ARVEL Applied Research in Virtual Environments for Learning

Augmented Reality | Emerging Tech | Video Games | Virtual Worlds

www.ArvelSig.com

JANUARY-APRIL 2012

EXCLUSIVE

Interview With

MATT DUNLEAVY

ASK CHRIS

ENGAGE

To Know Is The Beginning

by JONATHON RICHTER

Research Advice

from CHRIS DEDE

PROPHETS OF

SCIENCE FICTION

SF Book Reviews

by SHARI METCALF

The ARVEL SuperNews is an initiative of The Applied Research

in Virtual Environments for Learning special interest group of the

American Educational Research Association.

arvelsigSuperNews Applied Research in Virtual Environments for Learning

EDITORS: Jonathon Richter and Sabine Lawless-Reljic

AUGMENTED REALITY EDITOR: Patrick O’Shea

EMERGING TECHNOLOGY EDITOR: Jeremy Kemp

VIDEO GAMES EDITOR: Moses Wolfenstein

VIRTUAL WORLDS EDITOR: Sabine Lawless-Reljic

ASK CHRIS: Chris Dede

EDITOR AT LARGE: Jodi Asbell-Clarke

SCIFI COLUMN EDITOR: Shari Metcalf

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS: Jonathan Bartels, Barbara Johnson, Ryan Martinez, Dennis

Paiz-Ramirez

EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 2011-2012

HONORARY CHAIR & NOMINATION COMMITTEE CHAIR: Chris Dede

CHAIR: Lisa Dawley PAST CHAIR: Jonathon Richter

PROGRAM CHAIR: Scott Warren PROGRAM CHAIR ELECT: Amy Cheney

FINANCE/SECRETARY: Brian Nelson SPECIAL EVENTS: Patrick O’Shea

COMMUNICATIONS: Sabine Reljic MEMBERSHIP: Dennis Beck

AWARDS: Shari Metcalf WIKI: Nicole Miller

PUBLICATIONS: Krista Terry

CONTACTS:

WEBSITE: http://www.arvelsig.com

NING: http://arvelsig.ning.com

EMAIL: arvelsig173@gmail.com

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4 Researching the Rules of Play

5 From the ARVEL Chair-interim

AUGMENTED REALITY

7 Is AR Overrated?

8 Software/App Reviews

EMERGING TECH.

11 Software/App Reviews

VIDEO GAMES

20 Non Satis Ludere

22 Game Reviews

VIRTUAL WORLDS

24 Immersive Learning with ARVEL

3

SPECIAL FEATURE

9 Interview with Matt Dunleavy

REGULAR FEATURES

6 Movie Review

12 ARVEL@AERA

17 Ask Chris

18 SF Column

25 Club Photo

26 Blog Alert

27 Art Reviews

28 Announcements

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4

Researching the Rules of

Play

|What’s the Buzz?

s research professionals, we presume to

undertake the difficult, perhaps impossible challenge of seeking and communicating knowledge. As educators, we give students experiences that we hope provide them with the knowledge they need to better function in the world. For members of ARVEL and our ilk… we get to interrogate games and immersive spaces as contexts for acquiring such meaningful knowledge. Lucky us.

All of this work with knowledge as our currency is quite challenging of its own sake – but as they say, “To Know is Not Enough”. It’s not enough for us. It’s not enough for them. Peter Drucker once said, “knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.” Knowledge is a tricky thing, like a river. Indeed, we live in an increasingly interconnected, fast-paced, and rapidly changing world. This puts “simply knowing” beyond our reach. It isn’t just the technology that won’t stand still. As the world is increasingly revealed, we have come to comprehend that it is really too big to know. So we cannot stand apart from the world, but must be involved in it. We must engage in the transactions of things: to strive, to balance, to connect, and transcend. What then, are we to do with our knowledge? I like that AERA traditionally follows the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs after the vernal equinox. In the springtime, we realize our capacity to emerge from the darkness. Enlightenment is to know in a way that allows us to see and to Spring into new Patterns of Action. We are called to provide protection, stoke the fires of the mind, calm the storms of unreason, of hot emotion and riot. We are leaders, provocateurs, and cheerleaders. We are game-makers. With our knowledge, let us game the future, now.

Jonathon Richter, Co-Editor

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5

ENGAGEMENT and RENEWAL

To Know is the beginning For the win…

By Jonathon Richter

Don’t just join ARVEL – do

something mARVELous this year!

So here I am, back sooner than I

ever thought possible, writing to

you as Chair. Well… Interim-Chair,

anyhow. Our ARVEL SIG Chair,

Dr. Lisa Dawley, asked me to sit

here through the AERA Conference

in Vancouver, B.C. while she and

Dr. Chris Haskell adroitly manage

the next beta release of 3D

GameLab. While I won’t be able to

enact what Lisa would do, should

she be able to be in two places at

once – I’ll do my best to steward

ARVEL through the Annual

Conference as best as I’m able.

With the capable help of our

Executive Committee and the

fantastic line-up of speakers

presenting on immersive learning

research, I think we’ll be ok.

Jon Richter’s alt “Wainbrave Bernal” in SL and 8-bit

versions

ARVEL SIG continues to grow. Our

membership is strong and the public

is increasingly aware of and

participating in our activities that

span a variety of media channels –

including this “super” newsletter. We

are getting better at eliciting the

research-related contexts to be found

in games, virtual worlds, AR and

emerging forms of “immersivity” –

and highlighting such situated

knowledge for you, our audience. We

are looking at a number of exciting

new options with cooperation from

the American Educational Research

Association’s Executive Council

(more on THAT as things develop ;).

Yes, ARVEL SIG continues to get

more relevant, more comprehensive,

and to integrate the very immersive

media which we profess to study.

Now, as we grow and take more

tangible form, we’re looking

increasingly for YOU to become an

active participant in the SIG. Here are

just a few things that you can do:

• Submit a paper proposal for

AERA 2013 in San Francisco!

• Lead an ARVEL Ning Forum

Discussion; or

• Present at an upcoming ARVEL

Inworld Discussion;

• Build our Knowledge Base by

contributing to our ARVEL

Research Wiki;

• Submit an overview of the

immersive projects or research

going on at your institution for

publication in the SuperNews;

• Or even volunteer to be a part of

our ARVEL Editorial Board!

The ARVEL SIG is expected to grow

and become even better this coming

year. We have big plans! Join us and

maximize your benefits!

6

Movie

Review

Source: http://blog.80millionmoviesfree.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/catfish-movie-photo.jpg

he 2010 documentary film Catfish (Joost & Shulman) depicts a classic mistaken

identity storyline with a 21st century twist as it follows the developing T

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romantic relationship of Nev, a twenty-something New York City photographer,

and a woman he met on Facebook. The blurred line between the real world and

digital realities complicates this as Nev struggles to make sense of and identify

appropriate actions to what he is finding. These blurred lines are particularly

problematic when it comes to issues of identity because of the multiplicity and

situatedness of networked identities. The fact that our society is struggling with

these issues can clearly be seen in the wave of news reports of teachers posting

content on social media websites that is deemed inappropriate for the identity of

“teacher” in our society.

A key to being able to better address these new issues we are facing in social

media is to see what is going on. The Pew Research Center’s Internet and

American Life Project is a leading source for exploring ways the Internet is

changing society. Publishing fifteen to twenty reports a year, many reports in

recent years have been focused on usage and perceptions of social media. More

information about the Internet and American Life Project can be found at

http://www.pewinternet.org

As digital technology is changing at a pace we have never before seen, it is

important that we, as educators and scholars, be proactive rather than reactive.

HASTAC is a consortium focused on the possibilities for learning and

communicating in new technologies. This organization has a purposeful emphasis

on what’s next. HASTAC prides itself on fostering new ideas and innovation by

hosting competitions and sponsoring graduate and undergraduate digital scholars.

More information can be found at http://hastac.org. By Jonathan Bartels

7

|Augmented Reality

Is Augmented Reality Overrated? 34% of respondents stated that AR technologies were easy to use and useful. By Patrick O’Shea

Recently, there’s been a good deal of

discussion about the utility of

Augmented Reality technologies.

This thread of discussion has its roots

in a recent survey by Ypulse – billed

as “Media, Marketing and

Technology for the Next Generation”

according to their website

(http://www.ypulse.com). According

to this survey, only 34% of

respondents stated that AR

technologies were easy to use and

useful. This has lead to a general

discussion throughout several

marketing websites that have begun

to question the utility of AR to the

younger generation. For example,

Marketing Vox (marketingvox.com),

GoMo News (gomonews.com), and

the Mobile Commerce Press

(qrcodepress.com) all dedicate time

and space to describing these results

and trying to divine their meaning for

marketing trends.

Now, granted, these sites focus

on the marketing utility of the

technology, which wouldn’t seem to

hold direct meaning for educators,

but the statistics Ypulse have

reported indicate not only that

students don’t see utility in the

technology for marketing purposes,

but also that these difficulties stem

from a general lack of understanding

about how these technologies work

(for example, students don’t seem to

understand that they need an app on

their mobile devices to access these

materials). The difficulties that these

respondents see with how the

technologies work would be highly

pertinent for educators who are

hoping to use these tools in their

classrooms.

The question, however, is “How

do we interpret these results for

education?” Do these results mean

that education’s efforts to use AR are

destined to be fruitless, aside from

the “wow” factor of using a new and

inventive tool? Obviously, it’s

impossible to tell the future, and as

the editor of the AR section of the

ARVEL SuperNews, I’m not exactly

an objective observer of these trends.

Having stipulated that, though, I can

say that I see a couple substantial

differences between how these tools

are used in each setting that would

support greater usability in

classrooms than in general marketing.

First, as the difficulties seem to

be associated with confusion about

how the technologies work,

classroom settings are better situated

to provide guidance on how to make

these tools function. Teachers and

technology personnel can set up the

hardware and software ahead of time

to ensure that the proper tools are

available, and can then subsequently

train students on the use of these tools.

Second, and perhaps more

importantly, the marketing efforts that

leverage AR tend to focus on “one-

off” interactions that are designed to

provide information about products or

experiences. While informative, and

potentially interactive, these initiatives

would appear to be discrete and

disconnected to any larger context for

the information that is presented.

Educational initiatives, however, have a

greater potential to embed the AR

technologies as a tool for providing

contextualized information and

interactions.

Of course, I don’t want to be

Pollyannaish about these tools. The

future will tell whether AR actually

becomes a useful tool in educational

settings, and it’s by no means a given

that it will provide substantial benefits

(although, the same can be said of any

educational tool). However, I can say

that I see a path for these tools to

provide engaging, motivating, and

contextualized learning opportunities

that are substantially different from

traditional educational practices (for

example, utilizing AR tools to facilitate

data gathering interactions within a

mystery narrative). In other words, it’s

WAY too early to determine whether

AR is overrated as an educational tool.

One thing is clear, though – the answer

to that question will depend on the

quality of the curricula that are

designed to leverage the tools, rather

than the students’ perceptions of the

tools themselves. –P.O.

Mobile AR apps

to reach 1.4B

downloads by

2015

Study:

http://www.juniperresearch.com/r

eports.php?id=279

8

Software

& App

Reviews

http://www.vuzix.com

Vuzix is a company that produces sunglass-

based viewing technologies. The recent

SMART glasses, introduced at CES, provide

see-through HD displays, which can be used as

augmented reality data displays. This

technology provides a tool to display content

in a user-friendly way, but is dependent upon

content development to ensure quality

educational experiences.

http://www.google.com/mobile/skymap/

This application, available only for Google

Android devices, will turn your Android phone

into a viewfinder through which you can view the

sky, including stars, planets, constellations, and

satellites. This technology utilizes geolocation

information and the internal gyroscope to allow

anyone interested in learning about heavenly

bodies to view that information in relation to

their position.

http://tourwrist.com/

Tour Wrist is an augmented reality application

that allows for the development and presentation

of 360° panoramic images. These images are

tied to specific geolocations (but can be browsed

from anywhere), and utilize the internal

gyroscope within the device to allow the user to

view the entire 360° image by turning the

device. This is an excellent app for providing

virtual fieldtrips for students who may not be

able to visit diverse locations due to costs or

other constraints.

http://www.qrstuff.com/

The Quick Response (QR) code is a flexible

device that allows a device to “trigger” various

events through the camera function. This

technology allows the device to take a picture

of the code using a QR Code Reader app, and

depending on what data is encoded within the

design, the code can cause the device to

perform actions such as opening a webpage,

calling a phone number, sending a text

message, or simply presenting a block of text

(among other activities)

Google

Sky Map

Quick

Response

Image: WRAP 290AR+ maxReality Bundle

Source: http://www.vuzix.com/consumer/products_wrap920ar.html Image Credit: p. 28

9

|Special Feature

Interview With Matt Dunleavy About Hard Fun, Collaboration and Thinking

By Jonathon Richter

Jonathon Richter: Hi Matt.

Thanks so much for agreeing to

visit with us. We’re really excited

about your upcoming presentation

as Featured Speaker at our ARVEL

Business Meeting in Vancouver. Tell

us a little bit about yourself…

Matt Dunleavy: Great to be

visiting with you. I am excited to be

talking with you and grateful for the

opportunity to share my work.

Currently, I am an Assistant

Professor in Instructional

Technology at Radford University

in southwestern Virginia. This is my

fifth year at RU and I love it. I

received my Ph.D. in 2006 in

Educational Research, Statistics, and

Evaluation at the University of

Virginia, where I focused on the

impact of ubiquitous computing on

student learning and the classroom

environment.

My research interests are

focused on the intersection among

1-to-1 computing, instructional

gaming, cognitive science, and social

constructivist pedagogy. Prior to

completing my formal education, I

lived overseas teaching English as a

Second Language in Cameroon,

Central Africa as a Peace Corps

volunteer and then independently in

Taiwan, Republic of China. In my

free time, I love to spend time with

my wife, Sarah, and our two

children Sophia, 4, and Christopher,

18 months.

J.R.: Matt, please describe GAMeS Lab

and the work you do there:

M.D.: I established the Gaming,

Animation, Modeling and Simulation

(GAMeS) Lab in December of 2007 to

research and develop mobile learning

initiatives.

Our first successful grant award came

in the fall of 2008 from the National

Science Foundation (NSF) to research

and develop augmented reality curricula

within the Radford Outdoor Augmented

Reality (ROAR) project

(http://gameslab.radford.edu/ROAR).

The second component of the GAMeS

Lab is the iLearn project

(http://gameslab.radford.edu/ilearn/),

which is funded by a Virginia

Department of Education grant awarded

in January of 2010 to explore how the

iPod touch and the iPad could be used

to enhance effective teaching and

learning.

J.R: So what excites you the most about

your research?

M.D: From my perspective, the most

exciting aspect of my research is the

emergent and unpredictable nature

of mobile learning. Devices like

the iPad, which is just two years

old, are changing how we learn

and teach in and out of the formal

school day. Technologies like

augmented reality, which is still

emerging as a platform and field

of study, is radically changing how

we interact with our environment

and with each other. This is a very

exciting time to be involved with

mobile technology and to explore

how it might enhance our ability

to learn and teach.

J.R: How did you get involved

with Games Research?

M.D: From 2006-2007, I was a

Postdoctoral Fellow in Learning

Technologies at the Harvard

Graduate School of Education and

the director of the Handheld

Augmented Reality Project

(HARP). During this fellowship, I

researched the strengths and

weaknesses of augmented reality

to enhance student engagement

and learning in the 6-12 grade

classroom environment.

Working with teams from

University of Wisconsin at

Madison and MIT, we explored

how AR could be delivered

through various game and

simulation narratives. This was

really the first time I had used

games as a teaching tool and I was

immediately hooked on exploring

its application within education.

Matt Dunleavy

10

The mechanics and stories embedded

within good games have provided a

wealth of information and design

principles that I am continuing to

explore to this day within AR

experiences.

J.R: If you would please pick a

particular learning game and walk us

through it a bit – tell us briefly about

the game’s design for learning and the

fun – and highlight a few of the issues

that you encounter there as a

researcher?

M.D: Sure. Outbreak is an AR game

that attempts to guide students

through a collaborative scientific-

inquiry experience focused on an

epidemiology narrative. Outbreak

presents the students with the

following scenario: A deadly strain of

a mystery disease has broken out in

Thailand. The World Health

Organization and the Center for

Disease Control are quickly

overwhelmed and world's scientists

turn to the Internet to plead with the

global community to pitch in and

help. Everyone needs to lend a hand

if we are to survive and you and your

classmates as leading experts in your

respective fields of botany, zoology,

and entomology have been recruited

into the cause to stop the disease.

Only the right combination of plants

and animals will complete the

chemical puzzle and the students

must work in teams using their AR-

enabled smartphones to collect and

analyze the data in their school

playground to create the antidote.

Outbreak is based on Virginia

Standards of Learning for middle

school Life Science and the unit could

easily be adapted for secondary

Biology students. In addition, the

game structure and content are

designed to allow teachers the ability

to make alterations based on different

academic standards, different content

areas, and different current events.

Finally, the game content and

structure are designed to allow for

multiple entry points on which

teachers may build in future

iterations.

J.R: On the research methods and

tools that you employ, can you give

us a bit more specific detail on the

sorts of evidence claims about

learning that you make?

M.D: We use a design-based research

(DBR) approach to explore the

feasibility and practicality of using AR

in the K-12 environment for teaching

and learning. As applied to AR

development, this formative research

uses an approach of progressive

refinement where AR designs that

have been informed by learning

theory frameworks as well as video

game design principles, such as

immersive narrative, role play, and

mini-puzzles, are field tested in real

world contexts with typical users to

determine which design elements

work well in practice and which

elements need to be revised and

retested. At this early stage in research

and development, we are trying to

determine the design principles that

leverage the affordances of this

emergent and nascent pedagogical

and technological tool.

That being said, the most

frequently reported affordance of AR

is the ability to present to a group of

learners multiple incomplete, yet

complementary perspectives on a

problem situated within a physical

environment such as a school

playground or a park. This affordance

is a direct result of the 1-to-1

device-to-student ratio provided

within most AR learning

environments, in which each

student is interacting with a GPS-

enabled device to participate in the

activity. This unique affordance

enables educators to incorporate

collaborative pedagogical techniques

and experience design approaches

such as jigsaw and differentiated

role-play, which lend themselves

well to inquiry-based activities

requiring discussion and

negotiation.

J.R: What advice would you give to

others looking to pursue this sort of

research?

M.D: My advice is to get involved

as quickly as possible in exploring

this new tool as we have a great deal

to learn and it is huge opportunity

to make a meaningful impact on the

field and shape the direction of

mobile AR learning. We first need

to figure out the optimal design

principles or heuristics for AR

learning and this can be done at a

very small scale by a motivated team

or individual without a great deal of

resources.

J.R: Looking three to five years into

the future, what do you see as

pressing for educational research in

immersive learning?

M.D: Imagine a world where you

walking through the Internet.

Imagine a world where your entire

physical environment is embedded

with location-based and just in time

information presented to you via a

11

heads up display on your eyeglasses. This form of AR is coming and it will be the new storytelling and gaming platform.

Your world will soon be embedded with stories you can experience as you explore a new city, school playgrounds and

parks will be embedded with simulations and games teaching us about the

compelling narrative, science and history that surround us on a daily basis. Figuring out how to leverage this for learning

and teaching will be the most pressing educational research opportunity for immersive, mobile learning.

J.R: Anything else you’d like to add?

M.D: I am thrilled with this opportunity to share our work and we are always looking for more partners who would like

to explore this emerging medium. We are releasing a public version of an augmented reality development platform

called FreshAiR this summer, which will allow average users without any programming skills to create and deploy their

own customized AR experiences to any iPhone or Android-base phone. We developed this platform with an NSF

DRK12 grant and you can get more information by contacting me directly or visiting our software site at

playfreshair.com. Thanks.

J.R: Thank you for your time Matt. We can’t wait to meet you in Vancouver.

Credits for the 3 pictures used in this article: @Radford University, 2012

Matt Dunleavy is the invited Guest Speaker to ARVEL’s

Business Meeting at AERA 2012. Join us on Monday,

April 16th at 6:15pm-8:15pm, Sheraton Wall Center,

Floor 4th Level, South Galiano

12

“Non Satis Scire: To Know is Not Enough”

Sat, Apr 14 8:15am-10:15am, Sheraton Wall Center, Floor 3rd Level, North Junior Ballroom D Applied Research in Virtual Environments for Learning SIG Workshop 12:25pm-1:55pm, Sheraton Wall Center, Floor 4th Level, South Granville Affordances and Constraints of Virtual Worlds for Formal and Informal Learning (Symposium) Sun, Apr 15 12:25pm-1:55pm, Sheraton Wall Center, Floor 3rd Level, South Orca Research on Teaching With Simulated Virtual Tools and Spaces (Roundtable) 2:15pm-3:45pm, Sheraton Wall Center, Floor 3rd Level, South Azure Second Life to Support Learning Across Contexts (Roundtable) Mon, Apr 16 2:15pm-3:45pm, Sheraton Wall Center, Floor 3rd Level, South Beluga Research Explorations in the Use of Virtual Worlds for Learning (Roundtable) 4:05pm-5:35pm, Sheraton Wall Center, Floor Lower Lobby Level, North Gulf Island BCD Assessing Learning in Embodied Mixed-Reality Environments (Symposium) 6:15pm-8:15pm, Sheraton Wall Center, Floor 4th Level, South Galiano Applied Research in Virtual Environments for Learning SIG Business Meeting Guest Speaker: Matt Dunleavy, Professor of educational technology and director of GAMeS Lab, Radford University Tue, Apr 17 12:25pm-1:55pm, Sheraton Wall Center, Floor 3rd Level, South Beluga Games for Learning: Research Outcomes and Student Experiences (Roundtable)

Matt Dunleavy

The Scholar’s Journey: The Quest

Are You Ready to ENGAGE?

2012 AERA Annual Meeting Vancouver, BA

http://arvelsig.com @arvelsig on Twitter arvelsig173@gmail.com

Augmented Reality | Emerging Tech | Video Games | Virtual Worlds

Saturday, April 14

8:15am to 10:15am

Applied Research in Virtual Environments for Learning SIG Workshop (see page 19 for details)

Sheraton Wall Center Floor 3rd Level North Junior Ballroom D

12:25pm to 1:55pm

Affordances and Constraints of Virtual Worlds for Formal and Informal Learning (Symposium) Chair: Selen Turkay (Columbia U.) Discussant: Sabine Lawless-Reljic (Ashford U.) Collaborative Learning in a 3D Virtual Environment, by Mihwa Kim (Columbia U.) Science in Second Life: Embodying Scientific Inquiry in a high School, by Selen Turkay (Columbia U.) Grounding Learning in a Motivating Real-world Context, by Xin Bai (CUNY) On the Internet, No One Knows You’re a Dog: Teaching Communication Skills to Medical Students, by Susan Lowes (Columbia U.), Gillian Hamilton (U. of Arizona), Vicki Hochstetler and Jennifer Lower (Hospice of the Valley) Hanging Out in Desi: Straddling Multiple Universes Through Second Life, Devayani Tirthali (Columbia U.)

Sheraton Wall Center Floor 4th Level South Granville

Sunday, April 15

12:25pm to 1:55pm

Research on Teaching With Simulated Virtual Tools and Spaces (Roundtable) Chair: Joyce A. Pittman (Drexel U.) Effects of Virtual Manipulatives on Student Achievement and Mathematics Learning, by Patricia Moyer-Packenham and Arla Westenskow Utah State U.) Teacher Perceptions of the Practicality and Effectiveness of Immersive Ecological Simulations as Classroom Curricula, by Shari Metcalf and Amy Kamarainen (Harvard U.) Designing Smart Worlds: Automated Scoring of Learners’ Transportation Decisions in a Virtual Urban Commuting Simulation, by Benjamin Erlanson (California State U-Monterey Bay), Andre Denham, Kent Slack, Lijia Lin, and Brian Nelson (Arizona State U.)

Sheraton Wall Center Floor 3rd Level South Orca

2:15pm to 3:45pm

Second Life to Support Learning Across Contexts (Roundtable) Chair: Robb William Lindgren (U. of Central Florida) Design, Play, Communicate, and Learn: Examining the Value of Learning History Through Avatar Role Play, by Jenny Wakefield, Leila Mills, Scott Warren, Monica Rankin, and Jonathan Gratch (U. of North Texas) Investigating Second Life for Language Learning: EFL Teachers’ Perspectives on the Use of Second Life and Which Factors Affect Their Desire to Integrate Into Language Instruction, by Muhammet Demirbilek (Suleyman Demirel U.) Proactive Retrospective Installation in Second Life, by Chih-Feng Chien, Trina Davis, Patrick Slattery (Texas A&M U.) Using Second Life to Enhance Spatial Ability and Improve Chemical Education, by Zahira Merchant and Wendy Keeney-Kennicutt (Texas A&M U.)

Sheraton Wall Center Floor 3rd Level South Azure

ARVELSIG Sessions Details

14

ARVELSIG Sessions

15

Monday, April 16

2:15pm to 3:45pm

Research Explorations in the Use of Virtual Worlds for Learning (Roundtable) Chair: Benjamin Eric Erlandson (California State U-Monterey Bay) Exploration of Students’ Sense of Community in Virtual Learning Environments, by Terry McClannon, Amelia Cheney, Robert Sanders, Krista Terry, and Les Bolt (Appalachian State U.) Measuring The Effectiveness of a 3D Virtual Online Museum, by Greg Jones and Adriana D’Alba (U. of North Texas)

Sheraton Wall Center Floor 3rd Level South Beluga

4:05pm to 5:35pm

Assessing Learning in Embodied Mixed-Reality Environments (Symposium) Chair: Robb William Lindgren (U. of Central Florida) Discussant: Christopher J. Dede (Harvard U.) Interviews, Diagrams, and Movement Analysis: Assessing Learning in a Mixed-Reality Simulation of Planetary Astronomy, by Robb Lindgren and J. Michael Moshell (U. of Central Florida) Embodied Learning: Moving From Multicamera Mo-Cap to the Kinect, by Mina C. Johnson-Glenberg and David Birchfield (Arizone State U) Measuring Critical Thinking, Conceptual Understanding, and Cognitive Gain During Augmented Hands-On Informal Science Learning Experiences, by Karen Elinich (The Franklin Institute) Expert Evaluation of Student Presentations to Assess Learning in an Interactive Digital Dome: Opening the Gates of Horus, by Jeffrey Jacobson (PublicVR) Drawing and Self-Reflection as Formative Evaluation Tools and as Catalysts for Adolescents’ STEM Learning, by Karla Saari Kitalong (Michigan Technological U.) Using Augmented Reality to Connect Classroom and Museum Learning Environments, by Eileen Smith (U. of Central Florida)

Sheraton Wall Center Floor Lower Lobby Level North Gulf Island BCD

6:15pm to 8:15pm

Applied Research in Virtual Environments for Learning SIG Business Meeting

Guest Speaker: Matt Dunleavy, Professor of educational technology and director of GAMeS Lab, Radford University

Sheraton Wall Center Floor 4th Level South Galiano

Tuesday, April 17

12:25pm to 1:55pm

Games for Learning: Research Outcomes and Student Experiences (Roundtable) Chair: Mehmet Dali Ozturk (Arizona State U.) A Literature Synthesis About Games in Education, by Albert Dieter Rizthaupt, Nathaniel Poling, Chris Atkinson, and Margeaux Johnson (U. of Florida) Fifth Graders’ Flow Experience in a Digital Game-Based Science Learning Environment, by Meixun Zheng (North Carolina State U.) Self-Regulation, Alternate Reality Games, and Problem Based Learning: Are Students Ready to Play to Learn?, by Chris Bigenho (Greenhill School)

Sheraton Wall Center Floor 3rd Level South Beluga

16

Ask Chris

Die; Parents from Hell – Part Deux; and

The Exterminator: A Case of Vicious

Aunts. Soon, you will be back to the

intelligent state of ignoring everything

these v(acuous)-idiots say.

--Grand Master Dede

DEAR CHRIS: I am a co-PI on an

NSF-funded grant to develop a video game

to improve science literacy in middle school

students. We've got a good idea and have the

resources to do this project - but I can't get

my fellow co-PI to do his work. He doesn't

write things down, he doesn't show up to

meetings, and I'm having to do more of the

workload all the time. The thing is, I really

want this project to succeed. What should I

do? ~ P., from East Coast

DEAR P. from East Coast: You are

fortunate to have a Co-PI who is

“walking the talk” by giving you a

science inquiry experience in your

grant project. I’m sure it is difficult

for him to feign indolence and

irresponsibility, kissing off his duties

while you stagger along under

increasingly heavy burdens. But only

through such a strategy can he help

you to do problem-finding, the vital

front end of inquiry and the key to

science literacy. Hey, how can you

inflict the unknown on helpless

middle school students, giving them

nightmares about making meaning

out of complexity, if you don’t

experience the angst yourself? This is

gamification at its highest level – the

guy is a genius, not a loser! Show a

little gratitude for this Vygotskian

mentoring, and stop whining about

17

Ask Chris is written by Dr.

Chris Dede, Timothy E.

Wirth Professor in Learning

Technologies at Harvard’s

Graduate School of

Education. It will become the

most popular column, known

for its uncommon common

sense and humorous

perspective.

Send your questions for Chris

to arvelsig173@gmail.com

workload.

--Dread Lord Dede

DEAR CHRIS: Our research team is

struggling with the tension between learning and

fun. We have a game that teaches the History of

Knowledge to college undergraduates. They start

with the ancient Greeks and explore ontological

and epistemological questions - up through the

Enlightenment, applying the "lens" of the time

to a variety of presented challenges. The thing is,

the more realistic we make our game, making it

more like the real world, reflecting the actual

issues that people of respective times dealt with -

the less students appear to enjoy it. Conversely,

the more fun we make it, the less generalizable

the assessments appear to be. Can you help us

address this seeming paradox between Fun and

Learning? ~Gale, Austin, TX

DEAR GALE: You sure have a lot to

learn about fun – I almost fell asleep

reading about your ontological and

epistemological questions. Clearly you

need to watch the movie “Bill and Ted’s

Excellent Adventure” (1989) a few more

times, to understand how to make

history relevant to kids today. And, by

the way, throw in a few Cheech and

Chong movies to truly get the sense of

exploring philosophic real-world

challenges while stoned off your gourd –

after all, the key to conceptual

breakthroughs is creativity (i.e., seeing

life twisted). This is a deep axiological

insight, by the way – a dimension your

game lacks. You fail to grasp the heart

of the argument gamers make: if the

assessments show that something fun is

not learning, then the assessments are

what is messed up, not the game!

--Grand Master Dede

DEAR CHRIS: My parents told my

teacher that I was a 'vidiot'.

Apparently, I play too many

videogames and that makes me one. If

I quit right now, can I hope for my

brain to re-wire intelligent connections

again? ~ Jimmy Suaze, Seattle, WA

DEAR JIMMIE: If you are

taking seriously anything your

parents say, you are in bad shape.

Evidently, videogame playing has

eroded the critical thinking

mechanism fundamental to being

a teenager, which is that your

parents don’t know jack about

anything important in life. You

need to shift to videogames that

enhance a critical perspective on

adults, like Die, Zombie Teachers,

This issue’s sf column features Cory Doctorow – author,

activist, journalist, blogger, and co-editor of boingboing.net. His

two recent bestselling young adult science fiction novels are Little

Brother (2008) and For the Win (2010). Both are outstanding

projections of technological trends, particularly as pertains to

augmented and virtual environments and youth culture.

Little Brother is a novel about the dangers of technological

authoritarianism, and ways to use technology to take back

control. The story takes place in the near future in the city of San

Francisco, and tells the story of 17-year-old Marcus, who decides

to skip school with his friends to play an alternate reality game

(ARG) through the streets of the city. The Harajuku Fun

Madness ARG has just posted a new clue set, so Marcus and his

friends subvert the school’s gait-recognition cameras and RFID's

(radio frequency ID tags) to sneak out and follow clues to a set of

GPS coordinates to access a hidden WiFi access point signal.

Suddenly they hear explosions and sirens,

and are caught up in the crowds fleeing from a

real life terrorist attack on the San Francisco Bay

Bridge. Marcus is arrested, detained, and

interrogated by the Department of Homeland

Security (DHS), who suspect him of being an

enemy combatant because of the gear he carries

and his initial unwillingness to hand over his

phone’s password. After days of harsh

interrogation and intimidation Marcus is released,

but soon learns that one of his friends is still

imprisoned.

Marcus and his friends band together to form

an underground resistance movement, identifying

and circumventing the DHS security measures

that are overtaking the city. They use the power of

open-source, encrypted tools to defy authority,

rally support and get the word out through chat

rooms, message boards, and flash mobs.

Doctorow explains high tech surveillance

techniques and ways to circumvent them in great

detail. High on suspense, and tackling themes of

civil liberties and social activism, the novel

resonates with, and explicitly references, earlier

protest movements like the Yippies of the 1960s –

upgraded through the use of millennial

technology.

18

Prophets

of

Science

Fiction Research the Future!

Science Fiction and other unrequired-but-

necessary reading for Immersive Educational

Researchers by Shari Metcalf

What non-scholarly though important readings would you like other Immersive Academics to read? Send your suggestions for Shari to

arvelsig173@gmail.com

Ge

nre

: Sp

ecu

lati

ve

Cory Doctorow

For the Win, Doctorow’s second young adult novel,

takes us into the fascinating and real phenomena of gold

farming –buying and selling virtual “gold,” the in-game

points, artifacts, leveled-up characters, and other virtual

currencies earned in MMORPGs. For the Win introduces

us to a large cast of intriguing characters who populate

this enterprise, from third world gold farming teens

exploited by profit-hungry bosses, to white collar

executives of gaming companies who manipulate the

system for massive economic gain.

Matthew Fong is a poor teen with great skills as a

gold farmer who works for an oppressive boss in

Shenzhen, China, who later escapes and teams up with

Jiandi, a girl who broadcasts an underground radio show

online to millions of Chinese factory girls. Mala is a poor

teen in Mumbai, India who games at a local internet cafe;

she and her gaming “army” are hired by a corporate

businessman and told to attack other players who may be

gold farmers for a rival business. Leonard Goldberg is a

teen from a well-off family in the United States who

becomes friends with Matthew and other Chinese

gamers he meets online. The storylines come

together through Big Sister Nor, a girl in Singapore

who has started a trade union called the IWWWW

(Industrial Workers of the World Wide Web, a pun

on IWW); its members use the games to organize

under their bosses’ noses.

For the Win, like Little Brother, takes old conflicts

and expands them to a technological future. Here the

work is virtual and global but the workers are locally

oppressed, and the power of the internet means that

support can be rallied from distant continents, video

sharing can expose the brutality of oppressors, and

message boards can raise the voices of millions.

Again, Cory Doctorow brings significant expertise to

the topic, and provides clear and interesting

background on the economics behind gold farming,

including the volatile price fluctuations of virtual

currencies. MMORG fans will also appreciate the

colorful descriptions of imaginative new gameverses,

including trolls vs elves in Svartalfheim, a Lewis

Carroll-inspired Savage Wonderland, and giant robots

in the post-zombie apocalypse of Zombie Mecha.

19

Prophets

of

Science

Fiction Research the Future!

Science Fiction and other unrequired-but-

necessary reading for Immersive Educational

Researchers by Shari Metcalf

Ge

nre

: Sp

ecu

lati

ve

Interview with Ken McLeod about Makers, For the Win, and

UK riots. Source: http://craphound.com/ftw/

Download for free

20

|Video Games

Non Satis Ludere

Notes from the Game Developers Conference

By Moses Wolfenstein

If you’ve ever attended the AERA

Annual Meeting, you know that it’s a

massive conference. Last year in New

Orleans there were over 13,000

education researchers in attendance

(www.aera.net). That is in fact a lot of

people, and yet this year the annual

Game Developers Conference

(GDC) in San Francisco saw nearly

twice that many attendees with

roughly 22,500 games industry

affiliates in attendance for some

portion of the event

(www.gdconf.com).

Apart from the fact that the scale of

both of conferences is enormous, and

that each is considered to be the

premier event for their respective

professional communities, these two

events seem to have little in common

at first blush. As an academic event

AERA consists almost entirely of

researchers, while GDC attendees

represent a much more

heterogeneous set of roles. At the

same time, the actual demographic

constitution of GDC is distinctly less

diverse than AERA, especially when

it comes to gender. Of course, the

crucial distinction between the two

lies in the fact that as an industry

conference there is a persistent focus

on the business of games at GDC,

while the parallel concern at AERA is

probably best represented by the

portions of the community concerned

with policy.

For all of these differences, there are

in fact deep similarities as well. Both

events bring together the best minds

in their respective fields to tackle

persistent and difficult questions. Due

to the massive scale of these events,

many productive moments happen

during sessions but the most intense

moments of knowledge sharing and

intellectual interaction happen in the

corridors outside of sessions, over a

meal, or at parties and receptions.

Features of this sort are likely to

attend any event that takes place on

this kind of scale, but in addition

there were three characteristics of

GDC this year that more directly

invoked current trends among the

AERA community.

First, as with education the games

industry is hungry for meaningful

data, and as with the education

community there is a push back from

some members who are wary of over

quantifying practice.

Second, there was a persistent thread

of debate at the conference focused

on the questions of what games are

and what purposes they should serve.

In wrestling with these questions

game developers struggled to

determine “what they know that they

know” about games and players

much as education scholars strive to

answer the same questions about

teaching and learning.

Third, game developers are

increasingly asking some of the

same types of questions as

education researchers as they seek

to better understand what makes a

game successful, and similarly are

turning increasingly to the work of

psychologists and cognitive

scientists in their quest for answers.

In this last vein, Naughty Dog’s

Richard Lemarchand’s talk titled

Attention, Not Immersion was a

particularly relevant effort at

capturing existing research that is as

significant for learning as it is for

gaming. While the title of

Lemarchand’s talk draws our

attention to and problematizes the

oft discussed phenomenon of

immersion, he was quick to point

out that the construct of

engagement which we discuss on a

very regular basis in education

research troubles him as well. Citing

Salen and Zimmerman’s Rules of Play

(2003), Lemarchand emphasized

that there is an “immersive fallacy”

that often emerges in discussing the

power of games for both play and

learning. This is the notion that the

player is so immersed in the game

that they perceive it as reality. Jim

Gee has of course offered us a more

accurate construct when he

discusses the concept of “projective

identity” (2003), but the immersive

fallacy persists to some extent when

discussing games as both

entertainment and learning

experiences.

21

Lemarchand utilized the concept of

the immersive fallacy as a means of

launching into a broader critique of

the concepts of player immersion and

player engagement as meaningful for

understanding what’s actually going

on in great gaming experiences.

Personally, this squares with a critique

I’ve had around a great deal of

education literature that focuses on

learner engagement as a means of

trying to evaluate the quality of

learning experiences. Lemarchand

didn’t put it in these terms, but I’ve

always seen engagement as a second-

order phenomenon, and hence not

terribly useful in designing or

evaluating learning experiences. As

the title of his talk indicates,

Lemarchand draws our attention to

psychological research on the topic of

attention instead, emphasizing that

game designers can benefit more

from tweaking game design in ways

that gets and holds player attention by

leveraging reactive/bottom-up and

goal-driven/top-down processing. I

believe that education researchers,

and especially education researchers

doing applied work with digital

technology, will similarly benefit from

considerations of learner attention as

they strive to design tools and

environments that produce effective

learning.

Lemarchand’s talk was certainly a

highlight of GDC for many of the

researchers in attendance, but as I

noted previously many of the most

interesting and compelling learning

opportunities took place outside of

the conference sessions. Game

designers were actively and

passionately engaged in debates about

what games are at the conference,

and if you’re interested in the

takeaways from a couple of attendees

around that conversation I

recommend reading Raph Koster and

Tadhg Kelly’s blog posts (see

references) on the topic. Similarly

discussions around the topic of player

data, particularly in relation to micro-

transactions, were evident both in

sessions and around the conference

more generally. As a researcher, it was

evident to me that as with education

game designers are currently in the

midst of a sort of data renaissance, and

that similar blind spots occur as they

seek ways to understand the massive

amounts of data that their players

generate. For a really good read on this

issue that predates this year’s GDC, I

recommend taking a look at Ian

Schreiber’s post on metrics and

statistics (2010). While Schreiber’s

introduction to the basics will likely be

old hat, he provides a nuanced

discussion of the use of quantitative

tools that is frankly often lacking in

both educational and game design

circles.

GDC is not a cheap conference to

attend with the 2012 all access pass

priced at $1,475 assuming you made

the early bird registration deadline this

year. However, it’s a conference that’s

fully worth the cost of admission at

least once if your work is concerned

with video games. As we approach this

year’s AERA conference with its theme

“to know is not enough”, GDC is a

reminder that if you work with video

games and learning “to play is not

enough” either. Understanding the

capacity of games as a tool for learning

means pealing back the lid on the black

box of game play and getting some

perspective on the design practices

that support the creation of games.

GDC provides one particularly

immersive opportunity to do so, as

well as an opportunity to find out

the ways in which game design

professionals are taking up many of

the same issues education

researchers are engaged with, and

bringing their own perspective to

bear in the process. ~M. W.

References

American Education Research

Association (2011). Retrieved from

http://www.aera.net/AnnualMeetin

gsOtherEvents/PreviousAnnualMe

etings/2011AnnualMeeting/tabid/1

1257/Default.aspx on March 21,

2012.

Game Developers Conference

(2012). Retrieved from

http://www.gdconf.com/ on

March 21, 2012.

Kelly, T. (2012). Equivocitis

[Terminology wars]. Retrieved from

http://whatgamesare.com/2012/03

/equivocitis-terminology-wars.html

on March 21, 2012

Koster, R. (2012). “X” isn’t a game!.

Retrieved from

http://www.raphkoster.com/2012/

03/13/x-isnt-a-game/ on March 21,

2012.

Salen, K. & Zimmerman, E. (2003).

Rules of play. Cambridge, MA: The

MIT Press.

Schreiber, I. (2010). Level 8: Metrics

and statistics. Retrieved from

http://gamebalanceconcepts.wordp

ress.com/2010/08/25/level-8-

metrics-and-statistics/ on March 21,

2012.

Richard Lemarchand, Naughty Dog co-lead designer

22

Game

Reviews

Game Journey

Joystiq Score 5/5

Gamespot Score 9/10

Common Sense Media Rating 5/5,

Ages 10+

Review by Ryan Martinez Writing a review of Journey and some of the benefits for

learning it provides is a difficult prospect. Journey is most

certainly a video game, but there are certainly a few people

including some game developers who will say it is anything

but. You start off in a desert setting, traveling around the

space and learning the basic movements through a series of

small, but doable, challenges. It is at this point you see a

figure running towards you. Many gamers would be

inclined to shoot at this figure, but there is a no-‘shoot’

function. When you fumble to find the talk function, you

quickly realize your chatter is relegated to a small music

piece and an icon above your head. Slowly you start to

understand that this character is not an enemy, but rather

another game player randomly paired with you to solve a

series of puzzles. Many times throughout your game you

will see your partner disappear, only to find a new one

running towards you. Any type of communication you were

able to agree on with your former partner is lost on your

new companion, starting the process anew. But you must

communicate, because in order to solve some of the

puzzles, you need to rely on one another. Some of these

puzzles can be extremely difficult.

This is where Journey provides two of the most

important educational concepts not always covered in a

school curriculum; that of communication and empathy.

You need to figure out a system of communication with

your unknown companion as you cannot speak with them

online or through text but only through that one sound.

You must rely on one another to progress through the

game, and so when you do fail, you do so as part of a team.

My own experiences playing with Journey illustrates

both of these concepts. I was paired up with another player

to solve an incredibly challenging puzzle, the play area so

vast that it required a lot of exploration.

Game Bastion

Joystiq Score 4/5

Gamespot Score 8.5/10

Common Sense Media rating 5/5,

Ages 11+

Review by Dennis Paiz-Ramirez By now you’ve probably heard of this award winning

title by the Indie company Supergiant games, but if you

haven’t this game is definitely worth a look. Bastion is

an Action RPG set in a post apocalyptic world. By

assuming the role of a protagonist, known only as “the

kid”, players must make their way through a shattered

land in order to restore it to its former state. Aside from

being a solid game over all, Bastion excels at telling an

immersive story generated in part by the payer’s actions.

Given the emphasis most educational games place on

narrative to convey educational goals, Bastion gives us a

model of turning otherwise linear stories into dynamic

experiences. By paying attention to the player’s actions,

and providing real-time feedback in the form of

narration, Bastion strikes a balance between designed

experience and player agency that is sometimes lacking

in games of the same genre. Although it requires a

moderate level of twitch gaming skill at times, Bastion is

a must for any researcher, or practitioner, interested in

the role of story in games. Bastion is available for Xbox

360, Mac and Windows via the Steam client, and can

even be played in the Chrome web browser.

23

Game

Reviews After figuring out a primitive communication template

with my player, we embarked on solving the puzzle.

Eventually my thumb grew tired pressing the controller

button repeatedly, and I felt no longer useful to my

partner. I quit the game, but I felt incredibly guilty having

let my partner down after spending all that time building a

rapport and working together. I’ll never know this person,

but at that moment there was a connection and a loss.

Though this game is not difficult disciplinary knowledge,

the simple collaboration was effective. Some games

simply evoke meaningful emotions. Journey is one of

those games.

Journey is currently only available on the Sony PS3

through the PlayStation®Network.

Game: Star Wars: The Old Republic

Joystiq Score: N/A

Game Spot Score: 8/10

Common Sense Media Rating: 1/5 ,

Ages 15+

Review by Barbara Z. Johnson If you have a Star Wars fan in your household, you have

probably heard of this online multiplayer role-playing

game from BioWare and LucasArts, which extends the

rich narrative and choice structure of the Knights of the

Old Republic single-player games into the online,

multiplayer realm. This game is interesting to educational

researchers because of the way it blends narrative story

telling and player choice with social and group gaming

activity. This is one multiplayer game in which group

activity, which awards social points, has a direct effect on

the quality of gear that a player can purchase. Teams are

easy to pull together in this game, and there is a

refreshing variety of group encounters that include

everything from simulated team sports (Huttball is a riot)

to more traditional group combat and player-vs-player

battles. As with many group role playing games, the

teamwork and strategy required to achieve many game

goals are a good way to teach people of all ages to

contribute their character's abilities and their own ability

to collaborate in order to succeed.

As with the other games in the Knights of the Old

Republic series, a player's choice of actions in the game

affects a character's moral alignment, either toward the

Light Side or toward the Dark.

These choices also affect the type of equipment that can be

purchased, aspects of the narrative, and how non-playing

characters react to the character. This can be an interesting

challenge and opportunity to discuss moral choices in

difficult circumstances. Characters on the Republic side can

choose evil actions, and those on the Imperial side can

choose good ones. It is an interesting activity to work at

making a Light Sith or a Dark Jedi to see the ramifications of

choices and actions.

However, in many ways, this is a very traditional role playing

game, and as the folks at Common Sense Media point out,

much of the activity in the game focuses around the classic

combat between good and evil. In this case, however, the

narrative puts the combat into context more directly than

any other MMORPG that I have played, and I have

occasionally been able to use the decision system to avoid

some combat situations. If you work with teens, you will

probably have heard about this game since it released over

the winter break. New buzz may be surfacing now because a

major new patch will open up a new system, called the

Legacy system, which will allow players to craft not only

characters but families of characters that can share abilities

and experience. Be prepared for some interesting family trees

that will mimic the drama and pathos of the movies!

24

|Virtual Worlds

InWorld Discussions Bring Educators and

Researchers Together Every Week. New and experienced virtual world educators and researchers come together to explore what works

and what does not, and to share rigorous methodologies for successful studies.

By Sabine Lawless-Reljic

ARVEL SIG Immersive

Learning is growing: the Inworld

Discussions are now weekly, ARVEL

sponsors several virtual events, and

ARVEL TV records it all.

Indeed, the Inworld Discussions

series has been scheduled every week

since we came back from the winter

break. On January 18, ARVEL

welcomed Thomas Convey and his

team from Hawaii to discuss their

work on using virtual environments

for training people with disabilities in

Alice Krueger (SL: Gentle Heron)

Patrick O’Shea (SL: Dionio Outlander)

ARVEL Inworld Discussion also showcased a series of talks

useful to teaching and learning strategies in virtual settings:

1) Salwa Khan’s work on instructor social presence in adult

courses conducted in Second Life (01/25),

2) Candace Chou and Rama Kaye Hart’s research on three-

dimensional immersive learning strategies (2/15)

3) Jonathon Richter and Taryn Stanko’s exploration of

individual work identity and routines in virtual worlds

(03/21)

Methodologies were always

important part of the

discussion. Janet Salmon

proceeded to explain how she

critiqued Richter and Stanko’s

case using the E-Interview

Research Framework (3/21),

while Donna Davis provided us

with a detail of the

ethnographic approaches she

uses in researching SL cultures

and relationships (2/29).

Inworld Discussions also hosted talks that brought

resources as well as methodological frameworks.

Richter organized a tour of CLIVE Island, the

MERLOT resource to virtual educators (3/7) as well

as contextualized each arm of the ARVEL SIG for

educators’ support in research, in the classroom and

within an innovative community of practice. Jatila

van der Veen introduced us to the Planck Mission

simulations for astronomy and cosmology education

(04/04). On 04/11, Justin Reeve took us on a tour

in his OpenSim-based world to experience his giant

underwater observatory. “We hope to integrate

[Justin’s sim] into our upcoming project building

certified badges for NOAA high school science

learning in 3D GameLab” says Lisa Dawley (ARVEL

LinkedIn, 4/03).

In addition to ARVEL Inworld Discussions, ARVEL

TV was busy with numerous conferences. ARVEL

featured the livestream coverage of the SITE 2012

pre-conference virtual kickoff (3/4) and sponsored

the 2012 Virtual World Best Practices in Education

conference (VWBPE) (3/15 to 17).

Many discussions are scheduled til June. Don’t miss

them !

employment skills. Alice Krueger, president of Virtual Ability

Inc., presented three weeks later on what she and her team do

to provide individuals with diverse disabilities.

25

Immersive

in Action

ARVEL caught up with members

for pictures of events and projects

in virtual worlds and games. The

Hypergrid Adventurers Club has

been quite busy exploring the

vastness and diversity of worlds

developed in the OSGrid.

Minecrafters are not only busy

avoiding 8bit zombies, they build

awesome projects at Minecraft in

School. Educators suit up for

quests in the World of Warcraft

guild called “The Cognitive

Dissonance.” And Pooky

Amsterdam’s weekly show

remains a favorite with VWBPE’s

luminaries on The 1st Question.

Share yours for the next issue! arvelsig173@gmail.com

The Hypergrid Adventurers Club visits jump4000 on Jan 19,

2012

Minecrafters at Minecraft in School on Jan 13, 2012

Cognitive Dissonance Educator’s Guild

on Jan 15, 2012 English class with Second Life students

and on-site students on Feb. 7, 2012

The 1st Question, VWBPE Special Edition, March 16, 2012 The Hypergrid Adventurers Club visits Dune world on Jan

10, 2012

Ch

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on

Ap

r 5, 2012

26

Dr. Larysa Nadolny

• Desk Lamp, 12/17/2011

• Gold Fish Trophy, 12/14/2011

• Setting Sit Targets the Easy Way,

12/03/211

• Drinking Water Fountain,

11/26/2011

• Fire Extinguisher, 11/26/2011

• Base for Island #1, 11/09/2011

>>>> Send us the link of a blog that you follow. We will feature it here in the next issue.

ARVEL Home Participants Blogs RSS Feeds

Gamasutra

•What Makes a Game? 03/29/2012

•What You Need to Know About

Developing Games for BlackBerry

04/02/2012

•A Producer’s 10 Lessons Learned the

Hard Way 04/03/2012

•Intuition, Expectations and Culture:

Learning from Psychology to Build

Better Game Interfaces 04/04/2012

•The Real Data Behind Movies

Becoming Games. 04/05/2012

•Understanding User Research: It’s

Not QA or Marketing! 04/06/2012

Edutopia

•A New Community and Resources

for Games for Learning 03/30/2012

•What Apple’s Edu-Announcement

Could Mean to You 01/20/2012

•Head in the Clouds: The Benefits of

Celestial Storage 02/03/2012

•On Twitter: To Follow or Not to

Follow 03/06/2012

•You Just Attended an Awesome

Conference. Now What? 03/15/2012

What’s John “Pathfinder” Lester tweeting?

• @divacanto TY for adding Pathlandia to MISearch

homepage. I think that search engine has great

potential. http://bit.ly/Hx9KYn #opensim Apr 07,

2012

•Digging in with @atlassian's Confluence for doc and

knowledge management at #ReactionGrid. I am very

impressed. http://bit.ly/HQPVz4 Apr 05, 2012

•This new book looks fascinating. "Engaging the

Avatar: New Frontiers in Immersive Education"

http://nordicworlds.net/?p=2395 via @NVWN Apr

05, 2012

•RT @neilmart: Fab pres from last week's Follow the

Sun Conf by @Pathfinder - Integrated Reality &

Next G Virtual Worlds http://bit.ly/I6ZcAw Apr 05,

2012

•Using Virtual Worlds to Reduce Stress

http://bit.ly/HIrqD2 #ReactionGrid Apr 03, 2012

Hack Education

•The Truth About Tablets, 02/01/2012

•Zuckerberg’s Hacker Way and Higher Ed,

02/01/2012

•Career Readiness, College Prep, a Pearson-Incubated

Startup, and the Opportunity Gap, 02/01/2012

•Visualizing (Two Very Different) Education Social

Networks: Gates Foundation and Educon,02/01/2012

•The LMS Instructure Makes Its Move into the K-12

Market, 02/01/2012

•Stanford Professors Daphne Koller & Andre Ng Also

Launching a Massive Online Learning Startup,

01/31/2012

•Evaluating Educational Research, 01/31/2012

•Weekly Ed-Tech Podcast with Steve Hargadon,

01/31/2012

•Weekly Ed-Tech News Roundup: The State of the

Union, Stanford vs. Thrun, and more, 01/28/2012

Blog

Alert

Emerging

Technologies

27

Art

Reviews

Linden Endowment of

the Arts

The Linden Endowment of the Arts is an official Linden

Community Partnership program whose purpose is to help

new artists, cultivate art in Second Life, and foster

creativity, innovation, and collaboration within the art

community. Browse and teleport to the exhibits:

http://lindenarts.blogspot.com/p/lea-land-endowment-

exhibits.html

Augmented Reality

In January 2012. John Goto and Matthew Leach

presented the Joseph Wright AR, an augmented reality

montage of the 18th century painter’s paintings and

porcelain figures from a local factory in Derby, UK. The

montages can be experienced online or at the Derby

Museum and Art Gallery where the pictures are

displayed. This project was supported by D-MARC,

Derby Museum and Art Gallery and Royal Crown

Derby Museum. Go here to choose from all Goto and

Leach’s travels in AR:

http://johngoto.org.uk/augmented-reality.html

Machinima

Machinima: The Art and Practice of Virtual

Filmmaking, authored by Sonicity Fitzroy and Lowe

Runo, with foreword by Persia Bravin is due to be

published in March 2012 by McFarland books. Rysan

Fall (SL name) is one of several featured artists in the

book. Here is one of this early work, a Billie Holiday

tribute titled “Strange Fruit”. It’s a slightly historical

account of the time and shows how Black people were

treated, and how far we’ve come…(source: The Best of

SL Magazine March 2012)

http://www.youtube.com/FallFilms#p/a/u/6/Q7Wo4

RAmJcU

Artist Glyph Graves pushed the boundaries between virtual

and physical realities by programming and scripting his

own hack for the Kinect to map and move his real life

physical body and movements onto virtual objects in SL.

“Faceted Existence” is an exhibit that uses a Kinect

interface to control the spheres that move when Glyph

moves his RL head., not his avatar’s. Watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q5N1X5Cs30&featu

re=colike

Upcoming Issues / Submit your work to the ARVEL SuperNews!

January – March: Engagement / Renewal

April-June: Embodiment

July – September: Preparation and Design

October – December: Assessment

Membership Call

Has your smartphone become an augmented

reality extension of your life – coloring

everything you do and see? Or maybe you find

yourself passionately talking about your

involvement in virtual worlds or augmented

reality, but your friends could care less?

The solution is simple. You need to virtually

hang with people who know what it means to

get your first frag. You need people who

understand that HUD doesn‘t stand for

―Housing and Urban Development.‖ You

need ARVEL.

What‘s ARVEL? It is ―Applied Research in

Virtual Environments for Learning‖ – a special

interest group of the American Research

Association (SIG#173). Joining ARVEL is

inexpensive ($10) and can be done by going to

https://www.aera.net/MemberPortal/Renewal

/PubSales.aspx. We are a group of researchers

and practitioners who are passionate about the

promise that virtual worlds, simulations, and

augmented reality hold. Come and join us!

By Dennis Beck, Membership Officer

Picture Credits: Front page: Kavon Zenovka,

http://cognitivedissonance.guildportal.com:

Page 3 Credits are also hyperlinked on each picture

Terra Nello Spazio Image: Idea go/

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Stars Image (+p.8): http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/

images/view_photog.php?photogid=809

Satellite Launcher Image: digitalart/

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A Neon Grid Effect Backdrop With City Image:

Victor Habbick / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Female Android Head Image: Victor Habbick /

FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Page 23: Game Developers Conference

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7191/6817764436_71270c

1564_m.jpg and

http://www.gdconf.com/img/about/gdc2012.jpg

Page 25: Bastion

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/8/87209/182152

4-box_bastion_large.png

Journey: Ryan Martinez’s screen capture

Star Wars: Old Republic

http://www.starwars.com/img/explore/video-

games/the-old-republic_product_2.jpg

Club Photo Hypergrid Adventurers Club, John “Pathfinder” Lester,

http://becunningandfulloftricks.com/tag/hypergrid-

adventurers-club/

Minecraft in School, Lucas Gillispie,

http://edurealms.com

English Department, Laviece Ward, Wake Tech

Community College, Raleigh, NC

ChimeraCosmos’s work:

http://www.koinup.com/ChimeraCosmos/work/427874

Email us your art, how-to, movie reviews, pictures, questions to Chris, new products,

events & grant competitions to arvelsig173@gmail.com

ARVEL Stats(*) ARVEL SIG/AERA: 136 members

AERA_ARVE_SIG173_Announce list is automatically updated from the official AERA membership list

ARVEL NING: 436 members (open to everyone)

ARVEL Contacts General Info, Membership, SuperNews: arvelsig173@gmail.com

JOIN ARVEL SIG

http://arvelsig.ning.com/

http://twitter.com/ARVELSIG

(use the hashtag #arvelsig)

ARVEL on LinkedIn

ARVEL TV

ARVEL locations in VWs ARVEL in 3rdRock Grid (Tierra Paz 125,80,25)

ARVEL in ReactionGrid (Ontos2 50,82,46)

ARVEL in Second Life (CAVE 12,241,42)

ARVEL in SmallWorlds

Do you own some space in a VW? Contact us to establish an ARVEL headquarter in your VW.

(*) As of 04/04/2012

29