Thursday, January 19, 2006

Massive multiplayer games and learning


Mind blowing opportunites for Learning 2.0 in games like Second Life. These are simulated worlds where you create your own avatars and environments. Could this be an opportunity for affordable online multiplayer simulations? There's already loads of courses being run in second Life, along with a training environment for medics in emergency management. Businesses abound showing that business sims. There's even a market in the virtual currecy. 'Linden dollars' trade higher than the Yen!

http://secondlife.com/

2 comments:

Clive Shepherd said...

Is there any serious action in terms of online multiplayer games for training (as opposed to education or informal learning)? If so, who's developing and who's using? I'm not hearing of anything, yet I'm sure there's real potential here.

Donald Clark said...

Lots emerging:

1. Aspergers/autism trial that gets sufferers used to social contact.

2. Military applications simulating Iraq searches and road blocks - very sophisticated - I saw this at IITSEC in Florida a couple of months ago.

3. Finance training - budgetting by a major bank.

4. Bioterrorist simulation - anthrax attack and others planned.

These are only a few of very many applications emerging.