Free online Education

Another Ted Talk that i found. It's about offering the best of the best of university courses online for free. On the one hand, this is pretty cool because it is offering the opportunities of a post secondary education. But, if they are able to offer these great courses for free, what is the motivation to then go to a school where you end up in thousands of dollars of debt.

This kind of goes with what our prof said last week, about the education revolution. Could this be the first step?


http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education.html

Video games are good for Medical school

Medical school around the country are creating video games with the expressed goal of improving medical. The idea of using video games for educational purpose began in the aviation and military sectors. In fact, videos games have been used for decades now as teaching tools, said Bryan Bergeron, M.D., who has created several health care-related games and is a research affiliate with the Health Sciences and Technology Division at Harvard Medical School and MIT and author of the book "Developing Serious Games."

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/08/11/medical-school-education-from-video-games/16680.html

The Positive and Negative Effects of Video Games

This article is talking about that video games have some positive and negative effects of video games. In fact, It is explaining in detail how video games good or bad for kids.
Here are some of the mental skills trained by video games:
1. Following instructions
2. problem solving and logic
3. Hand-eye coordination, fine motor and spatial skills
4. Resource management and logistics
5. Multitasking, simultaneous tracking of many shifting variables and managing multiple objectives
6. Quick thinking, making fast analysis and decisions
7. Strategy and anticipation
8. Developing reading and math skills
9. Perseverance
10. Pattern recognition
11. Estimation skills 
12. Inductive reasoning and hypothesis testing
13. Mapping
14. Memory
15. Reasoned judgments
16. Improved ability to rapidly and accurately recognize visual information
17. Talking risks
18. How to respond to challenges
19. How to respond frustrations
20. How to explore and rethink goals
21. Teamwork and cooperation when played with others
22. Simulation, real world skills     


http://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/34-the-good-and-bad-effects-of-video-games

Games: A Way of Life

Even before the well known publication of White & Le Coru’s: “Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement” (White & Le Coru, 2011) was released, Robin Linden, developer of the successful MMORPG “SecondLife” had this to say of the players of the MMORPG genre:

"When it came to what to call the people in the world, we knew we didn't want to call them 'users', although that would be the most typical thing for software. However, the word 'users' doesn't do a very good job of describing the two-way nature of Second Life, where the people involved are providing content and contributing to the experience.

We also thought about 'members' (boring!), 'citizens' (too political!), and 'players' (too game-y). 

'Residents', however, seems most descriptive of people who have a stake in the world and how it grows (Linden, 2006)."

http://www.uic.edu/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/viewArti  cle/3171/3049

http://forums- archive.secondlife.com/139/e9/125712/1.html#post1190127

Events in MMORPG

Aside from personal friend groups, MMORPGs often have structured groups, guilds, clans, and races. Strong bonds are created through residents, and when the offline death of a player occurs, online friends mourn the passing of the resident through an online funeral. Events such as funerals, weddings, birthday parties, and anything else a guild can think of, are being created and hosted online.

 

Check out this video: Serenity Now bombs a World of Warcraft funeral

10 benefits of playing video games

      This article is telling people that play video games can provide 10 benefits for player. In fact, video games are not negative; they can also make people to know and proof what good things are. Here is a list of 10 benefits of playing video games:

1. Empathy 

2. Better Cognitive Health

3. Better than TV

4. Better Mood and Post-traumatic Gaming

5. Improves Hand-Eye Coordination

6. A Remedy for Intense Pain

7. Sharper Image

8. Distraction from Snacking or Overeating 

9. A New Way of Teaching

10. Imagination Boost

How video games can change the world

Video games are good for society. Games can deal with some tough problems; indeed, this video is telling people that people can make people’s life better through games. The games will give people hope when people are faced with a challenge. Dr. JaneMcGonigal is a game designer and she think that video games can change the world.

http://learningames.wordpress.com/2011/01/24/are-video-games-good-for-society/

Another TedTalks

I found another TedTalks about Gamification. It really focuses on how gamification has changed how kids are learning, and how gamification can be used in schools. It is more theoretical than the previous 2 ted talks i posted, which were more about the application of gamification in education.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2N-5maKZ9Q

Gamification increasing brand loyalty

From a marketing perspective, gamification can be an amazing marketing tool. Just a couple of notes from this article:

-Groupon: incentive with time-limited deals
-Foursquare App: checking in for rewards
-Nike campaign in London: city wide race
-Jay-Z book release: releasing pages of book throughout US and getting consumers to log on and "decode" some of his book

this is all creating a long term engagement between brands and consumers, moving them along the "player journey"

Gamificiation allows for, and encourages the creation, of a new style of loyalty program.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/marketing/adhocracy/its-all-fun-and-games----until-someone-bonds-with-a-brand/article1860689/singlepage/

Social Impacts of Gamification?

Whoever ends up doing the SOCIAL perspective of gamificiation may find this article helpful, or at least give them something to think about.

Although most people rate a game on how fun it is, it often takes hour of rigorous playing, applying yourself tirelessly to tedious tasks within the game, just for the opportunity to advance.

The author talks about how gamification can be seen in many aspects of life. The example they use is running, and how the use of an App and social media posts keeps them motivated, keeping them competitive against other people in their social networks.

The author does question whether or not having all elements of life turned into a game is a good thing. Although gamification may make it more fun to do a tedious task, it is important to not start thinking of life as an RPG.

http://kotaku.com/5678356/video-games-can-trick-us-into-doing-things-we-loathe

This is an article from Forbes.com. Although the article is from 2 years ago, it adequately explains the evolution that gamification has gone through, starting with "edu-tech" games and going through til gamification. Even though the author is not fond of the name, they acknowledge the merits of gamification and believe that it is here to stay. The article also makes a good point, saying how people take these games for granted. I do not think of myself as a gamer, and any sort of video game terms go completely over my head. BUT I have utilized many "edu-tech" games throughout my academic career.

http://www.forbes.com/2010/10/28/education-internet-scratch-technology-gamification.html

This is a really cool video of a teacher who turned his classroom learning environment into a video game, including gaming elements such as "levelling up", activities, and videos. His students were able to learn their materials through videos and online lectures, and then apply what they had learned in in-class experiments and labs.

What's really awesome about this video is how he comments on his failures, acknowledging that his idea isnt flawless yet, and is still going through developments and modifications.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=4qlYGX0H6Ec

COMPETITIVE GAMING

     In my part, I am going to talk about the competitive gaming. the competitive gaming includes physical sports, cybersport, professional gaming and electronic sports. For example, when the first play station was born, we can play sports just with our fingers. And then the wii comes out, we are able to play sports by real physical actions. Later on, Kinect for Xbox is changing the game and completely changed how we play games. And now every smartphone can be integrated with games. 

     We can play games in anywhere with portable devices.   With the technology development, we have more fun in the esports and it is easier to start a game.The easiest way to play an electronic sports match is over the Internet. Detecting cheating in general online play may be more difficult than at physical events, and the network latency may negatively impact players' performance, especially at high levels of competition. Any competitive games will have a winner, so how to become the winner with strategy is the target to join a competitive game. 

By Cheng Zhao

What is GAMIFICATION ????

Hey all ! In my first blog, I would like to talk about what is "Gamification".
To some people who are not familiar with "Gamification",
they may think it is like playing a game, or doing something with fun.
Yes!  Gamification is the use of game design elements such as game mechanics or gaming thinking, the purpose is to enhance people's enthusiasm and enhance non-game contexts. 

If you guys wanna know more about "Gamification"
Please browse "From Game Design Elements to Gamefulness: Defining “Gamification”





By Cheng Zhao