March 11, 2005
Clark Aldrich: Podcast on Simulations
IT Conversations: Clark Aldrich - Simulations and the Future of Learning
My commute home yesterday was filled by a 50-minute conversation by Clark Aldrich at Accelerating Change 2004. The mp3 file can be found at the link above.
I found his presentation to be grounded and realistic about the future of games and simulations. One notable comment was that the more motivated (internally or externally) someone is to learn content, the fewer gaming elements are needed to keep them engaged. This is an important point when considering how motivating a game can be in training.
In fact, I believe games can be de-motivating if someone already has a desire to learn the content and a high degree of expertise in the area (think of Dale's Cone of Experience here).
Another excellent point is that Games like the Virtual Leader Sim created by Clark's company, SimuLearn, present challenges because they represent a new genre in the simulation space. Having "played" Virtual Leader to evaluate it, I clearly understand the complexity and the challenges with building these types of interventions. Despite the quality of such simulations, I think it is important to appropriately set expectations for the learner. One selling point I have heard from vendors is that we must compete with what the gaming generation is used to seeing. This is a mistake. One great aspect to Virtual Leader makes no pretension that it is on the level of an entertainment game with a $50 million dollar budget. Animations in the VL sim are good but nowhere near something like what you might see in The Sims or some other commercial title. For someone looking to learn the content without such expectations, this should not be an issue and it is a notable difference in creating a new genre.
A good-quality audio file that is worth a listen if you have an interest in the area of using games and simulations for learning to improve performance.
Posted by Rovy at March 11, 2005 4:46 AM