in his book about learning an computer games James Paul Gee names some main points about computer games. (find the book online at Palgrave here)

1. Doing and reflecting
2. Appreciating good design
3. Seeing interrelationships
4. Mastering game language
5. Relating the game world to other worlds
6. Taking risks with reduced consequences
7. Putting out effort because they care
8. Combining multiple identities
9. Watching their own behavior
10. Getting more out than what they put in
11. Being rewarded for achievement
12. Being encouraged to practice
13. Having to master new skills at each level
14. Tasks being neither too easy nor too hard.
15. Doing, thinking and strategizing
16. Getting to do things their own way
17. Discovering meaning
18. Reading in context
19. Relating information
20. Meshing information from multiple media
21. Understanding how knowledge is stored
22. Thinking intuitively
23. Practicing in a simplified setting
24. Being led from easy problems to harder ones
25. Mastering upfront things needed later
26. Repeating basic skills in many games
27. Receiving information just when it is needed
28. Trying rather than following instructions
29. Applying learning from problems to later ones
30. Thinking about the game and the real world
31. Thinking about the game and how they learn
32. Thinking about the games and their culture
33. Finding meaning in all parts of the game
34. Sharing with other players
35. Being part of the gaming world
36. Helping others and modifying games in addition to just playing.

Martin Wolpers from KU Leuven and Professional Learning Cluster organized a session on Professional Learning and Beyond at the IST2006 event. I gave a very short presentation about the TENCompetence project.

You can download the presentation from DSpace of the OUNL it is distributed under Creative Commons Licence here.

I gave also two examples of using contextualized learning and gaming for professional learning support.

Today I am visiting the IST 2006 Conference in Helsinki, a huge event with 4200 participants, great networking sessions and conference presentations.

visit the website to get an overview:

IST 2006 Home

In a current project with Tim DeJong, and Bashar al Takrouri we build a contextualized blogging system which allows you to attach blog entries and categories, or even tags to physical objects. The connection can be made via bar code, semacode tags, or outdoors via GPS location.

I have supervised two Master Thesis about Mobile and Location Aware Gaming. Martina Unger and Lynn Zielke developed Locatory a location aware games based on WLAN Tracking and a Flash Application enabling two teams to play.

Das Portal des europaeischen Projects MACE ist online.
http://mace-project.eu/

The MACE project sets out to transform the ways of e-learning about architecture in Europe. It will integrate vast amounts of content from diverse repositories created in several large previous projects as well as from existing architectural design communities.

I am a coorganizer of the the TENCompetence Winter School is considered as an intense training and collaboration on the core topics related to the TENCompetence project, building the European Network for lifelong competence development. The programme includes lectures and hands-on sessions from leading experts in the field. Our ambition is to stimulate emergence of special interest groups and learning networks as well as to support joint research opportunities. PhD students from the PRO-LC Cluster as well as from outside are invited to participate and become part of the TENCompetence research community.

Find more information about the Winterschool here.

TENCompetence is funded by the European Commission through the IST Programme. It is developing and using infrastructure to support individuals, groups and organisations in lifelong competence development. Find out more about Tencompetence.

http://www.tencompetence.org/

on 15.11.06 I visisted the Mobile Learning Day at FU Hagen and gave a presentation about contextualized learning with mobile devices.

You can find the slides published under Creative Commons Licence on DSpace of the OUNL here.