Author Archives: Warren Blyth

About Warren Blyth

Education games/media designer for Oregon State University's Extended Campus Program Development & Training team

(SPC:Day2)- Branching Videos (a commercial)

Posted on by | Leave a reply

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: Continue reading →

(SPC:Day2)- Biometrics are the Future! (of Evaluating any Software Experience)

Posted on by | Leave a reply

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: Continue reading →

(SPC:Day2)- Online learning games, tools, and sponges

Posted on by | 1 Reply

OFFICIAL SESSION NAME: (1pm)
Lab: “Play the Science: Experiencing Science by Having Fun with Games” – Jeremy Friedberg, Spongelab Interactive

SUMMARY:
Very insightful and cool examples of online learning games, from someone who is out there delivering them. Very inspiring to see how they’re tackling different approaches (based more on what they think would be cool to learn, rather than what is forced by a strict school bureaucracy), and hear their justifications for some of their choices.

ECAMPUS TAKEAWAY:
Changed my ideas about where online education could end up in five years…
(and left me obsessed with the idea of students creating an “education profile” – something like Xbox-achievements-accumulating-profile meets real-world-medical-records).

RAW NOTES: Continue reading →

(SPC:Day2)- Blending Engagement and Learning (in games)

Posted on by | Leave a reply

OFFICIAL SESSION NAME: (11:30am)
Techniques for Achieving an Effective Blend Between Engagement and Learning in Games
– Talib Hussain, Raytheon BBN Technologies

SUMMARY/ECAMPUS TAKEAWAY:
Some interesting thoughts on the importance of making the exercise fun, while also allowing room for the pain and suffering struggle that you need for proper learning. Ultimately my notes aren’t very good though.

RAW NOTES: Continue reading →

(SPC:Day2)- Business Perspectives (products that are food for thought)

Posted on by | Leave a reply

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: Continue reading →

(SPC:Day2)- “Platforms” (yawn)

Posted on by | Leave a reply

Official Session Name: (9am)
Platforms: options and decisions

Summary:
round table discussion of the platforms for software development. (not that useful a session, really).

Ecampus Takeaway:
Instead of listening too closely to industry analysts (thbbt), I think we need to start thinking about: how to communicate across ALL platforms, How to record useful stats from each platform, And security.

Raw Notes: Continue reading →

(SPC:Day1)- Metaphorical Learning

Posted on by | Leave a reply

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: Continue reading →

(SPC:Day1)- Government Online On-The-Job-Training Insights

Posted on by | Leave a reply

Official Session Name: (2:30pm)
“How to Create an Effective Sim/Game Strategy”

Summary:
Christopher Hardy, a repected dude from Defense Acquisition University (DAU), talks about what they’ve learned. How they are much like corporate training (for many US Government agencies). Key difference is: Their students HAVE to take and pass their classes. … much more…

Ecampus Takeaway:
“Have a use case. Don’t build a game where all they learn is the game.” (and much more… this talk was gold)

Raw Notes: Continue reading →

(SPC:Day1)- Claude Comair is Cool

Posted on by | Leave a reply

Official Session Name: (1:30)
B-HIVE: A Human Behavioral Definition Simulation Environment

Summary:
The guy who created DigiPen basically tells his life story (which is damned cool, honestly), rambled slightly about cool work he’s done for various government agencies, then talked about machine learning project he’s pioneered.

Ecampus Takeaway:
“Have the student make the game – that is the way to teach them”

Raw Notes: Continue reading →