Adobe is trying to revamp Flash 11 and Air 3 to make them more web-based game friendly. This time, with WebGL API. We will see how it goes.
Meanwhile, Unity3D is chugging along, and doing very well as a multi-device development platform, running on Wii, iPad, Android and desktops (PC/Mac).
Meanwhile, I should also check out Spongelab, an interactive game-for-learning company as mentioned in this Scientific American blog.
Immediately following ModSim, I found myself in Orlando, Florida, attending the E-Learn Conference. My first visit to E-Learn was in 2004 and at that time it left me with a good impression. I remembered a small group of military attendees and discussions about SCORM. There were numerous research findings pertaining to Distance Learning also….
So whatever then happen to E-Learn in 2010? I found very few research papers or empirical studies reported. Besides the keynotes and a few nicely written concept/theory papers, majority of what was presented ranged from ‘sales pitch’, to product talks, to ‘this is what our school dl programs looks like’…. There were so few sessions that intrigue my interests… particularly after a very fruitful ModSim. But what should I think when I started hearing from other participants about how they find the conference to be lacking in research presentation? (Ouch!) 
I do remember a second call for paper… but was there a third? Should I have taken the cue for that to be a sign of ‘lack of participation’ from other fellow researchers, and that many lesser than par papers were accepted?
I don’t have the answer to that. (As a side note, I heard last year’s E-Learn at Vancouver was great, so is it Orlando, US, 2010 economy? Or what?)
Luckily, I did discover two gems from the conference, so maybe it is not so bad. (Am I correct, Mary?)
What’s more interesting is that both gems are making the same demand of me… and will in fact help create a new area in my current research. I look forward to that challenge. As usual, don’t want to talk about it yet, until things are well establish. So stay tune if you want to know.
virtual training
I have been wanting to attend the ModSim (Modelling and Simulation) World Conference for over 2 years now. But when I finally made my way there, I found myself surprised by what I found!
Besides the good stuff, planning, and the heavy concentration of right people… there are a few Good’s and Bad’s worthy of mention…
First the GOOD’s: The conference is populated by a lot of engineers (with good measure of software and computer engineers thrown in). Best of all they speak my lingo: ID (instructional design)! Not only do I understand exactly what they mean, they too, understand my research and why I pursue performance assessment with SG and VW.
So, once again, I have found validation and credence of my research among the homeland security, and defense folks. Why here and why not education (where I am housed)? Is it because of the need for en masse training? Is it because training/education is taken being seriously due to possibly life threatening situation by these groups (rather than the public education)? I wonder.
Next, the BAD’s: Where are the Instructional Designers and Instructional Technologists I knew? Are they too busy arguing if we should be called Learning Technologist or Instructional Technologist?
I am afraid our field will soon become irrelevant if people who are involved stop being creative, and quit inventing new and useful thing to benefit those around us. When was the last time IDT people fixed something together or report creating a new Learning System? What scares me is that over the last few years (as I review papers for conferences), I found extreme constructivist educators insisting we should hear from their students because “their students know so much more than them (or us)…” and higher institutes that boldly proclaim their PhD students “no longer do their own data analysis”… So no more Expert/Novice, no more doing your own work? Do PhD students farm out their data analysis work nowadays? No wonder ‘so few’ in education understand the need for analysis and performance assessment in ‘virtual learning’ using SG/VW.
When will the educators and instructional design technologists, wake up? Do people realize that software engineers are taking and owning instructional design, soon?
As for ModSim, I will be returning because it invigorate me. There are stuffs out there for me to learn and things I can teach others. Collaboration opportunity abound!
Regina Kaplan-Rakowski and I have a new book chapter in press! The title of the chapter is Modding and Rezzing in Games and Virtual Environments for Education, and it has been accepted for publication in Y.K. Baek’s new book: Gaming for Classroom-Based Learning: Digital Role Playing as a Motivator of Study, to be published by IGI-Global, Hershey, PA.
Book publishers (such as IGI Global) are increasingly insisting authors to provide permission of use for screenshots (of Web pages, and video games). However, from my experience, it is near impossible to obtain written permission for such things, much less a signed release form! (I firmly believed game publishers simply ignore emails requests for permission of use.)
We decided to be creative about putting images in book chapters. Below are the two images (in full color) intended for our book chapter. (You can click on the image to see it in full resolution.)
Figure 1: Regina creating (rezzing) a simple chair outside a restaurant.
Figure 2: A Tea-Party held in World of Warcraft (WoW) to protest about the weak Warrior class. The dress code for the day was “gnomes in semi-nudity.”
Matthias Spruill (SAIC) sent me an email out of the blue and asked if I would be interested in serving as a member on the IPT team. Well, yeah! 
It’s been two/three years now, since I got to know Curtis Conkey, Brent Smith and Kent. Not only are they a very interesting group of individuals, they are the only group who knew immediately how to pronounce CILR properly! 
(None of my educator/academic colleagues has ever done it… they always tried “siller”, or something unrecognizable…)
Great to be able to run with people who understand what I am doing, again. With the pending changes in my workplace, it may work out well this time.