Artigo aceite para a ticEDUCA 2012 - II Congresso Internacional TIC e Educação (ver este post). Os revisores consideraram que o trabalho se encontra "organizado e fundamentado" e que "apresenta justificativas e fundamentos teórico-metodológicos bem delineados". No entanto (e como esperado), "não apresentou dados/resultados preliminares". Esta será a fase seguinte ... A ticEDUCA 2012 terá lugar em Lisboa, de 30 de novembro a 2 de dezembro de 2012.

Word Vine is a very interesting word puzzle game. The objective of the game is to link all the words availabe in such a fashion that every two words make sense when linked together. For example the word Stop when linked with the words Bus and Watch make meaningful words like Bus Stop, Stop Watch. If you succeed in finding the root word, then you can easily pair words. The game begins at a basic level and proceeds towards adavanced levels. As you clear each level, the complexity increases. You just have to drag and drop the words into the branch and also to arrange them in the right order. Here is an example of one level of this game. As you see the words on the left. The branch is not quite visible in the image below: Here is another image where the words have been dragged and dropped into the branch: When you succeed in linking words correctly, you get the time you used to solve the puzzle and the score. What I liked About the Game Word Vine uses a word game that might not be new to anyone. Yet the presentation idea is creative. The game does not use high end graphics. As you notice the interface is plain and simple. But then the game is really engrossing. Let me list the interesting points in this game: You do not have to know what two words will make sense together. You can drag and drop the words, identify the root word and try linking words with the root word.  There is a lot of scope for trial and error this way though you get the score depending on how much time you took to solve the puzzle. Also the game play becomes easy and pain free. It would have been painful, had it been that you have to drag and drop the words in the correct fashion in the first instance or even if you had to drag and drop the word back and forth to achieve the correct order. As you pair words, the colour of the words keep changing. If it is red, then it indicates wrong pairs. If it is yellow, then there is some positive sign. Green indicates success. This way you are not lost. You get a hint on how successful you have been. I think this is a very creative idea. If these color indications were not there, the game would not have been interesting. I think Word Vine is a good illustration of how you can innovate on exisiting stuff. Play the game now and drop in your comments

The Instructional Designers Community of India is organizing the 5th meetup on August 22, 2009. The venue is Adobe office, Salarpuria Infinity, 3rd Floor, #5, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore-560029 The time duration of the meetup will be 11 am to 1 pm. There is going to be an interesting session on Learning Philosophy- How to make learning solutions that work. This is not a classical ‘Learning Session’ but more an ‘Exposure Session’. At the end of the session the participant should be able to: Describe the ‘LH Philosophy’ to learning design. Discuss the possibilities of using the LH Philosophy to make an effective learning design. Discuss the importance of making learner centric design solutions. The speaker is Abhinava who is an learning professional and leads the ID team at Astutix Learning. So if you are in Bangalore, please step into Adobe office this Saturday and avail the chance to connect with other learning professional and share your ideas/views with others . If you are not in Bangalore and still want to attend the session, you can do it online using the url : http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/idci/ Please note the session will start at 11:30 am. About 33 people have RSVPd for the session. If you have not RSVPd yet, please do it here. ————————————————————————————————————————————————- About Instructional Designers Community of India The Instructional Designers Community of India (IDCI) is a non-profit community that has close to 133 learning professionals as members. IDCI organizes free collaborative learning sessions every month. IDCI meetups are sponsored by Adobe and is looking for more sponsors. IDCI has been getting lot of support from learning professionals who attend the monthly meetups. Learning professionals from Citrix and Cisco have already offered their office locations to conduct meetups. So far 4 successful meetups and learning sessions have happened in Adobe office, Bangalore. IDCI broadcasted the July session online using Adobe Connect and this helped learning professionals from other locations participate and share their ideas. Many learning professionals actively participate in the meetups every month. A few of them have expressed interest to conduct useful sessions too. If you want to be a part of IDCI, join the community here: http://idc-india.ning.com/ If you want to submit a speaking proposal,  read the speaker guidelines and please fill the form. What’s so different about meetups organized by IDCI? They are informal The sessions encourage collaborative learning You feel part of IDCI and are involved and encouraged to voice out your ideas You learn a lot by interacting with others The scope of discussion is not limited to the topic of the session You get to connect with lot of other learning professionals and like minded people People come to know you and what you are capable of There are high chances that a good opportunity comes your way This being said, please try to attend IDCI sessions either in the specified venue in Bangalore or online. Without your support IDCI cannot grow and sustain. Please extend your support and make the best use of IDCI. Your ideas and suggestions are welcome. Please bear with the limitations if any and help us improve. Please write to us @ idcindia.ning@gmail.com

I have always wanted to write about room escape games. I have picked up Crimson Room as the game of the week because it is a room escape game, though it is has some shortcomings. I have always found room escape games very fascinating, though I haven’t been able to successfully complete any such game. When you play a room escape game, the objective is obvious. You have to find a way to get out of a locked room and this is not easy. It is a puzzle and you need to find out how to solve it. In Crimson Room, you are trapped in a room and you can escape only through the blue door which is locked. The room has lots of objects which you need to collect. You need to use these articles to escape out of the room. The challenge is in figuring out how to use these objects and for what purpose. You just need to use your mouse and click on items to proceed in this game. For example, here is a screenshot of the game, where I used a key to open the drawer and I found a red box: You continuously find objects and items and use them to find more objects. It is like a chain reaction. Each action gives a result and leads you to the next action. The game is extremely challenging because you get no clues. Room escape games without hint can be really frustrating. Room escape games will make for an interesting play, if they are guided and there are hints. I played this game called Great Journey , which is an adventure game. This game uses the same concept of finding objects and using them to solve a puzzle. Playing Great Journey was fun and easier because the game had lot of mini games. When you successfully play a mini game, you win a hint. Even otherwise you can hunt for hints. So there is no way you are lost on how to proceed. In short I like the concept of room escape games. Please get a feel of a room escape game by playing Crimson Room. Here is the cheat code and a walkthrough of the game to help you escape out of the room Let me know what you think about room escape games and how they can be improved.

The Instructional Designers Meetup organized by Instructional Desginers Community of India (IDCI) happened on August 22, 2009. Abhinava presented his own theory called the LH theory in public for the first time. IDCI is very happy and proud to have hosted such a thought provoking session. If you are wondering what is LH theory, please refer to the slides of  Abhinava’s presentation : The LH Theory View more presentations from abhinava.sn. Sreya was the first to share her thoughts on LH theory in her blog post. She has summarized the theory really well and has some good thoughts. Archana also has an awesome post on LH theory . Since we already have awesome summaries, I am going to put down my thoughts on the theory right away. I appreciate LH theory because it drives home the point that Instructional Designing is beyond creating content and designing instructional strategies. When you get started with an e-learning project, all that is there in your mind is to write the Analysis and Design document, create course outline, write learning objectives, think of instructional strategies, think about the content in terms of images, animations, interactivity and the list goes on and on. All that you seek to achieve is exercise your Instructional Design skills and complete the project successfully. Abhinava’s LH theory wakes you up and tells you "Think about Learners. Think about Learning" LH theory stresses the need to love your learners, empathize with your learners, care for your learners and most importantly address their need. If someone wants to learn and there is a need, he/she may learn by reading a wiki page. If the same person does not want to learn and  there is no need, even a game based learning program cannot enthuse or motivate him/her. I remember going through an e-learning course that was an induction program. That course was supposed to have won some excellence award. It had great visuals.  To be frank, I got nothing out of the course. I got bored with the content. Though the course had brilliant visuals, it failed to meet the needs of the learner. The graphic designer may feel proud of his skills. But then the purpose of the course has not been met. I liked the way Abhinava said that induction programs must not have information that is already available on the company website. You need to design the induction program in such a fashion that at the end of it, the new hire must feel enthused and get  ready to add value to the company’s growth. Abhinava had lot of similar examples to stress  the fact that more than anything you need to think about the people for whom you are trying to create some learning value. I would like to relate something slightly out of context, yet very relevant here. I have been trying to get people to write blog posts in the IDCI site. I also tried announcing the IDCI topic of the month. No one felt enthused. No one bothered. Abhinava took a session on LH theory. His session was engaging, entertaining and got everyone thinking. Even before I called out to people to write blog posts on LH theory, posts were already out and people were already tweeting about LH theory.  People wrote blog posts and tweeted about LH theory because they could feel the value in the theory. They wrote blog posts because they learnt something and they were sure this is going to be of great value to many others. They wanted to share LH theory because they wanted to and knew there is a need to understand LH theory. I think LH theory rocks and you need to keep this in mind while designing any kind of training.

Acaba de ser publicado o livro For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business, de Kevin Werbach e Dan Hunter (curiosamente, ambos são professores de Direito).  O Prof. Kevin Werbach leccionou recentemente um curso sobre gamification na plataforma Coursera (ver este post). O livro contém muitos dos conteúdos abordados no curso. Os tópicos que talvez tenham mais interesse são o capítulo sobre elementos de jogos onde estes são classificados e exemplificados e o capítulo que apresenta a Gamification Design Framework que na verdade é um guia com seis passos para auxiliar a construção de um sistema gamificado. Ver também esta conversa entre Gabe Zichermann e Kevin Werbach sobre o curso de gamification. Atendendo ao sucesso do curso, esta será certamente mais uma obra de referência sobre gamification. O livro está também disponível em formato Kindle por 8,49 USD. No outro extremo de uma possível timeline sobre a evolução do conceito há que citar outra obra: The Game of Work, de Charles A. Coonradt (considerado neste post como o "avô da gamification"). O livro foi editado em 1984 e Coonradt trabalha no conceito abordado desde 1973, portanto muito antes da palavra gamification ver a luz do dia. O trabalho de Coonradt é na área dos recursos humanos e na motivação em ambiente de trabalho mas inclui os mesmos princípios básicos que estão na origem da gamification. Coonradt apresenta cinco princípios para motivar pessoas:     1.    Clearly defined goals    2.    Better scorekeeping and scorecards    3.    More frequent feedback    4.    A higher degree of personal choice of methods    5.    Consistent coaching Ou seja, princípios altamente relacionados com os ambientes encontrados nos videojogos. O livro Charles A. Coonradt está igualmente disponível em formato Kindle por 7,69 USD.

  Classroom Pilot is a fun game. The game is based on the childish prank of throwing paper planes on to the blackboard in classrooms. The objective of the game is to design your paper plane and throw it towards the blackboard. Your paper plane needs to hit the blackboard. There are three classrooms and each of the classrooms represent three levels of the game. The distance increases gradually from level 1 to level 3. You just have to use the mouse to play the game. All that you have to do is click, drag and release the mouse. Here is a short video showcasing how to play the game:   You can try designing different kinds of planes to improve performace. You can choose the type of plane, choose to have wing tips for the plane, adjust elevators etc. The game can be really frustrating to play because when you click, drag and release, the plane does not move the way you want. When you play again and again, you figure out how to get the plane fly forcefully and in the right direction. I picked up this game because this game beautifully captures the simple, childish prank. I love the simple graphics used. I like the way this game captures reactions of people in the classroom when the paper plane hits them. I guess this is really a creative idea. I also like the labels that specify how much distance was not covered to reach the blackboard. There is nothing speactacular about this game. However it makes for a fun play. Play now!

Kickboxing as the name suggests is a sport game. The objective of the game is to box and kick the computer generated opponent till he falls down. All you have to do is use the arrow keys to move your character, X  key to punch,  C key to kick and Space key for special effects. You have to combine keys to fight the opponent. The challenge lies in how quickly and efficiently you move the keys to defeat the opponent. You can choose to play a quick match or a series of matches.You get to choose your character and your opponent. Here is a short video capturing the game play: What I liked about the game The best thing about the game is that it has no blood shed and no gory scenes. It is all about the act of fighting for sport. The game has amazing 3D graphics and animations. The characters are masculine and funky. The background score is peppy and full of energy. When you play the game, the excitement catches you. The sound effect adds to the excitement. You get engrossed and focused in fighting your opponent. I liked the way a voice says " Fight" when the game begins. As the fight comes to a close, rain starts pouring and this is very cinematic I appreciate the fight moves that have been captured so well in this game. You also get hints on when to press the Space key. I also liked the way the character that gets defeated finally falls down in slow motion. The game is not soo difficult to play and you really feel like playing the game again and again. I guess this is the real success of any game. Play the game now and try your hand at kickboxing

A equipa do Schoooools.com vai estar presente com quatro comunicações na ticEDUCA, a decorrer em Lisboa de 30 de novembro a 2 de dezembro de 2012. Schoooools.com: Um Ambiente de Aprendizagem Social e Colaborativo para o Ensino Básico  Ademar Aguiar, Ana Ferreira, Gonçalo Silva, Luís Cruz, Martina Simicic, Patrícia Ranito Aplicação de Elementos de Jogos numa Plataforma de Aprendizagem Social Jorge Simões, Ademar Aguiar, Rebeca Redondo, Ana Vilas Jogo Sério para o Ensino da Programação a Crianças Admilo Ribeiro, António Coelho, Ademar Aguiar Dancelidoo: Uma Ferramenta Colaborativa de Composição Musical para Crianças, por Crianças Ricardo Gonçalves, Paula Alexandra Silva, Rui Melo, Ademar Aguiar O programa completo está disponível on-line.

Hello All, I am extremely pleased to announce that The Writers Gateway is now listed in eLearning Learning, a site managed by Tony Karrer. The eLearning Learning site has links to the  best blogs on e-learning on the web. I appreciate Tony for all his efforts in collecting useful information about e-learning in a single location.  The site will really be helpful to anyone who wants to get started with instructional designing. eLearning Learning has a nice look now and is well organized too. You have options for feed subscriptions such as Full ( list of all the latest articles) and Best of (list of top articles). You can also choose to subscribe via mail. eLearning Learning also has a  section covering all upcoming online events for learning professionals. All the online events are free. If you write a blog on e-learning, you can get your blog listed in eLearning Learning too. Read about this and more here: Participating in eLearning Learning. I wish more and more e-learning blogs get listed in eLearning Learning and looking forward to all the useful information there. Cheers, Rupa