A FootGaming Game Design Opportunity

Recently a team of 6th graders from Bend, Oregon entered a state-wide game design contest for grades 6-12. They came in second.
While their game was really cool - they got a LOT of points for their creativer user-interface. They played the game using a FootPOWR peripheral. Horray for the team! And their creative coach Sarah C.
Here is a chance for you to do a similar thing. Once you have a FootPOWR you can re-invent the game play of any game that uses a mouse or select keyboard input. Learn more here.
Please share your stories after you enter this contest at the Learning Games Network.
(This is from Henry Jenkins' blog) From the Learning Games Network (LGN) comes an interesting inspiration for user-generated content. A recently established 501(c) (3) non-profit organization, established by former MIT CMS Director of Special Projects Alex Chisholm, the MIT Education Arcade's Eric Klopfer and Scot Osterweil, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Kurt Squire, LGN was formed to spark innovation in the design and use of video games for learning. In addition to bringing together an integrated network of educators, designers, media producers, and academic researchers who all have a hand in creating and distributing games for learning, they're also bringing forth opportunities for youth to contribute to conversations, research, and development. It's a no brainer for today's students to share their perspectives in a more participatory role as the future of education is shaped.
The first of two efforts is a video contest, notable in its invitation to students to help inform educators and designers with their own thoughts on video games as tools for learning. Requiring entrants to create their own two-to-three minute YouTube videos, the contest offers two themes from which students can choose.
(1) The first challenge asks them to describe an "aha moment" they've personally encountered: "If you've experienced that spark of realization, that moment of epiphany between an idea from a game and something you learned -- at school, at home, or anywhere else -- tell us about it in your video."
(2) The second puts students in the role of teacher or coach, asking them to describe anidea for a learning game they would employ to help others learn: "What kind of game would it be? What would it help players learn? Why would your video game be a better way to learn something? In your video, tell us what challenges players would face and how they would learn from them."
Contest rules can be found at http://www.aha-moment.org. Students must be 13 years old and above to enter; there are separate categories for middle school, high school, and post-secondary students. Thanks to sponsorship by AMD, the first place prize for each category is a 16-inch HP Pavilion dv6 series notebook, powered by an AMD Turion™ X2 Ultra Dual-Core Mobile Processor. Deadline for submissions is midnight on July 31, 2009.

Research Before Adoption

We've all got a story about a particularly inspiring teacher who turned us on to reading, math, learning in general or to our own unique aptitudes. We've all played games and had, perhaps, an "aha" moment when a new concept or insight felt like the easiest learning we'd ever encountered. That said, why don't schools simply employ great teachers and harness the learning potential of great games?

In the realm of education and adoption of new programs, processes and standards the RESEARCH has to come first. Stepping up to the plate is Microsoft.

“While educational games are commonplace, little is known about how, why or even if they are effective,” said John Nordlinger, senior research manager for Microsoft Research’s gaming efforts. “Microsoft Research, together with NYU and the consortium of academic partners, will address these questions from a multidisciplinary angle, exploring what makes certain games compelling and playable and what elements make them effective, providing critically important information to researchers, game developers and educators to support a new era of using games for educational purposes.”

Microsoft Research, New York University, and a consortium of university partners recently announced the Games for Learning Institute (G4LI), a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional gaming research alliance seeking evidence to support games as learning tools for math and science subjects among middle-school students.With its research, G4LI hopes to identify which qualities of video games engage students and develop relevant, personalized teaching strategies that can be applied to the learning process.

From our perspective at DigiForceG this is great news. It's only when games as learning interventions are thoroughly researched and the results quantified that mainstream educators (and District budget keepers) will invest in the hardware, software and teacher training necessary for the most positive impact.

Microsoft Research will provide $1.5 million to the institute, with NYC and its consortium of partners matching Microsoft's investment for a combined $3 million.The funding will cover the first three years of G4LI's research, which will focus on evaluating video games as potential learning tools for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects at the middle-school years. G4LI will work with a range of student populations and will focus on underrepresented middle-school students, such as girls and minorities.

We look forward to offering any and all support we can to this important project: ExerLearning, Generation FIT or FootGaming.

This is what we're talking about!!!

I have written time and again about Marc Prensky's eye-opening book, DON'T BOTHER ME MOM I'M LEARNING. I may be his biggest customer, buying copies of his book right and left for parents, friends, educators and colleagues. The message is too important not to share. It's cool, too, because many of those receiving the book pass it on after the first (and often, second) read.

Equally exciting is to find someone in the field blazing the trail to exactly the sort of learning environment 21st century learners (of all ages) need and love. Brock Dubbels has a comprehensive and informative website: Video Games As Learning Tools. It's well worth some exploration.

I am intrigued by his philosophy, including, "Consider Learning by Design. Rather than diagnosing and finding deficits, why not design for the learning you want and then create a path to get their. I call this Learning by Design. An important element of Learning by Design is the role of play, a powerful form of learning, and hanassing play through games -- a structured form of play.What makes this an effective instructional design strategy is that the work is all purposeful. "

Once we get our FootPOWR pads launched in January I'd like to team up with educators like Brock to get students moving (ExerLearning) while they engage in assignments, games and FootGaming.

Ready to Make Your Own PC or XBox Game?

The tools are right here - all you need to do is watch the tutorial video. These tutorials come with full source code and detailed tips and tricks to help you learn every step of the way. You'll start with 2D and move right on to 3D games. Our hope is that you'll create PC games that use the mouse and arrow keys/space bar so we can publish them for you on our upcoming FootGaming web community. There is a powerful "Creator's Club" online - full of like minded game developers like you - or your students. The support and expertise you need is right there!

Now THIS Is What We Mean!!

Weaving great game design and development into real (read: in the standard curriculum) learning is not easy - but it is being done more and more as game development tools are provided to our students. A powerful project, Ayiti: The Cost of Life , is provided by Microsoft via the Microsoft Corporations US Partners in Learning and designed in collaboration with the Global Kids’ Playing 4 Keeps program and a group of students at South Shore High School in Brooklyn, NY.

Here's a game that ties great game play to insights and understanding on an issue that impacts our world (and many of the students who play) every day. Read the full article here. Give the game a try - and better yet, share it with some students and sit back to absorb their comments, reactions and opportunity for discussion.

The biggest design challenge was creating a game that realistically and sensitively illuminated the challenges posed by poverty in daily life (specifically, in the pursuit for the global right to an education) but that was still truly enjoyable and satisfying to play. Extending this challenge, it was imperative that the game be replayable such that each session would expose to the player more of the subtleties of the relationships between the different underlying economies. The economies of the game are balanced with such guile that at first the game seems unbeatable. We assure you, though, there are ways to keep your entire family healthy and happy and educated!
Global Kids is a nationally recognized leader in using digital media to promote global awareness and youth civic engagement. Global Kids'Online Leadership Program (OLP) integrates a youth development approach and international and public policy issues into youth media programs that build digital literacy, foster substantive online dialogues, develop resources for educators, and promote civic participation.

Are you aware of other great game-development programs by kids for kids? Let us know.

A Carnival Of Game-Creation FUN for Digitari

As we are developing content and media for the upcoming FootGaming web portal, we discovered a great game creation tool for all ages. It is from EA, SIMS Carnival. Log on and download a few tools - before you know it you will be creating games you can share with friends. The games are easy to make - and better yet, they are easy to improve. Once you make a game and play it a few times, it becomes obvious if it is really fun - or not!

This is a great tool for teachers hoping to get collaborative groups analyzing, editing, using tech tools, and creating. The subject, characters and images in a game can be endlessly customized. If you are a teacher and have used games like these, please let us know.

The New "LEGO"

To the LEGO novice, like me, building anything beyond a square object or a block with 4 wheels seems next to impossible unless I follow the directions carefully. I am not a LEGO "programmer," - my medium includes words and activity.

Meanwhile, there is a new generation of grade 3-12 (and university students) who are embracing a new sort of "building block." They don't rely on "following the directions" - rather, they invent and design game models. Using actual game programming code, almost anyone (even an adult like me) can design a working game.

From GarageGames comes a tool that can be used in grades 4-12, university level and at-home - it's called Torque Game Builder. From their website comes this comment, "GarageGames is making it very easy for game development instructors with the one-two punch of Torque Game Builder and Torque Game Engine. Students with absolutely no experience in game development can have the satisfaction of building fun and functional 2D and 3D games in as little as one quarter. The best part is that everything they learn using TGB is totally transferable for use with TGE. That means less wasted effort for instructors and students. Win, win."
- Kevin O'Gorman, Chair of Game Design & Development, American InterContinental University

The community at GarageGames complements the digi Force G model - take some time to explore and extrapolate what this can mean for K-12 education and 21st Century Workplace skills.