. Dick story Progeny, wherein we decide it’s really best that robots raise all out children, since we keep “screwing them up” with faulty parenting. sinister).
