Serious Games in the K-16 Classroom: Google Tech Talks Video, via Jonathan Brill

In the following video, Victoria Van Voorhis discusses educational software and the Serious Games in Education movement:




Thanks to Jonathan Brill for the link!


SOMEWHAT RELATED
Below is a presentation I gave at the 2008 Games for Health conference:

Descriptions, stories, and links related to the screen shots of the first slide of the above presentation: (Some of the links may need to be updated.)

The science screen is an interactive 'gizmo' from Explore Learning. Something like this could be incorporated into an educational game. http://www.explorelearning.com


I’m pretty sure that the picture of the ancient building was from the VAST project, described in the article 'Reviving the past: Cultural Heritage meets Virtual Reality' by Anthanasios Gaitatzes, Dimitrious Cristopoulos, and Maria Roussou. (2002, ACM) The Foundation of the Hellenic World was involved with this project. http://www.fhw.gr/fhw/


Maria Roussou has been involved with a variety of interesting immersive projects: http://www.makebelieve.gr/mb/www/profile/index.html


The people from the Institute for Advanced Technologies in the Humanities at the University of Virginia are doing similar work through the Rome Reborn project:
http://www.romereborn.virginia.edu/




Note: I thought that it would be cool to have a game for health that integrated with history, so that students could learn about how people from the past handled health and diseases, and learn how scientists from the past came up with solutions that help us today.


The picture of the dragons on the space station was from a game called 'Relax to Win', created by Phil (gary?) McDarby and the MindGames team when he was at MediaLab Europe, which disbanded in 2005. Here is an article about Relax to Win, from 2002:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1972571.stm
McDarby now works as the creative officer of Vyro Games, which focus on stress management.
Rationale: Stress management games are good for health!
McDarby: http://www.vyro-games.com/company/phil_bio.php
Media Lab Europe and MindGames: http://medialabeurope.org/
Vyro Games: http://ww.vyro-games.com/


The cool geometric image was from a project from the Interactive Media Group, Vienna University of Technology: Educating Spatial Intelligence with Augmented Reality http://www.ims.tuwien.ac.at/research/spatial_abilities/
The project targeted high school geometry students, with a goal of increasing spatial ability and improving transfer of learning. The program is consistent with Universal Design for Learning principles.
I think that some of the applications involved in this application could be useful in games designed for cognitive rehabilitation or habilitation. Related to this project:  'An Application and Framework for Using Augmented Reality in Mathematics and Geometry Education': http://www.ims.tuwien.ac.at/research/construct3d/ and Hannes Kaufmann’s Dissertation: Geometry Education with Augmented Reality: http://www.ims.tuwien.ac.at/media/documents/publications/...


The remainder of the pictures:
The Cloud Game: http://intihuatani.usc.edu/cloud/


The picture with the two people is from Kar2ouche, from Immersive Education. Kar2ouche is a creative role-play, picture making, story-boarding and animation software. It is enabled for use on interactive whiteboards: http://www.immersiveeducation.com/kar2ouche/


Hazmat HotZone is a multi-player simulation game used to train first responder teams: http://www.etc.cmu.edu/projects/hazmat_2005/


The underwater scene is from FreeDive, from FreeDive, that is used as a pain distractor. I also think it could be used for stress reduction for children.
http://www.breakawaygames.com/serious-games/solutions/hea...
The game pad is a DanceDance Revolution pad, used as an 'exergame' in many schools to combat the increase in numbers of students who are overweight or obese.


'Dance Dance Revolution: Healthy for Kids'
http://news.digitaltrends.com/news-article/12201/


The classroom scene is is from a virtual reality application:
Rizzo, A., Bowerly, T., Buckwalter, J., Klimchuk, D., Mitura, R., Parsons, T.D. (2006). A Virtual Reality Scenario for All Seasons: The Virtual Classroom. CNS Spectrums, 11, 1, 35-44. http://vrpsych.ict.usc.edu/

Interactive Data + Health Apps: (article by Alex Howard about the Community Health Data Forum, with video about HHS.gov/open and info about games and health data!)

For a wealth of information and links related to this topic, please read Alex Howard's recent O'Reilly Radar post, "Here come the healthcare apps:  A look at the applications--and the big opportunities--showcased at the Community Health Data Forum."

Information from  HHS.gov/Open: 




"... working with a growing array of technology companies, researchers, health advocates, employers, media, consumer advocates, marketers, providers, etc., we are seeking to identify the uses of this data that would do the most to raise awareness of health performance, help motivate civic leaders and citizens to improve performance, and help improvers do the improving.  

Potential examples include:  

• Interactive health maps on the web that allow citizens to understand health performance in their area vs. others with tremendous ease and clarity
• “Dashboards” that enable mayors and other civic leaders to track and publicize local health performance and issues
• Social networking applications that allow health improvement leaders to connect with each other, compare performance, share best practices, and challenge each other
• Competitions regarding how communities can innovate to improve health performance
• Viral online games that help educate people about community health
• Utilization of community health data to help improve the usefulness of results delivered by web search engines when people do health-related searches and further raise awareness of community health performance 
• Integration of community health-related data into new venues, such as real estate websites, which could be highly effective disseminators of such information
• Etc."

Harnessing the Power of Information to Improve Health
Event: Community Health Data Initiative Launched (06/02/2010) (Long!)


RELATED
Making community health information as useful as weather data
Alex Howard, O'Reilly Radar 6/2/10


HEALTH DATA AND GAMES FOR HEALTH!
My favorite section of Alex Howard's post:


Game mechanics and health data
"Community Clash isn't the only game that's using community health data: SCVNGRlocation-based technology that has become familiar to many through Foursquare and Gowalla with specific challenges to earn points. SCVNGR provides a platform for organizations to build games upon. To date, more than 550 institutions in 44 states and 20 countries have taken them up on the opportunity as clients, including museums, conferences, universities and cities. combines the
"John Valentine, SCVNGR's conference and events manager, says that SCVNGR now has more than 20 million locations in its system and is being downloaded thousands of times daily from the iTunes and Android app stores. In D.C., SCVNGR will be a part of the upcoming Digital Capital Week."

Games for Health Conference, Games Accessibility Day, and Games Beyond Entertainment Week! (Via Ben Sawyer, Digital Mill, Serious Games Initiative)

The Games for Health Conference and Games Beyond Entertainment Week are coming soon.

Register now at: http://www.regonline.com/gbew2010

We can now reveal our excellent keynotes for the 2010 Games for Health Conference:

Day 1: Wednesday May 26

THE MIND-BODY EXPERIENCE OF SONY MOVE: Relationships between Gaming, Play, Exercise, and More!
Dr. Richard Marks
Senior Researcher Sony US R&D group

Dr. Marks also known as the "father of the EyeToy" will discuss the relationship between gaming, play and exercise, referencing his work in the development of Sony’s new motion controller system, PlayStation Move, as well as his previous work with Sony’s EyeToy, PlayStation Eye and other interfaces.

Day 2: Thursday May 27

THE HUMAN PLAY MACHINE

Chaim Gingold

Chaim Gingold, a longtime independent game developer and original designer of Spore’s creature creator will discuss how existing game genres map onto the human brain and body and how design decisions affect who will be attracted to the game and how they will play.

You can see the nearly full schedule at: http://www.gamesforhealth.org/schedule.htm

Two of our May 25: Pre-Conference Events also have schedules posted:

Out & About: The Mobile Serious Games schedule: http://bit.ly/9MbEEF

3rd Annual Games Accessibility Day: http://gamesaccessibilityday.org/schedule.html (See below)

Complete details of both http://www.gamesforhealth.org & http://www.gamesbeyondentertainment.com

Games for Health
http://www.gamesforhealth.org/brochure.pdf

Games Beyond Entertainment Week
http://www.gamesbeyondentertainment.com/brochure.pdf

Best,

Ben Sawyer
Digitalmill
Serious Games Initiative
Games for Health Project
@bensawyer on twitter

Here is the schedule of the Games Accessibility Day,  May 25, 2010:

Tuesday, May 25, 2010
8:30 am to 9:00 am	Coffee
9:00 am to 9:50 am	Opening Ceremonies Introduction of the Day, Mark Barlet  Keynote Address: Chuck Bergen – Making a commercial game targeting at the disabled community, and how he sold the idea to the biggest game company on the planet.
9:50 am to 10:00 am	Break
10:00 am to 10:30 am	Presentation: Tobi Saulnier - Winter's Tale : A Case Study of Designing for Game Accessibility on the Nintendo DS
10:30 am to 10:45 am	Presentation: Katherine Mancuso - Best Practices for Accessible Communication Using a Virtual World
10:45 am to 11:00 am	Presentation: Tim Holt: Game Accessibility in Special Education.
11:00 am to 11:15 am	Break
11:15 am to 11:30 am	Introduction to the “Hacker Hardware Challenge” Adam Coe Ben Heckendorn Suzanne Robitaille
11:30 am to 12:00 pm	Presentation: Halimat Alabi - Making the Fantasy Real: Giving Good User Interface
12:00 pm to 12:20 pm	Presentation: Mantha Sadural - SPREAD: Appreciating Speech through Gaming
12:20 pm to 1:30 pm	Lunch
1:30 pm to 1:50 pm	“Hacker Hardware Challenge” the reveal and Q&A
1:50 pm to 2:10 pm	Presentation: Johnny Richardson - The Social Construction Model of Interactive Gaming for Disabled Users: Benefits and Developmental Evaluation
2:10 pm to 2:30 pm	Presentation: Eleanor Robinson - Game Accessibility and the Aging Community
2:30 pm to 3:00 pm	Group Activity: Break out into groups and solve the world’s problems How could we pass up the opportunity to flex the massive amount of talent assembled in one room. Take on a challenge and help develop a solution.
3:00 pm to 3:10 pm	Break
3:10pm to 3:40 pm	Group Activity: Presentation of the breakouts
3:40 pm to 4:10 pm	Presentation: Rock Vibe - Rock Band for People with No or Limited Vision
4:10 pm to 4:30 pm	Break
4:30 pm to 5:00 pm	Presentation: Suzanne Robitaille and Mark Barlet - Reviews for All, A New way of looking at things for our community
5:00 pm to 5:20 pm	Presentation: Heidi Silver-Pacuilla - Unleashing the Power of Innovation for Assistive Technology
5:20 pm to 5:30 pm	Closing Ceremonies

Video Games are Good: A Wii Lab for Walter Bickett Elementary School! (Union County, N.C.)

My last post:   Recess is Good...

This post:  Video Games are Good

I went to check my work email today and noticed this article about the Wii on my school district's website. Here is the cut & paste, with additional information and links about games for health below:

Walter Bickett Elementary gifted Wii lab from Tate Realtors 

Written by: Deb Coates Bledsoe, UCPS Communications Coordinator Posted February 4, 2010 by Deb Coates Bledsoe

Walter Bickett Elementary School held a ribbon cutting of its Wii Lab recently officially opening it to students. Pictured, from left, are Walter Bickett physical education teacher Jeff Sauser, PTA vice president Michelle Anderson, PTA president Carrie Beckham, Ron Sumrow and Danielle Spuler both of Allen Tate Realtors and Walter Bickett Elementary principal Theresa Benson.

Thanks to the generosity of Allen Tate Realtors, Walter Bickett Elementary students have the opportunity to be not only smarter, but also a little healthier. 
   
Funds donated to the school last year by Allen Tate helped purchase a Wii Lab, which was unveiled recently with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The lab consists of five stations, each containing a 26-inch flat-panel TV on a cart with locking cabinet. It also has the Wii gaming console and the Wii Fit Plus and Balance Board.
   
“Allen Tate Realtors have been community partners to Walter Bickett Elementary for many years,” said school principal Theresa Benson. “I am proud and honored to continue our partnership and friendship."
   
Allen Tate’s contribution of more than $3,000 last year made the purchase of the Wii Lab possible, while the TV’s were purchased with funds from the school’s parent teacher association.
   
The monetary help comes from an annual event held each year by Allen Tate Realtors called a “FUNDay.” This is a fee-based event where Realtors and employees pay to play golf and other activities. All proceeds benefit public education.
   
The day also includes silent and live auctions to raise additional funds. More than 800 individuals historically participate in the annual event, usually held at The Point Lake and Golf Club on Lake Norman. This year’s contribution to the Walter Bickett Elementary School is $4,166.
   
The Wii labs supplement the school’s Promethium boards, document cameras, data projectors, Wi-fi lab and iPod Rock Stars, which already serve students. These help students become globally aware and technology savvy, Benson said.
   
Another lab with an additional five stations is in the plans with money that was awarded to the school in a PEP (physical education program) grant.

RELATED
6th Annual Games for Health Conference
May 25-27,  Hyatt Harborside Boston
Games Beyond Entertainment Week

Serious Games Drastically Changing Health Outcomes

Eliane Alhadeff

Serious Games Blog: Posts on Games for Health

Eliane Alhadeff

I gave a presentation about game accessibility and games for health in K-12 settings at the 2008 Games for Health conference:

Accessible Games for Health and K-12 Education: Lessons from the Classroom

View more presentations from Lynn Marentette.

SOMEWHAT RELATED

Why Video Games are Good For Your Soul 
James Paul Gee

Big Thinkers:  James Paul Gee on Grading with Games

(Edutopia Video)

I Love the Wii.

More women are playing games, and the Wii has grabbed a good portion of attention from them, especially with titles such as Wii Fit.

While some say this is due to Nintendo's marketing strategy, in my opinion, I think it is because Nintendo developed a system that is non-geek and family-friendly. When I first heard of the Wii, they were in short supply. I spent quite a bit of time stalking out the local GameStop stores to buy one. I wasn't the only female doing the same thing.

Think about it. The Wii was introduced just at the time when prices of large flat-panel TVs were coming down, making them more affordable to families. Although Dad might have hankered for a large-screen TV to watch sports, any Mom in her right mind would want to multi-purpose such an expense. If you have to have a huge TV messing up your family room decor, it makes sense to use it for multiple purposes, like playing the Wii.

Not long after the Wii made it home, it eventually sprouted legs and was adopted by my young adult daughters.  Now the only way I get to play the Wii is if I make the trip uptown, a 30 minute drive. And if everyone is playing Rock Band, I have to wait my turn to play the drums.

I need to buy another Wii!  I think it will carry me through old age:






It will help me keep my girlish figure (this is NOT a picture of me, by the way)






Seriously, the Wii is turning out to be handy for folks, young and old,  with health problems:

Pulse Sensing:  Wii Vitality Sensor


Here is a video showing how the Wii is used at Madonna Rehabilitation Hospital's brain injury program:


Since more therapists and nurses are female, it stands to reason that a game console such as the Wii, which is very user-friendly, would be top on the list for use in health and rehabilitation settings.

The Wii is the focus of research with the elderly:
An exploratory study on senior citizen's perceptions of the Nintendo Wii: the case of Singapore International Convention on Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology, 2009

Here is a video of what seems to be an HCI student testing out the Wii with her grandparents:





Nintendo might have some competition once Microsoft's Project Natal comes to market. Natal doesn't require any sort of device to interact with the games. For more information about the latest in games for health and "exergames",  take a look at the following blogs:

• Exergame Lab
• Befitt
• Exergame Fitness
• Exergaming Australia
• Exergaming Evangelist
• FootGaming
• Gamercize
• GamerSize
• Health Gamers
• TEN = ExerGame Network
• Humana's Games for Health Website
  Conference:  Games for Health 2010
  

RELATED

Nintendo Boasts 9 Million Player Advantage Among Female Console Gamers
Video Games in Play
 "And despite the stereotypes about teenage males, gamers are not monolithic. In fact, 45% of active gamers are female and women account for half (49%) of all Wii owners and 52% of Sony Playstation Portable (PSP) owners."
Seniors Bowled Over by Wii
Wii-habilitation could prevent elderly from falls
(Thanks to Josh B. for pointing out the how the stats could be a problem. I still can't find the original research!"

IDPedia: Interaction Design Patterns for Games Library!

From the HelpYouPlay IDPedia (Interaction Design Patterns for Games Library) website:


"Design patterns are ways to describe best practices, explain good designs, and capture experience so that other people can reuse these solutions. The idea of a pattern was introduced by the architect Christopher Alexander for use in urban planning and building architecture, but since then a pattern community has emerged that specifies patterns for all sorts of problems. Interaction design patterns aim to capture optimal solutions to common usability or accessibility problems in a specific context. Typically best practices concerning interaction design are described as guidelines or heuristics. We consider interaction design patterns to be more descriptive than guidelines as it tells a designer exactly when, how and why the solution can be applied." 

Thanks, Barrie Ellis (One-Switch Games) for the link!


SOMEWHAT RELATED
Game Usability and Accessibility
Donate to the AbleGamers Fundraiser!
The funds will support the work of the AbleGamers Foundation, and donations are tax-deductible.

"The AbleGamers Foundation's mission is to empower the disabled population to enjoy the digital revolution that is taking place in gaming... We believe in harnessing the power of many people's voices to solve the problems of the not so few. The AbleGamers Foundation strives to bring together individuals from every lifestyle with a common goal of improving the lives of the disabled. Everyone has the right to enjoy the world, and together, we can make that possible. Together, we can make it possible for everyone to enjoy the rich content of digital entertainment with his or her friends and family regardless of disability."

Eelke Folmer's Human-Computer Interaction Research

Usability Patterns in Games (pdf)
Accessibility in Games and Virtual Worlds
Interaction Design Patterns

Eelke Folmer's presentation at the 2009 Games 4 Health Conference, Boston
Game Accessibility WorkshopG4H: game accessibility research @ University of Nevada, Reno

View more presentations from eelke folmer.

Sony Play Station EyeToy: Therapy for Burn Patients

Here is an excerpt from a recent article about the work of Dr. Joseph Haik, a plastic surgeon and burn specialist who has pioneered a therapy that utilizes Sony's Play Station EyeToy:

"The EyeToy is a digital camera, similar to a webcam, whose technology uses computer vision and gesture recognition to process images, enabling players to interact with games using motion and color detection."

"With our method, patients look into the EyeToy and see their images projected on TV," Haik says. "The game recognizes their gestures and shows them to themselves on screen, helping them adjust to what they look like post-burn. That can help combat depression, improve self-image, and encourage patients to move on when other occupational therapies fail," he explains."

"A very important aspect of healing is coming to terms with scars on the face, hands and other exposed body parts. Depression and other symptoms associated with severe burns can make a full recovery more painful and difficult than it may need to be. That's why the EyeToy can be so useful in helping patients to take the first step in accepting a new self-image, Haik says."

Everyware Healthcare Links

I've decided to focus some of my posts about emerging technologies related to health care on my Technology Supported Human-World Interaction Blog. Here are a few links:

Everyware Health Care: Real Life Examples

Everyware Health Care: A Personal Focus

Everyware Health Care: Microsoft Health's Common User Interface website, usable health care applications, pervasive health games....

Softkinetic 3D Gesture Recognition for Games and Rehabilitative Play

Taking 3D interaction further, Softkinetic has developed middle-ware that uses a 3D camera to support full-body gesture interaction with games and other applications. No controllers or devices are needed!



The following video is narrated in Portuguese, I, think, but you can understand the content in any language. I you love the Wii, you'll probably like this!


Here is a video that demonstrate how Softkinetic and Silverfit paired together to develop rehabilitative games for the elderly and others:


The following table is from the Silverfit website:

Game	Movement trained
Puzzle	While sitting down, bend whole body left and right, and stand up. Cognitive/visual component.
Mole	Balance exercise by stepping with one leg while standing.
Catching grapes	Walking movement left and right.
Walking	Walking in place, while avoiding obstacles and thresholds. Activity of Daily Life (ADL) component.
Arm exercise	Arm stretching and reaching in all directions with one or both arms. ADL component.
Picking flowers	Walking backwards, forwards and sideways. Optionally, bending down.
Memory	Arm stretching left, right, forwards and upwards. Cognitive component.

RELATED

Softkinetic and Silverfit Introduce Senior-Targeted Gaming
(Danny Cowan, Gamasutra, 12/19/08)

Softkinetic's Gesture-Based Interactive TV Action:

DigiBoard Multi-Touch Mixed Reality Game; Ideas for future design of a flexible, adjustable multi-touch surface..

This video is a demo of a multi-touch table, called the DigiBoard, running a game application called "Tower Defense". This multi-modal game takes input from physical tokens, touch, and provides auditory feedback.

According to the credits on the video-clip, the creators of this application were Andreas Hesel, Birna Run Olafsdottir, Dann Sandgreen, and Osk Hilmarsdottir. When I can track down more information about this group, I'll post it!

For more information about interactive display technologies, see Gizmo Watch's Top 15 Interactive Display Technologies. The list is full of photos and video clips of a variety of systems. It was created last year, so it might need some updating.

I am still looking for some examples of good multi-touch table games for use in education. I've created a few prototypes that are not fully fleshed out over the past year, but I haven't had the time or money to build the type of adjustable table that I want.

I'd like my table surface to adjust horizontally, vertically, and angles in-between, like a drafting table. I don't want my table to rely on a projector, since I don't want unnecessary occlusion. A rear-projection system would be heavy and bulky. My design is light and sleek, and it is mobile.

The advantage of an adjustable design is that it allows for flexibility in use, within a single environment, and across a variety of settings. It could work well in schools, libraries, museums, convention centers, exhibit halls, hospitals, visitor centers, airports, public transportation stations, board rooms, data centers, malls, supermarkets, community centers, coffee houses...just about anywhere.

I've written about this topic a few times. For more information, see "Emerging Interactive Technologies, Emerging Interactions, and Emerging Integrated Form Factors"

If you know of anyone who is creating an adjustable, multi-functional touch surface, please let me know.

I am playing around with ideas for a suite of multi-modal, adaptive game for use with young people who have suffered traumatic brain injuries, and others who have special needs. A stationary surface would not provide the flexibility my applications will require.

Cross post via Tech Psych: Games for Health conference

I recently presented at the Games for Health conference in Baltimore, Maryland. The attendees and presenters at the conference came from a variety of fields- game development, education, occupational and physical therapy, health, bio-mechanical engineering, media arts, and more, all interested in sharing ideas about using game, simulations, and virtual worlds to improve health.

Many of the topics covered during the recent Games for Health conference apply to K-12 settings. If you think about it, many children and teens are at risk for health problems that will adversely impact their lives as adults. If we can provide a means for young people to develop healthy behaviors and attitudes at an early age, we will help to ensure healthy futures, for individuals and communities alike.

If you have a little time, you can listen to the overview provided in an audiocast consisting of interviews with Ben Sawyer and others involved with the conference.

My presentation slides - Game Accessibility and Health Education in K-12 Settings - from the pre-conference, are posted SlideShare, where you can find slides from other presentations on the Games for Health group section.

You can find more information on the Pioneer Portfolio of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation website, including a section about Games for Health.