On Thursday, Bill Turkel and I joined Mills Kelly (as well as Dan Cohen and Tom Scheinfeldt) to discuss Pastplay, the symposium that I organized on April 29/30, with the support of The History Education Network/Histoire et Éducation en Réseau (THEN/HiER) (which in turn is supported by SSHRC). Our conversation comprises the most recent edition of “Digital Campus“. Listen here. Thanks for including us, Mills!
Thanks to all of the participants, and those of you who joined us via Twitter and other means, for making the “Playing with Technology in History” symposium (now renamed “Pastplay”) such a success. You can follow us as we move forward, with a book and future plans, at www.playingwithhistory.com
I’ll be giving this presentation on Thursday, April 1st, 3:00 – 5:00 pm, at the Augmented Reality Lab at York University, Joan & Martin Goldfarb Centre for Fine Arts, Room 309 CFA. All are welcome.
Here’s the abstract: Following the launch of the Serious Games Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in 2002, academics have explored the use of gaming strategies and technologies to teach “serious” content. Eight years later, it is time to take stock: what have we learned? In this presentation I will draw conclusions from the literature, and from my research, making reference to several Canadian history “serious games” that I have developed (including games in virtual worlds, isometric environments, and mixed-reality and augmented-reality environments (including a heritage tour/game for the iPhone)). I will explain why I think we should stop using the term “serious game”, and why I think the playful use of mixed- and augmented-reality is rich with potential for historians and other humanists.
I’ve got three blogs going simultaneously: this (quiet) one, Simulating History (my project and lab blog) and Playing with History (for a symposium that I’m organizing). Most of my energy, and consequently most of the action, is happening over there. Please join us.
I’ve been a very bad (missing?) blogger, but now that Playing with Technology is up, I’ve got some free time to make this space look a little less barren. More next week.
As part of Bill Turkel’s API workshop, those of us connected to research clusters and communities (including Sean Kheraj, Shekhar Krisnan, Stephane Levesque, Alan MacEachern, Geoffrey Rockwell, Tom Scheinfeldt) brainstormed around the potential role of APIs to facilitate cluster research. Here’s what we came up with:
APIs defined:
“APIs are useful translators for people who are going about their own business”
We must consider APIs:
i. within clusters
Universities support collaboration between colleagues within a university, but not those colleagues outside the university
ii. cluster to cluster
How do we transfer expertise in one cluster to another cluster?
iii. from clusters to public
Google as a model for API development
Do we feel threatened by Google because it is a quasi university (or pseudo university, depending on one’s perspective)? What can we learn from Google?
• Google never tried to do or be everything (a la Yahoo and its portal); instead they built lots of individual tools; in the same way each of us should try to do one thing well.
• Google built very simple interfaces (one field, one button)
• Users learn how to use Google apps by trying them
• Its apps are transparent (scholars tend to make things opaque)
• Google gives employees 20% of their time to do what they want; we should do this with our grad students
• Google gives credit (humanists are not good at giving credit (scientists are much better))
How should we use APIs to support collaboration?
We need to define what scholars do (this is what Zotero and Omeca have accomplished – these focused on a process of scholarship) that large corporations (e.g. Google) won’t or can’t do. Scholars:
• build databases
• create content
• print books (that last)
• go slowly
• focus on detail
• think long-term
• teach undergraduates and graduate students
• run journals, symposia, etc.
Potential deliverables (given what scholars do):
• Run a conference using GoogleDocs, where participants pay via PayPal, and another API provides simultaneous translation
• Develop a research exchange where scholars swap tasks (a credit/exchange)
Moving forward
We need:
i. knowledge of what is there
ii. the capacity to integrate it
iii. training for our students
We should build:
a. social APIs (not technical APIs)
b. tools and techniques to engage the public (e.g. so that members of the public could help researchers to do translation work)
After a long hiatus, this blog is back. The inspiration for resurrecting this page must be credited to the Workshop on Application Programming Interfaces for the Digital Humanities, organized by Bill Turkel at The University of Western Ontario. Bill has assembled a group of digital humanists, many of whom are historians, who actively develop APIs, and who are frequent bloggers, tweeters, etc. Thanks Bill – I’m looking forward to the next couple of days.
Niagarapalooza, a one-day conference focused on the revitalization of Niagara, was an unmitigated success, thanks to the work of Mark Brickell, Vice President, Smart Growth and Partnerships, at Niagara Economic Development Corporation. My presentation (please see it below, minus its moving parts) focused on the potential for serious game development, through nGen, the Niagara Interactive Media Generator (a new media incubator initiated by Brock University – you can read about it here). Plenary speaker Richard Florida began the day by expanding on his thesis that successful cities (and regions) cultivate the creativity of their citizens, and Brock University President Jack Lightstone closed the day by asking, “OK, but how does the rubber hit the road?” Notably, in his
Many of us at Brock are moving in this direction. Rosemary Hale, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, is promoting a Centre for the Arts, located in downtown St. Catharines. I’ve formed a company to bring the conclusions of my research on simulations and serious games into the marketplace. And in the days that have followed Niagarapalooza, I’ve engaged in several conversations with civic and business leaders about other potential ventures. The rubber is getting closer to the road. More on that in future posts.
On Thursday January 31 I’ll have the privilege of presenting at the Niagarapalooza conference – please check back in the next couple of days for my thoughts about this event.
I saw the following call for papers from the Association for Learning Technology, and thought it might be of wider interest:
Learning and Teaching in Immersive Virtual Worlds
Special issue of ALT-J, Research in Learning Technology
Immersive virtual worlds (IVWs), such as Second Life, Active Worlds, Croquet and Forterra and massive multi-player games (MMPGs), such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft represent a paradigm shift in learning technology, and an important challenge to the world of education. They provide a platform with the potential to support a wide variety of activities, many of which have been adapted to learning and teaching, particularly in higher education. For some the spatial and social qualities of IVWs are exciting and attractive, for others, such as those involved in games-based learning, they can be seen as slow and troublesome. Nevertheless, interest in using IVWs and MMPGs in learning and teaching is growing rapidly.
The aim of this special issue of ALT-J is to develop and publish a timely collection of papers representing current research, developments and ideas in educational applications of IVWs and MMPGs. Of particular interest are papers that go beyond descriptions of objects and activities to build links between practice and pedagogy, and offer conceptual, methodological and analytical rigour. Example topic areas for inclusion in this special issue include, but are not necessarily confined to:
1. Issues of embodiment
2. Running IVWs and MMPGs cost effectively on a large scale
3. Contexts in which use of IVWs is likely to be pedagogically effective
4. Understandings of identity
5. Research into learning and teaching in IVWs and MMPGs
6. The impact of virtual quests
7. Uses of collaborative simulation
8. Collaborative construction
9. The value of virtual laboratories
10. Uses of virtual field work
11. Group discussion in IVWs and MMPGs
12. Problem-based learning in IVWs and MMPGs
13. Geo-spatial representation of content
14. The impact on learners and teachers
15. Institutional aspects of IVWs and MMPGs
16. How IVWs and MMPGs alter views of learning
17. IVWs and MMPGs in schoolsFor queries and guidance relating to the call please contact Special Issue Editors Maggi Savin-Baden or Robert Ward.
Important dates:
Until 22 February 2008 Submission of abstracts and formal/informal response from Special Issue Editors.Submission of full papers: 31st March 2008
