I have started reading this interesting book called Directing the Story by Francis Glebas. I am sure you have seen or heard of the movies Lion King and Pocahontas. Francis Glebas has worked on these really popular movies. I am enjoying this book - Directing the Story in which Francis Glebas gives some practical tips on film making. While I was reading this book, it struck me that whatever Glebas is talking about applies to e-learning too. I have always compared instructional designing to film making. I have also likened the role of an Instructional Designer to a movie maker. Francis Glebas’ book now reinforces this thought again and again for me.  He begins the book by saying that people watch movies to get rid of boredom, to get entertained and to experience something that they might not experience in real life. But knowing this fact, does not help one become a better filmaker. You need specific tools and techniques to entertain the audience. I seriously feel this applies to instructional designing too. Why will someone go for e-learning? A pdf document or a wiki page can teach a lot too. People might want to take up e-learning courses simply because it is self paced and also because they think it might be less boring than a text book . When you think of e-learning, you expect some amount of learner engagement and some kind of fun. What’s the point navigating through chunks of text, images and animations onscreen if it does not appeal to you? You know your learners want an engaging learning experience. But how does this knowledge help? You need to find out creative ways and methods to engage your learners. This being said, let me jot down some striking thoughts in first 2 chapters in this book. Please note the lines in italics have been picked up directly from the book Directing the Story Thought 1 The most important thing about making a movie is that it must be about something big, important and significant. Otherwise why should we care? Francis Glebas then goes on to say that the audience must find it worth watching the movie. The audience must get emotionally involved with what is being shown on big screen. Well, does this not apply to e-learning too? If  somebody has a strong urge to gain knowledge, he/she will gain that knowledge using a wiki page, pdf document or even powerpoint presentation. It need not be e-learning that serves his/her purpose. So before you start creating an e-learning course, you need to test the pulse of the learner. What does the learner actually want to learn? How interested is he/she to gain that knowledge? How useful will this knowledge be? Why e-learning at all? These are some pivotal questions. If you find out these, then you will be able to create something that is really big and significant for the learner. You can also work towards creating a rich, engaging learning experience for the learner. Thought 2 The audience is your customer - Give them what they want…….. You have to give them what they want, but not in the way they expect it. There has to be surprises along the way. I seriously think the element of surprise will work wonders with e-learning. I am not sure how far you can implement this successfully. But this idea is enticing in itself. This reminds me of BBC Computor Tutor. I think the element of surprise has been really used well in this course. You know you are going to learn to use the keyboard and mouse. How you learn is where the surprise element lies. In this particular course, you keep expecting what is going to come next because you have no clue. As you go about discovering things, you learn to use the mouse and keyboard. Thought 3 The audience must be part of what is happening on the screen. If its a joke and the audience is not in on the joke, they might get angry. The audience has to be in that place and must be able to completely relate themselves to what is happening on screen. When it comes to e-learning also, the learners must be in sync with what is being shown onscreen. If the learner feels left out, then there is no learning happening. Thought 4 The director not only directs the actors and the crew but also the emotions of the audience. The director directs the attention of the audience to the events of the story. Well, an instructional designer has to not only direct what has to go into the e-learning course but also needs to direct the attention of the learners to the subject matter being taught. Thought 5 Boredom and confusion are enemies to good design and distracts your audience’s attention. Francis Glebas says in a movie you can fight confusion by showing one thing at a time as you tell a story. You can fight boredom in a movie by weaving interesting narrative questions that create dramatic  characters in escalating conflict. Coming to e-learning, if your learners get confused or bored of whatever is being taught or what is being shown on screen, then the purpose does not get served. In e-learning, you cannot have a dramatic story and characters all the time. But then every e-learning does have a storyline. So you can make sure that the story is flowing properly by asking "so what" after every slide. Also I guess even in e-learning it is important to convey one thing at a time. Every slide of an e-learning course must clearly convey the information to be given to the learner. Thought 6 The director’s  job is to figure out how to visually structure the story. When you design an e-learning course, you must also be able to visually structure the subject matter. Your storyboard must clearly visualize the e-learning course in a series of pictures just as Francis Glebas says that while directing a movie, you visualize a story into a series of pictures. Thought 7 You must watch a movie twice to analyze it. I think you also need to go through an e-learning course more than twice to analyse the instructional design aspects. Francis Glebas says the first time you watch a movie, you are too keen in following the story and so you miss out on many things. Even with an e-learning course, the first time you are just interested in trying to understand what the course is all about. Its only the second or third time you pay attention to the design aspects. With this I end my post here. Please feel free to share your views in the comments section.

I have been using Camtasia for sometime now and I thought I must list down some practical tips on using this tool that might be useful to many others who are new to Camtasia like me. I would like to especially focus on the issues I faced and how I managed to solve it. One big problem I faced with Camtasia was with  adjusting call-out lengths. In rapid e-learning tools, call-out length indicates the time duration during which the call-out appears onscreen. I noticed while using Camtasia that some call-outs in the timeline were expandable and some were not. I was puzzled for sometime thinking how to solve this problem. Here is a screenshot highlighting call-outs that are expandable and non-expandable in the timeline: In the screenshot above, the call-out marked "Expandable" looks like a rectangle. This call-out can be dragged along the time line and this sets the time duration for which the call - out appears onscreen. If you notice , the callout marked "Not expandable" is not a rectangle but a triangle. Such call-outs are not expandable. No matter how much you try, you cannot expand the triangle shaped call-outs. To make such call-outs expandable, all that you have to do is, use the Zoom In button  in the timeline. The screenshot below highlights the Zoom In button in red. If you continuously click on the Zoom In button, you should see the call-outs in the timeline become expandable. In the screenshot above, you see the call-outs appear as a rectangle. You can now easily expand the call-outs and adjust the time duration of these call-outs. Hope this tip was useful! Watch out for more tips

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

I read this post by Natalie where she talks about her job interview during which she had to create a short training presentation. Her post title reads as Epiphany, but too late? Maybe. She says she had lot of fun in  her interview. She also says soon after the interview, she  reflected on that test and thought of alternative ways to present the same training. She says "I can come to a situation with a number of ideas and even make a decision on one, but then I will ruminate later on how to do it differently or better." . I also got to read this good post by Sumeet Moghe where he says to do Instructional Designing, you need many other skills and not just writing skills. Sumeet has put in a lot of thought while describing the skills required for an Instructional Designer.  Some tags that can be added to both these posts are  skills, jobs and interviews. These posts have triggered me to write this post. I have been thinking a lot about job descriptions, interview processes and techniques, the kind of questions people ask during interviews and of course the tests that candidates are asked to take up.  Some questions that come to my mind are: Do job descriptions really reflect the kind of work you will do in a company? Is it not important to think over the questions you ask someone in an interview? How do you test someone for the kind of skills required to do a job? Is it justified that someone interviews a person for just a few hours and then take a decision? Is it justified that most interviews are in the question- answer mode , yes - no mode and there is no scope for discussion? There are many people who reflect over things already done and look for better ideas. Are interviews too short-lived to accomodate this? Is it not important to research about the candidate before the interview? Is it not important to analyse what the candidate has already done? Is it justified to make decisions only based on test results? Is it not important to think beyond the data in the resume? In short do you think current interview processes work or should it be revamped? With changing times, should interview techniques be more creative? If you are a hiring manager, how do you prepare yourself before you go for an interview? If you are a candidate applying for a job, do you get bored of tests and the kind of questions the hiring manager asks? Do you think you can do justice to a job  interview in 3 hours? This is an open discussion. Please feel free to post your comments

Slides da apresentação do artigo Aplicação de Elementos de Jogos numa Plataforma de Aprendizagem Social (Jorge Simões, Ademar Aguiar, Rebeca Redondo, Ana Vilas) realizada em 1 de dezembro na ticEDUCA 2012:   ticEDUCA2012 Slides from Jorge Simões

I created this tutorial video in 2007 when i was exploring Photoshop myself. I had real difficulty understanding the concept of layers. That’s when I thought I must create this video which might be of help to many other beginners like me. Some people found this video useful and have left their comments.  A few found the quality of video quite poor. I see a better quality video now. Thanks to YouTube for enhancements. This video also has about 10k hits, which excites me, though this was achieved over 2 years This video tutorial is also a good example of Show me simulation of software products. So here I repost my video again for all those who have not seen this before.  

Estão disponíveis online as atas do II congresso internacional TIC e Educação - ticEDUCA2012. ticEDUCA 2012II Congresso Internacional TIC e EducaçãoInstituto de Educação da Universidade de Lisboa

Canufit is an interesting puzzle game. The objective of the game is to fit the given letters inside a picture. The challenge lies in how quickly you are able to fit the letters in the right position within the picture. All that you have to do is just drag and drop the letters into the picture. You have options to rotate the letters too. For example, here is a snapshot of level 1 of the game: You place the  letters H and I inside the picture as shown below: Then you click on the star to proceed to the next level. This game gets increasingly challenging as you clear each level. Since there are absolutely no solutions revealed, you might not be able to proceed after a certain level. However, there are some nice things about this game. So here goes my list of good things about this game. What I liked about the game The game requires no instructions to play The game controls are pretty simple The game interface is simple yet appealing. I especially liked the use of the blackboard and chalk in this game When you select each letter, there are two distinct symbols that indicate the move and rotate actions that can performed on the letter. I liked the clear visual representation used here instead of tool tips The descriptive line at the bottom of each picture is also a good idea The colour in each letter brightens when you place it in the right position inside the picture. This is a creative way of giving hints and guiding the gamer to achieve the objective. Play the game now and let me know your views

A edição para o ensino superior do Horizon Report 2013 incluirá seis tecnologias seleccionadas a partir de uma short list de 12 tecnologias inicialmente candidatas. Essas doze tecnologias eram (de acordo com diferentes horizontes de adoção): Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or Less Flipped Classroom Massively Open Online Courses Mobile Apps Tablet Computing Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years Augmented Reality  Game-Based Learning  The Internet of Things Learning Analytics  
Time-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years  3D Printing  Flexible Displays Next Generation Batteries  Wearable Technology  Foram então seleccionadas as seis tecnologias a seguir para integrarem o relatório:  Massively Open Online Courses Tablet Computing Game-Based Learning  Big Data and Learning Analytics  3D Printing Wearable Technology Já pode também ser consultada uma ante-visão do relatório a publicar em 2013. As tecnologias escolhidas para o horizonte de dois a três anos são especialmente relevantes para os que tem sido escrito neste blogue. Game-Based Learning, a aprendizagem baseada em jogos, aparece descrita como sendo "... the integration of games or gaming mechanics into educational experiences". É diferente a opção de integrar jogos ou de integrar mecânicas de jogos (ou mais corretamente, elementos de jogos). Restringindo a definição a ... the integration of ... gaming mechanics into educational experiences" então Game-Based Learning, tal como é visto pelos autores do relatório, não é mais do que a aplicação do conceito de gamification na educação. Big Data and Learning Analytics é a outra tecnologia relevante. Na definição dos autores do relatório refere-se a "... the interpretation of a wide range of data produced by and gathered on behalf of students to assess academic progress, predict future performance, and spot potential issues". A possibilidade de avaliar o progresso académico ("assess academic progress") é essencial para aplicação de gamification no ensino, seja qual for o nível considerado. Com a aplicação deste conceito pretende-se promover nos alunos determinados comportamentos desejados e inibir os comportamentos indesejados. A forma como esta abordagem afecta os resultados académicos é essencial para avaliar a validade da aplicação de gamification. Logo, a possibilidade de recolher e analisar dados decorrentes das actividades dos alunos em ambientes de ensino suportado por tecnologia é um componente essencial para avaliar o impacto de aplicar gamification em actividades de ensino.

Um balanço da atividade, on-line e não só, em 2012: - 75 posts neste blogue. Como se vê na tag cloud, o tópico principal foi, como não podia deixar de ser, Gamification: -  As estatísticas de acesso ao blogue foram idênticas às de 2011, embora com alguma redução no número de acessos. - 2 posts no blogue de Gamifeye: Education and Training: From Game-Based Learning to Gamification e How Gamification Can Drive Behavioural Change. Um agradecimento a Sam Geuter. - 3 publicações: Aplicação de Elementos de Jogos numa Plataforma de Aprendizagem Social(ticEDUCA), A Social Gamification Framework for a K-6 Social Network (Tech Education) e A Social Gamification Framework for a K-6 Learning Platform (versão estendida do artigo da Tech Education publicada na Computers in Human Behavior). - 426 tweets e muitos retweets. 294 followers no final de 2012. - 2 cursos no Coursera: Gamification (uma boa surpresa) e Learn to Program: The Fundamentals (programação em Python). - Participação numa workshop sobre Gamification: Videojogos na Sala de Aula: O Processo de Ensino por Gamification.  - Continuação da colaboração com a Tecla Colorida no âmbito do schoooools.com, como suporte ao trabalho de doutoramento. Participação no Dia Aberto do Projecto Escolinhas Criativas. - Experiência de aplicação de elementos de jogos e do conceito de gamification num curso profissional, relatada num blogue criado para o efeito. Uma turma difícil e resultados pouco conclusivos. - Alguns livros de referência importantes sobre Gamification, Jogos e outros temas: The Gamification of Learning and Instruction (Karl Kapp), For the Win: How Game Thinking Can Revolutionize Your Business (Kevin Werbach), Gamification: A Simple Introduction (Andrzej Marczewski), Drive (Daniel Pink), A Theory of Fun (Raph Koster). - Presença no Leaderboard dos GamificationGurus: a melhor classificação foi #19, em setembro  (#30 em dezembro). Há ainda muito para melhorar. - Algumas horas a jogar Angry Birds, Plants vs Zombies (uma sugestão obtida no curso sobre Gamification) e Call of Duty. - Muitos quilómetros na companhia de Nike+, um bom exemplo de aplicação de gamification, com o objectivo de aumentar a motivação para a prática de corrida (ou mais exactamente, para comprar material desportivo da Nike ...).  Para além desta aplicação gamificada, a Nike acaba de lançar o jogo NikeFuel Missions (ver também este post). O jogo interage com os mesmo dispositivos do Nike+ (iPod, iPhone e outros gadgets da Nike) e coloca desafios nos quais se obtêm pontos (NikeFuel). Os desafios têm um tempo limite para serem ultrapassados e qualquer actividade que gere esses pontos é elegível. Os jogadores progridem ainda através de níveis que se vão atingindo com os pontos obtidos. A primeira missão já foi ultrapassada, a 29 de dezembro: - Para o ano, está em perspectiva uma participação como e-formador no Projecto NACCE (Galiza e Norte de Portugal), usando uma plataforma de e-learning no curso "Internacionalización de PYMES TIC transfronterizas". Esta participação é em colaboração com a TecMinho. Para já, em 2012, houve uma participação na jornada Presentación de Resultados: Proyectos de Colaboracíon. E agora, em força para 2013,

by ruparajgo | Create your own Cartoon at www.toondoo.com I am sure you might also have faced a situation, where the instruction in the manual misled you or did not help you much. If you are writing a help manual or a tutorial for a product, it is very important that you write precise instructions. Most people think writing precise instructions means writing less words and writing simple grammatical sentences with the right choice of words. When I say precise, I am not just talking about the language or choice of words. By precision, I also mean accurately listing the logical steps to work with the features in the product. The purpose of any help manual gets served, only if the user successfully uses the product just by following  the instructions in the manual and when the user does not feel the need to call for any external support. If you want to write precise instructions, here are some things you must keep in mind while writing: Think in terms of the user all the time Never assume that the user might know some step because it is obvious Never assume that any step is trivial and needs no mention Make sure someone else executes your instructions and checks if the steps are correct and useful If you faced a funny situation while trying to follow a instruction manual, please share your experience by writing about it in the comments section. 

A designer de jogos, Jane McGonigal, autora de Reality is Broken, aparentemente está a colaborar na nova iniciativa da Nike, a NikeFuel Missions, mencionada no post anterior. Não será por acaso porque além de designer de jogos, Jane McGonigal também se apresenta como uma runner (vale a pena ler a entrevista) tendo corrido uma meia-maratona em janeiro de 2012 (como terá sido o resto do ano?). A Nike há muito que usa elementos de jogos na sua aplicação de apoio aos praticantes de running. Falando também como utilizador, é um bom exemplo de utilização de gamification. Para mim, 2012, foi o ano na primeira (espero que de muitas) maratona.

If you are an aspiring instructional designer, start thinking about instructional designing right now. Times are changing. Just like how a 2 year old kid is expected to know alphabets, some words and quite a few rhymes before he or she joins school, an aspiring instructional designer must have some basic idea about instructional designing before getting into the role. If you are a fresher and want to start your career in instructional designing, I recommend the 5 ways Tom Kulhmann suggests in his post - 5 Ways Web 2.0 Can Make You a Better E-Learning Designer. Additionally, I would like to refer to some interesting resources that will help any fresher get started easily, without any hassels. Let me duplicate Tom’s suggested ways and add my two cents to it. So here are the top 4 things that you can do to get started with instructional design: 1. Create a RSS reader account and bookmark top e-learning blogs There are loads of information about e-learning and instructional designing on the web. Reading continuously about e-learning and instructional designing will help you gain a lot of breadth about the subject. To keep track of useful information, the best thing to do is use Google Reader or Bloglines and add the best e-learning blogs to your list. This way you will be able to read all articles in one location. Here is my blogroll in Bloglines - http://www.bloglines.com/public/ruparajgo Also check eLearning Learning which has a good collection of e-learning blogs. 2. Start a professional blog It does not matter if instructional designing is new to you. Create a blog in Wordpress or Blogspot and write about your thoughts on instructional designing. It does not matter, if you make a mistake. It is important to keep thinking and keep writing. You will improve along the way. Your blog will help you connect with other learning professionals. It will help you debate and discuss on the subject that you are interested in. When you look for a job, your blog will speak for you. 3. Join a Community of Learning Professionals Today there is lot of scope for collaborative learning and social learning. Sumeet Moghe has written an interesting article on why synchronous learning makes sense today. Please read this article to learn about virtual classrooms. You have a lot of communities that faciliate free online learning sessions. So all that you need to do is join such a community. When you join a community of learning professionals, you get to : Attend free learning sessions Share and discuss ideas Network with like-minded people You get to gain a lot of knowledge which no training institute or certificate course can fetch you. Here are some communities that faciliate free online learning sessions: Corporate Learning Trends and Innovation Instructional Designers Community of India 4. Follow Learning Professionals on Twitter If you have no time to blog or attend sessions, you can choose to follow learning professionals on twitter. You get access to millions of useful articles on twitter which you might not find it yourself when you google or which might not be there in your RSS reader. Jane Hart has a good list of 100 learning professionals who you can choose to follow. So create an account with Twitter and use TweetML where you can choose to add all the learning professionals to your list at once . Thank you Christy for reminding me about Tweet ML. If you are a fresher and find this post useful, please leave your feedback. If you want to add more to this list, please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section

The Instructional Designers Community of India  is hosting yet another free  learning session on September 19, 2009. This time the session is about Learner Centric Methodology used in E-learning. The session coverage would be: 1. What is LCM? 2. How does LCM help design effective learning? 3. What are the key principles of LCM? 4. How does LCM benefit stakeholders? 5. A case study based on LCM LCM methodology will be explained using use cases/case studies. Audience Level: Advance About the Speaker: Geeta  Bose heads a learning innovations and design company, Kern Learning Solutions. She is an instructional designer passionate about promoting effective learning. Kern Learning Solutions turns 5 this year. In these 5 years Kern has worked in diverse domain from neuroscience to rural retail and has also won the Brandon Hall Award for best blended learning. PLEASE NOTE The session is happening in Adobe India, Salarpuria Infinity, 3rd Floor, #5, Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore. If you are planning to come to Adobe office, please be there by 11:00 am. You can also choose to join the meeting online using the url: http://my.adobe.acrobat.com/idci/ The session begins at 11:30 am IST. Please tweet the interesting points discussed during the session using #IDCI. Do not miss the opportunity to connect with other learning professionals! Do not miss the opportunity to collaborate, discuss and learn!

Marc Prensky publicou um novo livro - Brain Gain - onde abandona o conceito dos digital natives. Com este conceito, Prensky defendia que as gerações mais novas eram constituídas por nativos digitais enquanto que as gerações anteriores eram constituídas por imigrantes digitais.  Prensky defende agora uma evolução do conceito para uma nova metáfora: digital wisdom. Eis a sua justificação para o novo livro e para a nova metáfora: "My goal in writing Brain Gain was to highlight the positive effects technology is having on humans. We all live in an incredibly fast-evolving (and I believe improving) world at the technology level. But to those whose daily lives seem much the same the changes often annoy. Hence their negative reactions to technology. I believe it is important to keep searching for useful metaphors to help our understanding of our evolving man-machine world. Digital natives and digital immigrants was one such metaphor which helped many people understand what was happening over the last decade. But as technology continues to evolve, new metaphors are needed to understand what we are all going through. So I now offer the metaphor of digital wisdom."  Vale a pena ler a crítica ao livro feita por Pedro De Bruyckere aqui. Ver também em Please refrain from the use of digital native (again) e You want to use the concept of the digital native? Just don’t (research) outros comentários deste autor que é crítico da ideia de existência de nativos digitais e do que normalmente se associa como sendo o comportamento dessa geração. A ideia base de Prensky, a propósito da digital wisdom, é que a tecnologia pode levar-nos a um novo estádio de desenvolvimento humano alterando a forma como nos relacionamos com o mundo e com o conhecimento. Outra perspectiva sobre a forma como a sociedade atual lida com a tecnologia é visão que defende a existência de residentes e de visitantes digitais (ver este post). Ainda sobre os nativos digitais (ou Geração Net) ver também Geração Net, Web 2.0 e Ensino Superior. O que é inegável é que as tecnologias influenciam as gerações mais novas e essa influência tem aspectos positivos que devem ser usados por é responsável por a educar mas existe sempre o outro lado da questão: ver esta notícia do jornal Público de 20 de janeiro.