Regardless of our age, playing with simulators (e.g. stock market investment, driving or flight simulators) and games (Starcraft, Hearts of Iron, World of Warcraft) always puts us on the path to learning and experiencing new things. That is because if our objective is to "win" the game, then we need to explore and learn the "system" in order to beat it. That is exactly what Game-Based Learning (GBL) is all about. In this article I will cover the types of game-based learning as well as the benefits of simulations and games. In addition, I will mention some of the tools that can be used to build eLearning games and simulations. Lastly, I will discuss how you can incorporate "gamification" into your eLearning content. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Follow on Twitter as @eyderpEyder Peralta summarizes, "For decades, we have known of only 14 convex pentagons that can do something called "tiling the plane." Now there is a 15th shape, but mathematicians are still far from knowing exactly how many exist."There are now 15 known convex pentagons, or nonregular pentagons with the angles pointing outward, that can "tile the plane." EdPeggJr/Wikimedia Commons   Jennifer McLoud-Mann had almost come to believe that her last two years of work had been for naught."It had gotten to the point, where we hadn't found anything," she said. "And I was starting to believe I just don't know if we're going to find anything."Armed with an algorithm, McLoud-Mann, along with her husband, Casey Mann, and David Von Derau — all of the University of Washington, Bothell — had been trying to help unravel one of math's long-standing unanswered questions.Photo: University of Washington Bothell How many shapes are able to "tile the plane" — meaning the shapes can fit together perfectly to cover any flat surface without overlapping or leaving any gaps. Mathematicians have proved that all triangles and quadrilaterals, or shapes with four sides, can tile the plane, and they have documented all of the convex hexagons that can do it.But it gets a lot more complicated when dealing with pentagons — specifically convex, or nonregular pentagons with the angles pointing outward. The number of convex pentagons is infinite — and so is the number that could potentially tile the plane. It's a problem that's almost unsolvable because, as McLoud-Mann put it, it has "infinitely many possibilities."...But last month, a cluster of computers that Von Derau was using to run though different shapes spit out an intriguing possibility. He sent it to McLoud-Mann, who said she was excited but suspicious. She had been sifting through the data coming out of the cluster, and most of the time when she checked the computers' work, the shapes turned out to be one of two things: an impossible pentagon — meaning one that didn't fit the mathematical definition of a convex pentagon — or one that already fit into the 14 types that had been found.This time it was different. She ran the data over to her husband's office. She told him that they needed to make a picture of it immediately. And this is what he came up with:The 15th convex pentagon found to be able to tile a plane.Casey Mann The three mathematicians had discovered the first new convex pentagon able to tile the plane in some 30 years. The scientists had become a part of a legendary history that dates to 1918, when the German mathematician Karl Reinhardt described the first five types of pentagons to be able to tile the plane. Until last month, only four others had added to that canon: R.B. Kershner found three more types in 1968; Richard James added one type in 1975; after reading about James' find in Scientific American, Marjorie Rice, a housewife and amateur mathematician, added four types that same year. Rolf Stein found a 14th type in 1985.Read more... Source: NPR

"The energy grew in the community space at Barnes & Noble at Bucknell as children and their parents arrived for a biweekly read-aloud."  Fourteen three- to six-year-olds took their places on pillows and in small chairs in anticipation. Then, Professor Lori Smolleck, chair, Department of Education, and Helen Vu '16 joined them.Photo: Bucknell University"Today, we're going to talk about shapes," Smolleck said. "What are some shapes that you know?"  "A heart!" said a girl, who was then invited to come up and draw it."A square!""A triangle!""A circle!"  When the children exhausted the shapes they could remember, Smolleck added some others — an octagon and a hexagon — while she held up examples and carefully led the group in counting each side, comparing similarities and differences among all of the shapes.At first glance, this may seem to be a simple exercise, but there's extensive planning behind it. Smolleck and Vu are working on an education research project to better understand how read-alouds contribute to learning. Each lesson builds on what the children already know and prepares them for what's next, be it pre-school or kindergarten. The lessons are recorded to collect data for analysis. Color Zoo by Lois EhlertThis lesson was based on the book Color Zoo by Lois Ehlert, which was a tool for Smolleck and Vu to help the kids learn mathematical concepts and early literacy comprehension strategies. "By the end of this lesson, our goal is to have the children recognize shapes, differentiate between shapes and create their own animal or scene out of them so they can see how shapes come together to make something larger," said Smolleck. "It allows them to practice understanding mathematical concepts and also to use fine motor skills and exercise creative thought."...This type of research informs the field of education as well, helping teachers reflect on their work to better reach learning outcomes and expand their awareness of what they do and say in the classroom, which can affect students' knowledge and attitudes."Conducting research of this nature is an invaluable experience, which will greatly impact Helen's future as a graduate student and educator," said Smolleck. "She's gaining familiarity with current educational reform and research in early childhood and literacy education, as well as other content areas such as science, social studies and mathematics education. This may impact her choice to employ more reform-oriented methods of teaching that are balanced in relation to the integration of content areas. I also think it will help Helen reflect on her own teaching philosophies and make her implicit beliefs about teaching and instruction explicit as she continues to examine her teaching strategies and develop as an educator."Read more... Source: Bucknell University

Photos Thursday morning we arrived at Ocean Avenue in Carmel just in time to catch the arrival of the cars in the Tour d’Elegance. These cars, that would participate in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance on Sunday, had driven from Monterey to Big Sur and back through Carmel where they park for a couple of … Continue reading Monterey Car Week →

In this video interview example, learners can simulate a real-world conversation using interactive video and text-based questions. This video interview was created for a recent […] The post Video Interview appeared first on Elearning Examples.

As noted in an earlier post, an easy way to build interactive elearning modules is by choosing a single image and adding interactive elements to it. This is a great solution for those who don’t have graphic design skills or access to a graphic designer. The key is finding a single image that has a few […]

A recent posting for a six-week knowledge management contract was posted by the UNDP. When it comes to requests for proposals, if you ask for something, you will definitely get offers to produce it. But is this what they need? "Conduct initial research on industry standards for KM measurement to inform the design of UNDP’s... Read more »

Portable solar panels are very convenient as they are both light and thin. These were designed to be flexible for comfort in the creation and storage. They are mainly used outdoors, but can also feed a whole family while using little space. The use of portable solar panels is popular among travelers and campers since ...

Teachers will be the next millionaires! I've been making this statement for the last decade. But it's only been in the last few years that I've actually seen it becoming a reality. Training-preneurs are all over the internet. They are the people who have seen what technology has done to other industries, as well as what […] The post The Rise of the Training-preneur appeared first on Litmos.

From the Inter-American Dialogue and the Inter-American Development Bank: A new foresight resource freely available to the public entitled, A Database of Reports on Global Trends and Future Scenarios. This database includes nearly 800 foresight publications and reports from around the world, and it provides governments, banks, corporations, universities, think tanks, and other institutions continuous […]