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Infinity Ring — history as a transmedia-based game

On 08/20/2012, in 3D, digital learning, digital storytelling, educational games / serious games, engagement / engaging students, history, immersion, transmedia, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

 

About

In each game episode, you play as Dak, Sera, and young Hystorian Riq as they travel back in time to fix one of the Great Breaks. Use your Hystorian’s Guide to discover what has gone wrong in history. Then, the story continues as you explore the open environment and play mini games such as lock picking or white-water rafting. Along the way you will also complete side quests and speak with historical characters who will aid you in — or perhaps deter you from — your quest.

The Infinity Ring game boasts an immersive open-world environment in which players are free to explore a 3-D representation of sites around the globe and throughout time. The game is available on desktop computers. Coming soon for mobile and tablet devices.

Also see:

Scholastic goes global to promote its latest transmedia epic — from digitalbookworld.com
NEW MULTI-PLATFORM TIME TRAVEL ADVENTURE SERIES infinity ring™ LAUNCHES WITH global promotional campaign
FROM SCHOLASTIC
KIDS CAN PREVIEW THE INFINITY RING ONLINE GAME ON WWW.INFINITYRING.COM STARTING TODAY
Scholastic (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education, and media company, today announces a massive worldwide campaign to promote INFINITY RING™, a new multi-platform time travel adventure series for children ages 8-12, launching on August 28th simultaneously in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand with “Book 1: A Mutiny in Time” by New York Times bestselling author James Dashner.  As the pioneering force behind the groundbreaking and international bestselling The 39 Clues® series, Scholastic expands its innovative multi-platform publishing program with Infinity Ring, a fully immersive reading experience which combines books, an interactive “Hystorian’s Guide” map, and an online game experience where readers travel back in time to “fix” history.

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20 schools innovating with digital tools — from Getting Smart by Tom Vander Ark and Sarah Cargill
Excerpt:
Hans Renman in Stockholm (@tankom_hans) asked on Twitter, “Do you know any US schools that are REALLY using digital tools in an INTERESTING way for communication, marketing, or learning?” That tweet kicked off a few days of snooping around. Here is the list of 20 we came up with. We look forward to your additions!

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Your future TV is not about Tele-Vision [Eaton]

On 08/17/2012, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bring your own device (BYOD), convergence, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, flipping -- inverted learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, homeschooling/homeschoolers, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, passions, podcasting, reading, reinvent, second screen apps, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, strategy, streams of content, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, transmedia, trends, TVs, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Your future TV is not about Tele-Vision — from FastCompany.com by Kit Eaton

Excerpt (emphasis below from DSC; also see the above categories to see how I see this as a highly-relevant component to our future learning ecosystems):

Then imagine what a hybrid of Apple’s tech and efforts like GetGlue, Shazam, and other interactive systems will be like when they’re more integrated into your 2017 smart TV. The big screen in your living room won’t be a one-way window into another world you can’t touch anymore. It’ll be a discovery engine, a way to learn facts, interact with the world, talk to people, find new and surprising content to absorb. Advertisers will love it, and companies like Nielsen–which largely has to guess all those stats about who watches which show at primetime nowadays–will be able to get accurate data…which may mean more appealing shows.

 

 

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

 

Also see:

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The 20 best blogs about game-based learning

On 08/09/2012, in blogs / blogging / vlogging, educational games / serious games, by Daniel Christian

The 20 best blogs about game-based learning — onlinecolleges.net

Excerpt:

Because the push toward incorporating these resources still exists in a comparatively inchoate state, anyone curious about how they apply to educational settings should keep up with the latest movements and technologies currently shaping the movement’s future. Blogs can help with that.

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Some very sharp innovations!

On 07/24/2012, in 3D, Augmented Reality (AR), educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, health, innovation, nursing, by Daniel Christian

Augmented reality in a contact lens — from spectrum.ieee.org by Babak A. Parviz

 

 

Top 9 best augmented reality iPhone apps in 2012 — from blog.startappz.com

Excerpt:

The principle of augmented reality based iPhone apps is to use the superb multitasking and image processing capabilities provided by the iPhone. Even though the technology of augmented reality is still in an embryonic stage, these smart iPhone apps give us a small glimpse of what’s to come. Most of these apps are available at Apple’s iTunes App Store. So check out the top 9 best Augmented reality apps for iPhone in 2012 Here are some really cool iPhone apps with augmented reality features.

Canon announces mixed reality system for industrial design teams — from Core77.com

 

0canonmixreasys03.jpg

 

50-gigapixel camera is straight out of science fiction  — from futureoftech.msnbc.msn.com

AWARE-2

David Brady / Duke University

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playtell: Storytime, Anytime.

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The Abundance Builders — from wfs.org by Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler
Progress occurs when inventive people solve problems and create opportunities. Here are just a few of the breakthroughs that offer the brightest prospects for a future that leaves austerity and deprivation behind.

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HealthTap debuts paid private medical consultations via mobile device — from betakit.com

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HealthTap

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IKEA 2013 catalog has augmented reality — from augmentedblog.wordpress.com
And then some.

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3D printing: The game changer — from T.Rowe Price by Hug Evans

Excerpt:

From my vantage point, 3D Printing is right up there as one of the most exciting innovations I’ve seen in the 20 years I’ve been around here. I think it’s going to change the way goods are manufactured across many industries.

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DIY holodeck gaming system to be built by university students — from thecreatorsproject.com by Kevin Holmes

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iRobot and InTouch Health announce RP-VITA Telemedicine Robot — from spectrum.ieee.org by Evan Ackerman

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New 3D Printers From 2012 — from kraftwurx.com

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The 10 best games for learning about the stock market [onlinecollegecourses.com]

On 07/24/2012, in educational games / serious games, by Daniel Christian

The 10 best games for learning about the stock market — from onlinecollegecourses.com

Excerpt:

Much like skydiving, playing the stock market is not an activity you want to learn through your mistakes. Fortunes are made and lost all the time by people who think (or thought) they had a handle on stock trading. If you have a few million you can afford to lose, or you’re investing with someone else’s money (you’re a bank, in other words), by all means, jump right in. But for the other 99%, we recommend simulating the experience of stock market investing first, to learn what to do and not do with your hard-earned cash. Here are the 10 best games to help you do that.

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Reflections on “Apple’s iTunes U may be leading a global revolution in higher education” [Faas]

On 07/24/2012, in Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, convergence, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, Europe, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), India, innovation, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, multi-touch, multimedia, streams of content, teaching online, technologies for your home, TVs, by Daniel Christian

Apple's iTunes U may be leading a global revolution in higher education

 

From DSC:

Apple has been putting together a solid ecosystem of hardware and software that allows for the creation and distribution of content.  “Easy is hard” I like to say and Apple’s done a great job of creating easy-to-use devices and apps. They have a long way to go before iTunes U has all the built-in functionality needed to replace a Blackboard Learn or a Moodle type of CMS/LMS.  But given their solid history of creating highly-usable hardware and software, they could deal a smashing blow to what’s happening in the CMS/LMS world today. 

Plus, with Apple TV, Airplay mirroring, the growth of second screen-based apps, and machine-to-machine communications, Apple is poised to get into this game…big time. If my thoughts re: “Learning from the Living [Class] Room” come to fruition, Apple would be positioned for some serious worldwide impact on lifelong learning; especially when combined with the developments such as the use of MOOCs, AI and HCI-related innovations, learning agents, web-based learner profiles, and potential/upcoming changes to accreditation.

Too far fetched do you think? Hmmm….well considering that online learning has already been proven to be at least as affective as f2f learning — and in some studies has produced even greater learning outcomes/results — I wonder how things will look in mid-2015…? (That is, where is the innovation occurring?)


 Addendum:

  • Connected TV penetration to top 50% by 2017 — from worldscreen.com by Mansha Daswani
    Excerpt:
    SCOTTSDALE: ABI Research forecasts that more than 50 percent of television homes in North America and Western Europe will have Internet-connected TV sets by 2017, up from just 10 percent last year, while Blu-ray player penetration is expected to rise to more than 76 percent from about 25 percent. The report notes that the popularity of connected TV is not limited to developed markets—there have been increasing shipments to China, ABI notes.
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  • Advertisers need to pay attention to connected TV [INFOGRAPHIC] — from Mashable.com
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  • The future of TV is two screens, one held firmly in your hands — from FastCompany.com by Kit Eaton
    Excerpt:
    The connected TV, sometimes called the smart TV (and even branded as such by Samsung) is a growing phenomenon: TV makers are adding limited apps, Net connectivity, and even streaming media powers to their newer TVs in the hope they’ll persuade you to upgrade your newish LCD for a flatter, smarter unit. They’re desperate to, given how flat this market is. But according to new research from Pew, the future of TV may actually be a little more closely aligned with the notion of a “connected TV viewer,” an important distinction. Pew spoke to over 2,200 U.S. adults a couple of months ago and discovered that 52% of all adult cell phone owners now “incorporate their mobile devices into their television watching experiences.”

 

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Getting through the gate (i.e. someone’s attention); the power of gamification.

On 07/18/2012, in attention, digital learning, digital storytelling, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, ideas, by Daniel Christian

4 ways to gamify learning in your classroom — from tophatmonocle.com

Excerpt:

This post explores the role of gamification in education and provides four examples of how you can bring the learning method into your classroom.

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Top Hat Monocle closes $8M to bring gamification to university classrooms — from betakit.com

Excerpt:

Today another student engagement platform, Top Hat Monocle, announced it has closed $8 million in Series A funding led by Emergence Capital Partners and iNovia Capital, with participation from SoftTech VC, Version One Ventures, and Golden Venture Partners. The Toronto- and San Francisco-based company, which raised $1.5 million in seed funding in November 2011, launched their product in 2010 and has been used by 65,000 students at over 150 global universities.

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Gamified courses from Course Hero and Bunchball boost student engagement — from gigaom.com by Ki Mae Heussner

Excerpt:

In some circles, the phrase “gamification” may have gone out of fashion, but Course Hero and Bunchball are intent on showing that it can still pack a punch in education.

In April, Course Hero, which uses free online resources to offer students digital study guides and other tools, launched a series of full-length online courses infused with game mechanics from Bunchball’s gamification platform. The companies Tuesday revealed some of the initial results from the partnership.

On average, users spend three times more time on the gamified courses than on all of CourseHero.com and total time on the platform has increased five percent since the Bunchball integration, Course Hero reported. The company also said that social sharing of achievements, which are awarded as students progress through the courses, has climbed nearly 400 percent since the Bunchball partnership.

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From DSC:

  • There is enormous power when resources are reallocated to teams of specialists that come together in order to create engaging, multimedia-based, interactive learning materials!   The products of these endeavors should prove to be highly beneficial — especially when they can be integrated into more hybrid/blended teaching and learning situations. That way, we can utilize the best of both the face-to-face and virtual worlds.

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If attention can be visualized as a gate...is it getting harder to get through the gate?

 

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Addendum on 7/19/12:

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When the technologies behind Watson and Siri get perfected and integrated into the “Learning from the Living [Class] Room” environment [Christian]

On 07/16/2012, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, blended learning, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, competency-based learning/education, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, disruption, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, hybrid learning, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, multimedia, new business models, online learning, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, reinvent, social learning / networks, staying relevant, streams of content, tablets, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telepresence, trends, TVs, ubiquitous learning, videoconferencing, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:

When the technologies behind IBM’s Watson and Apple’s Siri get perfected and integrated into products and services that will make up the near future “Learning from the Living [Class] Room” environment— there will be:

 

  • A high degree of personalization and customization — available 24x7x365 on multiple kinds of devices
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  • The option to turn on tracking and analytics — reporting from which can be moved into the learner’s cloud-based profile upon completion of the unit/activity/badge
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  • Students of all ages will have access to their own virtual tutors so to speak
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  • When a virtual tutor is unable to resolve or address the student’s issue to the student’s satisfaction, the student will be able to instantly access a human tutor (with the option of keeping the existing work/issue/problems visible to the human tutor)

 

IBM's Watson -- incredible AI!

 

 

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

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Addendums:

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10 best colleges for game-based learning [bestcollegesonline.com]

On 07/12/2012, in attention, colleges, digital learning, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, Michigan, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

10 best colleges for game-based learning — from bestcollegesonline.com

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Excerpt:

If you were busy playing Call of Duty and you missed it, July 8 was Video Games Day. While most people’s experience with gaming involves mindless destruction or sports competition, educators have begun to see the value in the medium for helping students learn. While the research is still developing and some professors are still skeptical, these 10 colleges represent your best bets for learning while playing video and other games.

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The year of the connected TV? [Steve Evans & Harris Interactive]

On 07/11/2012, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, technologies for your home, TVs, by Daniel Christian

http://www.harrisinteractive.com/uk/Insights/Reports/ConnectedTV.aspx

 

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Excerpt:

Every year for the past few years seems to have been heralded as “The Year of the Connected TV”. Few doubt that the big screen in the living room will be an important channel for everything the web has to offer, but there are question marks over the extent to which Connected or Smart TV, as it stands, has captured the imagination and viewing hours of consumers today. Is it the year of connected TV already, or is it still to be realised?

In this report we find out the views of the GB general public. We find out who has them, do they actually connect, what their experience is and what services do they really want.

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A computer that learns the rules of a game by watching you play [Anthony]

On 07/11/2012, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, by Daniel Christian

A computer that learns the rules of a game by watching you play –– from ExtremeTech.com by Sebastian Anthony

Excerpt:

A Parisian researcher has created a computer system that can learn the rules of games by watching you play — and then beat you at it.

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Learning from “The Living [Class] Room” — Daniel Christian

On 07/06/2012, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, multi-touch, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, social learning / networks, strategy, technologies for your home, telepresence, transmedia, TVs, user experience (UX), virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

 

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

 

 

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Higher ed tech: Where K-12 & Consumer Collide [Catalano; Intrinsic Strategy]

On 07/05/2012, in 21st century, analytics, Bring your own device (BYOD), data related items, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, expectations, future, higher education, innovation, K-12 related, reinvent, staying relevant, student-related, tablets, by Daniel Christian

Higher Ed Tech" Where K-12 & Consumer Collide - Frank Catalano - March 2012

 

Excerpt:

What’s our agenda? It’s basically in three parts:

  1. What student expectations are
  2. Where innovation is coming from and what’s driving it
  3. And what it’s developing into over the next three years – in 5 transcendent trends that span K-20

 

Also see:

When Technologies Collide: Consumer, K-12 and Higher Ed -- by Frank Catalano -- April 2012

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“Learning from the living room” — Part I [Christian]

On 06/29/2012, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business side of he, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communities of practice, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, learner profiles, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, second screen apps, social learning / networks, staying relevant, strategy, streams of content, tablets, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, transmedia, trends, TVs, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Learning from the living room -- a component of our future learning ecosystems -- by Daniel S. Christian, June 2012

 

 

Legal size PDF here

 

 

Addendum on 7/3/12 from an article I wrote for EvoLLLution.com (for LifeLong Learning):
Establishing better collaboration between the corporate world and higher education [Christian]

In the near future, perhaps we could have second screen-based activities whereby corporate leaders are giving TED-like presentations or expressing the current issues in their worlds via a program on Smart TVs, and the students are communicating and collaborating about these presentations via tablets or smart phones.  Perhaps there will be electronic means whereby students could submit their ideas and feedback to the presenting companies (and whereby selected ideas could be rewarded in terms of free products or services that the company produces).

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New lab aims to create, study educational games [Sherr]

On 06/28/2012, in educational games / serious games, by Daniel Christian

New lab aims to create, study educational games — from the Wall Street Journal by Ian Sherr

Excerpt:

A new videogame design lab is coming to Silicon Valley, but its goals are different from the studios that cook up the next “Battlefield” war simulation shooter or “World of Warcraft” multiplayer fantasy game. This one is focused on helping students learn.

Electronic Arts is going to be home for a new project called the Games, Learning and Assessment, or GLASS, Lab. The effort is funded in large part by $10.3 million in grants from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The project will have two primary goals: building next-generation educational games, and creating tools to take existing games, potentially such as EA’s upcoming “SimCity,” and measure what students learn from them.

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