Learnlets

Secondary

Clark Quinn’s Learnings about Learning

Imagineering

7 May 2007 by Clark Leave a Comment

Last week we went down to LA to visit my Mother for her birthday, and to take the kids to Disneyland for a day (after the other trips we’ve taken for family reasons, including my Dad‘s rememberance). It was a great trip for all reasons, but the Disney experience had a lesson for me.

We had almost no lines the whole day even for top rides like the Matterhorn, Pirates of the Caribbean, Indiana Jones, etc. We caught Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride early, but late in the day went back to Fantasyland to hit Pinocchio, Snow White, & Peter Pan (none of which I’d been on in more years than I care to admit). We went on the first two, since the line for Peter Pan was substantially longer.   Finally we bit the bullet and got in line for Pan, and then I understood why people were waiting for it. Peter Pan was a substantially better ride, for important reasons.

Now, each of these rides has a ‘license’ (in the game industry, companies with ‘properties’ such as Lord of the Rings will license them to companies to make accompanying games, and no one else can make a competing game) they have to align with. The trick, then, is to make the ride a compelling experience in and of itself, as well as use the story associated with the license. With games, sometimes the experience *is* the story, that is you play James Bond in GoldenEye, and other times it’s another story with the same character (e.g. Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis).

In a ride, the experience should be good on it’s own, whether or not you know the story. So, for example, our kids never got into the Pinocchio movie and consequently don’t know the story. Nor had they seen the Disney version of Peter Pan. Yet the Peter Pan ride was just very cool: you float out over the city in a sailing ship and into the stars, before coming down and flying around Neverland. While in Pinocchio, you basically just see the events in the story (with the one caveat of being eaten by the whale, which is scary). And Snow White didn’t even have a real ending, suddenly you’re just out!

Disney’s Imagineering has done amazing things, and those rides are old, but there’s a lesson here about getting the experience right, so that not only is the story referenced, but the rider actually has an interesting experience. That holds for learning game (er, Immersive Learning Simulation) design, too, where you don’t just want cognitive practice of important decisions, but you’d like the learner to be emotionally engaged. As I tell my workshop attendees, it’s not about designing content, it’s about creating an experience! So, think wholistically and create an environment that hooks you from the beginning, creates interesting emotional trajectories, and provides a feeling of closure at the end.

NexLearn interview

3 April 2007 by Clark Leave a Comment

I was interviewed on simulation games by NexLearn (creators of SimWriter) for their April newsletter, and make a few points that I feel strongly about. Check it out!

They left out my claim that you can’t just put educators and game designers in a room and expect a viable solution.   Also that in the near future I don’t think we’ll see tuning to a game-level of experience as often as we might.   I also made a point that there are problems with choosing the tool before you do the design.   Finally, I said that you shouldn’t go it alone unless you have time and budget for experimentation, and that developing the skills to do this effectively take time.   But they left in some important points as well, and I think it’s worth a read.

Intelligent Toys…

31 March 2007 by Clark Leave a Comment

This past week I was in Taiwan as an invited keynote at the IEEE’s Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning workshop. I like to keep my head in on the academic side as a source of inspiration, and this was just such an opportunity. I got there late (family commitment meant I missed the first two days) but I heard the last day with some great talks, and had a chance to read a lot of the proceedings on the long flight back.

One of the interesting outcomes was the debate about what’s a game and what’s a toy. Games have rules, toys have affordances (read: capabilities), but when your toys can communicate to you and each other, they start blending the boundaries. Another form of blending was that some of the game work was about classroom work, but the toy stuff tended to be more focused on non-school play.

Of course, there was some talk about supporting the learning, and the need for reflection. In addition to my expected coverage of systematic learning game design, one of the points I tried to throw in is that we should be looking at ways in which learning systems could be smart about coaching learning to learn and generalization, not just on the particular domain such as mathematics. There’s very simple coaching in the Quest game that focuses on your exploration, based upon some work Valerie Shute & Jeffrey Bonar did even longer ago, and I think that model of coaching could be expanded and built into any modeled environment (e.g. game engines).

I didn’t hear his keynote, but Michael Eisenberg, who I’d met years ago and has subsequently become a steadfast innovator at the University of Colorado Boulder (a great cog sci place), had another talk about making magic manifest, not having black boxes but making the operations manipulable so you can change them and explore the underlying relationships. Eric Schweikardt, a student of Michael’s collaborator Dan Gross, attempted a categorization across games, and pointed out a different model of programming that involves lots of distributed capabilities being pulled together into a smart aggregation instead of a central intelligent program (e.g. Lego Mindstorms), and presented several versions.

My notion of a wise curriculum includes thinking systemically and modeling skills, so the notion of using toys to learn different modeling schemes is very cool. Not to the exclusion of the central control model, but as an alternate approach (indeed, as was pointed out by Schweikardt, Stephen Wolfram has argued that we should be using small rules as the way to understand how the world works).

Another innovator with toys was fellow keynoter Masanori Sugimoto who is doing some very innovative things with manipulables, including a computer projector. (I made a note to add ‘projector’ to my list of potential input/outputs for mobile devices!) He also does very systematic studies of his implementations and tunes them to get them better. For instance, he was using a camera to register what elements kids put down where on a grid table, but the kids leaning over obscured it, so he had to make the pieces carry the information and have the grid itself record what was on it.

As Professor Tak-Wai Chan (our host, and a recognized innovator in his own right for his exploration of intelligent learning ‘companions’) noted, one of the reasons to have this overseas is to help make the US aware of how much happens overseas; one of the first lessons I learned when I went to Australia for an academic position was how insular the US is, beacuse there’s so much happening in the US it’s easy to miss how much is happening elsewhere.

Sure, there were some fairly straightforward exercises about games and toys, and some rather typical research, but we need these too. The next one will be a full conference in Europe, and I believe there’s a commitment to regularly move it around. The neat thing about this conference was that it not only about classroom learning but also about informal learning (and technology, ok so I’m still a geek), so it provided an interesting way to look at the intersection, and I think there will be great reasons to keep track of this direction. There were a lot of students, and there’s great hope that this research (as eloquently put many years ago by John Anderson that we learn alot about learning by trying to create learning systems) can make new inroads into understanding.

Game Design Docs Example

28 February 2007 by Clark 1 Comment

Over at GamaSutra, there’s a great example of a Design Document for a game. As I talk about in my workshops, they freely switch between lookup tables, flow charts, and other ways of representing their thoughts.

It’s nice for them to be willing to share this peek inside commercial game development, and there’re some great ideas about things like different paths for different players (here: simple score, puzzles, and real ‘twitch’ skills). Recommended.

Hard work (motivation and tasks)

27 October 2006 by Clark 1 Comment

Too much hard work has kept me from blogging recently, but there’s a lesson here. David Batstone’s Right Reality newsletter the WAG, a great source of inspiration, pointed me to a report that says that hard work, not natural talent, is the key to success.

While people have often suggested it’s both, the research suggests that there’s no such thing as a natural talent for a specific thing. Moreover, the fact that some people continue on to greatness in any particular thing is due to ‘deliberate practice’: “activity that’s explicitly intended to improve performance”.

I think there’re two parts to that. One is finding or knowing the right thing to do, and the second is maintaining persistence through an increasing level of difficulty. Neither is a given. Maybe the natural talent is to figure out what you want to do and be willing to pursue it. The necessary adjunct is arranging the necessary support.

Really, that’s what I think we should be doing with good learning game design, using the story and setting the level of challenge to maintain motivation, and then ensuring that the embedded decisions are the necessary skills we want to develop.

There’s more, properly representing the concept, providing useful models of applying the concept to the context, supporting reflection to cement and extend the learning, but not only is this great news for anyone who has a passion, it’s also a boost for the value of good learning design.

Measuring interfaces

27 August 2006 by Clark Leave a Comment

In a recent Gamasutra article, Phillip Goetz analyzes strategy-based game interfaces. This wouldn’t be of interest normally, but the approach he takes, talking about metrics of number of steps to accomplish player goals is.

Goetz is talking about how you have to give orders to every ‘unit’ (a game element such as a factory or a squad), but in real life as you have greater responsibility you get greater authority and delegate on the one hand, and you have templates of behavior you can request. The point being, that our goals shift and we look for ways to automate tasks we’ve mastered and have to perform a lot.

The take home I want to suggest is that analyzing tasks and minimizing the steps to accomplish the users goals has been elegantly discussed in Don Norman’s 7 Stages of Action model (from his Design of Everyday Things), and this application is an excellent case study. He also talks about tools to measure things like learner actions so you can map what the user is trying to do to the number of steps to accomplish this.

There’s more (and it gets into the weeds a bit about objects), but this is a great start. Usability is part of learning game design (and learning technology in general), and good examples are one of the great ways to get a handle on it.

‘Game’ online

16 August 2006 by Clark Leave a Comment

CO2FX is a ‘game’ about national policies and the carbon dioxide effects. You have responsibility for the science, economic and policy decisions for a national government. It’s very playable, although figuring your way through the interface takes a lot of exploration and experimentation.

The assessment that it’s a game is somewhat problematic; I claim that the designer can’t claim it’s a game, only players can determine whether it is (it’s a subjective assessment). Using my terminology, it’s a scenario (a simulation is just a model; it’s a scenario when you wrap an initial state and a goal state, possiblly with a story; it’s a game when you tune the experience to engagement).

The experience is certainly challenging, and there’s novelty in that what you do doesn’t seem to have the effect you inferred from the feedback, but the overall drama felt lacking; I didn’t feel quite the sense of urgency or outcomes; e.g. my popularity seemed to be waning, even though there was great economic growth, but I didn’t hear rumbles of dissent or have to weather bad press.

It’s a great example of what can, and should, be done, but it doesn’t stand on it’s own (it’d benefit from some ‘wrapping’ around the goals, to scaffold the learning, and to support post-hoc reflection).   Don’t get me wrong, I think there’s great educational value, but I think the claim of it being a game is a wee bit premature.

“Engaging Learning” Book review

27 July 2006 by Clark Leave a Comment

I found a review of my book Engaging Learning, by Jon Alekson, who I don’t know. It’s a fair review; he gets what I’m trying to accomplish (making the learning experience more effective), but criticizes my writing as a bit heavy, and bemoans the lack of focus on graphics.

I’ll wear the first one, but remark that it’s remarkably light considering I was trained as an academic and rewarded for dense prose for many years. Besides, my editor praised my ‘warm tone’ :). Your mileage may vary.

As for the graphics, I’ll admit it doesn’t have as much as I’d like. On the other hand, you can actually play a couple of games mentioned in the book on the web (check out the ‘Examples’ here). I’m not a graphic designer, and had little to do in regards to the final appearance as they were done by professionals. And, on the pragmatic side, copyright permissions aren’t much fun.

I haven’t seen many reviews, so it was good to find this one.

Running a pervasive game

18 July 2006 by Clark Leave a Comment

There was mayhem in the streets of Palo Alto yesterday as teams of players chased the clues to solve a mystery. At the Institute For the Future we ran a pervasive game as an example of the topic of this month’s meeting. Credit goes to Jim Schuyler of Red7 for organizing and leading the team who developed the game, and implemented it in his FIT environment for just such purposes. Not a learning game, but definitely fun and it *could* be.

Nicole Lazarro of Xeo Design who I’ve mentioned in an earlier post, Mads Rydahl of Planet (a Scandinavian game design firm), and Mike Love from IFTF all helped Jim and I create the design, which was tested, refined, and then run. The game included props such as posters on notice boards, clues to be sent in by phone, and confederates hanging out.

We had an inside team manning the web browser while 3 different teams (each doing the same thing, to have the right group size, but there’s no technical reason they couldn’t have different tasks) ran around figuring out puzzles and text-messaging them to the game system which gave them the next task. At times, interaction with the inside team was required.

It was tough; not all teams solved the puzzles in the allotted time (we had to go back for the presentations by Nicole and myself, and discussion: her on the 4 emotional keys, me on learning games), but the interaction was well-received. Competitive spirits came into play as well as the thrill of discovery (Nicole’s ‘fiero’), and frustration. It wasn’t perfect, given that it was thrown together by a volunteer team in a short period of time, but it worked: 1 team managed to save the day (accomplishing the final rescue), and a good time was had by all.

It was a great learning experience, both in working with others on the design and in watching the players (I followed one team around). In addition to Nicole’s model, Mads was quite keen on having the boundaries between the game action and the real world blur. This actually happened not only by design, but also by circumstance; but a police officer was in the building as the teams left (the mystery was solving a theft), and the confederate’s bike was stolen while he was talking to the team!

There’s great potential in this for marketing (the gelato store built into the plotline did a rousing business on a blazing hot day from the team members), learning, as well as just plain fun. If we believe Pine & Gilmore that the next step beyond the experience economy will be the transformation economy, this will be one of the tools in our repertoire.

Reflection(s)

20 June 2006 by Clark Leave a Comment

I stumbled across the term Heutology, which is a word coined to talk about self-directed learning. It’s very similar to the ideas Jay Cross talks about for informal learning, but it is proposed as a successor to Malcolm Knowles Andragogy, wherein the role of the instructor is lost. I’ve argued that you can’t take self-directed learning capability for granted, as you can’t assume everyone’s developed the skills. And even then, you may need help.

For instance, even though I think of myself as a fairly capable self-learner, I need help on getting past my self-marketing barriers, and have been involved in one of Robert Middleton‘s Marketing Action Groups. A great resource for guidance on marketing yourself as an independent professional.

But I was reflecting on reflection as a critical tool of meta-learning or learning to learn. We don’t do enough of it, generally, though those I see as highly successful usually have a reflection process built into their lifestyles. Organizations say there isn’t enough time for reflection, we have to do, yet reflection is one of they keys to learning, and learning will be the key to ongoing creativity and innovation that will be differentiator for success going forward.

On a more practical note, I’ve been thinking about reflection as a part of our learning design. Of course we provide feedback, and we often have ‘thought questions’, but I’m convincing myself that we don’t do enough. I’ve started ending the scenarios I develop with a series of thought questions (credits to Deborah Zimmerman, of Agile Mind, who first tossed this into a scenario we developed on nursing) to generalize the learning. In scenarios you can only present so many contexts, and for transfer to broader contexts you can ask questions like:

  • “How would that play out in a different situation?”
  • “What would this look like in your own work situation?”
  • “Can you hear this in your own life?”

I’d like to suggest that you consider wrapping up any learning content with some reflection questions before you close the experience, as a practical step. And find time to reflect in your own life, becoming clear about what you’re looking for.

« Previous Page
Next Page »

Clark Quinn

The Company

Search

Pages

  • About Learnlets and Quinnovation

The Serious eLearning Manifesto

Manifesto badge

Categories

  • design
  • games
  • meta-learning
  • mindmap
  • mobile
  • social
  • strategy
  • technology
  • Uncategorized
  • virtual worlds

Blogroll

  • Charles Jennings
  • Christy Tucker
  • Connie Malamed
  • Dave's Whiteboard
  • Donald Clark's Plan B
  • Donald Taylor
  • Harold Jarche
  • Julie Dirksen
  • Kevin Thorn
  • Mark Britz
  • Mirjam Neelen & Paul Kirschner
  • Stephen Downes' Half an Hour

License

Previous Posts

  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • September 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • May 2009
  • April 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • June 2008
  • May 2008
  • April 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • July 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • April 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • May 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006

Amazon Affiliate

Required to announce that, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Mostly book links. Full disclosure.