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News and Background Information on the Conference | |||
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An Overview of Games-based Learning in the US
Games-based learning and serious games have suffered several false starts in the academic and corporate worlds. It began with worthy efforts of enthusiastic educators squeezing academic content into graphics packages and has evolved into the current crop of enterprising commercial companies turning open source or existing games engines into 3D learning environments. Despite significant advances, the familiar hurdles and barriers to the use of gaming for learning still appear to be hampering the adoption of games in the corporate and academic fields in the US and Europe. In 2006, the indication from the US was that games-based learning in the corporate and academic fields was negligible in terms of training and educational spend. Of the companies I interviewed last year for the DTI, none had specifically budgeted for games-based learning. The report was based on a series of meetings with the e-learning leaders from a dozen or more of US's leading companies and institutions, including Cisco, Microsoft, State Street, Fidelity, IBM, MIT and Stanford. Some did claim multimedia work in the field designed to appeal to a younger demographic as ‘games-based learning’. However, even with the best will in the world, given gaming’s ubiquity and the economic size of the worldwide video-game industry, games-based learning was a non-starter. At Online Educa Berlin, I will examine where we are eighteen months on. Asking the same questions of the original group of participants and a slightly wider sample, I am hopeful that there will be some encouraging developments. I suspect, though, we’ll need to wait another period of similar duration for two unrelated - but important - developments to bear fruit. Just in time self-learning, combined with the rapid growth of casual gaming and the reasons behind it may be the powerful catalyst needed for a wider adoption of games based learning. It appears that casual gaming and the success of Nintendo’s Brain training and also its Wii product range can be placed at a new demographic of gamer, i.e. those people who would like to play video games but do not feel they have enough time. These potential gamers are looking to add value to their leisure time. Ubisoft have recognised that women gamers are particularly keen to ‘get something back’ from their gaming experience and therefore want to play games which offer self improvement in some form or other. Therefore, if we design learning games that are fast, accessible, ‘bite-sized’ and rewarding, people will play and learn. Given that the production times and costs and the platform constraints are less limiting for casual games, fulfilling demands in the next few years may well prove to be the launching pad that games-based learning needs. Of course, we need to deal with the elephant in the room: ‘Second Life’. We just can’t ignore it. During my meetings and discussions in May 2006, which included one with Linden Labs, Second Life was beginning to attract extensive media attention. I asked then and continue to ask: “Where is the game, and where is the learning? Undoubtedly there are some enlightened, hugely creative and interesting learning projects underway in Second Life, run by people like IBM’s Director of Play, Chuck Hamilton. However, for most ventures in the space, I suspect the ROI will not be something to write home about. I think Second Life and other older and - one could argue - better virtual spaces will eventually have their place in the e-learning portfolio. For me, though, the most important thing about Second Life is that its PR machine has succeeded in diverting corporate dollars into an environment that is perceived, rightly or wrongly, as a games environment. Although their experience of Second Life may ultimately be unrewarding, the fact that companies have spent money on a gaming solution may help to break down a huge barrier to the overall acceptance of ‘games’ as a method to help meet corporate learning objectives. If you wish to hear more about the report and its implications, you can meet Euan Mackenzie in the session GAM48 on Friday, November 30, 11:45 – 13:15. Links: 3MRT DTI Global Watch Mission Report 2006
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Euan’s background is in working with innovative software technologies in the internet, gaming, imaging, graphics, medical and education markets. He joined 3MRT in May 2003, having spent over 13 years as a founder and director of several Scottish and US technology companies.
