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July 2017
360
Video and Virtual Worlds, Thaisim 2017 Conference
Review,
Marzipano, Cards and Board Games in Gamification,
Serious Play 2017 Review
Executive Briefings, Keynote Presentations and Workshops, ISAGA 2018,
Are you a Games Master, Player, Fan, Spectator or Hermit?
Recent Articles and Presentations, Future Events Listing
Welcome to the GAETSS July 2017 Newsletter. This month the
main themes are 360 video, virtual worlds, recent events and gamification.
In this Edition
·
360 Video and Virtual Worlds
·
Thaisim
2017 Conference Review
·
Marzipano
·
Cards and Boards Games in Gamification
·
Serious Play 2017 Review
·
Executive Briefings, Keynote
Presentations and Workshops
·
ISAGA 2018
·
Are you a Games Master, Player, Fan, Spectator
or Hermit?
· Recent
Articles and Presentations
· Future Events
Listing
360 Video and
Virtual Worlds
Where Real and Virtual Worlds Meet
– Washington, Baltimore and Skinningrove
The idea and creation of 360 degree images using digital photography is not new.
I first experimented with the use of technology to create fully immersive
digital images over 20 years ago. The main applications in those days were
for museums and estate agents and the process involved taking a series of
still images and using software to “stitch” the images together in a time consuming process which never really took off in a
significant way. The use of technology to faithfully reproduce 360 degree
environments was overtaken by the emergence of artificially created virtual
worlds such as Second Life which take advantage of some of the
technological limitations of the 360 degree imaging of “real” environments
by using 3D graphics to build worlds which can not only be rendered by
consumer devices but also offer freedom of movement within those worlds and
interaction with other avatars and objects in ways which were not
technically practical with “real” 360 images.
My involvement with virtual worlds
in a significant way was in 2005 whilst I was working as a Project Manager
for De Montfort University and discovered Second Life, including details of
it in one of my newsletters of the time. Since then, Second Life has been
widely adopted for serious purposes including the hybrid real/virtual
conferences we used to run at the Serious Games Institute, the “Wheelies”
virtual nightclub developed by Social Entrepreneur Simon Stevens and, over
recent years, several initiatives launched by Steve Thompson, a social
entrepreneur friend based in Teesside.
The bottom half images of the
picture heading this section of the e-newsletter relate to a highly
innovative project Steve Thompson managed which resulted in raising around
£3M for a community regeneration project in the North
Eastern village of Skinningrove. This
community, in decline because of the impact of Steel Industry closures,
wanted to rebuild a jetty which had been used before the Second World War
to bring in iron ore. The Skinningrove jetty was
badly damaged by the war and never reconstructed but two local men
campaigned for a vision to rebuild the jetty as a war of regenerating the
local economy through tourism. Steve Thompson’s pioneering use of Second
Life for “digital puppeteering” resulted in a series of videos created
using Machinima (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7_Nf7gp9qI
for a great example) that eventually visualised the project, gained support
for the fund raising and brought a united community a new lease of life.
Today, the enabling technologies
upon which 360 images and video are dependent for affordable and accessible
creation of immersive experiences of “real world” environments are maturing
rapidly and the latest announcements from Ricoh about a new 360 degree 4K resolution camera with spatial audio due
to be released sometime this year hold promise for rapid growth of a whole
range of products and services based on the use of VR technologies.
I have been using a Ricoh Theta S 360 degree camera to capture still images and videos
from around the world and showcase these on my 360in360 Transmedia
Storytelling YouTube Channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqp_emcvW1P27C7EqpnyV3Q.
Here you will find many examples of 360 video applications which, at this
stage of the technology lifecycle, are still far from perfect but at least
give an example of what will be possible over the coming months.
You will find details of an
interesting application for 360 degree images (Marzipano) later in this newsletter. One of my future
plans to is to embark on a 360 degree tour of the
UK and Europe collecting and archiving 360 degree digital content for a
range of commercial and educational applications and I will be seeking
partners and sponsors for this initiative.
If you are interested in being
involved as a partner or sponsor, email me at david@davidwortley.com.
Thaisim 2017
Conference Review
Images from the first day of Thaisim 2017 held in Bangkok
Thaisim is Thailand’s annual conference
on the use of games and simulations for education and is one of my
favourite annual events, partly because of the legendary hospitality and
warmth of Thai people but mainly because of the commitment to the practical
application of serious games and simulations within the conference itself.
The 2017 conference was the 9th international Thaisim Conference and was held at the Bansomdejchaopraya Rajabhat
University in Bangkok on 29-30th of June. This year’s event was
honoured by a presentation about Thailand’s commitment to technology given
by the Deputy Minister for Education, Pannada Diskul. The theme of the conference was “Enhancing
learning benefits from games, simulations and facilitation in Thailand 4.0”
My own keynote session at the beginning of Thaisim
2017 was entitled “Next Generation Storytelling with Virtual Reality and
360 Camera Technologies”. I used the opportunity to try out a practical
application of gamification combined with 360 degree
video storytelling as an ice breaker for the conference using gamification
elements which could be easily applied in the classroom. I also recorded a 360 degree video in my presentation introduction section
which is published on Youtube in four parts, the
first of which can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cn7vy19OZOg.
The conference ice breaker learning game involved 60 delegates
selecting playing cards at random to form ten teams of 6 players based on
the value of the selected card e.g. all the delegates who selected an ace cards were in team one, those who selected a card
with number 2 in team 2 and so on. Each team was then given a pack which
contained a map and a set of stick on symbols related to the map. The teams
were instructed not to open their package until they had listened to a
story and watched a 360 degree video about a
school trip around the world planned by a teacher who had unfortunately
fallen over resulting in mixed up and missing symbols. The video showed ten
locations around the world in 360 degrees with each location having only 6
seconds on screen. In the short time available, the winning team was the
first to correctly identify their map location and find a missing symbol
from the other teams. The competition was a practical example of the use of
cards, stories and 360 video to inspire self-directed learning and teamwork.
There were many other examples of the practical application of
games and facilitation to learning but there were two sessions which
particularly impressed me. The first of these was a repeat of the “Salad
Bowl” game designed and facilitated by Vinod Dumblekar and Songsri Soranastaporn. Self-organised teams of up to 8 people
were given packs of cut up images, a blank poster, marker pen and paper
adhesive. There were no instructions given on the objectives of the game
and the rules included no speaking or signalling of any kind between team
members. The teams had to give themselves an identity and piece together a
picture puzzle that had a missing piece they had to find. The exercise
concluded with a presentation from Vinod explaining the lessons to be drawn
from the experience about collaboration, communication and teamwork.
The other highly interactive session was on the use of Games
and Simulations for Language Development run by teachers from Thailand.
Images from the conference can be viewed on my Flickr page https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidwortley/albums/72157682870896654
My conference presentation is accessible at https://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/storytelling-and-immersive-learning-with-360-video-vr-technologies-and-gamification-techniques
Marzipano
Using Marzipano
to navigate the world in 360 degree images in the Thaisim 360 Quiz
It was whilst I was at Thaisim that
I was inspired to explore solutions which could make the posting,
navigation and labelling of 360 images onto web sites as easy and accessible
as possible. I was seeking a tool which could make it possible for teachers
to create their own experiential learning experiences using 360 degree still images. It was this search that led me to Marzipano and a potential gateway to the creation of
web applications using 360 degree images.
Marzipano is a free web based application
which has the functionality I was looking for. It allows you to choose 360 degree images from cameras like my Ricoh Theta S,
overlay these images with information panels for points of interest (POI)
and pointers to navigate to another image. In addition, it can
automatically create a menu panel to navigate to any 360 image
in the collection.
To see an example of the output of Marzipano
using some of my 360 images from around the world, go to http://www.davidwortley.com/thaisimchallenge/index.html.
If you are interested in developing a Marzipano
application or would like some training, contact me at david@davidwortley.com.
Cards and
Boards Games in Gamification
Example Card and Board Games for
Gamification Strategies
Whilst the use of
serious games and simulations has generally been identified as being
synonymous with video games and digital technologies, there are very
simple, easy to set up and effective gamification techniques which do not
use technology at all and which are proven routes to engagement. Cards and
board games offer many opportunities to both apply and teach gamification
in every imaginable sector. I am a great fan of playing cards such as the
standard 52 pack of cards used in games like poker
and solitaire, Uno cards and the many varieties of Happy Families cards. All of these cards provide an ideal way to introduce the
elements of challenge and chance into any classroom or workshop situation.
Using the selection of cards to create teams of people at random can be a
great icebreaker as well as encouraging collaboration.
Playing cards are used to great effect by
masters of games-based learning workshops such as Dr “Thiagi” Thiagarajan who has developed different sets of
playing cards to teach different topics. An example of the set of cards he
uses to develop teamwork techniques is shown in the above image.
Customised sets of cards for gamified learning
have also been developed by Playgen and the team at the Disruptive Media Learning Lab (DMLL) at
Coventry University.
Board games are also an effective platform for
gamification strategies which embed elements of chance (roll of the dice),
challenge and consequence. Snakes and Ladders is one of the oldest games to
epitomise these elements which mirror what we all encounter in everyday
life.
A company which uses both cards and board games
for social benefit is Trance4mation
Games LLC run by Leslie Robinson and based in New York. I had the
pleasure of sampling one of Leslie’s games at the Serious Play 2017
conference. The game which includes dice, cards, paper and pencil is
designed to be played by couples or in groups with the intention of
developing emotional wellbeing, empathy and communication skills. The
design of the game and the rules create a non-confrontational,
non-threatening environment which can help in situations of stress and
isolation.
In the UK, Focus Games are one of the leading
developers of serious board games which are being used in hospitals, clinics, universities, schools, companies
etc. by a wide range of people to address clinical, social and
organisational issues.
For
more information on the Focus range of card games and board games, visit their
website at www.focusgames.com
Please contact
me if you are interested in learning how best to use cards and board
games to develop learning and development outcomes.
Serious Play
2017 Review
Images from the Serious Play 2017
Conference held at the George Mason University in Virginia
The Serious Play 2017 Conference took place at the
George Mason University Campus in Manassas, Virginia, USA in partnership
with the Virginia Serious Games Institute (VSGI). It was a special
privilege to be involved in this event as a speaker because the VSGI is
modelled on the UK’s Serious Games Institute at Coventry University where I
was the Founding Director.
Serious Play 2017 was a three day
event showcasing and discussing the latest developments in the serious
application of games, playfulness and virtual worlds to a wide spectrum of
themes with a strong focus on health applications which ranged from board
games designed to support emotional wellbeing through virtual world
applications for medical training and diagnostics to some of the latest
developments in games technologies as prescription medicine.
Apologies for any cross posting of these details to
subscribers of both this newsletter and the ISDM newsletter.
Serious Play is an initiative superbly organised by Sue
Bohle (pictured above), one of the world’s thought leaders in serious games
and virtual worlds applied to real world challenges. There were many
excellent and inspiring sessions over the three days which provided a great
platform for networking and knowledge sharing.
Amongst the most memorable elements over the 3 days were
the opening panel session facilitated by Ran Hinrichs. This included the
distinguished panel’s predictions for future developments. I recorded part
of this session in 360 video and archived it on
YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT1XEXn5ifQ
There was a keynote presentation by Nolan Bushnell,
Founder of Atari in which he expressed his views about the future of
education and the global challenges posed by developments in artificial
intelligence.
I also enjoyed the tour of the VSGI which included meeting
some of the start up businesses being incubated
at George Mason’s facility and I resonated with Ran Hinrich’s
presentation on innovation and immersion which I part-recorded in 360 video and posted at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-51W__mbXY.
Finally, as well as award winning Leslie Robinson’s
workshop on board games for emotional well-being, one of the highlights of
the conference was a special evening presentation by the Red Cross Crescent
organisation on how they use gamification to engage stakeholders and policy
makers to raise timely funding for disaster relief. This presentation, like
the ones in Thaisim, did not use technology to
engage the audience but employed simple techniques to engage the
imagination with activities which mimicked simple card games like “Snap”.
You can access more information and archived content at
the following locations.
1.
Digital Images & Videos of Conference –
see https://www.flickr.com/photos/davidwortley/albums/72157683857431253
2.
360 Degree Video Extracts from Serious Play
– see YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqp_emcvW1P27C7EqpnyV3Q
3.
My presentation at Serious Play 2017 – see https://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/trends-in-serious-games-for-health-and-well-being
4.
Serious Play Conference website – see https://seriousplayconf.com/
Executive
Briefings, Keynote Presentations and Workshops
360 degree image from my presentation at
Serious Play 2017
During my visit to Washington, I was able to spend some time with a dear
friend and former President of the International Symposium for Digital
Earth, Tim Foresman. As well as initiating me in my first ever live
baseball game at the Baltimore Orioles and providing me with a copy of
Apollo 14 Astronaut Ed Mitchell’s Powerpoint
presentations about his trip to the moon and the impact it had on his life,
we drew up plans to promote Executive Briefings, Keynote Presentations and
Workshops based on the impact of technology on the future of all aspects of
life on our planet.
Both Tim and I and our international network of trusted
thought leaders engaged in understanding the challenges and opportunities
for society, business, education and the environment created by
developments in technology want to offer senior executive briefings,
keynote presentations and workshops designed to inspire, inform and
influence the decision makers who will shape our world.
Please contact me if you are either interested in
hiring our team for a key event or interested in joining our team of
thought leaders and presenters.
ISAGA 2018
ISAGA is a professional association for students, teachers, trainers,
researchers, practitioners and other professionals. Its aim is to promote
gaming simulation methods, including research, consulting, learning and
teaching methods, such as traditional business and management simulation
games, policy exercises, computer simulations and computer-supported
simulation games, role play, learning games, scenarios, dynamic case
studies, experiential learning activities, business-theatre, etc..
Ten Countries, including Thailand, in South East Asia came together
in an alliance called ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) in 2015. Higher
education reform, harmonization, and developing new teachers are key issues
of AEC. To celebrate Thaisim's 10th anniversary
and to appreciate the half century legend of ISAGA, this conference is
planned as an opportunity to exchange the wisdom from many countries. ISAGA
2018 will discuss the future of Simulation & Gaming, ISAGA, people, and
learners together. Everyone is welcome to discover the future; so come, let's gather in Thailand!!!
For more details visit http://www.thonburi-u.ac.th/ISAGA2018/index.php
Are you a Games Master, Player, Fan,
Spectator or Hermit?
Examples of the roles played in
the Formula One Human Activity
In my white paper on Gamification
Theory and Practice, and in many subsequent presentations at
conferences around the world, I argue that gamification is embedded into
the DNA of all living creatures and is a vital component of our survival
and development. From the time we are born we not
only face challenges and uncertainties that shape our development but we
also use challenges and uncertainties to influence the world around us.
Every human activity can be viewed in the context of a game by
applying a gamification lens to the different roles we either choose to
play or are imposed on us by circumstance. The gamification lens assigns
the following generic roles to human behaviour, motivation and development :-
· The
Games Master is a role which has most influence in setting and/or
influencing the rules and outcomes of the activity
· The
Player is the role which is most motivated to master the skills to
influence outcomes and engaged in the activity
· The Fan
is not directly involved in influencing outcomes but is passionate about
the activity and willing to invest time, energy and money in shaping the
activity outcomes
· The
Spectator has a dispassionate interest in the activity and its outcomes but
does not invest much time, energy and money in the activity
· The
Hermit has absolutely no interest in getting involved in the activity
My challenge to you is to think
about all the activities in your life – sport, health, romance, career,
relationships and ask yourself what role you currently play in those
activities and whether you want to have more control over the outcomes of
those activities. If you decide that in most of your life’s activities you
are a spectator (which is what happens to most of us in today’s
environment), then developing the gamification skills you were born with
could make a substantial difference to the quality of your life.
If this challenge resonates with
you, please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss.
Recent
Articles, Videos, Presentations and Papers
A comprehensive list of archived articles,
presentations and videos can be accessed at my website – http://www.davidwortley.com/conferences.html
The most recent updates are shown below :-
Upcoming
Events Listing
Below is a list of forthcoming conferences – also accessible
at http://www.davidwortley.com/events.html
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Date
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Event
Name/ Description
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Location
|
Web URL
|
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Aug 14-17
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Visualising Sustainable Solutions
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Silicon Valley, USA
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http://www.wrsc.org/event/svsimcenterdemo
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Sep 6-8
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Game-On'
2017
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Carlow, Ireland
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https://www.eurosis.org/cms/?q=taxonomy/term/391
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Sep 7
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Westminster Media Forum
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London, UK
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http://www.westminsterforumprojects.co.uk/conference/growth-in-the-UK-creative-industries-2017/25287
|
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Sep 11-12
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NHS Health and Care Innovation Expo
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Manchester, UK
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https://www.england.nhs.uk/expo/
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Sept 21st
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Westminster Forum on Advertising
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London, UK
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http://www.westminsterforumprojects.co.uk/conference/native-and-social-influencer-strategies-2017
|
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Sep 21-22
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Serious Games Conference
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Singapore
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http://2017conf.seriousgamesconference.org/
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Sep 27-29
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World Education Day 2017 Conference
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Dalian, China
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http://www.worldeduday.org/
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Oct 2-3
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Games for Health Europe 7th Annual Conference
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Netherlands
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http://www.gamesforhealtheurope.org/
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Oct 4-6
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ECGBL 2017 European Conference on Game-based Learning
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Graz, Austria
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http://www.academic-conferences.org/conferences/ecgbl/
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Oct 17-18
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World of Learning
Conference
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Birmingham, UK
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https://www.learnevents.com/conference-overview/
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Nov 1-3
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BIT 5th Global Health
Conference
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Taiyuan, China
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http://www.bitcongress.com/aghc2017/registernow.asp
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Nov 9-11
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WCBME 2017 - World Congress on Biomedical Engineering
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Xian, China
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http://www.bitcongress.com/wcbme2017/programlayout.asp
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Nov 14-16
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2017 WISE Summit:
"Co-Exist, Co-Create: Learning to Live and Work Together
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Doha, Qatar
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http://www.wise-qatar.org/2017-summit-education-coexist-cocreate
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Nov 28-30
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GIANT Health Conference 2017
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London, UK
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http://www.gianthealthevent.com/
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Dec 12-13
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UK Digital Healthcare Transformation Summit
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London, UK
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http://www.ukdigitalhealthcare.com/
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Jan 21-24 2018
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R&D Data Intelligence Leaders Forum
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Basel, Switzerland
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TBA
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Apr 9-10
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CGAT 2017
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Singapore
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TBA
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Jul 9-13 2018
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ISAGA 2018
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Bangkok, Thailand
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TBA
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If you would
like any presentations, videos or documents circulated to my network, I am
happy to provide this service free of charge for any material relevant to
readers of this newsletter. If you are interested, contact me at david@davidwortley.com.
Best
Wishes for a Better Future for all Mankind
David Wortley FRSA
Founder and CEO GAETSS – Gamification and Enabling
Technologies Strategic Solutions
Shaping the Future of Business and Society through
Human Development and Motivation
President of the
European Chapter of the International Society of Digital Medicine
Landline: +441327811827
Mobile Phone : +447896659695
Email : david@gaetss.com, president@isdm.eu
Skype: davidwortley
Web: http://www.gaetss.com
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