Article: Online Games Make Great Training

Daniel Negreanu of the Houston Chronicle Sports Section thinks Online games can be a great training tool. Of course they are talking about online poker. It suggests that online practice helps.

That's exactly what many of the world's top players do on a regular basis.

I am not a big fan of gambling due to the overwhelmingly negative effect it has on our society, but it is interesting to see that online games are an accepted approach to improve performance. The article provides some tips, such as "use information bets" and "keep it simple" both having to do with techniques of the game. As online games continue to proliferate in other areas they should continue to gain more acceptance in training.

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Journal on Games now Available

The Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia has a full edition dedicated to games. It looks cool, but I don't have access to it. You can read the abstracts if you like.

I wish they had the articles available online.

What Games Taught Me?

It seems that games are already having an influence on today's professionals.  In the first Ruby on Rails podcast , David Heinemeier Hansson talks about how his experience as a GM (game master) provide him with the experience to work in a very distributed environment and support the open source software project Ruby on Rails . David says,

"I was learning the skills that it takes to make a group of people mesh..."

I listened to all the podcasts and thought that they really helped give insight to those working on the project and it kind of personalized the process. 

I am still having a very difficult time getting to work for me, but I have never programmed before in my life, so I expected it to be a challenge.

We are starting to find integrated examples of how games are effecting and shaping current professionals.


learning games

Learning Games

Tim O'Rielly posted about Using Half Life in Academia.  The Microsoft Research Group and VALVe has released the Half Life 2 SDK that will allow developers to add artificial intelligence that can be run on the Half Life game engine. Basically giving students a state-of-the-art game engine to create their own games, environments, or whatever they want.  Microsoft is actually creating a tool to tie Visual C++ into the released SDK.  You can watch the presentation here. (IE only)  However, it's for colleges only.

Mark Oehlert has blogged about America's Army becoming a platform and the role of games in learning.  Could this another learning 2.0 seed?  It seems so.  Being able to remix Half Life 2 by controlling the objects within the environment using AI controls through an API is just cool.  I would love to dig in and build an adaptive learning environment where objects changed their behavior based upon your performance.  Could we develop problem-based learning scenarios and have the learner/gamer work through them? absolutely.  Could you imagine a leadership course through this?  (disclosure: I haven't played Half Life 2 or the orginal, my son's too young)

If there is a Higher Education Institution out there who wants me to pull together a team of programmers and build a Half Life 2 learning environment, contact me.   

learning games

e3 05 and more games

While I have been busy, I've tried to catch a glimpse of E3 coverage. It looks like there will be lot's of new games on the market soon. The x-Box 360 looks to be very cool. I wonder how it will do hooked to my Directway system. I am not optomistic. This is why broadband has got to get better and get everywhere. We need are xbox online all the time.



I had this great idea... what if you could Tivo your xbox and save out to a DVD or to the web and be able to create learning scenarios? This would be cool.

Learning Games

I've been wanting to develop a "learning game". This game would be playable on my PSP, which I didn't get to read the RSS feed yet, but will. I find that it is a bit difficult to identify what area to target. Clarck Aldrich focused on leadership in the creation of his simulation and think there is still a lot that could be done in this area. A general business simulation would also seem to be a good idea.

Gaming Design

Last night while scanning the bookshelves at Walden Books I found (and ultimately bought) a book on game design. Once at home my son and I went through the text and started brainstorming a new computer game. I was struck by the parallel to training development. I don't know if Jay Cross's Beginning - Middle - End process completely fits, but design, documentation, and development all fit. I was also interested in how they had identified 12 genres of games and a design structure for each one. The designs really reflect the type of learner experience and engagement that results. Once I read the list and saw the concept map or design structure it was quite easy to see the reasoning for the design and what type of game it would be.

Do we have this in training? Am I missing the obvious? I guess a Lesson Plan is our concept map, but we really don't use those in corporate training. A syllabus? They vary so much it's difficult to tell what type of course will be offered. Every training provider has a different approach.

It would appear that the evolution of learning theory still remains too complex to impose strong pedagogy on the industry. If we had to deliver it on a standardized platform (xBox or PSP) would we be able to identify each type of training? Would it be more effective because only effective training would get funding and become published? or would we have a less effective industry because we had so much value when we individual and customize or training?

Amped 2 

Simulations and Gaming

I was able to get through the rest of Clark's presentation. I also order his book online today. (One-click ordering on Amazon seems to represent frictionless commerce much like Bill Gates described it in his book.) The presentation went into some of the specifics in terms of the differences between games and simulations and pedagogy. I particularly liked his descriptions of working through the issues of how games have certain characteristics and simulations have certain characteristics.... Games have challenges and conflicts that can cause purposeful frustration, hopefully then have resolution. Simulations are more focused on creating a real world representation. However, this is often not appropriate or not efficient for learning. Clark's example was training for a military guard. Should the simulation sit idle for 90% of the time? This doesn't seem efficient, but it does reflect real world.

He also discussed the application of pedagogy to the learning experience. When do you offer help, when is it discovery type learning. In my view the answer probably lies more in the learner rather then the training. This really makes me think about our xBox games. I have been playing Amped 2 and it is awesome. Alex and I have created players, chosen our clothing, and boards. We have begun to build our skill sets. Yesterday, I took a few minutes to go through the tutorials. They have a menu option for training! Very cool. I actually was shown how to do the tricks. Then given an opportunity to practice. However, practice was not unlocked until I completed the lesson and the practice was actually not marked complete until I successfully completed each task presented to me. Mastery Learning.

So let me get this straight... I was in a tutorial that taught me how to perform complex skills, offered direct and consistent feedback, was not allowed to have success (a checkmark) until I showed mastery of the skill. Then was shoved into a real environment to compete using the skills (against a very crafty 6 year old). All in one evening without a single instructor... Very cool.

Although, the tutorials come from the main menu, they were not in the workflow process. When I'm snowboarding down the hill, I get performance feedback, like "Get a new trick, Rookie" "Seen it" if my performance doesn't improve. But no tutorials, no stop and do this or here is how you do that, then continue down the hill.

Clark also discussed some specific research or analysis that he had conducted with his companies product showing some solid positive results. I think this is very interesting.

Simulations and Games

I was listening to Clark Aldrich on my iPod on this morning's commute. He was discussing the four types of traditional simulations. Branching stories, Interactive Spreadsheets, Games, and virtual products. It was a very interesting presentation with a lot of good real world examples. He indicated that the branching stories are good for high turnover positions and entry level people. Mid to high level people typically need more than 1 or 2 options to branch.

This is a good presentation... I hope to get through the rest soon.