A 15.ª edição do Simpósio Internacional de Informática Educativa (SIIE) encoraja a submissão de contribuições originais de qualidade, em língua inglesa (preferencial), espanhola ou portuguesa, em várias áreas temáticas, que se explicitam, não de forma exaustiva:     •    Conceção, desenvolvimento e avaliação de software educativo    •    Design de Interação na educação    •    Design e normalização de tecnologias educacionais, linguagens de modelação e metadados    •    Data mining e Web mining educacional    •    Web semântica aplicada à educação    •    Sistemas educativos inteligentes    •    Ambientes de aprendizagem personalizada    •    Ferramentas e recursos educativos baseados na Web    •    Jogos e simulações em educação    •    Laboratórios virtuais e remotos    •    Computação ubíqua/móvel em educação    •    Robótica e educação    •    Software Livre, Conhecimento Aberto e Recursos Educacionais Abertos    •    Gestão da tecnologia, conhecimentos e competências na educação    •    Tecnologias emergentes em educação    •    Metodologias de utilização e de avaliação das TIC em contexto educativo    •    Experiências inovadoras de integração das TIC no Ensino/Aprendizagem    •    Aspetos sociais da utilização das TIC em contextos educativos    •    Questões de género, culturais e para públicos específicos    •    Aplicações das TIC para pessoas com Necessidades Educativas Especiais    •    Formação de professores e TIC    •    Educação a distância    •    Web social, sistemas colaborativos e comunidades de aprendizagem.Data limite para submissão de trabalhos: 15 de junho de 2013. O simpósio realiza-se em Viseu de 13 a 15 de novembro de 2013.

A propósito do caso de estudo para o GamFed sobre uma aplicação do Leaderboarded - TechHub Google Campus Noise Meter - ficam aqui algumas considerações sobre o uso deste tipo de mecânica/elemento de jogo no contexto da educação. O primeiro problema tem a ver com o objetivo de usar tabelas de liderança (uma tradução possível para leaderboards). Este elemento de jogo apela sobretudo à competição entre os jogadores (e também ao status individual) mostrando a posição de cada um face a um qualquer critério. A competição entre alunos (que existe mesmo que não se apele a ela diretamente) não é normalmente bem aceite, sobretudo nos primeiros anos de escolaridade. Mas há formas de usar as tabelas de liderança. Em Leaderboards in Education: What are its applications? são dados alguns exemplos que vale a pena analisar. Como exemplos de aplicação são referidos a angariação de fundos para uma qualquer iniciativa da escola (não implica nenhum tipo de competição em contexto académico) ou atividades de grupo (dilui a possibilidade de competição individual). Os outros exemplos implicam a associação a um sistema de pontos, nomeadamente, para premiar comportamentos desejados (p.e. assiduidade). Sobre a associação de tabelas de liderança a um sistema de pontos fiz já uma experiência mencionada aqui e que juntou uma aplicação do Leaderboarded com o ClassDojo (ver o blogue criado para o efeito). A tabela de liderança foi baseada em dados armazenados numa folha de cálculo do GoogleDocs, uma das fontes de dados possível para o Leaderboarded). Os dados consistiam em pontos obtidos individualmente (a partir dos resultados do ClassDojo, premiando comportamentos desejados e penalizando os indesejados) e pontos obtidos em tarefas de grupo. Relativamente a forma de aplicar as tabelas de liderança, estas podem ser absolutas ou relativas (ver Gamification a Little on Leaderboards). Estas últimas têm como objetivo evitar a desmotivação dos jogadores pior classificados (apenas se comparam relativamente a outros no mesmo nível). Sobre a contribuição para o caso de estudo do TechHub Google Campus Noise Meter destacou-se a importância deste tipo de ferramentas de gamification deverem ser usadas em conjunto com outras ferramentas. A aplicação de um único elemento de jogo (a tabela de liderança) não conduz a uma experiência de gamification completa, como é óbvio. Este elemento de jogo integra o que Kevin Werbach designa por PBL Gamification (PBL de Points, Badges e Leaderboards) ou BLAP Gamification (BLAP - Badges, Levels and Leaderbords, Achievements and Points) por Scott Nicholson (ver referências aqui). Este tipo de elementos de jogos apelam sobretudo para a motivação extrínseca e portanto devem ser aplicados numa estratégia de curto prazo e tendo em conta que podem reduzir a motivação intrínseca. De qualquer forma, o apelo à motivação extrínseca pode ser usado de forma positiva e o Leaderboarded é sem dúvida uma ferramenta de gamification a ter em conta. A apresentação abaixo descreve bem as diferenças entre motivação intrínseca e motivação extrínseca e o seu impacto em aplicações de gamification: Gamification - Extrinsic vs. Intrinsic Rewards from Playful Wingmen

Hello All, I am pleased to announce a training program on Instructional Design for beginners. You should consider this training program, if you are someone who has no clue about Instructional Design and wants to gain basic Instructional Design skills to get productive at work. This training will adopt a fast-paced approach with emphasis on learning by doing. After the training, you will be able to : Effectively gather requirements for an online training program Conduct  gap analysis Conduct target audience analysis Study and analyze raw content Create  instructional objectives Derive the course outline Design course flow Design Instructional Strategies Design Assessments Create a Storyboard Who should take this training: Aspiring Instructional Designers/Fresh Instructional Designers/Technical Writers/Teachers Total training duration: 10 days ( 6 hours per day), Flexi timings. Mode : Classroom Training Location: Bangalore This training is open to individuals and corporates. If you wish to get more details on this training, please fill this form here or leave your query in the Comments section here.

The 6th World Summit on the Knowledge Society (WSKS 2013) is an international attempt to promote the dialogue for the main aspects of the Knowledge Society towards a better world for all. WSKS 2013 will be held in Aveiro, Portugal (19-21 June). Submission of papers for Springer Proceedings: May 15, 2013.

I just read a blog post by Upside Learning and got inspired to write this post. What I learnt? Upside Learning has partenered with Skill-Pill of UK and are working on developing 2 minute learning videos that you can access on your mobile. You can access these videos anytime, anywhere. Skill-Pills can cover topics such as leadership. business english, management, personal skills and so on. Here is an awesome video on 2 minute learning videos: Here are some demos of 2 minute videos here. I find this idea of 2 minute videos fascinating. These 2 minute videos can work very well like cheatsheets, or job aids. I think learner analysis and requirements gathering has to be done really extensively because you have to teach someone what they need most in just 2 minutes. I would love to explore more into the design of these 2 minutes videos. Hopefully Upside Learning will post some Meanwhile, please let me know if any of you have created such 2 minute videos. Would love to hear from you.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi é muitas vezes citado em trabalhos que abordam o tema da gamification por causa da sua teoria do fluxo (descrita no seu livro Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience). O fluxo é um estado que leva a que uma pessoa ao estar tão envolvida numa atividade se abstrai do tempo e do espaço. Este estado é muitas vezes sentido pelos utilizadores de videojogos, daí esta teoria surgir no contexto da gamification. Esta procura formas de transportar os elevados níveis de envolvimento e de motivação sentidos pelos jogadores para contextos exteriores ao universo dos jogos de maneira a conseguir mais do que um simples propósito hedónico. Criar condições propícias à geração de experiências de fluxo nos participantes de uma qualquer atividade num contexto não lúdico será uma forma de aumentar os seus níveis de envolvimento e de motivação para executar essa atividade. Um sistema gamificado que inclua elementos de jogos pode ser o que Finneran & Zhang descrevem como um Computer Mediated Environment (CME). A possibilidade de gerar experiências de fluxo num CME provoca atitudes positivas nos utilizadores e o desenvolvimento de condições para uma melhor aprendizagem. Os utilizadores de um CME podem ter experiências de fluxo se usarem esse sistema como se fosse um brinquedo. Com a aplicação de gamification na educação o que se pretende é aplicar na sala de aula e na relação dos estudantes com a escola, os componentes e as técnicas de desenho de jogos que os tornam atrativos e conduzem a elevados níveis de envolvimento e motivação.  O uso de plataformas tecnológicas que constituam ambientes sociais de aprendizagem correspondem aos ambientes mediados por computador capazes de criar as condições de fluxo nos alunos que conduzam aos níveis de envolvimento e motivação que se pretende ver reproduzidos no contexto da escola. O vídeo abaixo é a TED Talk de 2004 em que Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi descreve a sua teoria do fluxo: Existem algumas visões críticas da aplicação da teoria do fluxo como a de Donald Clark - Csikszentmihalyi - don’t go with the ‘flow’! - mas que não retiram a sua importância no contexto dos estudos sobre gamification. Ver também o vídeo abaixo (de Brian Burke da Gartner) sobre a importância da motivação íntrínseca e da geração de experiências com significado em aplicações gamification: video platformvideo managementvideo solutionsvideo player

Consider this story: A girl who works in a call center wants to become an Instructional Designer. Her writing skills are average. However she has this strong urge to learn. She gets motivated by creative work. She is willing to put in lot of hard work. She finds Instructional Design interesting. She has gained some  basic Instructional Design skills and is enthused to apply her skills and is excited about securing a job. Now such a girl goes for a test in a company that is into e-learning development. She goes there sharp at 2 pm. She is made to wait for an hour. She is then given a test. The girl attempts the test and completes it on time. The interviewer tells her she can leave and she will be called for,if she clears the test. By the time the girl leaves the company it is 7 pm. What happened next? The girl got completely disheartened. She assumed that she has not done well in the test because the interviewer did not tell her anything. She got  frustrated that after such a long wait, she got no feedback. What might happen? She might now lack confidence and might hesitate to become an Instructional Designer. My Point A person with poor language skills wants to become a writer. You know it is difficult. You think that person must not try to become a writer and do something else. Have you ever thought it will be great if that person becomes a writer because it is not IMPOSSIBLE? There are so many ways in which we can thwart budding talent and discourage people. There are equally umpteen ways in which we can motivate and instill confidence in people. You can hire the best minds, the best people for your company. You might also be able to retain the best talent. Every other company is looking for "Great Instructional Designers, Great Programmers, Great Writers…. etc. etc." What about the average crowd? What about the so called non-performers? The real challenge is in turning a non-performer into a performer. The real success is in motivating an average mind to turn into a brilliant mind. Are companies ready for this challenge? A few days back Archana had written a post that had some really good guidelines to understand learners. She had written those guidelines in the context of kids and schools. I would apply those guidelines to freshers trying to enter companies. With your permission Archana, I am rephrasing some of those guidelines here for all those who are hiring freshers. You do not judge the capacity of a fresher by their performance in a test or by their behaviour the first time you meet. Never underestimate someone’s capacity to perform. Give people a chance to demonstrate. That’s why you have something called "Probation Period". Do not try to hire the best minds always. The so called best minds might fail to perform. Do not expect people to know everything. Create an environment where people in your organization continuously learn and improve. Do not try to fit people to your requirements. Rather hire people and train them so that they fit your requirements. Do not throw questions at freshers. Try to enter into a discussion and understand how much they know, how much they are interested. The bottom line is "It is not just SKILL/KNOWLEDGE but the WILL to perform and to  put in hard work that makes for a good performer. What say?

I get surprised when I hear people buying virtual stuff. I always wonder why they do it and what kind of satisfaction they must be getting in buying things that they cannot touch and feel. Well, I realize I am not quite different from those people. I get so involved in playing Farmville and get so immersed in the activity that everytime I harvest and make money I feel so happy. When I bought my cottage, I felt as if I had bought it in real life. This is the kind of impact the immersive internet can create. I have always found virtual worlds fascinating and I have always wanted to explore more into immersive learning. I was completely excited when Professor Karl Kapp invited me to be a part of his blog book tour. I was thrilled to read his book: Learning in 3D: Adding a New Dimension to Enterprise Learning and Collaboration. The book talks about the relevance of immersive learning today and gives ample guidelines to create a 3DLE (3D Learning Experience). In this post I would love to pick up some interesting points from the book authored by Prof Karl Kapp and Tony O’Driscoll. To begin with here is a good definition of 3DLE from the book: A 3DLE is a highly immersive virtual environment in which the learners act and interact in real - time with each other and  with the instructor to accomplish a challenge or task. is a highly immersive virtual environ- ment in which the learners act and interact in real - time with each other and with the instructor to accomplish a challenge or task. The authors  nicely distinguish between 2D and 3D learning environments. In a 2D learning environment, web conferencing tools , chat facilities,  whiteboard, application sharing etc. are used to drive interactivity. Whereas  in a 3D learning environment is a highly immersive virtual environment where learners interact real time with one another and with the instructor and are emotionally involved to complete a challenge or task. I like the way it is said in the book that in a 3DLE, content is king, but context is kingdom. This book has lots of tips for Instructional Designers to design a 3DLE and has a lot of case studies too. I particularly liked the 7th chapter that talks about designing and developing a 3DLE. I loved the use of stories to illustrate what it takes to design a 2D learning environment and a 3D learning experience. Some interesting points in this chapter are: An Instructional Designer should be a Context Designer while designing 3DLE and consider things like building architecture, peer - to - peer  interactions,  informal  learning  spaces,  and  learner - to - object  interactions. When you design virtual learning experience, you need to focus on context, objectives and give lot of scope for collaboration. You must provide opportunity for demonstrating learning. This chapter discusses how you can use ADDIE process to design a 3DLE. To learn more, please read the book. Its worth it. Check out the Learning in 3D webiste and the buy the book here. You can get a discount of 20% by using the code L3D1 at the Pfieffer/Wiley web site Enjoy the book

eLearning Papers: MOOCs and Beyond - Call for papers - extended deadline: April 8. eLearning Papers is currently welcoming submissions which address the challenges and future of Massive Open Online Courses, a trend in education that has skyrocketed since 2008. Issue 33, MOOCs and Beyond, seeks to both generate debate, and coalesce a variety of critical perspectives into a fruitful body of research.  Upcoming call for papers:     •    Learning Analytics and Assessment, estimated publishing date, June 2013.     •    Design for Learning Spaces and Innovative Classrooms, estimated publishing date, July 2013. 

Microsoft has launched the prototype of a game called Ribbon Hero which will help people boost MS Office knowledge and skills. You just  have to download and install Ribbon Hero. It acts as an add-in in MS Word, MS PowerPoint etc. How does it work? Every time you use a feature in MS Word or MS Powerpoint, you gain points for it. If you use advanced features, you gain more points. This cool add-in allows you to connect with friends in Facebook, compete and compare scores with them. Here is a video that gives an overview of Ribbon Hero. Here is a snapshot of my scores and progress: Microsoft has also designed a lot of mini games which you will find if you click the Play Challenge button. My View I like the way Web 2.0 has been used to design this simple learning game. Since this is a multiplayer game, it will attract lot of attention and the best thing is  you learn and gain points while you do your regular work. I would give 4/5 for Ribbon Hero for just the idea and concept. I still have to figure out how effective this is going to be. What do you think?