Getting Started with Virtual Learning Environments
One of the biggest of getting into virtual world and simulation learning is the huge gap – both real and perceived – that separates the minds of the gamer and the non-gamer. Patrick Dunn makes the excellent point in this recent post that the mindset of a game designer is very different from the mindset of an instructional designer. Game or virtual world designers attempt to focus on experiences, and figure that their players will learn as they experience. Learning designers attempt to break experience down into content first, present the content and then hope the learners will be able to translate that information back into experience.
Clearly, some topics are better suited for a content-focused approach…and there’s lots of great info on this blog’s backlog on that approach. But I’ve been focusing recently on trying to learn more about game design so that I can create better experiences for my learners. To do this, I’ve aspired to become more of a gamer. And it’s harder than I thought it would be.
As Chris Brooker says in this article in the Guardian, most gamers (including those who play massively multiplayer online role playing games , or MMORPGs like World of Warcraft – which is similar in many ways to virtual worlds like Second Life) have trouble explaining the experience to non-gamers. So I was very excited to read at the end of his article a list of games he suggests people start with. The first one, which you can play for free online right now, is Canabalt Portal , another game on his list, was also recommended to me by a gamer friend.
Of course not all virtual experiences are games. This post by B.J. Schone highlights 25 Awesome Virtual Learning Experiences Online. Imagine the technology involved in any of the tour experiences being applied to teach new employees how to find things on a corporate campus. Here, Eric Tremblay talks about how one professor of biology has created Genome Island one of the most popular educational islands in Second Life - and all because her husband suckered her into playing World of Warcraft one summer while she wasn’t teaching.
This last link isn’t exactly the type of learning application we generally get to design for – but I found it so interesting I couldn’t resist putting it in for you. Apparently a virtual environment is being used to treat PTSD – with some fairly significant success.
What cool applications have you seen for virtual or game technology?
Tags: Experiences, gaming, New Technology, Virtual Worlds