Virtual world promotes getting active in the real world...

Here's a great new idea on the virtual world front: you buy the handheld device for about $40, create an avatar on it...that you can plug into the computer to explore a virtual world (me2universe.com) ...but here's the really cool part: the handheld device has a motion sensor on it - and your motion in the real world creates currency that you can use in the virtual world! What's not to love?

See Blog Entry by Scott Traylor of 360kid.com:

Giant Leap Forward with Kids' Virtual Worlds February 22nd, 2008 Irwin Toy creates the ME2, a handheld product that collects "motion points" in the real world and converts those points into online currency.

...til someone pokes an eye out...

Its all fun and games!

*********** CALL FOR PARTICIPATION *****************************

************** Fun n'Games 2008 ******************************

20-21 October 2008
Eindhoven University of Technology
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
(url: fng2008.org)


* CONFERENCE THEME *
Fun n' Games 2008, is a single-track conference that is aimed at bringing
together researchers, designers and developers interested in applications
of novel technologies in the areas of games and entertainment.
This event is aimed at providing a venue for sharing and show-casing recent
work in this area whether this concerns research experiences and findings,
design work or innovative applications.

* CONFERENCE TOPICS *
- Advanced Game Concepts
- Game Design Methods, Principles and Processes
- Games for Children
- Games for the Elderly
- Evaluating Games and Fun
- Serious Games
- Mobile Games and Entertainment
- Pervasive Games
- Tangible Interaction in Entertainment Applications
- Understanding the Game Experience
- Persuasive Aspects of games
- Entertainment Beyond Gaming
- Affective Computing Applications for Fun and Games
- Novel Media Entertainment Applications
- Robots for Fun and Games
- Social aspects of Fun and Games
- Games and Rehabilitation technologies
- Multimodal Interaction and Gaming
- Smart Toys and Playgrounds

* SUBMISSIONS *
Submissions should be made electronically from the conference website
(fng2008.org). All submissions should be formatted using the Springer LNCS
format (available from www.springer.com).

Submission are invited in the following categories:
+ Technical Papers (6 or 12 pages)
Technical papers should present original work that makes a substantial
research contribution or innovation in relation to the conference topic
area. Accepted papers will be included in the main Conference Proceedings
volume.
Technical papers can be either short (6 pages) or long (12 pages), depending
on the magnitude of the contribution made or on how much space the authors
need to explain their work clearly.

+ Workshop Proposals (max 6 pages)
Submissions are invited for workshop proposals on topics relating to the
conference them. Workshop proposals should describe and motivate the aims of
the workshop and should include an outline of activities planned by the
organizers running up to, during and after the workshop. Accepted
submissions will be included in the adjunct conference proceedings.

+ Posters (max 4 pages)
Submissions in this category should present recent late breaking and
preliminary results or present on-going work. They will be presented in a
poster form during the conference and accepted submissions will be included
in the adjunct conference proceedings.

+ Demonstrations (max 4 pages)
The demonstration programme will present examples of prototypes and systems
of applications that conference attendees can experience during the event.
Authors can submit demonstration papers directly to the demonstrations
category. Submissions should describe clearly the nature of the
demonstration and motivate it.
Authors of accepted submissions in all categories will also be encouraged to
bring demonstrations along and to make a rich and lively demonstration
programme. In these cases, no separate abstract submission is required.

SUBMISSION DEADLINES
- Technical Papers: April 18, 2008
- Workshop Proposals: April 18, 2008
- Posters: June 16, 2008
- Demonstrations: June 16, 2008

Games in Ed - and a great video podcast

Games in Education - a technology video podcast from the Orange County Department of Education: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6117726917684965691

A 22 minute video featuring comments from Henry Jenkins, James Gee, and Clark Aldrich. This is not only a great summary of some of the prevalent concepts and theories related to use of games within education - but also an interesting example of a using a variety of readily accessible technologies (phone, video capture, video conferencing, etc) to create a compelling video program.

More on Digital Natives

I stumbled upon this link while looking for a few new/good links to add to my link list: "The impact of digital games in education" by Begoña Gros http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_7/xyzgros/index.html

I particularly liked the section on design - as that is something I struggle with daily as I'm working on the Virtual Congress project: "Specialists all agree on the requisites for good design: To have played a great deal; to be aware of the good and bad designs on the market; and, — above all — to think like a player at all times."

Gros highlights the following questions from Prensky (2001):

1. Is the product fun enough that someone who is not in its target audience would want to use it?
2. Do people using it think of themselves as "players" rather than "students"?
3. Is the experience addictive? Do users want to play again and again?
4. Are the users’ skills in the subject matter and learning content of the game — be it knowledge, process, procedure, ability, etc. — significantly improving at a rapid rate and getting better the longer he or she plays?
5. Does the game encourage reflection about what has been learned?

digital natives

I stumbled across this video link today and wanted to share it because I think it does a great job of highlighting some of the problems with (or potential pitfalls) of our current educational system in America. "A Vision of k-12 Students Today: " http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8

Earlier this week I also watched a special produced by Frontline about Digital Natives: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/#. It painted a rather bleak picture of the impact that technology is having on today's youth - and did little more than allude to the potential positive impact that technology could have if used properly within an educational context.

Its no mystery that students can find education boring or outdated when educators fail to make proper use of the technologies that today's youth have grown up with - and are fully immersed in when they are outside of school. It boggles my mind however, that more than two decades after educators began crusading for more technology inclusion and more meaningful use of technology in schools that we still haven't seen the major educational revolution that was promised (at least prophesized) - most classrooms that I visit today still look like the ones that I was educated in twenty or thirty years ago - and probably look a great deal like the ones my parents were educated in fifty and sixty years ago. It further infuriates me when I hear that some schools won't allow students to bring computers or pda's to school with them - or that homework assignments (especially those that are creative in nature) can't be done with the aid of a computer. I understand the arguments that have been made for these policies (fear theft and vandalism, concern about the digital divide, etc.) - but I also see countless learning opportunities that are lost each time a student is prevented from using appropriate technology in an appropriate fashion to enable further learning.