Updating: A Response 4Chris
Have always suspected my thinking pedestrian, my suggestions overly bland, my ideas lacking that raw audacity that makes for real change …now know what was missing from my previous post on ULearn06 – competition, prizes and performance
What I want is for ULearn06 to be a LUDIUM not a CONFERENCE.
Check out New Scientist 13 August 2005 Upfront page 4
“… first ever conference to be run according to the rule of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs)
Starting on 29 September, the participants will be split into teams that will spend two days brainstorming and then present their ideas on how best to apply MMOGs to solve real world problems. For example , a MMOG could be used to simulate the spread of a deadly virus.
During the conference the teams will be given the chance to solve puzzles that will earn them magic treasures, such as the “chalice of time” that will give them an extra 10 minutes for their presentation, or a special hat that will allow them to spy on another team. The team with the best presentation wins a surprise prize.
A quick Google on Edward Castronova brings up the conference Ludium website - is so very cool, so very cool.
METHOD AND STRUCTURE
To develop these paradigms, CSSW1 will inaugurate a new form of academic conference, the ludium. A ludium collects experts in a field and embeds them in a dynamic game of information exchange. To launch this new method, CSSW I will be styled as Ludium I throughout the website and in the conference documents. While similar to workshops and charettes in form (for example, by breaking participants into groups), a ludium differs in that it actively deploys game design to motivate participant behavior. Most especially, a ludium recognizes no boundary between play and work, but rather mingles the two so thoroughly that productivity and entertainment become equally significant outcomes of the process.
Ludium I will bring together selected group of academics, game developers, and representatives from business, foundations, and government engaging in a thematic live-action game. Five teams will develop competing roadmaps, intended to guide the research community toward topics, questions, and methods of greatest value and feasibility. Judges will mingle with the teams and review the paradigms for achievement in areas such as impact, funding prospects, immediacy, profitability, imagination, and social justice.
In the process of playing, participants will simultaneously - and by design - address the very real issues now facing the community of MMORPG scholars and builders: how best to integrate the technology of synthetic worlds into the academic research paradigm. Under the ludic structure of the conference, sound deliberations will not only teach us all much that we need to know, but it will also earn renown, treasures, and fun for all involved.
What do you think Chris? Lets do this in the context of ICT and teaching and learning.
I am ready. Bring on "Finkle's Lava Dredger"
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