Things are heating up here with Serious Games in a good way so 2010 looks to be good. On the research area we are getting a really interesting survey up and running (if it works). The idea is to examine the actual prevalence of different forms of educational use of games throughout a number of major countries (UK, US, Portugal, Denmark, Finland and Norway). The focus is on differentiating between different teacher types and games & learning typology based on work by Thorkild Hanghøj and Christian Engel Brund.
We will be very strict with sampling to get representative study, and have a more detailed understanding of for example usage of games in education in relation to making games, games literacy and learning through games – very different ways of using games that calls for very different didactics and with different underpinnings in terms of motivations/drivers for use.
Posted in Research.
By egenfeldt
– March 9, 2010
Was at an interesting seminar giving a talk in connection with the Danish initiave Innogate that tries to look at the potential of serious games. It was funny because quite a few of the companies there go some years back, and have build a lot of experiences over the last years.
There was a number of valid points in relation to barriers for using games for more than entertainment. It is somewhat depressing sometimes that ‘boring’ stuff keeps the world from changing for example the lack of flash and unity 3D plugins, the difficulty with security settings in corporate environments and similar stuff. But I guess at some point it will become easier, but then it will probably by the challenge of not being able to use new input devices and similar.
Posted in News, Talks.
By egenfeldt
– February 12, 2010
If you happen to be speaking Danish and be around Copenhagen in April there is an interesting course on phd level where I will also be present. I am sure Swedish-and Norwegian speaking are also welcome.
Deadline is one week away, so hurry 
.
Posted in News, Research.
By egenfeldt
– February 8, 2010
So things really seem to be rolling. Once again we are nominated for an awards. This time for GC: Child Soliders (all info in Danish, but nevertheless). I don’t think it’s our best title last year, but I guess it deals with quite a controversial and important issue. I will still recommend GC: Sweat shops about child labour in Bangladesh as the game to play from us – it is the best so far.
Posted in News.
By egenfeldt
– February 3, 2010
So pretty much today Thursday at the same time two articles hit the Danish newspaper on the game industry. One was on our Global Conflicts-series (a quite well-researched article), and another on the Danish classic edutainment title Pixeline. Gyldendal had to write off 85 mio. DKK (12 mio. EUR) on their learning games because they had been to late to move from Pc to other game platforms.
For many years I have wondered whether Pixeline could keep the top position in the market place it had (and to some extent still have), because in many ways they do not seem to be innovating that much, but stay with the same good and working formula. Even if the platform-shift (away from PC) is an important part of their problems this is unfortunately probably not the whole truth. Which I told the journalist but as nothing of it is in the newspaper I guess I was getting a bit too technical with digital distributions models, shrinking retail shelves, platforms transitions and production facilities .
Posted in Discussion GBL, News, Uncategorized.
By egenfeldt
– January 28, 2010
Yesterday Global Conflicts: Palestine ones again showed the way for game-based learning by winning a BETT Award. Won in the category: Secondary, FE & Skills Digital Content.
The BETT Show is among the most world’s most influential shows for educational technology and I really hope this can give games a boost in school.
I am increasingly seeing signs that we may be getting beyond the experimental stage, and getting a foothold. At a recent conference in Denmark on game-based learning around 100 educators were attracted to participate – Denmark being around 5 mio. in population this is a pretty good turn-up. The conference was among other hosted by Danish organisation spilskole ( =Games School).
Posted in News.
By egenfeldt
– January 14, 2010
Researchers at The Danish School of Education have for the last 10 years had an interest in Serious Games, and in 2007 the research project Serious Games on a Global Market Place was funded by The Danish Council for Strategic Research (KINO). By unifying the forces of researchers, game developers and educationalists, the aim of this project is to create global serious games based on Danish traditions of play and learning.
Approximately 15 researchers in this project explore, build and implement prototypes of learning games and games for promoting play in collaboration with companies, using their products and experience to develop knowledge about game challenges, didactic design, methodologies, play and learning.
The Conference will address elements of both theory and practice of aspects of Serious Games, and it offers an opportunity for academics, consultants and practitioners involved in this field to meet and exchange ideas. The programme for the event will include an extensive range of peer-reviewed papers, including keynote presentations from leaders in the field.
Deadline for article abstracts: 1. April 2010.
Read more here on web-site:
Posted in News.
By egenfeldt
– January 12, 2010
If you drop by Belgium there’s a cool game exhbition going on, where we are exhibiting some of our games. It takes place from 22 December until 18 April 2010.
http://www.playbelgium.be
Posted in News.
By egenfeldt
– January 4, 2010
It may be difficult to see the slow steps forward but this is one quite interesting event. At Eschool News they recently did a feature on using games for education based on new interesting report from MIT . The really interesting thing is that the Eschool feature was the third most read article in december 2009. So there definitely is interest in harnessing the power, but nevertheless progress seems quite slow.
I still believe that even if we have a number of major challenges as mentioned in the report we must also acknowledge that the game-based-learning on the market currently is probably not good enough to meet the expectations of educators interested in the. At Serious Games Interactive it has been a slow and painful journey with Global Conflicts series, and I believe that it is only with the latest episodes that we are really getting it right. It is really interesting to compare how we have changed it from the first Global Conflicts: Palestine (late 2005) until Global Conflicts: Bangladesh (late 2009). It may not be major changes but in total it adds up.
I am most excited about our Playing History game though. It is the sum of the lessons we have learned so far. You should not be surprised if you see it in a shop near you in the first half year of 2010. Right now we are focusing on expanding the educational experience around the game, but overall it is already a more than worthy partner for Global Conflicts-series.
Lets just hope we have the patience and stomach to hang on to the market as it begins to mature.
Posted in News, Research.
By egenfeldt
– December 30, 2009
This Sunday there was a very nice coverage of Child Soldiers – although we do not get any big applaus for graphics and game play from a traditional game perspective the review sees it as an interesting title. You can read the review online at Politiken (Danish only).
Posted in News.
By egenfeldt
– December 8, 2009
