m-learning, mobile learning, learning on the move there are many ways of describing mobile learning and mobile computing. There are a number of machines available from iPhone to netbook but is there an ideal device?

The PC has become the standard for delivering learning with an office environment but the mobile platform is still emerging. Mobile computing has been along for long than many people can remember, most people of the laptop but forget about innovative devices like the PSION and also the Apple Newton. I used both of these devices in the mid 90’s and they were being used within industry. Now I see mobile devices being used by virtually everyone from the mobile phone to the XDA mobile devices used by delivery man to track your parcel.

Within mobile learning we have a range of technical platforms to choose from, allowing choice for the users but providing an issue for developers and organisations. Few fewer of these devices actually share common applications that you can both simply use. Applications for the iPhone and the Android handset are superb but they can’t be swapped and they are usually part of a longer contract for mobile phone services.

Instead of looking for the ideal device or the best application platform HTML 5 may provide much of the functionality that we need, supporting mobile browsers and allowing content to work across multiple devices. During several development projects I’ve reviewed several mobile devices and here are few things that I noted.

Apple iPhone/iPod
You’ll need a developer licence or someone who has one
Development uses the apple development kit that uses objective c
You need to get your app reviewed and approved from apple
Unless you have company license for distribution all your apps will be on the istore

PlayStation Portable
Has browser support and supports flash
Can support a web-cam/camera
Has a slot for a memory card so that you can use your own content
Can be tricky to directly type a url
No contracts
Robust device

Nintendo DSi
Has browser support
Double screen
Memory card slot
No contracts

Android device
Uses open source tools
Lots of developers available
Well supported
Good browser support

Windows Mobile
Support the windows platform
Links with Exchange
Used to create bespoke applications
Can come with a wand for typing
Browser support

Notebook
Larger than other devices
Smaller enough to be mobile
Some times slow to start
Supports windows and Linux operating systems
You can use many of your existing programs
You can develop your own apps and deploy across the notebook

Interesting after reviewing the devices I came to the conclusion that it will be good to develop applications using HTML/5 to allow as many of the devices as possible to use the content. Each device has its own graphic requirements such as screen size but this appeared to be a good way to develop content within a cost effective method.

First blog post for a while…

I started working in e-learning and games in the 90’s. During this time we have seen some amazing technical advantages and also seen some interesting advances within e-learning. In recent years games based learning or GBL has been a trend subject.

Game Based Learning does not only mean using games and hardware, game theory can be applied to e-learning design and your own resource development. Games are hugely popular across the world, the design of games does involve a development methodology and some of the elements may interest you.

For many people game based learning makes them think about brain train on their Nintendo DSi or something that is not serious. However there is another element of games and games design that is often missed – game theory. Within the development of computer games a whole range of skills are involved from creative writers, graphics designers, script writers, level designers and programmers. Here is a brief look at 4 elements of game theory that I consider when developing an e-learning or game based learning resource.

Reward

Nintendo has been using rewards within its games for several years. It you have played anyone of the super Mario titles you will be familiar with collecting golden coins as you move around the level or game. Even at the most basic skill level you can collate huge numbers of coins and you coins are freely available within the level.
As you collect coins these are converted into points or can be used within the game economy. The use of reward can also encourage the user to explore the level further in the quest for rewards. The placement of the coins can encourage exploration to areas that the user may previously have not thought of. This allows you as a designer to introduce other games elements, skills and content for those who have found them.

Within reward systems and game design Operant Conditioning is widely discussed and its principles influence many designers. This quote from gamedev.net describes it neatly

“Operant conditioning is the psychological principle that states that a person is motivated to do or not do an action based on whether they have been rewarded or punished for that action in the past. Operant conditioning principles also explain how to schedule rewards in order to maximize motivation to perform the action.”

Economy
At an end of a level users are often rewarded with their performance in terms of score. Some games also use the concept of the game economy. This allows users to ‘spend’ the reward points that they have collected. Depending on the game or resources this might be opened other levels, improving character performance or changing their appearance.

The use of an economy connects the user back to their achievements gradually, allowing them to be reward for smaller achievements and being able to receive benefit from them. In a recent e-learning course each time the learner completed the activity within each section they received a credit. Once they had completed the resource if they had the right number of credits we allowed them to play a ‘hidden’ game. This generated a buzz within the learner community who discussed how you accessed the end game. The only way to access the end game was if you had collected all of the credits. Learners were pleased about their reward at the end of the game and it generated a buzz around the learner community who also wanted to play the end game.

Recuperation
In many of the early arcade games you had 3 lives (attempts) to complete the game. For anyone of you who have played games like pitfall, nemisis, pac world or donkey kong you will remember what a challenge it was to move along the levels with only 3 lives! Recent games design has moved on, introducing the concept of health, allowing the user to continue their journey across the level even if they have made a mistake. The use of health does make the experience more realistic, increasing the game experience and encourages gamers to consider their actions in game.

Whilst it is still possible to lose all of your health, you may also have the opportunity to get additional health points back, often by completing a challenge. This allows the user to continue their game experience, stay engaged and learn about how their actions will affect their experience.
The game Gauntlet was one of the first games to use the concept of health to allow games to lose health and remain in game. It also allowed gamers to create health points as they moved through the level. This is a an interesting game to review as it was a game that could be played with up to 4 people sharing skill and health points to complete the level.

Problem Solving
The games industry has created games such as tetris and brain training that have all been involved around problem solving. However problem solving is a key element of all games from sports titles to simulations. The problem solving is gradual to allow the learner to develop their skills and then be presented with larger challenges as the game develops.

From my perspective I have been interested to see how internet based games have brought people together to play online games together and solve problems.  Users will come across a rule or problem which is stopping progress, with other gamers then can create a strategy or discuss tactics. From this then can then develop a solution that allows them to more forward.

I have reviewed and studied many games to see how they have encourage groups of users to come together to solve problems and I’ve used many of these techniques in my own work. One of the early multi-player  arcade game was called Gauntlet and it needed players to work together to reach the end of the stage. The game could be played on your own but it was a much rich and immersive experience when you added other users.

There is so much to game based learning and games design, you might have a different view. For me it involves taking elements of game design, game theory and development to enrich any e-learning resource, not just a ’serious’ game.

It has been a while since the last blog post,  sorry!

Many people will know that we have a set up an innovative project with the computer games art degree at Norwich University College of the Arts. In the current academic year we have decided to build on the success of the first year and run a series of student workshops.

In November we held the first workshop called building a game in a day. We are currently developing a series of lone worker protection courses and decided to use a real-life brief with the students. They had to develop the story, narrative, learning objectives and decide upon the audience for their resource before spending the afternoon building a sample module.

At the end of the day each of the student groups has to present their finished game module and also their documentation. I was hugely impressed with the manner in which the students took to the challenge. Some of the game ideas and concepts that were presented were excellent and could easily be used in a commercial project.

To support the students I enlisted the help of Sam, George and Shaun (last year’s work placement students) who provided expert software and also offered a critical eye. Anthony and I provided commercial and project management advice and an insight into what potential clients might be looking for.

The workshop was a great success with 10 excellent game modules being developed, with one group producing 4 example games. From my perspective it was interesting to see how the games design students pushed the software and also came up with new concepts and ideas that we might not have thought of. We are continuing to use computer games designers on our elearning projects and this workshop only helped to re-inforce my belief that they make an excellent addition to our team.

It was interesting to view the different creative processes that each of the groups had. We provided some rough timings and ideas but it was largely left to the students to organise themselves and their time. It was interesting to see how they all started to sketch out design ideas and process flow maps for how the game might work. It is clear to me that game design and instructional design share many principles and once we had introduced the students to the concept of learning objectives they were able to incorporate them into their design.

In December I was able to share my thoughts on the workshop with members of the Association of Learning Technology and the eLearning network during a webinar on serious games that I was presenting.

For more information on the workshop you can read an article that was featured in the Norwich evening news.

Scott

One hour or 60 minutes or 3600 seconds, the hour is the standard by which elearning development costs appear to be measured. I’ve read with interest several blog posts about development cost per hour but what exactly is an hour of elearning and how is it measured?

In an industry it is valuable to have a benchmark or standard against which price and quality comparisons can be made but with the advances in technology and the range of development tools available is the hour still relevant?

We read and are told that learners work at different speeds at different times and in different ways yet the one hour matrix is readily applied. I’m interested in what constitutes the hour? Is it the time the learner uses the course? Are we using an average? For the development company is it number of screens x number of minutes? I’m not sure of the answer but I’m conscious that as we deliver on different platforms in different modes to an ever wider learner group that an hour used as a standard could be misleading if it’s not applied consistently and everyone knows how it is measured.

Often I read a blog post about company x who are paying £ 000’s for an hour of elearning and want to know whether it represents value. I don’t think that you can make an accurate assessment without knowing more information including the full details of what the developer is being asked to do. Development time using Rapid tools is widely regarded as being less than custom work and its only when you factor in all of the development tasks only then can you start to make an assessment.

In a creative industry like e-learning benchmarking costs will always be a challenging task but perhaps it’s time to think about a basic formula that will provide a base for suppliers and developers to work from.

I’d noticed that there had not been much blogging activity in the past few weeks. This is due to a combination of holiday, working on projects and getting our games based learning event arranged. I’ve been using Twitter to post updates as I’ve got twitterfone on my phone which has proved to be really useful. I’ve seen extended uses for twitter especially when used on a mobile device. I think it would be great to use when travelling so that you can keep people up to date with where are you and what you are up to. It has come quite a way since I used a fax machine to send back monthly updates. I’ve experimented using Twitter feeds with a client on a couple of occasions and it was useful when we were both out of office.

At the next e-learning forum event I want to try a twitter feed to see how whether it will be used.

Over the past month I’ve seen some really interesting stuff from the new UK edition of wired magazine to finally getting the time to read a TLRP paper on Education 2.0?

Reading other people’s blog’s is always interesting and I read about a great presentation device on Clive Shepherd’s Blog - http://prezi.com/ - take a look at this clever presentation device.

http://www.readthewords.com/ is another fave site at the moment that we’ve come across. It is well worth a look.

…also we are planning to be at http://conference.e2bn.org/ so feel free to come and say hi.

We are finalising the details for the Game Based Learning event. The event will be ticket only as we have had a lot of interest. A number of people have already booked and to register your interest please book by emailing info@realprojects.co.uk or using the contact form http://www.realprojects.co.uk/contact.php

We are expecting that the event will be heavily subscribed so please reserve your place.

The event will be taking place at the Financial Services Academy in Norwich.

We have been looking at the PSP for a few weeks and today we’ve had some success! Sam, Ed and Jonny have managed to get a number of our own games and activities working, albeit with a few tweaks here and there. It was great to see the content and designs working on a new device and our next step is to move some existing content over to the PSP and to see how that looks.

It’s clear that we are going to have to look at how content is developed for the PSP and we’ve already talked about the need for a set of PSP e-learning guidelines. From our research it only supports Flash 6 but that still allows us to do lots of pretty cool stuff.

we’ll keep you updated on how things work out with the PSP.

Norfolk e-learning forum

The next forum event is on the 18th March in Norwich. If you are reading this and want to come along send us an email at info@realprojects.co.uk to book. It is a free event and if you are interested in e-learning and learning technology you are going to meet other like minded people! The event is interactive and you’ll get the chance to interact using the AlphaSmart Neo 2.

If you are still not sure about whether to attend give the office a call on 01603 762772 to find out more.

In the latest Naace newsletter there is an article about Futurelab coordinating a games and learning research project.

“Futurelab has been appointed as the UK National Coordinator for a pan-European study of the use of computer and video games in schools. Our Games and Learning project is a programme of research, events and planned publications intended to stimulate discussion and the development of new intelligence.

The overall aim is to demonstrate what challenges and opportunities have emerged from debates and developments in this field to date, and to identify practical actions and interventions to be taken forwards.”

We’ve been in touch with Futurelab as this is something that Real Projects would like to be involved in. At the moment we don’t have much more information than what we have posted on the blog! We’ll be letting futurelab know about the games degree link up and also our work with games based learning. As we find out more we will let you know.

p.s. I still can’t get twitter to work via my mobile phone…anyone got any ideas?

Jonathan Newcombe from the Customer Feedback Company was our guest speaker at the norfolk e-learning forum. He delivered a great session on the mobile phone feedbadck system demonstrating how companies such as Tesco are using the feedback system and the many possible uses for it.

When I first met Jonathan we talked about what they did but it wasn’t until I saw the technology being used that I actually began to understand how it could be used and how many potential uses there were. Since that first meeting we’ve had loads of ideas abotu how it can be used and we are going to have an open day at our offices so more people can come and see some of our ideas.

The session today must be one of the only ones I have been to where you were asked to leave your mobile phone on! I didn’t hear any comedy ringtones so a lot of people must have been on silent!

After the session there was an excellent debate on the possible uses of the feedback system for a range of education and commerical uses. A number of attendees stated that organisations that the worked for were already using or were looking at ways in which the technology could be used.

We were also able to give out a 3 free whitepapers which were provided by Rob Hubbard, Real Projects and The Customer Feedback Company. For more information on the forum including how you can attend please visit http://www.realprojects.co.uk/about.php.

At Real Projects we’ve recently been invited to look at a number of touchscreen projects for clients. I looked at the possibilities of touchscreens in 1996, since then the technology has moved on a lot. the technology is now being used in many devices from information points in shopping centres to mobile phones. On the blog one of my first posts was about microsoft sphere. A few weeks before I came across sphere I was at Norwich University College of the Arts and some of the students and technicians had created a very cool table top touch screen to showcase the work of the computer games degree.

It was a very clever use of technology and displayed the students work in a really elegant and clever way. I then read last week about a project in Scotland (http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/sep/17/itforschools.elearning) where an interactive desk has been developed. The desk and its possibilities look fantastic. The Guardian article discusses how they could be used in the classroom but I can think of many commercial applications from designers to architects. There are also many custom e-learning applications that could be developed for these touchscreen tables.

After being invited to come up with some design concepts for touchscreens we started to wonder where they were currently being used…we all went out on a march across the city to see where the technology was in use.

• Pubs
• Betting shops!
• The tube
• Shopping Malls
• Train Stations
• Police Information Points
• Mobile Phones
• PDA
• Remote Controls

It was really interesting to see that the technology is already being used in many places and its become part of our technical landscape. I spend a bit of time travelling to clients in London and regularly look at how travellers engage with the video screens in tube stations. I wonder how long it will be before we see interactive adverts using touchscreens. (not on the escalators!)