Games Based Learning MOOC

Not sure if this is the place for this but here it is. Is anyone playing Ingress? I am not a big gamer but I have to try this out! I got my access code yesterday and downloaded the game but have not had a chance to really play. I did pick a side though. I haven't really played yet because I think you have to be walking around to play (I could be wrong lol) and the only place I walk around alot is on campus where I have no cell signal.

Here is a link to an article and short video about it ingress

This is a game that relies heavily on narrative. What I think helps drive it is the fact that the players are helping to create that narrative as they play. I guess I could have placed this post under the Mentira discussion as it really is place based even though the place is where ever you are. (Hope that makes sense)

The augmented reality piece is also really novel. Although I don't think the games popularity will wear off even after the novelty has. People have applied and are waiting for access codes. They are even actively lobbying for the codes by producing Ingress related things like pictures etc.. You can google image ingress and get loads of hits.

I have tried to post some pics but every time I navigate away from this page to get the URL my post erases (this is post number 3 lol) so I will try to add them by editing after.

I got a code to try Ingress on a LG Optimus S two months ago and the App never worked well. I am interested to try it out again and see if it works - or maybe steal my wife's phone and try it out on that. :)

I think this brings up a great point, that sometimes when you are on the edge of technology there are issues that arise that prevent a perfect adoption into education. We are on a sort of "results" field where I can't really be demoing products all the time if it affects the learning of students.

One of the problems I ran into when I taught High School was that I had 5 different preps to teach from day to day in Spanish, Math, and Computer Science. I really didn't have time to test and try ideas in conjunction with preparing what I was going to teach the next day. Now that I just adjunct for one class a the University when I come across technology and ideas I think about them in the broad sense, but when it comes to "demoing and practicing" I have a little bit more time to focus on making it work as smooth as possible.

At an instructional design conference our University put on I was in charge of the 1/2 hour right after lunch to build "networking activity". I put on a game show of "Designer Feud" (Legal insertion: Any relation to Family Feud was clearly "coincidental"). I brought in statistics from Inside Higher Ed, Journals, and other relevant information to Instructional Designers. All in all it worked out well, but the point I wanted to make was that I had the time to manipulate and work on the flash game with sounds and realistic video and to test and try the game show for a couple of weeks (all for a 1/2 hour increment). I remember all the game shows I did in high school and they lacked a lot of the polish that Designer Feud had, mainly due to time constraints that I had in each class.


Designer Feud by samgedeborg, on Flickr

@ Sam, I agree with you that if you are teaching only one subject or have the students every single day, like K-12, it is easier to make a lot of changes in how you are presenting the material. Last summer I taught three different face-to-face classes, ten weeks, in three different disciplines. Actually a wonderful summer and it went very smooth, but, that curriculum was mostly from Spring Semester with a few tweaks during the sessions in the Summer. By the time you come up with something new it is almost old :( I really didn't have the brain power nor the time to develop anything radically new between Spring and Summer. (two weeks). Time will always be a factor. Wish I could buy time.

@sam I totally agree as a k12 "specials" teacher that time constraints are a problem with implementing anything really intricate and cool . I see students once a week (Pre-7). I am expected to be on the cutting edge of tech in the classroom as the Technology Integrator at the school who is supposed to help others integrate tech in their classrooms but I am expected to try it out first so I know how to implement it before I teach others how to use it & to make sure it's engaging / facilitates the expected learning for the students etc.. Summer gives me some extra time to play around with things between life, consulting, PD etc. but in tech things are constantly changing so what I work out over the summer will not be the newest/ best thing throughout the school year.

Back on Ingress - gives me one more reason not to make my next new phone an iPhone lol.