The Games and Learning Alliance Conference (GALA 2013) is an international conference dedicated to the science and application of serious games. The conference aims at bringing together researchers, developers, practitioners and stakeholders. The goal is to share the state of the art of research and market, analysing the most significant trends and discussing visions on the future of serious games. The conference also includes an exhibition, where developers can showcase their latest products. The Serious Games Society is building a scientific community at international level for shaping future research in the field. This community represents a significant blend of industrial and academic professionals committed to the study, development and deployment of serious games as really useful and effective tools to support better teaching, learning, training and assessment. Important dates: Papers (10 pages) submission: June 19 2013
 Call for Workshops (4 pages) submission: May 31 2013 
Call for Tutorials (4 pages) submission: June 19 2013

Instructional Design saw its rapid growth only during World War II though it existed as early as 1905. As mentioned in Wikipedia much of the foundation of the field of instructional design was laid in World War II, when the U.S. military faced the need to rapidly train large numbers of people to perform complex technical tasks, from field-stripping a carbine to navigating across the ocean to building a bomber…… Drawing on the research and theories of B.F. Skinner on operant conditioning, training programs focused on observable behaviors. Tasks were broken down into subtasks, and each subtask treated as a separate learning goal. Training was designed to reward correct performance and remediate incorrect performance. Mastery was assumed to be possible for every learner, given enough repetition and feedback. After the war, the success of the wartime training model was replicated in business and industrial training, and to a lesser extent in the primary and secondary classroom. The approach is still common in the U.S. military. Here is a timeline capturing the History of Instructional Design and Technology: If you have any interesting information to share, please leave a comment.

Já está disponível o programa preliminar para The PLE Conference 2013 - Personal Learning Environments: Learning and Diversity in the Cities of the Future (10 - 12 July 2013, Berlin, Germany &  Melbourne, Australia). Uma das sessões tem como tema "PLE e Gamification" com uma contribuição (paper #58) em co-autoria com Ana Vilas e Rebeca Redondo, da Universidade de Vigo  e Ademar Aguiar da Universidade do Porto.

Recently Linda Williams posted a discussion in the PINOT network. Linda in this discussion item talks about the importance of clarity of expectations. Let me repost the discussion here for you to quickly read it without signing into the network. Linda Williams: The last two years of my mother’s life she was in a nursing facility and I visited her practically every day.  Each day for months I witnessed the same thing happening and I am assuming it was because directions were given, but expectations were not expressed. Each day I visited, I noticed that volunteers and entry level staff came around to each room twice a day to put ice and fresh water in pitchers for the resident.  The pitcher was always left by the sink in the room.  Like clockwork, the pitchers were filled. The problem was, however, that there was no way my mother could get to the pitcher of water because she was not ambulatory and the sink was ten feet away from the chair she always sat in and she couldn’t see well enough to know that the pitcher was on the sink.  She thought they always forgot to give her water. Since more than one person put the water across the room by the sink, I think their directions had been to "make sure the pitchers were filled twice a day" and they were following directions.  My mother would have been better served if the directions had been to "ensure each resident has  easy access to fresh water twice a day." It took months for me to get the water-providers to consistently put the pitcher by my mother. This is indeed a wonderful example that indicates the importance of setting clear expectations. I would like to speak about the clarity of expectations in training programs here. If you have checked my blog closely, you must be aware that I conduct training programs on Instructional Design for individuals as well as corporates. While I teach Instructional Design, it is also a great opportunity for me to learn more about Instructional Design, training effectiveness, learner motivation and learning styles. My attempt has been to offer personalized training programs and I continuously evaluate and improve my training programs. With every training program, I learn quite a few lessons. I would like to share one of the lessons I learnt: Set Clear Expectations for Your Learners. When I say Set Clear Expectations , I really mean every word of it. What happens when you do not set clear expectations? Your learners are not aligned. They do not meet their learning objectives. There is no scope for meaningful dialogue or discussion. You cannot track progress. There is no learning. Let me explain this with an example. My training programs are completely hands-on. Anyone who enrolls for my training programs has to work hard and do a lot of exercises. I design exercises to engage my learners in a meaningful activity and so that they learn along the way. When I design I have specific objectives in my mind such as with this exercise my learners must be able to design an effective content outline. With such an objective in mind, I design a focused exercise. While I am designing my exercises, I have a set of expectations for my learners and my attempt is to check how far my learners have met those expectations. I am very clear about my expectations. Now is that enough? No. I need to communicate my expectations clearly to my learners. So what to I do? Spend 10 minutes verbally explaining my expectations to my learners before they start an exercise. This sounds a good idea. But does it work? NO. It doesn’t. Because every learner interprets the expectations in his/her own way and executes the task in his/her own way. When you realize your learner is not on track and is not bringing out the desired results, you stop and try to clarify expectations. But then it is too late. Your learner thinks you are setting new rules and is likely to get frustrated. How do I solve this problem? To clearly communicate what I expect of my learners, I set design guidelines for every exercise and give a printed copy of these guidelines to my learners. I put in a lot of thought and follow an iterative process while setting these design guidelines. I also take up the same exercise and come up with a possible solution.  So for every exercise I design, I have raw material, design guidelines and a possible solution ready. I set design guidelines because I think when you are learning design, you need to first learn how to design within constraints and then take off from there. My design guidelines also act as a review checklist for my learners. With the guidelines in focus, I get my learners to do the exercise and indulge them in a meaningful discussion, get them to think,  learn and perform. For example, if I want to teach my learners how to  write production notes and audio scripts. I design a storyboarding exercise that would focus a lot  on these. I set expectations upfront in the form of design guidelines (Printed Hand-Outs). The design guidelines indicate the macro strategy, micro strategies, storyboarding guidelines, storyboard flow, formatting rules and so on. I support my learners to perform and  make sure I score every exercise my learner takes up which helps me evaluate learning effectiveness. Finally I share my storyboard with them so that they can refer to a possible and yet another solution for the same problem. This works really well in a group. The learners are focused on the activity, they are aligned and when discussions happen everyone is reflecting and thinking about a specific problem. If expectations are not clear and if you do not support, you cannot expect your learner to perform! What do you say?

Consider this: You are trying to understand a technical concept/ a complex concept/ a complex technology. You are at your wits end and you think there is no way you will understand it and then you find an article, a blog post,  a video or a podcast that make things simple for you. How do you feel? Thrilled/Happy/Relaxed/Grateful. You feel nice and there is a sense of achievement. I love simplicity! I love articles/web resources that speak layman’s language. There have been umpteen occasions when I failed to understand a concept or technology and quite a few web resources came to my rescue. One thing was common among all these web resources. They were SIMPLE, simple enough for me to understand. When concepts/ideas/technologies are made SIMPLE: You are receptive. You do not feel threatened. You do not feel less knowledgeable. You learn better. For example,you do not know what is Augmented Reality and go through this video below, you feel so thrilled to have learnt something new. The word "Augmented Reality" doesn’t seem alien anymore. When you go through this e-book on C-Sharp, you feel programming concepts are not rocket science after all. This post is a tribute to all web based resources that make things simple for all of us. Did you find a resource/an article or a video that solved your problem, helped you understand a difficult concept and made life easy for you? Share it here! Let’s celebrate SIMPLICITY!

Colóquio a realizar em Lisboa, Portugal, em 6 e 7 de dezembro - III Colóquio Luso-Brasileiro de Educação a Distância e Elearning.O III Colóquio Luso-Brasileiro de Educação a Distância e Elearning tem como objetivo central promover a aproximação e colaboração entre o Brasil e Portugal, designadamente entre as suas universidades e centros de investigação, sob a égide de um interesse comum, a Educação a Distância.Pretende-se promover a reflexão e o intercâmbio de práticas e experiências sobre Educação a Distância, Elearning e Educação Online; partilhar conhecimento e desenvolvimento tecnológico e promover parcerias de investigação e de colaboração docente entre universidades portuguesas e brasileiras.Destacam-se as linhas temáticas consideradas para a apresentação de trabalhos:1.     EaD e Políticas educativas2.     Boas Práticas em Educação Online3.     Modelos e Processos Pedagógicos em Educação online4.     Web 2.0 e tecnologias emergentes5.     Pedagogias emergentes (PLEs, MOOCs, REAs, …)6.     Realidade Virtual em EaD7.     Jogos e gamification em EaD8.     Mobile Learning9.     EaD e Inclusão Digital10.  Avaliação em contextos online É de realçar que uma das linhas temáticas é "Jogos e gamification em EaD" o que demonstra o destaque que este tema tem vindo a merecer na área da educação em geral e na área da EaD em particular. Outras linhas temáticas são a Realidade Virtual e o Mobile Learning, ambas também já abordadas neste blogue (ver, por exemplo, o post Mobile Learning e o post Mundos Virtuais, Realidade Aumentada e Virtualidade Aumentada).Datas Importantes para o Colóquio:Submissão das propostas: 30 de junhoInformação sobre a aprovação das propostas: 31 de agostoEnvio de textos finais para publicação: 26 de setembroRegisto e confirmação da presença dos autores: 30 de setembro

What if this  happens? You enter this sentence in Google:  "I want to know where the best momos are available in Bangalore."  Instead of throwing umpteen search results, Google gives you exactly the information you are looking for without you spending a lot of time on the web. This is something that might happen in the future. This is what Web 3.0 might be about. Web 3.0 - The Future of the Internet Web 3.0 also known as the Semantic Web is futuristic and yet to come. According to Wikipedia, the Semantic Web is an evolving development of the World Wide Web in which the meaning (semantics) of information on the web is defined, making it possible for machines to process it. Here is an interesting and simple presentation on Web 3.0: Web 3.0 explained with a stamp (pt I: the basics) View more presentations from Freek Bijl. Here is a good video on Web 3.0: Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo. More References: Web 3.0 Concepts Explained in Plain English How Web 3.0 will work?

CISTI'2013 (8th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies), to be held between the 19th and 22th of June 2013, in Lisbon, Portugal. The final programa is available.The program includes a workshop on Serious Games: SGaMePlay 2013 - Third Iberian Workshop on Serious Games and Meaningful Play. Under the theme Information Technologies in Education, there are some potential interesting papers on gamification, game-based learning and motivation:- Immersive Learning: Metaversos e Games na Educação, Eliane Schlemmer, 
Unisinos, 
Brazil and Fernando Marson, 
Unisinos, 
BrazilAbstract: 
O artigo, a partir de uma reflexão sobre a Cultura Digital e novo sujeito da aprendizagem, apresenta e discute o uso de Metaversos e Jogos Digitais na Educação, envolvendo conceitos como: estado de flow, experimentação e significação para problematizar a questão da aprendizagem. Nesse contexto, propõe o Immersive Learning - i-Learning, por meio do desenvolvimento de Experiências de Realidade Virtual e Experiências de Virtualidade Real, como uma das possibilidades educacionais que pode ser propiciada para os novos sujeitos da aprendizagem, que fazem parte da Cultura Digital.- What’s in it for me? Enlightening motivation within a social network decision-making, Francisco Antunes, 
INESC Coimbra - Universidade da Beira Interior
 Portugal and João Paulo Costa, 
INESC Coimbra - Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra
, PortugalAbstract:
 This paper addresses the motivations by which people engage in social networking, according to the existing literature. Understanding these motivations allows firms to set processes to explore them, in order to establish and develop a decision support social network, supported by social network sites. Participating in social networks draws upon the interaction of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. On one hand, intrinsic factors refer to motivation embedded in the action itself (comes within the individual), rather than from external rewards such as money or recognition. On the other hand, extrinsic factors refer to the motivation coming outside the individual. Considering that solutions to problems are expected within a decision support social network, some potential problems are identified and addressed.- Gamification for Productive Interaction. Reading and Working with the Gamification Debate in Education, Razvan Rughinis
 University Politehnica of Bucharest 
RomaniaAbstract:
 We examine the gamification debate of recent years and we propose an alternative, heuristic definition for gamification in learning situations. After considering several critiques of the gamification concept, we privilege in our definition 'interaction' over 'motivation', 'simple gameplay' over 'game mechanics', and we highlight the diverse and changing behaviors of user/players. We re-define gamification in learning contexts as 'simple gameplay to support productive interaction for expected types of learners and instructors'. We argue that this definition offers a lowest common denominator to inform gamification in education.The abstract of the first one has a reference to the state of flow (is it the flow theory of Csikszentmihalyi?).  The second papers deals with motivation in social networks. Does the approach involves any gamification features? The third abstract includes a new definition for gamification in learning contexts: simple gameplay to support productive interaction for expected types of learners and instructors. It will be interesting to read the full paper.

A lot of people frequently ask me about the difference between Technical Writing and Instructional Design. I had written a post about this earlier and also argued that you require more or less the same kind of skills for both these fields and it was completely my standpoint on these two professions. In this post, I am going to talk about the differences between the job of a Technical Writer and an Instructional Designer, as people look at it today. So here we go! Technical Writing Technical Writing also called Information Development pertains to the software/hardware industries and basically involves writing documents for software/hardware products. Technical Writers in a software/hardware companies design/develop documents such as: Help/Instruction Manuals (Open any application in your system and go to Help. You should see a help manual) Installation Guides API Manuals FAQs Troubleshooting Guides Technical Writers work with: Standard templates Documentation Guidelines These days Technical Writers also design and develop: Tutorials Demonstrations Technical Writers who work in the Marketing Communication department design and develop: Brochures Technical Whitepapers Technical Blogs Case Studies Marketing Presentations Technical Writers use the following tools: Dreamweaver Robohelp Framemaker Snagit Camtasia Documentation Management Systems If you are applying for a Technical Writing job (fresher position)  in India, you will be tested for your: Research Skills Know-how of technical writing tools Language and Grammar Skills Aptitude for Technology If you want to become a Technical Writer, you must really be comfortable and understand technology. For example, if you are working on a BPM product, you will not be able to write effective documentation without getting a good understanding of concepts such as Web Services, SOA, Mapping and so on.  And remember SME support will be very less. Today the job market in India  for Technical Writers is really good because I see a lot of openings everywhere. Technical Writing is also a high paying job because it pertains to the software industry. Instructional Design Instructional Designing is about designing a training approach or a training solution depending on the requirements of a specific target audience. Instructional Designing pertains to a variety of industries including healthcare, aviation, software and umpteen others. Instructional Designers design and develop: E-learning Programs Instructor Led Training programs Blended Training Programs Instructional Designers might or might not work with: Standard Templates Design guidelines/standards Instructional Designers use the following tools: PowerPoint MS Word E-learning Tools such as Articulate, Captivate Learning Management Systems If you are applying for Instructional Design job (fresher position)  in India, you will be tested for: Instructional Design concepts Good writing skills Good storyboarding skills Creative skills Visualization skills Research skills If you want to be an Instructional Designer, you should understand Instructional Design concepts/principles and  have creative skills (depends on the requirement of the training material). The job market for Instructional Designer is improving and better than what we saw during recession.

Depois do da Higher Education Edition do Horizon Report de 2013, foi recentemente disponibilizada a Horizon Report 2013 K12 Edition.As tecnologias em destaque são as seguintes: Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or LessCloud ComputingMobile LearningTime-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years
Learning AnalyticsOpen ContentTime-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years3D PrintingVirtual and Remote Laboratories Learning Analytics foi já abordada aqui neste post e é também mencionada na Higher Education Edition. 3D Printing aparece também em ambos os relatórios.