... simulations and educational games in the learning process. Interestingly, almost 40 years ago, an author observed that there are three types of learning that can result from simulation and educational gaming: 1) learning the content of the ... ). Additionally, researchers typically use three methods for evaluating the effectiveness of simulations and educational games: 1) utility evaluations, 2) in-simulator learning, and 3) transfer of training. I guess the main point that can be ... (i.e. learning the content of a system). I think some of the hang-ups with evaluating simulations and games is ...

I've been trying to understand better where simulation fits within the skills development process and whether simulation is the only/best option available to trainers and/or learners. My diagram shows a stepped transition from the ... properly trained and that's likely to include lots of safe practice away from real hazards. Simulation seems to me to ... hypothesise. To be effective, simulations need to approximate the situation in which the skill must be applied for real. This requires a degree of physical fidelity (the simulation looks and feels like the real thing) and ...

Do you work for the " Overmanaged Organization "? The Passive-Aggressive organization ? Which organization " has scores of smart, motivated, and talented  people, but they rarely pull in the same direction  at the same time"? While this simulator from Booz & Co . might not be sophisticated enough to craft your next five-year plan from, I think it could start some really interesting discussions.

... nursing education; especially in the area of nursing simulations. I came across one particularly interesting example of this ... simulation hosted within Second Life. He's also working in collaboration with the nursing school at nearby Centralia Community College . The simulator allows students to react to a situation, to choose what medications to administer, to chart their actions, to monitor the consequences, and to adjust their treatments accordingly. Scenarios can be simulated ... and it seems to me with the work of simulation pioneers like John Miller, the potential of Second Life as a simulator ...

The National Research Council recently came out with a rather lengthy book on modeling individual through group level behaviors and cultural variables. This is a very big topic in the Government right now. One of their chapters was on "Games" and how they could contribute as a tool for social and organizational modeling. Specifically, they were looking at MMOGs. While I don't recommend the entire book for the casually-interested (the book is geared primarely for the Department of Defense Modeling and Simulation community), the chapter on games was interesting. The ...

I just saw a post from Design of Knowledge titled Simulations in Training: New T+D Article . I just had a quick thought that I wanted to comment on but wordpress wanted me to register...no thanks. So I'll post here. You can read the post and/or the T+D article, but here's the part that caught my attention... "And if the simulation is not supported by reflective activities and orientation activities, the benefits will not be realized." Now, I'm counting on my colleagues ... we create...not just for simulations? Consider the text book of old. Don't you gain more by reflecting on what ...

Caspian Learning has produced a useful taxonomy of immersive learning simulations in their white paper Serious Games in Defence Education (Word or PDF, 4MB). Although the paper addresses a single vertical market, the taxonomy is of general interest. Here's a list of the categories in the taxonomy (the descriptions are mine, not theirs ... ' advances on the basis of the user's selections from the options available. Real-time strategy sim Simulation ... point and click interface. The action unfolds in real-time. Construction and management simulation games ...

... doesn't need to simulate anything real - it can look and behave in completely fantastical ways if that's how you design it - although simulating things is what it's most useful for. Can I think of an example of a 3D world that's not a sim? Second Life ? Any other ideas, anyone? According to the Wikipedia , ' a simulation is an imitation of some real ... simulate some aspect of economics, or Captivate to simulate a software task. A game , on the other hand, is an activity with ... attainments. A game can involve simulation (such as a business game or SimCity-type game) and it can use 3D (as with ...

... almost 40 years ago), Abt wrote that there were three types of learning that could result from simulations and games ... fighter pilot participated in the same flight simulator, the expert pilot would be expected to perform better, but the ... learning. In S. S. Boocock & E. O. Schild (Eds.), Simulation games in learning (pp. 65-84). Beverly Hills , CA: Sage ... . Simulation & Gaming, 33 (4), 441-467.

... novelty, complexity, curiosity, humor, inquiry arousal, and variability. Not coincidentally, simulations and games use many of these same characteristics . It is not actually simulations and educational games that increase learning and motivation; rather, it is the characteristics inherent to simulations and educational games that cause the effect. I've ... design and educational games and simulation include: fun, learner control, relevance/importance, challenge, curiosity, and ... ). Games, motivation, and learning: A research and practice model. Simulation & Gaming, 33 (4), 441-467. * ...

I'm attending the Interservice /Industry Training, Simulation, and Education Conference (I/ ITSEC ) which is the premier conference for the DoD on all things simulation and training related. It's always an enjoyable conference. The exhibit floor is huge (it has to be in order to fit the flight simulators and mega-booths), and it is always great seeing friends from the blogosphere , fellow colleagues, and even someone who goes to my church. The theme for the conference is " Maintaining the Edge. Transforming the Force ". Today (which was actually the second day of the conference, ...

Presentation: Best Practices for Implementing Immersive Simulations Presenter: Corti (Came in late - first person networking) - The 'big idea' (what is your hook) - Defining it - Project team - Vendor Selection - Design it + Paper mock-ups important, incl. storyboarding. Mistakes on paper cheap - Build it + Build to work, then build pretty + 20: 80 rule. For immersive learning, at least 80 percent of the project needs to be done before you can show the client ... differences between the 2. Simulation is how you bring the content together. - Changing design during ...

That's right...we just got a brand new Dell XPS M1730 gaming laptop at work. It's "technically" not mine as I'll have to share it, but we got it in order to test, evaluate, and demo the latest simulation and gaming projects we are working on. Plus you never know when the occasional Rainbow 6, Splinter Cell, etc. game may make it on there for "testing" purposes. I still haven't had a chance to use Vista that much (other than playing with demo models in electronic stores). Once our IT guys received the laptop, they came to me and said it had Vista on. We both sort of looked at ...

... world of Modeling and Simulation. Well done...now we will just wait for 18 months, and we will have this computing ...

... years of attendence), I've realized how small the simulation and game community is. Probably the reason I did not get ...

I got an email the other day from a listserv. I actually have no idea how I am on this mailing list (I suspect it is from a conference I attended in the past). Regardless, the title caught my eye, "Four modes of Experiential Learning". It goes on to provide a brief 2-3 sentences on each of the four modes: 1. Simulations 2. Scenarios 3. Case Studies 4. Mirror Worlds The last one particularly caught my eye. At first I was a little excited, because I thought this was going to be a new experiential learning tool that I could add to my arsenal. Turns out that it is just another term for an ...

... dissertation research, I've been reminded of the importance of debriefing a simulation and game. Perhaps this is ...

I'm never sure what updates people will see, but I wanted to alert people that I've made a small update to my page: Software Simulation eLearning (w/ links to Tools) The update primarily added some data from the eLearningGuilds Research at the bottom of the page - eLearning Tools Satisfaction . This shows satisfaction among tools that fall into categories related to software simulation: screen capture, electronic performance support (EPSS) and simulation. There are some definite issues with some of these tools not really being for the same purpose, but I was looking to get ...

I just finished my first web session for the eLearningGuild . Breeze is very cool. My session was Interactive 3D Simulation Training Using Macromedia Director MX (session 401) If you attended today, or view the video, I would love to get your feedback. Seriously...even if its negative. If you want to see the video again click the link below: The Simulation video (google video) Also, If you want to see more, I am leading several sessions at DevLearn2006. I am leading sessions on 3D simulations , MMO Games & Environments , and RSS: The New Learning Pipeline . In addition ...

According to the BBC news site: Service personnel are to be given university education free of charge after they end their duty with the armed forces, it has been reported. The UK government will pay tuition fees to study for GCSEs, A-levels, university degrees or other qualifications. This is in part a response to a recent Ministry of Defence survey of 9,000 servicemen and women suggested ...

Related to my previous post on Wiihabilitation , Nintendo has the Wii Fit that has been out for several months now. I haven't seen much on it since it's release at E3, but it is an interesting technology to keep an eye on. Check out the video. It looks both fun and...somewhat healthy (gasp). There goes another argument about why video games are useless:-) ...

A co-worker sent me this article today on how Nintendo's Wii is being used for rehab therapy. Interestingly, patients mention that the normal rehab exercises can be downright boring (note how you can substitute "patients" for "students" and substitute "rehab exercises" for "educational program" to characterize many critiques of education). Part of me wonders when articles like this will stop receiving press simply because it is not "news" anymore. It's amazing that some people are genuinely surprised that games have something good to offer. Several years ago, people would talk about how ...

I came across a TWiki on Virtual Worlds funded by the Federation of American Scientists. This is a great resource for keeping up to date (or getting up to date) on anything and everything in Virtual Worlds. After quickly browsing through their list of Virtual Worlds (there are a lot), I came across an interesting article and website in their Recent News section . It is a website devoted to Virtual Law . This is a topic that has definitely flown under the radar (or I just missed the articles)...and for all of the 2008 predictions that have been floating around, here is an interesting ...

Activities from Day 2 at I/ ITSEC : 1. Best Practices for 3D Procedural Animation - This was a paper session presented by NGrain . The best practices included: letting the SMEs do the animation, compress the animation for light-weight delivery, model orientation should be done on the table or ground, consistency (in model rotation, view angle, textual call-outs, etc.), use audio for multi-sensory absorption, and include interactivity and practice. They also mentioned that one of the true benefits of 3D models is the " Transparent View" that allows users to see inside the model. They ...

Here is an article about how CNN recently opened a i-Report (user generated news reporting) location in Second Life. Many are familiar with the i-Report concept in the real world, and the SL i-Report will function in much the same way in Second Life. Residents will be able to share events that are happening around the world. It will be interesting to see how this presence works (i.e. Will residents care about events that have happened in the past? Will there be news worthy events or will it turn into a subtle form of marketing for increasing traffic flow at a certain location? How will ...

I should create a new label called "you have to be kidding me". Since I love sports, I frequent the ESPN website. While on there, I found an article on Professional Video Game Players . As with most professional sports, I think they are highly overpaid for what they do (but then the argument always is that they wouldn't get paid that much if it wasn't beneficial for the people paying them). The article talks about one individual having a $250,000 contract (plus prize money for winning). Remember that the next time you tell your kids that they can't make a living off of gaming.

Just got back from the Human Performance Technology Workshop in Williamsburg, VA. More posts (both good and bad) in the coming days, but I've been playing catch-up with some of the blogs that I read. Clark Aldrich has an interesting post (and poll) regarding the names given to this emerging field of interactive content. He lists the top 10 names used to describe the field and then invites readers to vote on their favorite.

Interesting marketing slogan that caught my eye as I was reading USA Today Online the other day. It said, " Grandparents Day is Sunday, Sept. 9th. This year, spoil them with the Nintendo DS Bundle Pack ." I, of course, had to click the advertisement trying to figure out how they were marketing a Nintendo DS for Grandparents. Turns out, Brain Age has developed a series of games for the Nintendo DS to help keep the mind sharp. They call it Brain Training and is geared towards sharpening the mind. Just thought it was interesting how some people say games are "dulling minds" while others ...

CNN had an interesting article called, " Experts: Video games not an addiction ". The article highlights the debate involving doctors and experts regarding the excessive use of video games. The article states that about 10% of players are considered excessive gamers. It was interesting to see how some wanted to put video game play in the same category as alcholism. While I agree that the conclusion to do more research on the issue is the right call, the issue itself of how much time to spend playing video games is a worthy question. One expert went so far as to claim, "The more time kids ...

USA Today had an interesting article about two U.S. companies who won prestigious advertising awards at the Cannes Advertising Festival (see " U.S. Marketers Walk Away with More Ad Awards at Cannes ". One of the companies - Burger King - won the Titanium award which honors "ideas that redefine the industry". This "idea" that Burger King had was to develop an original game starring BK's King for the Xbox. They sold the video game for $3.99 with each meal purchase. According to the article, the advertising campaign cost $5 million, and BK has sold 3.5 million games. The impact...BK ...