How we Think

What Video Games Have to Teach Us about Learning and Literacy

Benedict Anderson’s deservedly famous thesis about the origins and nature
of modern nationalism turns around the central notion of an “imagined
community.” This category provides him with a matrix out of which one
can apprehend-theoretically and historically-the different variants of nationalist discourse formulated over the last two hundred years. We will refer,
in the brief comments that follow, to three basic dimensions structuring
the fabric of Anderson’s argument: 1) the presuppositions implicit in the
notion of an “imagined” community; 2) the kind of substitutability or solidarity which is required to be a member of such a community; 3) the kind
of relationship that is established between such a community-which is by
definition finite or limited-and its outside. Before that, however, let us
describe the main features of Anderson’s thesis.

On Imagined Communities

THE FIFTH DISCIPLINE The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization

Sustainability is and will be a crucial issue for the present and future generations. The current assumption that natural resources are infinite and that the regenerative capacity of the environment is able to compensate for all human action is no longer acceptable. Hence, sustainability issues will influence all organisational aspects of the human life, from the economical, political, social and environmental points of view. The reason is simple: until now, all human activities have been based on the paradigm of unlimited resources and unlimited world's capacity for regeneration; from now on, the awareness of the termination of this assumption means that all related behavioural models must be changed. This is a very impressive objective embracing all fields of culture, economy, technology and much more. A continuing effort, together with a reasonable time span, will be required to pursue this goal. Fortunately, nature and the environment are capable of self-regulation and will give man a chance to recove...

Sustainable manufacturing: trends and research challenges

There are currently a number of models, frameworks and methodologies for serious games analysis and design that provide useful interpretations of the possibilities and limitations offered by serious games. However, these tools focus mostly on high-level aspects and requirements and do not help understand how such high-level requirements can be concretely satisfied. In this paper, we present a conceptual model, called Activity Theory-based Model of Serious Games (ATMSG), that aims to fill this gap. ATMSG supports a systematic and detailed representation of educational serious games, depicting the ways that game elements are connected to each other throughout the game, and how these elements contribute to the achievement of the desired pedagogical goals. Three evaluation studies indicate that ATMSG helped participants, particularly those with gaming experience, identify and understand the roles of each component in the game and recognize the game's educational objectives. We present a model for serious games analysis and conceptual design, called ATMSG.Activity theory is used as the underlying theoretical framework.ATMSG supports a systematic and detailed representation of educational serious games.ATMSG depicts how the combination of serious games elements supports pedagogical goals.A taxonomy of serious games elements is presented to assist the analysis of SGs.

An activity theory-based model for serious games analysis and-conceptual design

This paper arises from work ongoing in the GALA (Games and Learning Alliance — Network of Excellence for Serious Games). As part of GALA, a comprehensive state of the art analysis of existing serious games for the business and industry domain (loosely defined) was undertaken. A categorisation of the identified serious games was developed in order to analyse the characteristics of the serious games — the aspects they covered and those they do not cover. Of primary importance were the simulation level, topic and skills mediated by the identified serious games. The "simulation level" means the level or amount of the world that is simulated in the simulation or serious game. This is a hierarchy starting with the World/ God/ Universe — in which level whole worlds are simulated, for example, in games such as Civilization. The hierarchy then proceeds downwards from nation, industry, inter-organisational, business/ organisation, intra-organisational/ processes, group/ team, discipline, techniques to games addressing the individual. Second the skills to be transferred by the serious game were also analysed. From this an analysis of the gaps in coverage of serious games was carried out, leading to identifying opportunities for, and recommendations of, serious games to be developed for the business and industry domain.

State of the art of serious games for business and industry

This paper addresses the implications of combining learning analytics and serious games for improving game quality, monitoring and assessment of player behavior, gaming performance, game progression, learning goals achievement, and user's appreciation. We introduce two modes of serious games analytics: in-game (real time) analytics, and post-game (off-line) analytics. We also explain the GLEANER framework for in-game analytics and describe a practical example for off-line analytics. We conclude with a brief outlook on future work, highlighting opportunities and challenges towards a solid uptake of SGs in authentic educational and training settings.

Implications of Learning Analytics for Serious Game Design

Several studies have shown very positive results regarding the use of serious games as rehabilitation tools for individuals with physical disabilities, mainly because the game environment gives them the necessary motivation to continue their treatment with enthusiasm. Thus, the objective of this paper is to describe the first steps on the development of a 3D game for physical therapy of patients with motor disabilities as a result of neurological disorders.

Jannicke Baalsrud Hauge

Papers

An activity theory-based model for serious games analysis and-conceptual design

State of the art of serious games for business and industry

Implications of Learning Analytics for Serious Game Design

Serious Games Development and Applications

Evaluation of Simulation Games for Teaching Engineering and Manufacturing