Immerse Yourself - Increasing Learning through Simulation... Gaming Style

Dan Keldsen interviewed Calrk Aldrich on the use of simulations in learning. Interesting interview where Clark gives some ideas about the type of simulations, how they can be used an so on...


Introduction
Immerse Yourself - Increasing Learning through Simulation... Gaming Style
A conversation with Clark Aldrich, Co-Founder of SimuLearn which is www.simulearn.net, and lead designer of their "Virtual Leader" product, and a step-back to Simulation 101 to bring people listeners/readers up to a common-level of discussion, and then some diving into how to sell and use simulation or other e-learning within an organization, pros and cons of techniques, and a lot of discussion on what e-learning or simulation both can and cannot do. This is you chance to disguise time spent in Second Life as "research" into e-learning!



Access the interview or download the MP3 to listen to, at http://tinyurl.com/y7xpu9

Unlimited Learning- Computer & Video Games In The Learning Landscape

An interesting read...

Introduction
In the ‘glass half-full’ camp were observers who could see that children whose attentions
wandered elsewhere in their lives, for example at school, were unexpectedly very, very
focused. For this camp, a journey began in what has become something of a quest for
the Holy Grail. In this case, the Grail was learning software that was as seductive and
engaging as computer games.

Some of the earliest educational software was seductive, engaging, challenging and evocative
because it was written by the same teams that were in parallel developing the cool games.
On-screen snooker became an exploration of bearings, while virtual football an exercise in
maths and probability. Schools mattered in the market because a lot of the nation’s best
computers were in schools. There were more computers in school than on the high street.




Read the full pdf document at- http://tinyurl.com/yhdj8m

Stop Playing Games

For all the press releases and talk about the availability of video games as a reliable training tool, there aren’t too many that bring any real benefit to training the troops.

By Mark Brian
Available at- http://www.military-training-technology.com/article.cfm?DocID=1202

Today, everyone loves to talk, write and pontificate about the importance of games, usually off-the-shelf-products, in training military forces. I’m tired of people just talking about the cool stuff that games bring to training the force. It’s about time for some real action.

What am I talking about? Well, for all the media attention on using computer and video games to train the force, there aren’t any real programs or an evaluation process to support this euphoria. I challenge anyone to look through the federal budget process documentation—the POM in Pentagonesse—or recent funding actions and find a production program that has an approved requirement for commercial type computer/video games to support training.
Don’t give me the “America’s Army” story; that is a recruiting tool, planned, funded and executed that way. My buddies in the training business in Orlando don’t appear to have anything real in the production pipe.

Now there are lots of ideas kicking around in the labs, the Army Research Institute’s VECTOR lab, but that doesn’t get it to the field. Why is this so frustrating? Let’s rewind back a few years. Remember the all the excitement when a Navy ensign used Microsoft “Flight Simulator” and his own initiative to go to the head of his class in Naval aviation training? That was in 1999, almost seven years ago. In 1997, the National Research Council published a book on DoD and industry working together using modeling and simulation to enhance training and an analysis of making use of games and other simulations. But what happened to these ideas?

There are many books, papers and presentations on this concept—it is hardly new. I think most of them were killed by culture, not that they didn’t or couldn’t add value to our warfighters. And it is common knowledge that the field of computer/video games has been exploding and the training community is watching it all pass by. The mind power is out there; we need to get off the dime and move into the information age.

The Marines tried “Doom” in an early effort and have been using “Operation Flashpoint” for a few years. The Army has used “Spearhead” and other games with the Armor School, “Steel Beasts” at the U.S. Military Academy; the Navy has used “Fleet Command” at the Naval Academy, and the submarine fleet has a commercial game they use.

This has happened long enough that by now the services should have an appreciation for what can be done and begun to develop the requirements and funding necessary to bring a successful capability to our warfighters—but no.

The Institute for Creative Technologies helped develop the game “Full Spectrum Warrior” as a training tool that could also be commercially viable, and where has that gone? The only results I’ve seen are articles saying how much a waste of money it was for the Army to fund part of the game’s development. Critics argue the game was more entertainment-based from the start.
Are there any visionaries out there who have the courage to step up and champion this cause? Is our process asleep at the wheel or do our senior leaders shy away from the idea of using games to train? Maybe they just don’t understand what the young soldiers of today, and especially tomorrow, expect. Just like in Iraq, this is a culture issue, not a technology issue.
What is really disheartening is that Hezbollah, a terrorist organization of some note, figured out that games were the way to go by reading U.S. press clippings. It took them only a couple of years to get a product developed, to market it, and then it went into the hands of their intended audience—prospective recruits and those who might need a little training. An adaptive enemy is effectively using our ideas against us and our allies.

Imitation may be the sincerest forms of flattery, but it indicates that right now our adversaries have the agility edge—they are transforming rapidly, inside our decision and innovation loop. This is an adaptive and skilled adversary. It is only a guess, but I’d wager that during raids in the past few years in OIF and OEF copies of “Special Force”— Hezbollah’s recruiting and training video game—have been found, as training material, on more than one terrorist’s computer.

Yet years later we don’t have a real plan forward. Or, if we do, it is very, very well hidden from view. Where is that agility, adaptability and flexibility we always hear about? It’s apparent that our enemy has it, and I’ll bet that our adversary has a plan to move forward with his success from “Special Force.”

So, how do we fix this? Well, I’d start by developing a strategic plan that looks at desired capabilities (if we have to put this into the requirements hopper you can dust this article off in about five to seven years). And how do we get there quickly? In the Army’s case, I would make TRADOC talk to itself. The recruiting command part of TRADOC put out “America’s Army” as a blockbuster recruiting tool, which is about to copied by the Navy. But they couldn’t seem to talk within the command with the trainers (or outside the command to the acquisition community) to make it a real training product for the entire Army. What we have here is a failure to communicate, and that should stop now. It’s about our warfighters, not about press clippings.
We really need to pry programs out of the tech base and PowerPoint presentations and into a real production effort. Then we’d fund the program so everyone would understand that we mean business. The hard part? You have to have people who can evaluate commercial games, see what they can do for you and be innovative. Very few commercial products will be perfect out of the box, but that’s okay—a good enough solution will give us the increased agility and the flexibility we keep talking about. Here for example, our institutional Army needs some help, manpower help. The training developers were stripped out years ago, and the Army is paying the price now. We also need to have a change of culture at all levels. A realization that the young people of today know how to make this work, and that the senior leadership doesn’t know which end of a GameBoy is up, is critical. Without a culture change, we will continue to fund programs that are usable today, but not looking toward the future expectation of our warfighters. What do our warfighters do in Iraq and Afghanistan do when they have down time? They play video games. The Doonsbury comic strip that ran on September 11, 2005, was another great example of this.

Why can’t we make a training product that our soldiers, Marines, sailors, airmen and others want to play? We have a superb pool of combat veterans who I believe would step up to this challenge—they have proved their agility, innovation and courage; let’s leverage it.
The use of computer and video games, commercial games, consoles, hand-held and otherwise, need to be part of our training culture, not “toys.”

It’s time to take action to better support the warfighter. Conferences don’t produce capability for our soldiers. This is not leading-edge stuff anymore. Innovation and culture is necessary to compete in the marketplace of training. We must partner government with industry, as we have done with some success in limited efforts in the past, and get on with it. Take a little risk, move out and draw fire.

The Army’s chief of staff often says that transformation is a journey, not a destination. I agree, but it is time that we stop walking and do a little “double-time” to support our warfighters with the training tools—in this case games—they need for victory.

Editor’s note: Mark Brian is a veteran of the U.S. Army. He was involved with implementing training technologies during his military career and now works in the defense industry.

Reality Bytes: Eight Myths About Video Games Debunked

An article by Henry Jenkins, MIT Professor.

Go to- http://www.pbs.org/kcts/videogamerevolution/impact/myths.html

A large gap exists between the public's perception of video games and what the research actually shows. The following is an attempt to separate fact from fiction.


1. The availability of video games has led to an epidemic of youth violence.

According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low. Researchers find that people serving time for violent crimes typically consume less media before committing their crimes than the average person in the general population. It's true that young offenders who have committed school shootings in America have also been game players. But young people in general are more likely to be gamers — 90 percent of boys and 40 percent of girls play. The overwhelming majority of kids who play do NOT commit antisocial acts. According to a 2001 U.S. Surgeon General's report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centered on mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure. The moral panic over violent video games is doubly harmful. It has led adult authorities to be more suspicious and hostile to many kids who already feel cut off from the system. It also misdirects energy away from eliminating the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems to continue to fester.


2. Scientific evidence links violent game play with youth aggression.

Claims like this are based on the work of researchers who represent one relatively narrow school of research, "media effects." This research includes some 300 studies of media violence. But most of those studies are inconclusive and many have been criticized on methodological grounds. In these studies, media images are removed from any narrative context. Subjects are asked to engage with content that they would not normally consume and may not understand. Finally, the laboratory context is radically different from the environments where games would normally be played. Most studies found a correlation, not a causal relationship, which means the research could simply show that aggressive people like aggressive entertainment. That's why the vague term "links" is used here. If there is a consensus emerging around this research, it is that violent video games may be one risk factor - when coupled with other more immediate, real-world influences — which can contribute to anti-social behavior. But no research has found that video games are a primary factor or that violent video game play could turn an otherwise normal person into a killer.


3. Children are the primary market for video games.

While most American kids do play video games, the center of the video game market has shifted older as the first generation of gamers continues to play into adulthood. Already 62 percent of the console market and 66 percent of the PC market is age 18 or older. The game industry caters to adult tastes. Meanwhile, a sizable number of parents ignore game ratings because they assume that games are for kids. One quarter of children ages 11 to 16 identify an M-Rated (Mature Content) game as among their favorites. Clearly, more should be done to restrict advertising and marketing that targets young consumers with mature content, and to educate parents about the media choices they are facing. But parents need to share some of the responsibility for making decisions about what is appropriate for their children. The news on this front is not all bad. The Federal Trade Commission has found that 83 percent of game purchases for underage consumers are made by parents or by parents and children together.


4. Almost no girls play computer games.

Historically, the video game market has been predominantly male. However, the percentage of women playing games has steadily increased over the past decade. Women now slightly outnumber men playing Web-based games. Spurred by the belief that games were an important gateway into other kinds of digital literacy, efforts were made in the mid-90s to build games that appealed to girls. More recent games such as The Sims were huge crossover successes that attracted many women who had never played games before. Given the historic imbalance in the game market (and among people working inside the game industry), the presence of sexist stereotyping in games is hardly surprising. Yet it's also important to note that female game characters are often portrayed as powerful and independent. In his book Killing Monsters, Gerard Jones argues that young girls often build upon these representations of strong women warriors as a means of building up their self confidence in confronting challenges in their everyday lives.


5. Because games are used to train soldiers to kill, they have the same impact on the kids who play them.

Former military psychologist and moral reformer David Grossman argues that because the military uses games in training (including, he claims, training soldiers to shoot and kill), the generation of young people who play such games are similarly being brutalized and conditioned to be aggressive in their everyday social interactions.
Grossman's model only works if:
- we remove training and education from a meaningful cultural context.
- we assume learners have no conscious goals and that they show no resistance to what they are being taught.
- we assume that they unwittingly apply what they learn in a fantasy environment to real world spaces.

The military uses games as part of a specific curriculum, with clearly defined goals, in a context where students actively want to learn and have a need for the information being transmitted. There are consequences for not mastering those skills. That being said, a growing body of research does suggest that games can enhance learning. In his recent book, What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy, James Gee describes game players as active problem solvers who do not see mistakes as errors, but as opportunities for improvement. Players search for newer, better solutions to problems and challenges, he says. And they are encouraged to constantly form and test hypotheses. This research points to a fundamentally different model of how and what players learn from games.


6. Video games are not a meaningful form of expression.

On April 19, 2002, U.S. District Judge Stephen N. Limbaugh Sr. ruled that video games do not convey ideas and thus enjoy no constitutional protection. As evidence, Saint Louis County presented the judge with videotaped excerpts from four games, all within a narrow range of genres, and all the subject of previous controversy. Overturning a similar decision in Indianapolis, Federal Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner noted: "Violence has always been and remains a central interest of humankind and a recurrent, even obsessive theme of culture both high and low. It engages the interest of children from an early age, as anyone familiar with the classic fairy tales collected by Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault are aware." Posner adds, "To shield children right up to the age of 18 from exposure to violent descriptions and images would not only be quixotic, but deforming; it would leave them unequipped to cope with the world as we know it." Many early games were little more than shooting galleries where players were encouraged to blast everything that moved. Many current games are designed to be ethical testing grounds. They allow players to navigate an expansive and open-ended world, make their own choices and witness their consequences. The Sims designer Will Wright argues that games are perhaps the only medium that allows us to experience guilt over the actions of fictional characters. In a movie, one can always pull back and condemn the character or the artist when they cross certain social boundaries. But in playing a game, we choose what happens to the characters. In the right circumstances, we can be encouraged to examine our own values by seeing how we behave within virtual space.


7. Video game play is socially isolating.

Much video game play is social. Almost 60 percent of frequent gamers play with friends. Thirty-three percent play with siblings and 25 percent play with spouses or parents. Even games designed for single players are often played socially, with one person giving advice to another holding a joystick. A growing number of games are designed for multiple players — for either cooperative play in the same space or online play with distributed players. Sociologist Talmadge Wright has logged many hours observing online communities interact with and react to violent video games, concluding that meta-gaming (conversation about game content) provides a context for thinking about rules and rule-breaking. In this way there are really two games taking place simultaneously: one, the explicit conflict and combat on the screen; the other, the implicit cooperation and comradeship between the players. Two players may be fighting to death on screen and growing closer as friends off screen. Social expectations are reaffirmed through the social contract governing play, even as they are symbolically cast aside within the transgressive fantasies represented onscreen.


8. Video game play is desensitizing.

Classic studies of play behavior among primates suggest that apes make basic distinctions between play fighting and actual combat. In some circumstances, they seem to take pleasure wrestling and tousling with each other. In others, they might rip each other apart in mortal combat. Game designer and play theorist Eric Zimmerman describes the ways we understand play as distinctive from reality as entering the "magic circle." The same action — say, sweeping a floor — may take on different meanings in play (as in playing house) than in reality (housework). Play allows kids to express feelings and impulses that have to be carefully held in check in their real-world interactions. Media reformers argue that playing violent video games can cause a lack of empathy for real-world victims. Yet, a child who responds to a video game the same way he or she responds to a real-world tragedy could be showing symptoms of being severely emotionally disturbed. Here's where the media effects research, which often uses punching rubber dolls as a marker of real-world aggression, becomes problematic. The kid who is punching a toy designed for this purpose is still within the "magic circle" of play and understands her actions on those terms. Such research shows us only that violent play leads to more violent play.


Henry Jenkins is the director of comparative studies at MIT.


Sources
Entertainment Software Association. "Top Ten Industry Facts." 2003. http://www.theesa.com/pressroom.html
Gee, James. What Video Games Have to Tell Us About Learning and Literacy. New York: Palgrave, 2001.
Grossman, David. "Teaching Kids to Kill." Phi Kappa Phi National Forum 2000. http://www.killology.org/article_teachkid.htm
Heins, Marjorie. Brief Amica Curiae of Thirty Media Scholars, submitted to the United States Court of Appeals, Eight Circuit, Interactive Digital Software Association et al vs. St. Louis County et al. 2002. http://www.fepproject.org/courtbriefs/stlouissummary.html
Jenkins, Henry. "Coming Up Next: Ambushed on 'Donahue'." Salon 2002. http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/08/20/jenkins_on_donahue/
Jenkins, Henry. "Lessons From Littleton: What Congress Doesn't Want to Hear About Youth and Media." Independent Schools 2002.
http://www.nais.org/pubs/ismag.cfm?file_id=537&ismag_id=14
Jones, Gerard. Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-believe Violence. New York: Basic, 2002.
Salen, Katie and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. Cambridge: MIT Press, 2003.
Sternheimer, Karen. It's Not the Media: The Truth About Popular Culture's Influence on Children. New York: Westview, 2003.
Wright, Talmadge."Creative Player Actions in FPS Online Video Games: Playing Counter-Strike." Game Studies Dec. 2002. http://www.gamestudies.org/0202/wright/

A Survey of COTS Games Used In Education- PPT

An interesting Powerpoint file (5+ mb) about the use of COTS games in education....

Go to- http://tinyurl.com/y2zko7

Email Games

In 2000, The Australian National Training Authority (ANTA) introduced a new national professional development initiative called “Flexible Learning Leaders”. This initiative aimed to accelerate the work of leading practitioners in flexible learning across Australia by investing up to $40,000 in a six month personal professional development program. As one of the 23 inaugural leaders, I organized the first visit to Australia by Dr Sivasailam “Thiagi” Thiagarajan a world renowned leader in games and simulations methodologies.


Read on at- http://tinyurl.com/ue2wq

The Value of Performance Simulations

Your business might be at risk due to training that may not deliver all of the skills that your employees need and assessments that may not always test whether they have acquired these skills. Simulations can play an important role in reducing this risk.

Read on at- http://tinyurl.com/swmac

Australian Flexible Learning Network- A Look At Simulations

Simulations are a great way of incorporating realistic activities into a learning experience. They can range from fully developed graphical interfaces to games to simple computational models. The examples given here are not high end games or educational experiences like flight simulators rather they demonstrate simulations that can be created on modest budgets. Many toolboxes are examples of simulated environments, too.

More info at- http://tinyurl.com/tppl4

There's also more info specific to the design of simulations at- http://designing.flexiblelearning.net.au/gallery/content/simulation.htm

Center for Computer Games Research- IT University of Copenhagen

Computer games are an important part of contemporary culture. We need new research to understand the nature of games, their structure, their function and their impact.

At the Center for Computer Games Research we research game aesthetics, game design, game spaces, game worlds, gaming cultures, and learning in games.


More info at- http://game.itu.dk/index.html

ECGBL 2007: The European Conference on Games Based Learning

Over the last ten years, the way in which education and training is delivered has changed considerably with the advent of new technologies. One such new technology that holds considerable promise for helping to engage learners is Games-Based Learning (GBL).

The University of Paisley was founded in 1897 and matured to University status in 1992. Operating on 3 campuses in Scotland (Ayr, Dumfries and Paisley), it currently has 1,300 staff guiding some 11,500 students. The Paisley campus is located in the town of Paisley and is the original campus of the University. Around 800 students follow programmes on this campus. The School of Computing and Information Systems has been providing a degree course in Computer Games Technology since 2001 and recently received accreditation from the Sector Skills Council for the Audio Visual Industries, one of only two computer games degree courses in the UK to receive this accolade.

We are delighted to be hosting the first European Conference on Games Based Learning and look forward to welcoming you to our beautiful part of Scotland.


More info at- http://www.academic-conferences.org/ecgbl/ecgbl2007/ecgbl07-home.htm

Website Focus- Game Manufacturers Association

GAMA, the Game Manufacturers Association, connects, supports, educates, and promotes the people and companies involved in the world of games. Every year, the game industry does business at the GAMA Trade Show -- the industry's biggest and longest-running trade event. At the Origins International Game Expo, over 15,000 people and companies learn, play, and buy. All year long, GAMA promotes the game industry with partnerships and trade show appearances throughout the country.

New people. Solid traditions. Bold vision. GAMA -- Minding the Business of Games™


More info at- http://www.gama.org/
Including a portal dedicated to the use of Games in Education.

'Second Life' develops education following

From the eSchool News Online site-
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=6713

Virtual world being used by some educators and youth groups for teaching, socialization
By Justin Appel, Assistant Editor, eSchool News

November 10, 2006—An online virtual world that has become one of the web's most popular activities is also becoming an increasingly popular venue for teaching and socialization among educators and youth organizations.

The program, called Second Life, which first opened to the public in 2003, immerses participants in a virtual world of their own making. By setting up an account (either paid or free), users are able to create a virtual persona known as an avatar, which they can personalize to look however they want.

The program, from San Francisco-based company Linden Lab, allows users to create everything within their virtual world. Users are able to buy and sell plots of land, objects they have created themselves, and so on. The world itself and its economy closely resemble that of the "first life," as some in the virtual community call everyday society.

In fact, hundreds of thousands of real dollars change hands in Second Life daily, and it would have an annual gross domestic product of around $150 million if it were to stop growing today.
Whatever Second Life is, it's clear that it belongs in a different class than the virtual realities of film and fiction that have gone before it. The closest comparison would be to online video games such as "World of Warcraft" or "The Sims Online." Users download free software that opens a portal to Second Life, and Linden Lab's servers draft models of the ever-changing world and send it back to users as a real-time video. The difference is, Second Life is not a game. It doesn't have a goal, and most resources aren't restricted. Characters can fly or breathe water, and they never age or die.

With the popularity of Second Life soaring (more than 1.2 million people have joined throughout the world), it was only natural that educators would take notice of the phenomenon and begin exploring the possibilities of turning it into an educational tool.

Linden Lab has been encouraging educators to take advantage of the multimedia and social-networking possibilities within its program. A year ago, an eMail list was started for educators interested in using Second Life. Within the year, the list has grown to more than 700 educators around the world. In addition, Linden Lab offers the purchase of private islands at discounted rates to educators and nonprofit organizations. If educators want to test out Second Life for a class, Linden Lab will even offer them a free piece of land for the duration of the class. Small private islands are sold for $980, as well as a monthly land fee of $150.

A main draw for educators in using Second Life is the improvement in interaction and expression when compared with programs such as distance-education courses. "I think that is one of the things that's so attractive to educators using Second Life," says Linden Lab community developer Claudia L'Amoreaux, or Claudia Linden as she is known within Second Life. "The quality of interaction is hard to even describe. It doesn't replace face to face, but it does enable working with people all over the world."

Despite Second Life's immense popularity, the appropriateness of its content for students is an issue. As with the web itself, there is a range of seedy activity available to users: Gambling, stripping, and virtual prostitution are easy to find if you look for them. Partially because of that, Linden Lab has set up a teen version of the world, known as Teen Second Life.

Teen Second Life, or TSL, is arranged in the same fashion as the adult version, although there is only PG-rated material available in it. The world is restricted to teens ages 13-17, and all adults other than Linden Lab employees are banned from entering the main island in the world.

In recent months, Linden Lab has begun to promote TSL's educational value. Private islands have been set up as the only place where educators can set foot if they decide to participate in the program. The privacy of the island is left up to the educator or organization purchasing the island. Users can choose whether they'd like the island to be limited to students in their class or program, or as in the case of the New York-based youth development organization Global Kids open to any teen using Teen Second Life, giving teens the opportunity to explore and participate in group projects.

Shortly after announcing a $50 million initiative on digital media and learning in October (see story: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=6654), the MacArthur Foundation gave a grant to Global Kids as part of its goal to study the possibilities of a new learning environment within virtual worlds. With the grant, Global Kids proceeded to create the first public island within the Teen Second Life world.

What Global Kids is doing is quite rare within Second Life, says Barry Joseph, director of the online leadership program with Global Kids: "The one process that is common now is bringing your own teens into the space, which means you're working with teens who don't know that environment and training them in person. We are working with teen residents who are already there, the natives to that space, and creating programs for them."

What attracts educators to Second Life is its openness. While other programs, such as the Sims, have set goals and built a closed environment, Second Life is built from the ground up by its million-plus users. Every single object, building, character, and vehicle has been designed by someone within the virtual world. This ability to create extends into the educational part of the world.

In the real world, "when we meet with our students, we bring them into a classroom or computer lab, give them some paper and objects, and see them the same time the following week," says Joseph. "In Second Life, the Global Kids space never closes. Our workspace is their play space. Not only are they there, but they're also building everything there. They're building things they want to see in the program themselves."

Many colleges have begun to incorporate Second Life into some of their courses' curriculum, and some have held entire classes based in the virtual environment. At Seton Hall University, students taking Danielle Mirliss's Industrial and Organizational Psychology course this fall were able to use Second Life as part of a virtual team-building exercise. In it, students were given a cover story in which they were working for a public-relations firm that was building a piece on the best places and people in the Second Life world. The class spent two hours completing a structured scavenger hunt within Second Life, followed by completing a wiki and a survey.
Bradley University is one of the first colleges to adopt a course taught almost entirely in the realm of Second Life. Ed Lamoureux, associate professor in the Multimedia Program and Department of Communications at Bradley, has put together a course entitled Field Research in Second Life, which is to be taught during the school's winter term in January with a possible repeat in May. The course aims to teach real-world field research, adapt field research techniques, examine the potential of large and immersive online communities as teaching and learning environments, and expose students to this large world that has many purposes other than just gaming.

Eight students will take the one-hour-per-day course from the comfort of their home or dorm room. Each class will take place in a conference location on a virtual campus put together by the New Media Consortium, an international consortium of more than 200 colleges, universities, museums, and other learning-focused organizations, and these classes will consist of a lecture that is either live or recorded, a question-and-answer period, and student reports on their field research from the previous day.

"I've been opposed to teaching games directly, as I'm uninterested in shooting, killing, and fantasy," says Lamoureux. "But Second Life presents us with a wonderful opportunity to learn and teach about virtual environments for living and learning. [It] helps keeps me engaged and relevant to our students."

One of the more interesting uses of the main grid of Second Life is taking place at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Chattanooga. "I became aware of Second Life last April," says Larry Miller, the school's director of Continuing Medical Education. "I was impressed with two things this is a very cool-looking environment that would be appealing to digitally savvy young people, and this world was one that allowed for rich human interaction through the use of avatars."

As a result, the school is planning to use Second Life in several ways. Continuing Medical Education activities have been planned in which physician participants, through their avatars, will have the opportunity to see lab work and vital signs of the virtual patient avatars in Second Life. They'll also be able to ask questions related to patient behavior and risk factors. After gathering the patient data, the physicians will use web resources for treatments. Miller hopes that clever scripting might eventually allow for avatars to reflect better conditioning through exercise done in the real world.

The school also is looking into using the social networking within Second Life to establish patient support groups for cancer patients and their families. Families of the patients would be able to produce simple digital story productions that would then be shared throughout Second Life.
Many obstacles can be overcome within the Second Life world, says Joseph. "Second Life can offer the experience of what it is like to not only move beyond one's physical limitations, such as chronic pain or being confined to a wheelchair, but beyond the rules of physics, like flying. It also connects those who might otherwise be socially isolated due to illness," he explained. "This involvement can then give teens the confidence they need offline to fight their daily challenges."
There are some limitations, though, on who can be a part of the two virtual worlds especially that of the teen grid.

"Certain demographics are already there," says Joseph. "You will need to have a relatively new computer and broadband access. Also, even though it's free to get in Teen Second Life, you will still need a credit card to register. That's one of the ways [Linden Lab] can manage and maintain a youth-only space, but it makes registering a challenge for teens internationally."
While Second Life has taken off among some educators, it's unclear where it will be headed in the future. "Second Life has great potential," says Miller. "Most educators who see it will struggle with exactly how to use it, but I don't think that anyone denies the power of the experience for learning."

Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.

Links:
Second Lifehttp://secondlife.com/
Linden Labhttp://lindenlab.com/
Global Kidshttp://www.globalkids.org/
Seton Hall Universityhttp://www.shu.edu/
Bradley Universityhttp://www.bradley.edu/
New Media Consortiumhttp://nmc.org/
University of Tennessee College of Medicinehttp://www.utmem.edu/Medicine

Using World of Warcraft and Other MMORPGs to Foster a Targeted, Social, and Cooperative Approach Toward Language Learning

An interesting read- Using World of Warcraft and Other MMORPGs to Foster a Targeted, Social, and Cooperative Approach Toward Language Learning
Submitted by Todd Bryant on September 26, 2006 - 2:04pm.

Introduction
Much of the current research in second language acquisition (SLA) stresses the social aspect of language acquisition. Creating a learner-centered environment that a) fosters collaboration and communication, b) keeps learners motivated and on-task, and c) gives them a say in choosing their goals and how to achieve them, can be extremely challenging. Students will benefit from a framework that offers a wide variety of solutions to a given “real life” situation--solutions that require different amounts of time as well as vocabulary and grammar in the target language.


MMORPGs
Many of these goals can be achieved using simulations or gaming. For foreign languages, games—especially massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs)—create a simulated environment of language immersion where students are given the opportunity to apply their language skills toward “real life” goals within an extensive context that is, by design, supportive of a wide variety of solutions. Because this framework already exists, the teacher is free to spend his or her time playing the role of guide, making sure students stay on task and receive the additional information they need to overcome obstacles on their way toward achieving their goal.

For those not familiar with MMORPGs, they are online role-playing games where players move, act and communicate with other players in an internet-based virtual three-dimensional environment. “Winning” is usually not the point of a MMORPG; rather, players group together online to achieve certain goals and thereby progress through the game. Communication plays a central role in the game. Audio and video are embedded throughout the environment, and it is also necessary to communicate with other players in the game through audio messengers or text chat programs.

World of WarcraftI chose to focus on the game World of Warcraft for several reasons:
- At the moment, it is by far the most popular MMORPG and has a truly international scope with dedicated servers in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
- It allows for localization of the game into different languages.
- The structure of the game is similar to most MMORPGs.

World of Warcraft is a fantasy game populated with elves, dwarves, and other fantastic characters. Players choose their “race” and are given “quests” or tasks. In order to complete these tasks, the player is required to speak to characters controlled by the software, read texts, and speak and collaborate with other players through text chatting and messengers. This final aspect separates MMORPGs from other more traditional games. By making communication among the players a central aspect to the game, it provides a unique opportunity for teachers to make use of an already-existing virtual environment that requires students to use the target language to communicate with native speakers in order to achieve a goal.

The Social Environment of Language-Learning

Recognizing the social aspect of learning a language is key to understanding the potential of MMORPGs in a foreign language classroom. We gain a true understanding of a word’s meaning, a grammatical construct, or proper use of a phrase not by translating into our native language, but rather by placing it within context. This context, whether we are reading or speaking, is inevitably a social one. Natural language never exists within a vacuum. One of the principal thinkers in this area is James Paul Gee. Gee refers to a family of related viewpoints that he calls “situated cognition studies” that states that “the meaning of language is not some abstract propositional representation that resembles a verbal language. Rather, meaning in language is tied to people’s experiences of situated action in the material and social world."[1] While Gee’s focus is primarily on first language acquisition among children, we have seen this theory extended to second language acquisition as well. Dwight Atkinson outlines basic principles for a sociocognitive approach to SLA beginning with the environment: “Language is learned in interaction, often with more capable social members. Classroom teachers are part of this group where second languages are concerned, but only a part—peers, mentors, role models, friends, family members and significant others can also fall into this category.”[2] He also cites previous works emphasizing the active nature of language learning within this environment, where “…language and its acquisition from a sociocognitive perspective, would be seen in terms of ‘action’ and ‘participation’—as providing extremely powerful semiotic means of performing and participating in activity-in-the-world.”[3] Regardless of whether we are talking about first or second language acquisition, the basic principle remains consistent: language is the necessary tool for the language learner to complete tasked-based activities that require social interaction and collaboration in a “real world” environment.

Games and Simulations

While most of us agree with this in theory, creating the environment and tasks while covering the required material, keeping students motivated, and remaining on task can be daunting. Long before MMORPGs existed, teachers have used games and simulations to achieve these goals. There are many different types of simulations and games. Some involve technology, such as the text-based MUDs (multi-user domains) and MOOs (MUDs, object-oriented) used by language teachers in the past. Others such as the “virtual UN,” mock trials, or role-playing games do not use technology at all.

Regardless of how the simulation is implemented, there are two basic criteria to keep in mind before considering its use in foreign language instruction. First, the students must have the sense of being immersed in a different environment. Second, the students must then be charged with accomplishing a goal that requires use of the target language. The benefit of such an environment is that language becomes a means to an end rather than a goal in itself. This type of instruction is often referred to as task-based learning, where tasks are defined as “activities that involve individuals in using language for the purpose of achieving a particular goal or objective in a particular situation.”[4] Students then collaborate on the task in groups, creating a social environment and allowing the teacher to play the role of guide for each of the groups instead of the more traditional role of judging correct and incorrect for grammar and vocabulary. Simulations also do not focus solely on one aspect of the language. Instead, learners are motivated to use and master different linguistic patterns in order to succeed at a given task.

Simulations also allow for students to take an active role; “learning by doing” is another principal tenet of social cognitive theory. Students no longer expect to be given information from the teacher; instead, discovering information is a built-in aspect of the game. This is especially helpful for more introverted learners. Simulations have been shown to be less stressful for students than participating in a more traditional language-learning environment.[5] Simulations also foster the most useful form of interaction: a conversation without a predetermined outcome.[6] Through the game, students will discuss their own goals, then work to achieve them. The simulation allows this to happen within a framework that keeps the learners on task. This type of interaction among students has been shown to be beneficial. García-Carbonell, Montero, Rising and Watts point to studies at two universities in Spain which used telematic simulations where students were involved in a simulation over the internet to create an international forum of negotiation and debate in order to improve their English language skills. In both instances, the simulations showed that students attained a higher level of communicative language ability than in courses that did not use simulations.[7]

Games such as the World of Warcraft provide these benefits in addition to several advantages over more traditional simulations. One of these advantages is the presence of native speakers. Because the game creates different virtual worlds based on country, it is possible for students in the United States to enter the virtual World of Warcraft world in Germany, Spain, or France. This world is already populated with native speakers looking for others with whom they can collaborate on quests and adventures. This is a huge step toward creating an authentic virtual reality where the students are naturally immersed in the target language. Teachers also can enter this world and play the role of guide, introducing the students to other native speakers in the game and providing support when students become lost or frustrated. The result is a truly cooperative environment for language learning.

Another key benefit for commercial MMORPG games is the effect on student motivation. The game provides an opportunity for students to practice language skills within a system designed to provide feedback and demonstrate progress. Once students are introduced to the game in class, there is a very reasonable expectation that many of them will continue to play on their own. In his article “The Psychology of Massive Multi-User Online Role Playing Games,” Nicholas Yee discusses the profile and patterns of a typical gamer. Yee found that the average MMORPG player spends almost 23 hours a week playing the game.[8] Yee also explored the social effect of spending this amount of time in a virtual environment and found that players become emotionally involved in the game and attached to the other players, forming platonic and romantic relationships that extend to the real world. We should also not assume that only younger male students would be interested in such a game. Indeed, the average age of a MMORPG player is 27[9] and women comprise 43 percent of the overall gaming market.[10] Given these facts, we can see how an MMORPG game could have a wide and general appeal among our students and provide them with a social environment in which to practice their target language. Given the amount of time many of these gamers spend in such an environment, learners introduced to such an environment could experience a dramatic increase in authentic input and communication, compared to what a more traditional classroom could offer on its own.

Modal Verbs and Second-Semester German

To give an idea of how this could work, I asked a second semester German student to be part of a lesson focusing on the modal verbs in German. After a traditional introduction involving conjugation and word order, she was sent home with basic instructions involving the World of Warcraft game and told to create a character within the fantasy world and familiarize herself with the game’s basic functions (moving, chatting, etc). After some discussion, we decided to create characters of the Tauren race. For those not familiar with World of Warcraft, the Tauren are a “race” as are elves and dwarves. The story behind the Tauren and their imaginary culture borrow heavily from Native American history and legend. We both signed into the game. My character’s name was Professor. My student chose the much more creative and humble name of WeedPicker. Our first step was then to decide on a quest that would also function as our task. I have bolded the modal verbs.

7/14 09:34:59.219 [Gruppe] Professor: Was sollen wir tun? (What should we do?)

7/14 09:35:16.656 [Gruppe] Professor: Hast du ein Quest? (Do you have a quest?)

7/14 09:37:26.408 [Gruppe] Weedpicker: Töten wir etwas (We kill something)

7/14 09:37:54.768 [Gruppe] Professor: Nur irgendetwas töten? (Just kill anything?)

7/14 09:37:59.596 [Gruppe] Professor: Wir sollen... (We should…)

7/14 09:38:14.487 [Gruppe] Weedpicker: wir sollen eine Quest finden? (We should find a Quest)

7/14 09:38:25.768 [Gruppe] Professor: Gut (Good)

7/14 09:39:38.066 [Gruppe] Professor: OK, dann kannst also mit diesem Mann reden. (OK, then you can speak with this man)

7/14 09:39:46.113 [Gruppe] Professor: Dann bitte das Quest mitteilen (then share the quest)

At this point my student clicked on a character controlled by the computer. She was greeted with an audio greeting in German and presented with two paragraphs of text describing a quest. In this case, it was a tribal elder offering us the chance to prove ourselves by gathering meat and feathers for the village.

7/14 09:39:49.269 Quest angenommen: Die Jagd geht weiter (We both receive notification that my student accepted the quest, “The hunt continues”)

7/14 09:39:56.707 [Gruppe] Professor: Gut gemacht (Well done.)

7/14 09:40:22.973 [Gruppe] Professor: Hast du die Beschreibung gelesen und verstanden? (Have you read and understood the quest?)

7/14 09:41:44.333 [Gruppe] Weedpicker: ja, Ich verstande der Quest (Yes, I understoods the quest)

7/14 09:41:55.880 [Gruppe] Professor: ich verstehe... (I understand…)

7/14 09:42:04.834 [Gruppe] Professor: oder ich habe das Quest verstanden (or I have understood the quest)

7/14 09:42:13.693 [Gruppe] Professor: OK?

7/14 09:42:22.037 [Gruppe] Weedpicker: ok, Ich habe verstanden (I understood)

7/14 09:42:29.318 [Gruppe] Professor: Gut (Good)

7/14 09:42:41.365 [Gruppe] Professor: so, was müssen wir machen? (So, what do we have to do?)

7/14 09:43:36.085 [Gruppe] Weedpicker: wir brauchen zehn bergpumapelze (We need 10 mountain lion hides.)

This is just a small portion of the text but representative. For the next half hour or so we continued to text chat about where we should hunt, our progress, how best to hunt, etc. We played the game until our task was completed, in this case, the gathering of 10 feathers and meat from the hunt through collaboration and communication via text chat. When appropriate I tried to use modal verbs and encouraged my student to reply in complete sentences. However, it is important to note that having the focus on task as opposed to the grammar forced her at times to reach to try other grammatical forms. Having just started her second semester, my student has not been formally introduced to the past tense. Using a German/English dictionary that is running on her machine, she quickly looks up a few words and attempts the phrase, “I have understood.” Since we have not covered past tense yet, I simply correct her then continue with the game. The focus stays on the task at hand.

Once we complete the quest, our session is over. However, it is important to tie these activities back into the class and give students a chance to correct their errors. As a warm up, I would ask the class what they thought of the quest, then display parts of the transcript. Students would then work in groups to find any errors and correct them, giving them a chance to reinforce the grammatical rule while maintaining the social and goal-oriented environment of the classroom.

Getting Started

I hope I have given a general idea of a lesson involving World of Warcraft that is flexible enough to accommodate beginning-to-intermediate level students. There are some issues to consider:

- Not every student is going to fall in love with the idea of playing games as homework. Instructors need to emphasize that the game, like any homework, is practice ground for what is being taught in class with the advantages mentioned above.
- There is a cost involved. Each student would require a subscription of $15 per month. Over the course of a semester, this would amount to roughly the same cost as that of a workbook.
- I would like to point out that playing the role of “guide” is an ideal task for a teaching assistant. It does not require nearly as much experience in lesson design and classroom management as a traditional classroom. Rather, it provides an environment where the tasks, roles, and goals are already set. The guide only has to point the students in the right direction, and provide corrections or help when necessary.

If you decide that World of Warcraft is worth a try, you will need the following to get started:
- The European version of World of Warcraft. I received mine through UK Ebay.
- World of Warcraft language packs. http://tinyurl.com/yyjcdq Each language then has its own executable file. I then delete the English version .exe.
World of Warcraft requires regular updates as the world expands. These downloads use peer-to-peer BitTorrent technology, and they may be blocked by your school’s firewall or packet shaper. You can receive the updates the old fashioned way from sites such as FilePlanet. Note, this also means you cannot simply “freeze” a machine until the end of the semester since World of Warcraft will be receiving updates on a roughly weekly basis.
- /chatlog is the command to save your text chats.
- If the students are going to enter the world as a group with a TA, you may wish to them speak with each other while playing game through an audio messenger such as Skype. This will allow them to speak instead of text chat and create a private channel from the other online players. If you have a large group, the best free option would probably be to set up a skypecast. - Skypecasting is a free service offered by Skype that allows a moderator to invite a fairly large number of guests to an online discussion. It is still in beta. You can find more information here: https://skypecasts.skype.com/skypecasts/home

Depending on your situation, you may want to consider other games. If the updates and monthly fee are an issue, take a look at Guild Wars. Guild Wars is similar to World of Warcraft, though less extensive. The virtual environment grows by purchasing expansion packs that function as well by themselves. This is unlike the World of Warcraft model where updates are added each month as a “free” and required download in exchange for the monthly fee. It provides different languages including German, French, and Italian along with the ability to choose a European server. That being said, I have not had much chance to play the game myself. Though Guild Wars states that they try to place players according to language, the boundary does not appear to be as distinct as it is in World of Warcraft where each language has its own server. Before you start with a class, be sure to play some in the target language and check that the environment of the game is not a mix of numerous European languages. If you teach Japanese, you will need a different game, though you should have no shortage of options. Final Fantasy is the most well known along with Ultima Online, though again, make sure you are getting the Japanese version with the ability to connect to servers in Japan.

Looking only at the cover of most video games, one would certainly not jump to the conclusion that they have a place in a rigorous academic curriculum. However, foreign languages are uniquely flexible. If the game provides authentic language content and requires communication in order to progress through the game—and our students are willing to spend hours of their time immersed in this environment—we can greatly increase not only their overall exposure to the language but their motivation to learn as well.

NOTES

1. James Paul Gee, “Reading as situated language: A sociocognitive perspective,” Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy 44:8 (May 2001): pp. 714-715.2. Dwight Atkinson, “Toward a Sociocognitive Approach to Second Language Acquisition,” The Modern Language Journal 86:4 (2002): p. 536.3. See Barbara Rogoff, Apprenticeship in Thinking: Cognitive Development in Social Context (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990); Barbara Rogoff, “Cognition as a Collaborative Process” in D. Kuhn & R.S. Siegler (Eds.) Handbook of Child Psychology, Vol 2: Cognition, Perception, and Language, 5th Edition (New York: Wiley, 1998): pp. 679-744; Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger, Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).4. Amparo García-Carbonell, Begoña Montero, Beverly Rising and Frances Watts, “Simulation/Gaming and the Acquisition of Communicative Competence in Another Language,” Simulation & Gaming 32:4 (2001): p. 483.5. See Howard Rose, Design and construction of a virtual environment for Japanese language instruction (Unpublished master’s thesis, University of Washington, Seattle, 1996); Howard Rose and Mark Billinghurst, “Zengo Sayu: An immersive educational environment for learning Japanese,” Technical Report No. 4-95 (Seattle: Human Interface Technology Laboratory, University of Washington, 1995). (Both studies cited in K. Schwienhorst, “Why Virtual, Why Environments? Implementing Virtual Reality Concepts in Computer Assisted Language Learning,” Simulation & Gaming 23:2 (2002): p. 201.) See also Robin Scarcella and David Crookall, “Simulation/Gaming and Language Acquisition,” In D. Crookall & R. Oxford (Eds.), Simulation, Gaming and Language Learning (New York: Newbury House, 1990), pp. 223-238. (Cited in T.G. Saliés, “Promoting Strategic Competence: What Simulations Can Do for You,” Simulation and Gaming 33:3 (2002): p. 282.)6. Amparo García-Carbonell, Begoña Montero, Beverly Rising and Frances Watts, “Simulation/Gaming and the Acquisition of Communicative Competence in Another Language,” Simulation & Gaming 32:4 (2001): p. 486.
7. Amparo García-Carbonell, Begoña Montero Fleta, Beverly Rising and Frances Watts, “Simulation/Gaming and the Acquisition of Communicative Competence in Another Language,” Simulation & Gaming 32:4 (2001): p. 487.8. Nicholas Yee, “The Psychology of Massively Multi-User Online Role-Playing Games: Motivations, Emotional Investment, Relationships and Problematic Usage,” to appear in R. Schroder & A. Axelson (Eds.), Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments (London: Springer Verlag, 2006): p. 9.9. Nicholas Yee, “The Psychology of Massively Multi-User Online Role-Playing Games: Motivations, Emotional Investment, Relationships and Problematic Usage,” to appear in R. Schroder & A. Axelson (Eds.), Avatars at Work and Play: Collaboration and Interaction in Shared Virtual Environments (London: Springer Verlag, 2006): pp. 9,10,15,25.10. Christine Cook, “Heading the Girl Game Revolution,” Christine Cook, http://www.peachpit.com/ Article accessed 9/3/06 at http://www.peachpit.com/articles/printerfriendly.asp?p=424448

SimTect 2007 "Simulations- Improving Capability & Competitiveness"

SimTect 2007 has been announced as being held at the Brisbane Convention Centre, June 4th- 7th.

The titile of this year's exhibition and conference is "Simulation - Improving Capability and Competitiveness."

The conference convenor, Jawahar Bhalla, posted the following message on the SimTect 2007 homepage-
In this increasingly outcome and efficiency focused environment, organisations strive to do more, and to do it better. This applies to customers and suppliers alike, in all sectors — including defence, aerospace, mining, construction and transport.

Our theme “Simulation - Improving Capability and Competitiveness” focuses on the opportunities that simulation provides to understand and improve the way we operate now, and into the future. It encompasses the use of simulation for experimentation and analysis, concept and capability development, system design refinement and validation, process and systems modelling, and in the training of users.

The SimTecT 2007 Conference and Exhibition builds on the success of the previous twelve SimTecTs to provide an opportunity for the simulation community to discover the latest research and product advances, and to discuss applications with developers and users.




More info is available at-
http://www.siaa.asn.au/simtect/2007/2007.htm

Gamers seeking real thing face recruitment barrage

From The Age...

Gamers seeking real thing face recruitment barrage
September 26, 2006

http://tinyurl.com/tbb4h

The Defence Force's latest battleground is online.
By Nick Miller.

THEY'RE young, teeming with testosterone and they want to blow things up.

But the Australian Defence Force's key recruiting demographic watches less and less TV, preferring to go online or play video games. So the ADF, with online partner Visual Jazz, is putting free war games on the internet as a recruiting tool.

Last week Melbourne-based Visual Jazz released Extreme Battleships, a 21st century upgrade of the classic game designed for the Windows Live Messenger service.

Users can play against any of Messenger's 4.4 million Australian members or other MSN contacts overseas.

The strategy game showcases the Royal Australian Navy, its ships, technology and job opportunities, and links back to the main recruiting site at defencejobs.gov.au.

Last October the company released the fight-flight sim ADF: Aviator featuring 3D virtual aerial combat missions around the world.

More than 18,000 people have downloaded it. But this pales in comparison with genre leader America's Army, which boasts 7.5 million registered players.

Visual Jazz general manager Konrad Spilva says he used America's Army as a case study when he pitched the idea of ADF: Aviator three years ago.

"Their target market of 17 to 25-year-old males spends a lot of time playing computer games, rather than watching TV," he says.

Aviator was put together in four months. The development team travelled to air force bases and interviewed pilots about real-life missions but the main complaint from hard-core gamers was that it lacked the sophistication of most PC and Xbox games.

"They want more missions, more aircraft, they want to know more about actual ADF tactics - combat realism," Mr Spilva says. The team is working on a new version of the game that will provide all that, plus a multiplayer element.

With Battleships, the team is targeting MSN Messenger's 4.4 million registered users, the vast majority of whom are aged 15-24.

Initially the ADF thought about sponsoring an existing game but instead decided to make their own to take advantage of new graphical functions in the recent Live Messenger upgrade.
In its first four days the game had more than 55,000 visitors. By Sunday about 20 per cent were returning players.

Mr Spilva says his company has no ethical problems with making war games designed to entice the nation's online youth to try the real thing.

"It is actually a nice feeling working on something that does more good than harm, rather than just selling a product," he says. "It's not just moving something off a shelf, it's helping the navy and air force which do an important job."

Earlier this month Prime Minister John Howard admitted a recruiting crisis had left the Australian Defence Force short of about 1200 personnel.

He announced a $10 billion plan to increase the army's size by two battalions, or 2600 personnel, with more generous pay and better conditions.

Defence Minister Brendan Nelson loves the idea of online war games with a recruiting edge, says Richard Howarth, national marketing manager for defence force recruiting.

"(Aviator and Battleships) are part of an overall strategy to grow our market interest a little bit broader, beyond those who are 100 per cent interested in a career with the ADF," Mr Howarth says.

"It's there to be fun and engaging. But if you want to find out more about the ships, or technical trade roles in the navy, there's a click-back to (the recruiting website)."

About 70 per cent of the navy's target recruiting demographic has broadband internet and wants a broadband experience, he says.

With that in mind the ADF is creating a "navy lifestyle" site, to be launched next month, which uses Flash and video to show the real nature of life at sea.

Bill Gates Speech to High School Students on the Realities of Life!

Now this is not directly related to the use of simulaitons and games in education, but I did get a good laugh out of it....




To anyone with kids of any age, here's some advice.

Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school.

He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

If you can read this - Thank a teacher!

Queensland Police - Incident Command Training

In conjunction with QMI Solutions Ltd, Queensland Police Service has implemented a virtual reality simulation system for training Police Officers incident command.

Read on at-
http://www.qmisolutions.com.au/article.asp?aid=77



The Challenge
Most people's first reaction to an incident or hazardous situation is to contact emergency services. Without doubt, there is a public expectation that these response teams will automatically know how to deal with and resolve any given situation - particularly police departments called upon to deal with all types of scenarios, from domestic violence situations, burglaries and traffic incidents to potential terrorist threats.

What isn’t so visible is the high level of training and experience that goes into consistently meeting these expectations. Yet the very nature of emergency service departments’ work can sometimes limit the level to which training can be taken. Mock-ups of ‘real-life’ situations can be very difficult, sometimes dangerous, expensive, and more often than not, impossible exercises to carry out.

Queensland Police has found a way around this, becoming the first police organisation in the world to use virtual reality technology to enhance training methods. Using powerful visualisation technology, situations considered too dangerous or costly to recreate in the real world, such as fires, terrorist attacks, hostage situations or traffic accidents, are now possible through virtual recreations of live situations.

The Solution
Queensland Police has piloted a training programme using Silicon Graphics visualisation solutions to prepare officers for all manner of day-to-day situations and potentially dangerous occurrences – in a safe, controllable and measurable training environment. The training application was developed by "Reality Works", a service bureau at QMI Solutions in Brisbane. The application is powered by a Silicon Graphics Reality Center installation at QMI that consists of an Onyx 3000 visual supercomputer with three powerful projectors displaying a single merged image on a large spherical screen with a 160° field of view, completely immersing users in the environment.

Project officer for Queensland Police, John Rolfe, states "Reality Works offered us a unique method of supplementing our Incident Command Training. Using highly realistic ‘live’ scenarios immerses participants and puts theory into practice. This training environment enables us to significantly enhance officers’ situational awareness, decision making and command and control skills. The facility also allows us to run between 6-12 officers through the scenarios in a session, significantly reducing the cost and time usually involved in individual ‘real-life’ training".

"We were impressed with the professionalism and efficiency which the Reality Works and SGI team showed in progressing the project from proposal to implementation stage. Within just 8 weeks the whole development, including building the 3D model scenario, was complete", he continued.

The Results
The pilot project was designed to simulate the initial response of officers at an incident. In the virtual reality room, groups of officers are immersed in the virtual scenario and required to assess, contain and respond to the situation being presented to them.

Meanwhile, new information and unexpected elements are constantly being introduced to the scenario by a group of senior officers who are in contact with the trainees by radio from another control room.

"The SGI system is highly intelligent, interactive and adaptive – as such, the computer-generated scenarios present trainees with completely different outcomes dependent on whatever new elements the controllers introduce and decisions made, making the training as comprehensive and realistic as possible," said Andy Dennison, Reality Works Centre Manager.

Extensions to the initial environment might include:
- Movement of traffic and people around a scene
- Weather
- Time of day
- Audio cues such as radio messages, traffic noise, gunshots

Each participant takes a turn in the hot-seat where they are required to take command of the situation, navigate around the scene, determine how they want to run the operation and deploy resources around the area as appropriate.

"This would mean tactically placing officers or cars at certain locations, and assessing whether to involve additional resources - such as dog squads or specialist support. It’s vital for officers to have the ability to quickly assess, contain and resolve any contingencies ," said John Rolfe.

Once the exercise is complete, reviewers can navigate to an overhead view of the site for a debriefing exercise and evaluation of the participant's courses of action, and have the ability to overlay a ‘model’ answer that shows the most appropriate course of action.

The Future
Given the success of the pilot project the QPS is considering using QMI's Reality Centre as a regular feature of Incident Command Training. Looking to the future we may build on current abilities with virtual training for officers in environments other than the one already created.


For more information or advice, please contact:
Consultant: Geoff Wakeley
Phone: +61 7 3364 0700
Email: info@qmisolutions.com.au

Virtual world: tax man cometh

Some food for thought....


Virtual world: tax man cometh
Email Print Normal font Large font NICK MILLER
October 31, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/y74ut9

Best consult your accountant before selling your Level 60 gnome warlock, for you may end up facing a terrible foe: the tax man.

Virtual lifers making virtual fortunes in virtual worlds such as World of Warcraft or Second Life could face a real tax bill, the Australian Tax Office warns.

"If you are getting a monetary benefit then it's not treated any differently
- normal rules apply," an ATO spokeswoman says - in what is believed to be a world first.
"Your income will not be treated any differently than if you earned it working nine to five in an office."

If a virtual transaction has real world implications - if it can be attributed a monetary value - it attracts the attention of the Tax Office. Sites such as slexchange.com set rates for swapping Second Life's Linden dollars for "real" money.

"The real world value of a transaction may form part of your taxable income, even if it is in Linden dollars," the ATO spokeswoman says. "In addition, there may be GST to consider."
In other words, if you are turning over the equivalent of more than $50,000 selling virtual jewellery to Second Life avatars, you must get an ABN and register for GST.

People trading in virtual worlds should consider very carefully whether they are conducting a business or a hobby, the Tax Office advises.

If conducting a business, then all money earned is generally assessable income. But expenses, such as the cost of computer equipment for accessing the virtual world, can be deducted. Any loss can be offset against other income.

A US congressional committee is tackling similar issues, debating whether new regulations should give the Internal Revenue Service the power to tax virtual economies.
The Republican head of the committee, Jim Saxton of New Jersey, has said taxing virtual transactions would be a mistake.

The online world Second Life hosts a thriving and rapidly growing community. Companies such as Toyota and computer maker Sun Microsystems have established virtual presences there. Adidas and American Apparel sell clothes and accessories for people to dress their avatars (animated characters) there, and Starwood Hotels has built a virtual version of "aloft", a new hotel chain it plans to open in the real world in 2008.

Players spend about $US350,000 ($A459,000) a day on average, or about $US130 million a year, and usage is growing in double-digit terms each month. At the time of writing $257 Linden dollars cost $US1.

Adapting Commercial Off-The-Shelf Games for Military Simulation

Adapting Commercial Off-The-Shelf Games for Military Simulation
The Defence Science & Technolgy Agency http://www.dsta.gov.sg/DSTA_Horizons/2005/06.htm


ABSTRACT
The interactive digital medium of computer games holds promise for application in the realm of military simulation. This paper presents the Defence Science & Technology Agency (DSTA) and the Singapore Armed Forces’ (SAF) initiative to leverage commercial computer games for military applications, how several SAF schools have adopted modified commercial games to enhance classroom instruction, and our future plans to extend the use of games in the SAF.


INTRODUCTION
It is a common perception that computer games and military simulators are very different entities. Many games entertain by drawing participants into a virtual world that calls for a suspension of the user’s disbelief; military simulators, on the other hand, seek to attain a high level of realism in order to derive meaningful simulation results. In reality, they both share a common set of enabling technologies, and it is beneficial to both the game industry and military simulation community to tap each other’s innovative solutions (Zyda and Sheehan, 1997). This paper describes the DSTA-SAF initiative to exploit computer games for military applications, the approach adopted in successfully modifying suitable commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games to find relevance for training, and our future plans.

CONVERGENCE OF SIMULATION AND GAMES
Military simulation systems evolved as sophisticated applications that run on high-powered computer workstations, while computer games were initially programmed by hobbyists to run on machines like the Commodore Amiga (Herz, 2002). However, the availability of faster processors, larger hard disks, and graphic accelerators to PC owners enabled game developers to leverage advances by computer scientists in areas such as real-time 3D graphics, artificial intelligence and networking. The increasing power of the PC heralded the rise of the extremely lucrative game industry that has since produced numerous titles that begin to rival military simulators in terms of the level of detail and richness of experience.

GAMING IN THE MILITARY
Indeed, the potential of computer games as a cost-effective conduit to motivate and engage a game-savvy generation of soldiers in repetitive tactical thinking “anytime, anywhere”, has not gone unnoticed among various armed forces.
In 1995, the US Marine Corps had the prescience to take advantage of the Doom shareware in the development of Marine Doom, which was designed to hone the teamwork and coordination of four-soldier fire teams (Riddell, 1997). The advent of fully 3D games presented new possibilities for military application. In the past few years, the US Army has spent millions of dollars to work with developers to create various games, including America’s Army, which started out as a recruitment tool but has since been used to train future officers at West Point (Roth, 2003). Another such game is Full Spectrum Warrior, which aims to train squad leaders in real-life combat tactics of urban warfare (Reuters, 2003).

While these games developed by the US Army have since been introduced into the mainstream gaming community, several COTS games such as Delta Force 2, Steel Beasts, and Falcon 4.0 have also been adapted by various armed forces to enhance their relevance to military training (Macedonia, 2002; Calvert, 2003; Zyda and Sheehan, 1997).

LEVERAGING COTS GAMES THROUGH MODS
Adapting a game for military application typically involves engaging a game developer to create customised game content under strict licensing agreements. However, this may soon be the exception rather than the rule. Game-development toolkits, once the tightly-guarded bastion of game developers, have been made increasingly available by developers, to the delight of an emerging breed of gamers – the mod makers (The Straits Times, 2003). With access to the tools used to create games, these technically-inclined gamers are able to create new content – characters, weapons, vehicles, maps, missions – collectively forming modifications (or mods, in gaming jargon) of the commercial game, which they then freely share with other gaming enthusiasts over the Internet.

A good mod will invariably garner plaudits from the gaming community, and the status and acknowledgement awarded its creator is motivation enough for mod makers to spend countless hours creating new content (Herz, 2002). The game developers also stand to benefit as mods become a source of new content that extends the shelf life of games (Smed and Hakonen, 2003). It is this symbiotic relationship between game developers and mod makers borne out of the unique social ecology of games that we wish to leverage in the modification of COTS games for the SAF.

THE DSTA-SAF EXPERIENCE
As a conscript armed force, the SAF has a large pool of young national servicemen, many of whom are eager gamers. Several full-time National Servicemen (NSF) displayed great interest and aptitude as mod makers during various formation trials conducted in early 2003 to identify suitable COTS games that may supplement the SAF’s existing training curriculum. Under the direction of the officers-in-charge, these NSFs embarked on projects to create new game content specific to their respective arms formations, thus enabling the formations to quickly move ahead and incorporate these relevant mods in their training curriculum. In addition, students from Singapore’s Nanyang Polytechnic with skills in digital media design and information technology were engaged to create localised game content for the SAF’s use across the various arms (see Figure 2).

There are many benefits in leveraging COTS games to create mods for the SAF. First, there is low risk and little cost involved. In developing a game for commercial release, the developers would no doubt have allocated a significant budget towards the research and development of a robust game engine with leading-edge technology. By creating mods of COTS games, we are thus able to leverage the sophisticated game technology already in place for a fraction of the cost.

Secondly, the game-development toolkits released by the game developers provide a layer of abstraction from the underlying code, allowing experienced mod makers to create game assets with a relatively short turn-around time. While the tools may take some time to master, there is a wealth of online resources in the form of tutorials, videos, and forums to help novices shorten their learning curve. Our specific approach of involving NSF and polytechnic students in the process of creating mods for the SAF allows us not only to tap on their interest and skill sets, but also serves as an effective vehicle to reach out to this technology-savvy generation and welcome their contributions towards the SAF’s innovative approach to training.

Whilst COTS games offer proven game technology, the cultural infrastructure of the gaming communities also facilitates an informal yet invaluable source of feedback for the verification and validation of game models. In traditional military simulators, much care is given to verify and validate the accuracy of the simulation models, often requiring many man-hours dedicated to model testing. In the case of COTS tank, naval, and flight simulation games or other combat simulation games, the experienced soldiers amongst the pool of avid gamers will ferret out any inaccuracies in the game models and highlight them via reviews and forums. These errors may then be rectified by the developer in subsequent game patches, resulting in better fidelity game models.

CONSTRUCTING A WHOLE NEW VIRTUAL WORLD
Armed with the arsenal of professional game-development toolkits and third party utilities, mod makers have unleashed their creativity in pushing the bounds of the underlying game engines. A salient example is The Chain of Command, a mod of Operation Flashpoint developed by a diverse group of dedicated fans brought together by the common desire to create large scale strategic combat simulations on top of the original section-level tactical first-person shooter. In addition to strategic level gameplay, the mod makers have also created artillery units, torpedoes, mines, and combat divers to extend the spectrum of possible operations in the game.

The exact process of mod-making differs from game to game but they are likely to involve similar steps. The remainder of this section serves to provide an idea of what is involved in the creation of an SAF mod of Operation Flashpoint.

New game assets such as SAF weapons and vehicles as well as localised buildings and vegetation are modelled using Oxygen Light, the official modelling tool released by Bohemia Interactive Studio (BIS), the game’s developers. Photo-realistic textures prepared from actual photographs are then applied to the polygons of the 3D models. Key components of the model are identified with predetermined tags in order for the engine to associate the appropriate attributes with them. For instance, both ends of the SAR21 rifle barrel have to be tagged so that the engine can calculate the bullet’s trajectory.

After the game assets have been modelled, their in-game behaviour is specified in a configuration file that provides information to the game engine via parameters such as vehicle speed, armour values, effective range and damage of ammunition. The daunting task of defining all the parameters of a new game asset is eased considerably by using the parameters defined for an existing similar object. For instance, a new armoured personnel carrier like the SAF Bionix Infantry Fighting Vehicle could inherit the parameters of the existing M113 armored personnel carrier, leaving the mod maker to change only the parameters for which the Bionix differs from the M113.

Custom maps may also be created using Visitor 2 Light, the official terrain editor released by BIS. Geo-specific terrain may be modelled based on the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of geographical areas. However, there is some pre-processing that needs to be done to the DEM file before it may be imported into the terrain editor. Alternatively, a generic heightmap may be used in the modelling of geo-typical terrain.

Once the elevation profile has been imported into Visitor, ground textures such as grass, rock, or sand are applied to different parts of the terrain. Localised objects such as kampung huts, a Command HQ building, lamp posts, and vegetation such as mangrove, coconut, and banana trees created in Oxygen Light are then imported into the project and may be placed on the island as desired. Lastly, a network of roads is designed.

After the custom map and game assets are completed, everything is put together in the mission editor that is shipped with the game. The mission editor provides a fairly intuitive graphical user interface for gamers to define simple rule-sets in the creation of new missions. More complex scenarios may be designed with additional scripting of the computer-controlled units’ behaviour.

CHALLENGES
A strong element of creativity is integral to game object modelling and mission design to make for compelling gameplay. It is this creative aspect that sets COTS games apart from traditional military simulators and it should be pre-eminent in any effort to adapt COTS games to incorporate military training curriculum.

A more difficult challenge to surmount in adapting COTS games for the military is the lack of access to the underlying source code. This presents limitations to the degree that the original game may be modified. For instance, the important phases of mission planning and After-Action Review (AAR) may not be easily incorporated in a game without tweaking the source code. However, there is a glimmer of hope that more developers would embrace the open source movement that has been proven commercially viable by developers such as id Software. The decision taken by id Software to release the source code of Doom and Quake has given rise to a myriad of extensively modified games (Au, 2002). If more game developers adopted the same mantra of free information access, it would pave the way for more extensive modifications of COTS games to meet specific military interests.

USE OF MODS IN THE SAF
The versatility of Operation Flashpoint mods has found innovative applications in the various SAF schools to engage trainees in achieving learning objectives. Incorporating these mods into the training curriculum has yielded additional benefits such as savings in training resources and increased realism in conducting drills involving various members of a combat unit. The following paragraphs highlight the initiatives taken by the School of Armour (SOA) and School of Combat Engineers (SOCE) in creating custom game content to suit their specific needs.

The SOA has embarked on an ambitious project to create models of its vehicles such as the Ultra OWS, SM1, Bionix, and Bronco (see Figure 5) for use in custom training scenarios. Played in multi-player mode, the missions provide an environment for trainees to practise the various drills as well as hone their situation awareness and team-fighting skills. The Ultra OWS and SM1 models, along with a simple block mission, may be downloaded from the portal for SAF National Servicemen at http://www.miw.com.sg and played with the COTS Operation Flashpoint: Game of the Year edition.

The SOCE has also created new content such as concertina wire, mines, booby traps, and other equipment specific to their scope of operations and incorporated these in multi-player missions to enhance classroom instruction. This has proven to be an effective way of conducting dry runs as a preamble for actual field lessons or exercises. Trainees are able to quickly gain a clear understanding of the ground picture and their respective roles through hands-on gaming sessions. This translates into cost savings in the conduct of field exercises; for instance, there is less wastage of materials compared to previously when trainees were more unfamiliar with their drills. Besides enhancing classroom instruction, mods are also explored as an alternative to field lessons as a wet weather programme, or to overcome limitations of manpower and resources, and safety considerations that result in unrealistic battlefield scenarios.

FUTURE PLANS
As a repertoire of SAF mods is being built, some of these may be made accessible through online gaming. This would be an effective medium to reach out to NSFs and constantly engage them in tactical decision-making. While mods find even more application for training, we are also exploring its potential for military experimentation. The versatility of mods lends itself as a promising proxy world for the evaluation of war-fighting concepts.

SUMMARY AND PERSPECTIVE
As PC technology advances in response to market demand, COTS games will continue to grow in sophistication and complement military simulators in providing virtual environments that are rich in detail. This trend, coupled with the low cost of games and the ubiquity of PCs has motivated a closer examination of the relevance of COTS games to the SAF. The release of game-development toolkits by commercial game developers has been a boon in providing us a means to create customised content and mission scenarios to suit the SAF’s training needs with a short turn-around time.

The initial projects undertaken by SOA and SOCE represent the first steps in our commitment to fully explore and harness COTS games in engaging our next generation of soldiers. Overall, the results and feedback have been positive, paving the way for future projects as we seek other ways that this commercial interactive digital medium may cross over to meet the needs of military simulation in the SAF.

REFERENCES
Au, W. J. (2002) Triumph of the mod, Salon.com - Technology and Business.
Calvert, J. (2003) Danish Army to train with Steel Beasts, GameSpot, 6 January 2003.
Herz, J. C. (2002) Computer Games and the Military: An Industry View. Defense Horizons, 11.
Macedonia, M. (2002) Games Soldiers Play. IEEE Spectrum, March, pp.32-37.
Reuters (2003) Video game hones US soldiers’ fighting skills. Retrieved from The Straits Times, May 17 2003.
Riddell, R. (1997) Doom Goes to War. Wired Magazine, 5/04.
Roth, P. (2003) ‘America’s Army’ is Big Hit, And Not Just with Civilians. Wall Street Journal, May 16 2003.
Smed, J. and Hakonen, H. (2003) Towards a Definition of a Computer Game. TUCS Technical Report (553).
The Straits Times (2003) Here come the mod makers. The Straits Times, 5 December 2003.
Zyda, M. and Sheehan, J. (eds). (1997) Modeling and Simulation: Linking Entertainment and Defense, National Research Council.


BIOGRAPHY
Gwenda Fong Su-Yi is a Development Engineer (Simulation and Wargaming Solutions Centre). She works with the SAF Centre for Military Experimentation in the design, conduct, and analysis of experiments that explore future warfighting concepts. Her involvements include live experiments that aim to shape the Command Post of the Future, as well as the exploration of operational concepts using agent-based simulation. A PSC Overseas Merit Scholar, she pursued her studies at Stanford University, USA, where she obtained her BSc. (Dist.) and MSc. in Electrical Engineering in 2001.