Dr. Jim Bower is a computational neuroscientist at the University of Texas and the CEO of Numedeon, publishers of the first massively multiplayer virtual world for tweens, Whyville.net. He’s also one of the smartest and more opinionated people I’ve had the pleasure of working with in the serious games field, and has never been known to shy away from this debate. He was on a panel “The Future of Video Games” and interviewed at the South By Southwest festival earlier this year, portions of which were recently published in the September 2010 issue of Discover Magazine (.pdf), and discussed why he thinks video games are good for learning.

Looking at whether video games are different from other forms of play, Dr. Jim observes: “We look at this thing and we think it’s new. It’s not. This is something we’ve made in our own image. What we’re doing is trying to capture how humans really learn, how humans really interact, and how humans really build their societies. An in fact (we’re finding) it’s not new at all. It’s very old. The problem is, for the last 600 years we’ve been doing it wrong (and until now) we haven’t had the technology to do it right.”

Here’s the entire panel discussion, moderated by Discover’s Amos Zeeberg, with Tiffany Barnes (University of North Carolina), Lucy Bradshaw (Maxis), Anne McLaughlin (North Carolina State), that was the basis of the article:

Here’s an more in-depth interview with Dr. Jim:

And for more on Whyville, games and learning read: Whyville.net from an academic perspective read Dr. Yasmin Kafai’s blog Everything Whyville! which serves as a repository and forum for her research;  The Whyville Insider blog about Whyville by Whyvillians; and Dr. Jim Bowers proposal for a panel called “Death of the Textbook, Emergence of Games” at the 2011 SXSW Festival.

When it’s done, the site will include a new Project Gallery with Case Studies of our recent work in games, social media, web and mobile apps, an updated Resources section and new branding thanks to designer Brett Aronowitz.

Please let me know what you think about the redesign and if you haven’t already, subscribe to the RSS Feed to receive new posts by email so you don’t miss a thing!

Whether you’re looking to leverage game mechanics to drive business or to make a product more compelling, this is the place to start.

Shane and Phin write, “Before Foursquare managed to storm social media, GPS friend finders and city guides did in fact exist. But, Foursquare quickly became a star, engaging hundreds of thousands of users in just a few months and turning them into evangelists for its product. It did this by taking the existing geo-social concept and turning it into a game. Video game-esque elements like “badges” and “mayorships” hook you long enough so that you discover the true utility of the app, and stick with it long-term.

Common game elements like points, badges, leaderboards, and levels are proven (and increasingly popular) ways to engage customers and encourage profit-driving consumer behavior. Foursquare is a great example of why these work. However, many proponents of this type of “funware” in product development and marketing miss the larger point: “How” you incorporate game mechanics is just as important as “Why” you should. A leaderboard alone does not make for a worthwhile or engaging game.” [Continue reading the compete article here...]

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It took less than an hour to reach a meeting of the minds between eLine and The LAMP, and only two weeks more to add Gamestar Mechanic to The LAMP’s curriculum. Last weekend we kicked off this innovative program at the Mount Hope Community Center in the South Bronx to a small but enthusiastic group of middle-school and high-school students.

After overcoming a few minutes of obligatory technical hurdles in Mt. Hope’s computer lab, eLine’s Phil Puthumana and Scott Price introduced Gamestar Mechanic, and everyone got down to work.

At the end of our inaugural  two-hour session everyone had made it through three or four levels of Gamestar Mechanic, our youngest participant, 11 year old Matt, had finished building his first game and all were enthusiastic about continuing in the program. Watch this space for updates later in the summer…

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UPDATE – July 30, 2010

–Megha Kohli, lead facilitator for The LAMP’s Taking Pictures, Telling Stories program at Mt. Hope, reports from the last Gamestar Mechanic session:

During the afternoon, the students had their last session with Gamestar Mechanic. A Gamestar Mechanic game designer came to visit, which was really great for the kids to hear about what decisions went into the final product. It was a good thing to talk about in the beginning of the afternoon because the majority of students spent their time creating their own games for the remainder of the session. This was really fun (especially for me!) because students got to play each other’s creations! One student even built a game that a Gamestar Mechanic employee had trouble beating. Judging by the way some students were reluctant to turn off their computers—we had to ask them to shut down their computers even though they were *this close* to beating a level! (wince)—we’re guessing this last Saturday won’t be the last time playing Gamestar. Gamestar has been a great activity for the students and was a really awesome partnership for The LAMP. Gaming is a huge component of young people’s media consumption, and so often we hear parents and teachers complaining that their children and students sit in front of computers and television screens mindlessly playing violent games — but this is not always the case. Gamestar Mechanic is a great program that allows students to play games but also to understand the mechanics of designing games — and thinking critically about media is just the kind of mindfulness we at The LAMP want to promote.

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Dr. Bruce Weinstein’s new site TheEthicsGuy.com features his Bloomberg BusinessWeek columns, CNN and FOX appearances, an online quiz and estore is the most recent addition and already traffic is up — way up — compared with the previous site. The most popular feature that’s driving a lot of the traffic is The Ethics Quiz. Want to find out your ethical IQ? Take the test now and find out!

Other recently completed projects include the Women’s City Club of New York new site, Two-Lap Books for Alzheimer’s patients and  caregivers, a site for national radio/web programming consultant Denise Oliver, Jeremy Ross’ new blog  The View from Silicon Beach and finally, launching in late August, a new site for the intellectual property law firm Reavis Parent Lehrer LLP.

Visit BrooklynBlogfather.com to find out more about web development packages, Word Press training and support.

We are building a long term product road map using original and re-purposed IP, leveraging strategic partnerships and creative financing to develop and bring our products to market.

If you have a business, creative or technical interest in developing and publishing games that help users think, play and learn we want to hear from you.

Lee Wilson, President of PCI Education, wrote a very cogent post titled iPad for Education Revisited that praises the iPad’s value as a media consumption and media organization tool, with important implications for education. Lee’s key takeaways:

… the iPad is hands down the best user experience I’ve ever had when it comes to content consumption. It isn’t any one thing – screen size, portability, battery life, Wi-Fi + 3G always on access, multitouch, and a great line up of apps all contribute. New users will find that the temptation to over-consume content is a phase you need to pass through.

For those of us who have been advocates for game based learning this device opens up a new avenue of exploration. Always on access and location awareness have some particularly interesting applications for augmented reality gaming within a community.

Devices like the iPad will change how content is shaped and delivered. Portable true multimedia delivery with the power of databases on the backend is the leap we have been aiming towards for 30 years. That day has arrived.

As a replacement for textbooks this is a lightweight wonder. It should open up a wave of creative innovation for multimedia instructional content with real time formative assessment (via game-like experiences).

Students have always been challenged to manage information – schedules and homework assignments in particular. Teachers face an even more daunting info management task as they juggle assignments, rosters of students (and their families), state and district standards, and instructional materials.

The iPad will be a real boost for both groups. At a basic level it will make automating and interacting with complex data much easier. Blackboard’s demo of their iPad app shows how this can work.

But most importantly I believe it will make it easier to make connections and use information in on-line databases at the teachable moment. With 3G you can dig into your stuff anywhere at the moment of need.

Sure you can do most of this on your phone today – but after three years the scrunched over squinty stare at my phone is wearing thin. The iPad provides much more natural and human scale interaction.

After a few weeks of steady use I’m convinced that pad computing will change the face of educational publishing.

Read the complete article iPad for Education Revisited at the Education Business Blog.

Fortunately Warren Buckleitner (Childrens Technology Review) hosted an informal round-table where 18 industry experts talked frankly about the best toys and the latest trends they saw at the shows. Participants included: Warren Buckleitner, Childrens Technology Review; Richard Carey, Richard Carey Digital Media; Jaclyn Cannon, Jacabee Code; Ellen DePasquale, The Online Mom; Stuart Drexler, Digital Stylie; Ryan Dubenbostel, Sockeye Media; Gary Goldberger, Fablevision; Amy Kraft, Media Macaroni; Christy Matte, Ask.com; Russell Miller, Intentional Media; Maribeth Nickell, Jacabee Code; Christine Oh, Sockeye Media; Robin Raskin, Living in Digital Times; Reyne Rice, Toy Industry Association; Wendy Smolen, Sandbox Summit; Andi Thea, Scribblemats; Scott Traylor, 360KID and Robert Wickendon, Jersey Cow. Just before we began Scott Traylor (360KID) lent me his camera to  record the conversation:

Read Scott Traylor’s blog post for the complete story and a look up table where you can find the location within the video where the conversation turns to specific products you might be interested in.

The group’s stated intention is to “create a wholesale applications community that will establish a simple route to market for developers, in turn, providing access to the latest and widest range of innovative applications and services to as many customers as possible worldwide.” That certainly sounds good but the more likely goal is to head off Apple’s app store juggernaut. Nothing like a little competition to keep everyone on their toes.

Look deeper, though, and it appears the group has done little beyond signing a memorandum of understanding that “…will establish a simple route to market for developers and provide access to the latest and widest range of innovative applications and services to as many customers as possible worldwide.” The real question, then, is how likely is it for these “…ICT industry operators, developers, handset manufacturers and internet players” to join forces and create “…an initiative based on openness and transparency?” Geopolitically and technically it sounds pretty remote in the near term and fractious, to put it lightly, in the longer term. What do you think?

I’m totally hooked on the mobile version of Dragon Naturally Speaking. At first it was like having an assistant with a notepad always available, capturing musings, insights or solutions that came to mind in the supermarket checkout line. The more I used it and learned to trust the accuracy — 99% spot on in my experience — the more I’ve been using it in the office as a dictation device. Very valuable, even more so because (at least for now) it’s free in the App store.

Now Siri, a venture funded startup, has raised the bar with their personal assistant. After nearly a year in development and $24 million in venture capital, Siri is brings a conversational interface to the iPhone which allows you to ask it to perform tasks for you, such as find a French restaurant nearby and book a table, look up movie listings, order a taxi, or look up the phone number and address of a local business.

You simply speak into the phone with a request, it turns your speech to text and pushes your request out to an appropriate service on the Web, then not only attempts to bring you back the appropriate information based on context, time of day, and your location, but with your permission can go ahead and make reservations or buy tickets as well.

How cool is that? Well, not so fast, but it’s getting there. Compared with Dragon Dictation I’m finding Siri is not as spot-on in its results, but since it uses the Dragon technology and they have deep pockets to continue development I’d wager it’s only a matter of time before they nail it. Read more on Mashable or  TechCrunch or peep this:

David Polinchock, Adam Broitman, Doug Dimon, Richard Carey, David Curcurito & Bill Sobel - Photo © Tim Dwight

The panel discussion on Augmented Reality I moderated for Sobel Media’s executive breakfast series was eye-opening — and not just because the early hour allowed for watching the sun rise down Central Park South or Bouchon Bakery’s excellent java augmentation (though the latter surely helped).

Before we seated the panel, Esquire’s Creative Director David Curcurito led off with a demonstration of the magazine’s augmented reality issue on Samsung’s high-definition video wall, showing Gillian Jacobs: Funny Joke from a Beautiful Woman and other segments of the A/R issue as examples.

David Curcurito demonstrates the December 2009 A/R Esquire - Photo © Tim Dwight

Some call it a gimmick – as admittedly I did when I picked up a copy of Esquire off the news stand in December – but seeing it demonstrated properly left me feeling that print isn’t dead, it’s only hibernating. I can imagine using marker-based A/R in any number of print applications, from marketing communications to news, non-fiction (textbooks?) and fiction as well –  any print that would benefit from an overlay of real-time multimedia information.

Our discussion spanned the beginnings of A/R more than twenty years ago, the emergence of heads up displays, marker-based A/R, location-based A/R and its myriad applications for advertising, marketing, entertainment and more. Though the Foursquare and Yelp iPhone apps didn’t get much love from the panel, location-based A/R is one of the richest area for this technology (IMHO) and there’s huge potential in using A/R as a game mechanic as well – in fact I already am – but I’ll save that for another post.

David Polinchock describes an A/R experience at Disney World - Photo © Tim Dwight

Since I was serving up the questions there was no way to take notes on everything we talked about, but several media bloggers in attendance were more diligent in capturing the key points:

• Digi-Day Daily
• Media Post
• Unthink Media
• NYC Production News
  

And for more on Augmented Reality in general:

• How Augmented Reality Works
• The Reality of Augmented Reality
• Easter Egg: Yelp Brings A/R to the iPhone
• Layar Technologies A/R Apps for Android & iPhone
• Esquire editor-in-chief David Granger demo of the entire A/R issue
• Augmented Reality Posts on Mashable