e-Clippings (Learning As Art)

Get Social, Get Game and Get Learning! eLearning Guild's Summer Seminar Series

<insert shameless plug here>

Just wanted to let everyone know, so you can all run out and sign up now! now! now! - that Brent Schlenker and I are doing an eLearning Guild Summer Seminar Series that is focused on all things "2.0" and how they can be used to create powerful ,collaborative, learning environments. An outline for our session is available here - but I should also point out that Clark Quinn and Jeff Johannigman are doing their session on serious games aka Immersive Learning Simulations, immediately following ours - so stay for both!

Register Now for DevLearn 08 and save Millions! (or probably less than that but still cheaper)

(DevLearn Link) ...c'mon, San Jose, great sessions, Tim O'Reilly is keynoting...that dude invented  "Web 2.0".. :-) ...what more do ya want?

sid final

"we do the research after the game is finished"... it ever gets out that this is educational sales will drop by half..."find the fun"....what are the interesting decisions that you have to make in any given domain/situation, re cheat codes-don't like them, I've failed as a game designer if you want to play some other game and not mine...

more Sid

huh, game desigers care about UI...diff climes equal diff racial types...barbarian villages now have resources...I keep thinking how much attention has been paid to what kind of experience is bring created for the gamer/learner.

"get your mind churning about the possibilities"...multiple paths to victory...can there be multiple paths to the same learning objective?

Liveblogging Sid Meier 2.....

<Turn the music down AV Guy>

talking about creating sense of anticpation in learner/gamer..."we can never let the learner even imagine that they are being educated".....keep the production values high - people expect it....gaming keeps everything positive...you just did a cool thing and here is the next cool thing...don't waste time...haven't even played yet but have been shown things that will happen further down the road...interesting idea for learning - revealing the full course of what can happen...<damn battery....down to 39 minutes at 1:32 PM>

...the player has the choice, even in the tutorial...use visual icons as powerful instructional touchstones...refers to the "Happy Song" from CIV4...new "Tech Planner" looks cool...interesting thougt...clickable visual guide to what or how the knowledge from this course ties into other, as yet un revealed concepts.....wanted to put links into Civlopedia to relevant articles on Wikipedia etc but had some MSFT limitation....more from iPhone.....

Stephen Downes, Storms and the Karl Kapp Instant Session

So yesterday at the Innovations in e-Learning Conference was kind of interesting. First - and it really is hard to take good notes and a conference that is being put on by your own organization - always something to do right? - Stephen Downes did his typically great presentation with the added twist of having an audience back channel running on the screen behind him. Brave man that Canadian. You can read the transcript here and some of it is hysterical.

Also had a great experience yesterday when Karl Kapp, of Games, Gadgets and Gizmos fame, and I were just standing around talking, we noticed that there had been a session canceled in the next time slot and we decided on the spot to offer to do a fill in session. The conference folks made an announcement from the stage and I'm thinking largely due to Karl's presence, we had an impromptu session with a packed house! Great fun.

Finally, as you see in the picture above - we had ourselves quite the little storm system come through yesterday. Its always exciting when you're giving a session, to see the sky outside your building getting progressively darker, the wind stronger and the rain start pounding the side of the building. Great for keeping a class engaged. Here is a photo of Karl and Wendy Wickham from In the Middle of the Curve. Check out Karl's post here from some action photos of him and I in action.

I also saw this sign up at George Mason University yesterday and really wondered what it was. Anybody
got any ideas?

Innovations and Cooking and Hi Again!

Well...it's been a while hasn't it? Sorry about that, just got silly busy. Now Brent and I are getting ready to for our 2.0 session tomorrow and as I am checking into the hotel, Emeril Lagasse checks in and then right behind him is Stephen Downes...kind of surreal....more later but glad to be back talking to you... :-)

HUGE Conferences List - Game Focus - Help Needed!

OK...here is a HUGE list of conferences, primarily developed with a focus on games, simulations etc. I am in the process of developing travel funding and requests for the next year and need your input! I've been to GDC for about 4 years running, love the e-Learning Guild events and have been to IITSEC about 8 or 9 times.

I need your feedback on conferences I have missed, reviews of conferences, etc. I'm also working with some folks to make this list live and editable and will get back with the link to that as soon as we get that created.

Thanks!!

Game Developers Conference 2009
March 23-27, 2009
www.gdconf.com

Defense GameTech User's Conference
April 29-30, 2008
?? 2009
Orlando, PEO STRI & ADL sponsored

Games + Mobile Forum @ LA Games Conference 2008
May 21-22, 2008

Army DL & Gaming Working Group at Fort Eustis
May 28-29, 2008
Rob Bowen, Chief TCM Gaming, NSC, Futures Division

Medical Technology, Training and Treatment (MT3)
Jun 1-3, 2008
Lake Buena Vista, FL

Games for Change
June 2-4, 2008
http://www.gamesforchange.org/conference/2008/index.php

Innovations in Elearning
June 3-5, 2008
http://innovationsinelearning.gmu.edu/index.html

AUSA Medical
Jun 9-12, 2008
San Antonio, TX

Game Education Summit
June 10-11, 2008
http://www.gameeducationsummit.com/

ITEC Conference 2008
Jun 10-12, 2008
Stockholm, Sweden

MORS Symposium
June 10-12, 2008
New London, CT
http://www.mors.org/

Social Gaming Summit
June 13, 2008
http://www.socialgamingsummit.com

2008 Training & Simulation Industry Symposium (TSIS)
Jun 18-19, 2008
Orlando, FL

Flash in the Can (FITC)
June 22-23, 2008
Chicago, IL
http://www.fitc.ca

Digital Media Conference
June 26, 2008
Washington, DC,
http://www.digitalmediaconference.com

Games, Learning, Society +Academic Fest
July 8-11, 2008
Academic Co-Lab, Madison, WI
http://glsconference.org/

Apply Serious games
July 10, 2008
http://www.applyseriousgames.com/

12th International Conference on Computer Games: AI, Animation, Mobile, Educational & Serious Games
July 30-Aug 2, 2008http://www.cgamesusa.com

SIGGRAPH Sandbox
Aug 9, 2008
Emerging Serious Games from the Graphics
Aug 12, 2008
http://sandbox.siggraph.org/about.html
http://www.web3d.org/events/details/2008-web3d-symposium-on-3d-web-technology/

Flashforward2008
Aug 20-22, 2008
San Francisco
http://www.flashforwardconference.com

Joint ADL Co-Lab Implementation Fest 2008
Aug 25-28, 2008
Orlando, FL

Virtual Worlds Expo
September 3-4, 2008
Los Angeles, CA
http://www.virtualworldsexpo.com/

Austin Game Developers Conference
Sep 15-17, 2008
Austin, TX
http://www.austingdc.net

MODSIM 2008
Sep 16-19, 2008
Virginia Beach, VA
http://www.modsimworld2008.com

The Millennials Conference
Sep 25-26, 2008
New York, NY
http://www.millennialsconference.com

Learning 2008
Oct 26-29, 2008
Orlando, FL
http://www.learning2008.com/

DevLearn 2008 Conference & Expo
Nov 11-14, 2008
San Jose, CA
http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.24

IITSEC
Dec 1-4, 2008
Orlando, FL

Living Game Worlds
Dec 1, 2008 
Atlanta, GA
http://gameworlds.gatech.edu/

e-Learning Guild Annual Gathering 2009 Conference & Expo
March 9-12, 2009
Orlando, FL
http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.24

DevLearn 2009 Conference & Expo
Nov 9-13, 2009
San Jose, CA
http://www.elearningguild.com/content.cfm?selection=doc.24

The e-Learning Guild's Call for Presenters at DevLearn 2008

(CFP link)
Step right up people and submit those amazing, insane, brilliant session ideas! Actually the folks at the Guild are great about entertaining original, innovative ideas - they just have to be good. Send your idea in NOW! :-) Its in San Jose...in November (11-14), c'mon...

Just remember, I think I thought of it first...the Intact Cohort Conference

So I was giving a presentation yesterday at the e-Gov conference on KM. The presentation was on Web 2.0 and at one point my co-presenter, Tip Clifton of Eastpoint Analytics, asked the audience if any of their organizations aggressively supported the use of Web 2.0 tools. Out of about 50-70 people representing probably 20-30 organizations, not one raised their hand. That's one story right? We also asked how many people in that audience  had any experience with e-learning. Probably 3 people raised their hands. 

This really got me thinking. At DAU, we are working on creating curriculum that is focused on training and education for 'intact cohorts' - that is training and education for entire teams of people who work together. We are doing this based on the realization that while classes look like groups, they are really just temporary and arbitrary assemblies and when people go back to their regular jobs, they are now surrounded by people who do not have the same experience and who have not sat through the same class (at the same time) and yet those are the people we need to have that connective tissue between. So we thought - train them together - as a team - they'll learn teamwork, they'll learn knowledge in a cross-domain, interdisciplinary way and they'll be a stronger team when they return to their office.

Then in session after session yesterday, I keep hearing about problems with implementing KM systems because of IT shops, because of issues with corporate leadership and so on. These are issue that we have all heard at any number of conferences right? And yet, we all continue to go to conferences that are focused on our domain and out niche. Imagine if you went to a conference as the person from the learning team, along with an IT lead, a KM person, someone from the Front Office, maybe someone from HR, corporate communications, etc - you get the idea - whatever mix makes the most sense to your own corporate experience.

You don't get split into different tracks either but you all have to agree on which tracks to go through and so on. Can you imagine what that would be like? Do you think its possible? Valuable? if we can't create a conference where we actually bring all those people in, should we at least try to get speakers to craft sessions that address all these perspectives? Could we do that at least with keynotes?