Monthly Archives: May 2007

Second Life, Games, and Experience Design

Posted on May 31, 2007 by Bart Pursel

The Second Life saga continues. For some reason I’ve been very pessimistic this week, but for the record I DO appreciate what Second Life has to offer, and how people are attempting to leverage SL for teaching, learning, and research. … Continue reading →

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Gaming Makes Society a Better Place

Posted on May 30, 2007 by Bart Pursel

Well…in this case it will. Escape from the Ghetto, or GettOut, is a game being developed by a Czech studio about dealing with all the ills of poverty. Drugs, the authorities, discrimination, it’s all in there, and hopefully handled in … Continue reading →

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Reflections on the SL Best Practices in Education Conference

Posted on May 29, 2007 by Bart Pursel

I’m going to skip commentary on the actual presentations themselves, they were all very good and gave me some additional angles to explore what I’m doing with Second Life. Rather, I’d like to reflect on the design elements of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Educational Technology, Second Life | Leave a comment

SL Best Practices in Education Conference – Morning

Posted on May 25, 2007 by Bart Pursel

One of my colleagues from Grad School, Suzi, is presenting this morning at 11am Eastern at the Second Life Educators Conference (which takes place 100% within SL). I’m a bit late signing up (registered yesterday), and have been visiting the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments

More Edu-Games

Posted on May 24, 2007 by Bart Pursel

I really like how our field can’t agree on a moniker for our products. Edu-games, serious games, MUVEs, VLWs, ILEs…the list goes on. I’m not so sure one all-encompassing title exists, but we need to stop throwing wood on the … Continue reading →

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NYTimes on Gaming in Corporate America

Posted on May 23, 2007 by Bart Pursel

I thoroughly enjoyed the first page of this article about gaming infiltrating the work environments of corporate america. The writer discusses two great examples: 1. Entellium, which makes CRM software that includes a lot of game concepts. Character building, rating … Continue reading →

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Three Levels of Virtual Worlds

Posted on May 22, 2007 by Bart Pursel

Summer is finally here, the students are gone, and it’s a good time to step back, take a deep breath, and reflect on the past academic year. The Institute has a new director now, and amid a flurry of Second … Continue reading →

Posted in Educational Technology, Games | 8 Comments

The Wii: Back to the Future

Posted on May 21, 2007 by Bart Pursel

I spent some time with my family this weekend, including my 85yr old Grandma, and my 3 nieces, all <10 years old. I packed up the Wii and brought it home for the day because the weather wasn’t ideal for … Continue reading →

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Ubisoft and the DS

Posted on May 16, 2007 by Bart Pursel

Ubisoft is publishing a couple games for the DS that will act as language coaches for both French and Spanish. This is great news, but I’m somewhat curious why a few of the major game developers (Square Enix, Ubisoft, others?) … Continue reading →

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Spam Filter enabled, Google Analytics next on the list

Posted on May 16, 2007 by Bart Pursel

I installed Spam Karma today…it has so many options my head is spinning. I *think* it is working, but it’s hard to tell. I guess I’ll give it a few days to collect some garbage and see what happens. It … Continue reading →

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