Category Archives: Big Picture

Saving the World through Online Games

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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Last month I posted Jesse Schell’s vision of an augmented-reality future, and it generated more buzz than anything I’ve posted previously — mainly because of the Orwellian implications.

A few weeks ago I came across a very different vision of saving the world through games, one that appealed to me more because positive behavior change is viewed as — and shown to be — a long-term effect rather than something you do at the moment for a gold star or a number of points. It was also mind-opening to me as a gamer who is very aware of the time and effort spent… some say wasted… in online games. And this week’s #lrnchat reminded me that I hadn’t posted it! Doh!

If you haven’t seen it, you definitely want to. Here is Jane McGonigal’s incredible TED Talk, Gaming Can Make a Better World.

Is Your Life Just One Big RPG?

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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My husband sent this video to me this week: a recording of Carnegie Mellon professor, author, and former Imagineer Jesse Schell talking about the future, game design, Facebook, and lots more at DICE 2010. There are several ID implications here, but one that speaks to me most initially is about motivation.

As a trainer, I often fell for the idea that if I was giving out prizes, trainees would only value them if they were “valuable”. But in fact, mere measurement does change behavior, and the oddest things can motivate us: achievements in WoW (most of which give nothing), virtual prizes (like clipart of a car that I saw one webinar presenter give out this past week), or simply seeing a full row of green checkmarks because we got 100% on a quiz.

There’s lots of stuff to discuss here. Watch. Tell me what you think.

(Alternately, view in parts on YouTube…)

Trainlets!

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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because they're short

because they're short. duh.

At KC-ASTD’s tech conference last fall, I attended a session by Sue Maden and Tony Maden on elearning pieces they’ve created at Burns and McDonnell. Some were Flip videos, some were screencasts, and some were interactive. Each took around 2 minutes. The whole point was to access the information just-in-time, so they weren’t serving them through their LMS.

Sound familiar? It did to me… We started doing something similar at my company this past year. We call them “trainlets”, and I’m going to get skewered in #lrnchat for spreading new terminology in our field, but the name has caught fire at my company, unlike “CBTs”.

I didn’t invent the term, but here’s what it means to me:

  • <5 minutes
  • usually not interactive, but can be
  • probably not delivered through the LMS

Are you doing something similar? What do you call them?

You’re Doing it Wrong

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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Shamira of Elune (aka me)

Shamira (aka me)

I play World of Warcraft. One thing that fascinates me about WoW is how much learning happens in-game… mostly informally.

Monday night, my guild tried five times to down a boss we’ve killed easily before. Our leaders explained and encouraged. Repeatedly. Before we quit, one mentioned that some people weren’t executing, even those who had before. I spoke up.

“I know you don’t want to embarrass anyone, but will you tell people privately if they aren’t doing it right?”

“If you aren’t doing xyz, you aren’t doing it right.”

I was doing xyz. But other people might not be able to evaluate their own performance in the heat of battle… right? “What if people can’t tell?”

Pause. “Okay, fair enough.”

Incoming private message: “You’re doing it wrong.” D’oh!

How long do you wait to tell people they’re doing it wrong? Why?

Back-to-School TLC (Thinking, Learning, and Computers)

Posted on by Judy Unrein
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umb-logoYesterday was the first day of fall classes for UMass Boston distance students, and this semester I’m taking a course called Thinking, Learning, and Computers from the school of critical and creative thinking. Doesn’t that sound cool? It’s an elective, outside of my normal department, and I’ve wanted to a class from CRCRTH for a while now.

Having taken almost 2/3 of my coursework for my M.Ed., I’ve taken a lot of classes on learning design, but I’m hoping to approach things from a little different angle with this class. I’d like to get more basic in some senses… pay even more attention to what happens personally, cognitively, with the learner when using a computer as the teacher (or as an intermediary between a the learner and teacher).

I’ll probably post some musings here as the semester progresses…