METAGAME

June 2014

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Hello Everyone! Welcome to the June 2014 Metagame edition of VEJ. In just a few days we

will be joining our colleagues and friends at ISTE2014. The theme for this year’s Virtual Environment Network’s (VEN – formally ISTE SIGVE) Playground in Atlanta, is also Metagame. In both the VEN Playground and this issue of VEJ we hope to help answer the questions about why so many of our students can’t stop playing Minecraft? What keeps players so actively engaged in games such as World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, and Class of Clans? What is a Metagame? What makes it so enticing? So engaging? So addicting? Why can’t we stop playing?

Could it have something to do with the fact that Metagame play most often happens in an online virtual collegial learning community? Does it have something to do with the fact that the learning goals traverse beyond the game world and extend to multiple platforms including YouTube, blogs, wikis, twitter, guild sites, Google hangouts, and other creative entities? Is the value in the play less about the win and more about the challenge of the game itself? And what is it about those Fiero Moments that keeps players willing to do whatever it takes to level-up?

As trailblazing educators are discovering through their explorations with gaming, these inworld, immersive, online, collaborative learning experiences are easily aligned to the Common Core State Standards and the Cognitive Rigor Mattrix, including Webb’s Depth Of Knowledge. The metagame affords players of all ages the ability to think, innovate, strategize, and evaluate their play (aka learning) at deeper, higher levels. Could it be that we are finally onto something that has the potential to revolutionize the way we teach and learn? Is it possible that Metagames could be the catalyst for the 21st Century Reformation of the 19th Century Common Schools?

How exciting to think that finally there is credibility for elementary students to demonstrate their acquired computational thinking and problem-solving skills through collaborative project-based learning assessments by building lego-like structures in Minecraft. And what about high school students in WoW dealing with probability and statistical analysis as they solve highly engaging tactical problems? It is already starting to happen. Students of all ages are creating tutorials, videos, worlds, and even online civilizations. They are engaging with peers using a private school server or using Skype and other VOIP to collaborate internationally. Either way, through their use of metagames they are thinking about their thinking and evaluating their own play/learning, all the while gaining digital citizenship skills on their way to becoming global citizens.

Remember the words to the folk song, “Where have all the children gone?” Teachers around the world know that it is becoming more and more difficult to motivate students to learn as the gap grows further distant between what they do in school to learn and how they learn outside of school. Students today are learning what they need to know to succeed in the second half of the 21st Century with their peers, faraway from the brick and mortar walls we call school. . .

“When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?” Let this issue of VEJ serve as that wake-up call!

 Keep  Smiling  J  

            Roxie  Neiro    (SL)  Rosie  Vojtek  (RL)  

 Cover  Photo  and  “What  Is  Metagame”  on  page  3    by  Vasili  Giannoutsos,  aka  Bluebarker  Lowtide.  “What  Is  Metagame”  explains  the  cover  picture  and  defines  Metagame.    

In  This  Issue  • ISTE2014 VEN Sessions • Meta-guide Partnerships Between

Students via Oculus Rift and Second Life/Open Sim

• On Becoming A Guild: An Interview With Chris Luchs

• The Minecraft ABC Project • IOS (Apple) Virtual World Apps • Screenshots from World of Warcraft • Professional Education Connections in

Virtual Worlds • My Avatar & Me • Virtual Worlds for Education, FINALLY!

An Interview with Gordon Holden • The Inclusion of Disabled Players in

Virtual World Games: The World of Warcraft Model

• Minecraft and Beyond

ISTE2014  VEN  Highlights  • ISTE  EduMachinima  Fest  for  

Teachers  and  Students  • Metagame:  Virtual  Environments  

Playground  • This  Is  Not  a  Game!  Learning  with  

Alternate  Reality  Games  • Learner  Analytics  in  MMORPGs:  

Use  for  Curriculum  and  Instruction    

• METAGAME Book Club • The Recipe of Storytelling: Step 3 of 3 • The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to WoW:

An Educational Technology Site • Retro Raids: The Vintage WoW Experier • Inevitable. . . Raiding in World of

Warcraft • Guardians Of The Grid • Virtual Worlds Terminology

Coming  in  Next  VEJ  Issue  –  My  Avatar  and  Me  Part  II      

VEJ          Vol.  3  Issue  4  Virtual  Education  Journal  

June  2014  

To  Read  VEJ  online  visit:  http://www.virtualeducationjournal.com/  For  more  information  about  ISTE  SIGVE/VEN  or  to  join  the  fun,  visit:    http://sigve.iste.wikispaces.net/  Follow  us  on  Twitter  @VEJournal  or  #VEJournal              ©Vej  is  an  Edovation  Publication  

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    Saturday  3  –  5  pm  Communities  Networking  Fair  GWCC  Murphy  Ballroom  Galleria    Meet  &  Greet  and  Occulus  Rift      Sunday  11  am  -­‐  Noon  SIGOL  Learning    extravaganza  —  Blended,  online    and  flipped  learning!  GWCC  B206  Listen  and  Learn  :  Panel  5  minute  Ignite  Sessions  Look  for  VEN  Officers  &  Members  Representing!    530  –  615  EduMachinima  Fest    GWCC  A411  This  is  SIGVE’s  meetup  and  social  event  for  the  conference!    630  -­‐  730  pm  GWCC  A411  Social  &  Second  Life  with  Mobile  Learning  Network,  VSTE  SL  and  Games  &  Sims  Network  Coz  O’Kelley  as  DJ  in  Second  Life  WoW  Run  inworld  and  on  site    Monday  2  pm  –  530  pm  Virtual  Environments  Playground    GWCC  Building  B,  Level  2  (near  Room  B206)  

 

Not  To  Be  Missed!    

VEN  Sessions  @  ISTE  2014  

 http://goo.gl/hXXeUp  

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 Stations    1)  VEJ  (Virtual  Education  Journal)  and  Occulus  Rift  2)  Second  Life  and  OpenSim  245-­‐3)  Minecraft  4)  Coding  and  Haikitzu  5)  World  of  Warcraft  6)  Metagame      Presentations  205  pm  -­‐  215  pm  VEJ  and  Occulus  Rift  with  Rosie  and  Bob  Vojtek  220  pm  -­‐  240  pm  The  Heir  of  the  King,  an  OpenSim  Adventure  with  Andrew  Wheelock  245  pm  -­‐  305  pm  Coding  Club  with  Trish  Cloud  305  pm  -­‐  320  pm  3D  Gamelab  DEMO  325  pm  -­‐  345  pm  Scott  and  Andy  Future  of  VEN  and  Speaker  Series  350  pm  -­‐  410  pm  Look  Back  at  the  Minecraft  After  School  Club  with  Trish  Cloud  415  pm  -­‐  425  pm  #metagame  book  club  with  Vasili  Giannoutsos  430  pm  -­‐  500  pm  Inevitable  Betrayal  Guild  with  Chris  Luchs  505  pm  -­‐  530  pm  Virtual  Environment  Playground  Pecha  Kucha  -­‐  Pecha  Kucha  20  x  20  slides      515  –  6:30  pm  Birds  of  a  Feather  Meeting  GWCC  Building  B,  Level  2  (near  Room  B206)  Just  stay  at  the  SIGVE  Playground  Session  Topic:  Virtual  Environments  Journal  (VEJ)  Awards  -­‐  We’ll  be  Nominating!!!!!  We’ll  be  meeting  up  with  the  Games  &  Simulation  Network  to  talk  awards!  Here’s  the  categories  from  last  year  http://bit.ly/2013vejcatgories    Tuesday  9  -­‐  10  am  VEJ  Planning  Meeting  PLN  Lounge  in  Building  B,  Level  3  (across  from  room  B313)      Be  sure  to  read  the  articles  in  the  special  ISTE2014  section  of  this  issue  of  VEJ  for  more  information  about  what  to  see  when  you  are  in  Atlanta  6/28-­‐  7/1.      

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Meta-­‐guide  Partnerships  Between  Students  via  Oculus  Rift  and    

Second  Life/OpenSim    

By  Fleet  Goldenberg  of  Sambiglyon  (http://www.sambiglyon.org)  

 INTRODUCTION    What  is  'meta'?    It  is  a  term  that  is  used  in  everyday  language,  usually  with  a  second  word  attached  to  the  end  of  it  to  give  it  a  specific  context  (metaphysics,  metahuman,  metaverse,  etc.)    But  few  people  really  know  what  it  means.    

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The  best  way  to  comprehend  a  difficult  concept  is  often  to  return  to  its  origins,  before  layers  of  complexity  were  added  over  time.    'Meta'  is  an  ancient  Greek  word  that  can  mean  a  variety  of  things,  including  After,  Among,  Beyond,  and  Beside.        Once  we  understand  these  meanings  then  meta-­‐buzzwords  make  more  sense.    'Metaphysics'  refers  to  physics  theories  that  are  Beyond  current  scientific  proof.    'Metahuman'  is  a  human  who  has  gone  Beyond  –  the  traditional  limits  of  humans  (super-­‐heroes  and  super-­‐villains  often  being  described  in  fiction  as  meta-­‐humans.)        The  'Metaverse'  –  a  description  often  applied  to  virtual  reality  worlds  –  could  also  be  said  to  be  Beyond  the  real  world,  because  it  enables  humans  to  think  and  act  in  ways  that  are  currently  impractical  or  near-­‐impossible  (nothing  is  completely  impossible,  given  enough  time  and  the  will  to  solve  it!)    Virtuality  is  also  Beside  the  real  world  though:  connected  to  it  as  a  parallel  environment,  but  not  quite  integrated  with  it  –  yet.    This  brings  us  to  the  subject  of  'Metagaming.'    Is  it  After,  Among,  Beyond  or  Beside?    Metagaming  is  often  spoken  about  as  a  means  of  influencing  a  game  from  outside  of  it  in  order  to  change  how  it  is  played.        An  example  is  using  knowledge  in  a  gaming  guide-­‐book  to  arm  oneself  with  knowledge  about  a  particular  game  that  they  would  not  normally  learn  until  they  had  progressed  deep  into  the  game  so  that  they  can  play  that  game  from  the  beginning  with  advanced  strategies  and  fore-­‐knowledge  (“spoilers”)  of  what  is  to  come.    Such  guides  could  be  said  to  take  the  player  Beyond  the  game,  as  it  helps  them  to  bend  or  break  the  rules  in  a  way  that  the  designer  may  not  have  intended  to  be  possible  in  the  early  stages.    There  is  also  an  element  of  being  Beside  the  game,  because  the  disruption  of  the  usual  progression  of  the  play-­‐experience  means  that  the  player  has  walked  off  the  path  that  was  originally  set  out  for  them  and  is  on  a  parallel  experience  to  that  of  other  players.        Players  who  modify,  or  “mod,”  the  data  files  of  their  game  to  change  its  rules  and/or  environment  are  on  a  similar  parallel  path,  because  they  

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are  playing  in  a  different  way  to  those  who  have  not  changed  their  game  and  thus  having  a  different  experience.    Guide-­‐books  are  history,  however.    Virtual  Reality  and  Augmented  Reality  wearable  technologies  such  as  Oculus  Rift,  Morpheus,  CastAR  and  Google  Glass  now  offer  the  opportunity  to  transcend  the  limitations  of  guides  presented  in  traditional  media  formats,  especially  when  combined  with  other  forms  of  tech  (motion  control,  multi-­‐directional  walking  treadmills,  etc),  including  work  and  play  with  other  people  using  the  same  equipment  who  are  in  the  same  room  or  on  the  other  side  of  the  world.    And  in  VR/AR  environments  that  support  User  Generated  Content  –  the  ability  to  create  and  add  your  own  objects  or  media  to  that  environment  –  the  benefits  of  modding  become  available  to  all  users  without  the  associated  complexities  that  previously  acted  as  a  discouraging  barrier.        So  if  you  partner  together  in  a  mutually  dependent  training  relationship  a  student  on  a  computer  who  can  intuitively  access  and  analyse  a  wealth  of  live  data  on  a  huge  range  of  subjects  via  a  simple  browser-­‐based  interface  and  a  student  who  is  wearing  an  Oculus  head-­‐set,  then  additionally  mix  in  metagaming  principles,  what  do  you  get?    Meta-­‐guiding!    THE  HISTORY  AND  FUTURE  OF  META-­‐GUIDING    The  concept  of  using  virtual  reality  technology  to  overlay  a  visible  human  guide-­‐avatar  onto  the  real  world  to  assist  a  partner  is  not  entirely  new.    The  US  television  series  'Quantum  Leap'  (1989-­‐1993),  starring  Scott  Bakula  and  Dean  Stockwell,  featured  a  time-­‐traveler  called  Sam  Beckett  (Bakula)  who  was  assisted  in  surviving  perilous  scenarios  by  a  holographic  representation  of  his  friend  Al  Calavicci  (Stockwell).    Al's  real  body  was  inside  a  holo-­‐chamber  in  the  present  day  that  projected  his  voice  and  likeness  through  time  to  Beckett's  current  location  in  history.    Al  read  information  about  the  time  period  and  individuals  living  in  it  from  a  frequently-­‐malfunctioning  portable  device  

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that  he  held  in  the  holo-­‐chamber  and  was  replicated  in  the  hands  of  his  avatar  self.    

 'Quantum  Leap'    ©  Belisarius  Productions  and  Universal  Television      Another  example  in  television  fiction  of  a  partnership  that  broke  the  everyday  limitations  of  the  real  world  was  'Street  Hawk'  (effectively  'Knight  Rider'  on  a  motorcycle),  which  lasted  for  a  single  season  in  1985.    Retired  motorcycle  cop  Jesse  Mach  uses  a  super-­‐powered  bike  codenamed  Street  Hawk  to  solve  a  “crime  of  the  week.”    Mach  was  assisted  by  federal  agent  Norman  Tuttle  in  a  control  center,  providing  real-­‐time  advice  and  information  updates  to  Mach  and  using  the  center's  computers  to  take  control  of  the  bike  remotely  during  its  

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300  mph  high-­‐velocity  'Hyperthrust  Mode',  which  would  be  uncontrollable  for  a  human  rider.    Slightly  prior  to  the  debut  of  'Quantum  Leap',  meanwhile,  the  UK-­‐based  Broadsword  Productions  television  company  produced  a  TV  virtual  reality  game-­‐show  for  teens  called  'Knightmare'  (1987-­‐1994)  that  took  a  different  twist  on  the  guide-­‐and-­‐guided  theme.        One  of  the  four  contestants,  known  as  the  Dungeoneer,  wore  a  helmet  that  obscured  their  vision  –  except  for  what  was  directly  beneath  them  -­‐  but  not  their  hearing.    The  room  contained  some  physical  objects  such  as  furniture  and  equipment  and  sometimes  an  actor  in  costume  but  was  otherwise  bare.        The  other  three  contestants,  in  another  room,  watched  a  mixed-­‐reality  image  on  a  screen  that  combined  together  the  Dungeoneer,  actors,  physical  objects  and  digital  paintings  of  rooms  in  a  fantasy  dungeon  to  act  as  the  background  for  the  living  participants.          

 'Knightmare'    ©  Broadsword  Productions  and  ITV  Studios  

 

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The  role  of  the  three  advisers  was  to  provide  verbal  instructions  to  the  Dungeoneer  about  the  contents  of  each  room  and  how  to  negotiate  the  puzzles  and  deadly  dangers  of  the  dungeon  rooms  that  they  could  see  but  the  helmeted  Dungeoneer  could  not.        These  instructions  often  took  the  form  of  simple  movement  commands  such  as  “Take  two  small  steps  to  the  right”,  “Do  a  small  jump  forward  and  turn  left”  or  “Look  down  at  the  table  and  pick  up  the  goblet.”    The  helmeted  contestant  being  guided  needed  to  have  absolute  trust  in  his  partners  and  follow  their  instructions  to  the  letter  to  stand  a  chance  of  survival,  and  they  in  turn  needed  to  provide  quick,  clear  and  correct  information  for  the  Dungeoneer  to  act  upon      There  are  numerous  examples  of  full  episodes  of  the  show  available  for  viewing  on  YouTube,  findable  by  simply  searching  for  “knightmare.”    Not  being  able  to  see  where  you  are  and  where  you  are  going  is  an  excellent  exercise  in  trust-­‐building  but  not  very  practical  in  education  for  much  else.    The  ideal  for  us  would  be  to  use  the  VR/AR  technologies  we  have  available  to  us  today  to  combine  the  “sat  at  an  internet-­‐connected  computer”  distance  advising  of  'Knightmare'  with  the  visible,  audible  life-­‐size  avatar  projection  from  'Quantum  Leap'  that  is  overlaid  on  the  real  world  beside  a  living  human  partner  wearing  a  head-­‐set.        Fortunately,  this  goal  is  in  fact  very  achievable  and  very  affordable!        GREAT  FREEDOM  AT  LITTLE  COST    The  non-­‐profit  educational  company  Sambiglyon  (www.sambiglyon.org),  of  which  this  author  is  a  co-­‐founder,  has  designed  and  constructed  a  mixed-­‐reality  live  video  setup  for  Windows  7  and  8  PCs  (Mac  version  hopefully  coming  at  a  future  point)  that  combines  an  everyday  computer  and  webcam  with  the  hugely  popular  live  web  video  service  Twitch.    It  provides  the  ability  to  extract  avatars,  objects  and  other  digital  content  from  virtual  reality  worlds  such  as  Second  Life  and  OpenSim  as  cut-­‐outs,  via  a  graphics  technique  known  as  chroma-­‐keying,  or  “green-­‐

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screen”,  and  overlay  them  seamlessly  on  live  video  footage  of  the  real  world  as  though  they  were  a  PNG  image.    The  combined  video  output  can  be  seen  via  a  live-­‐updating  Twitch  channel  page  viewed  with  an  Oculus  Rift  headset  or  on  a  web-­‐browser  page,  and  even  recorded  as  a  permanent  FLV  or  MP4  video  file.        Best  of  all,  aside  from  the  cost  of  a  tablet  and  an  Oculus  Rift  headset  (and  even  the  headset  is  optional  with  this  mixed-­‐reality  system  depending  on  how  schools  plan  to  utilize  it),  the  grand  total  price  of  setting  up  your  own  version  is  zero.    The  two  online  services  that  provide  the  technology  to  make  it  function  -­‐  Twitch  and  XSplit  -­‐  are  free  and  without  time  limit.    It  is  said  that  seeing  is  believing.    So  here  as  proof  is  just  one  example  of  the  kind  of  end  result  that  can  be  achieved,  showing  the  live-­‐video  output  of  a  Second  Life  avatar  merged  with  a  real-­‐world  car  park  on  a  Twitch  channel  page.    

               OVERLAY  OF  AN  AVATAR  ONTO  A  RL  CAR  PARK                  

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Sambiglyon  has  produced  a  fully  illustrated,  comprehensively  detailed  step  by  step  guide  for  how  to  construct,  configure  and  use  the  mixed  reality  system.    It  can  be  downloaded  for  free  from  www.virtualeducationjournal.com  .    WHAT  YOU  NEED    Below  is  a  full  list  of  what  is  required  for  this  project:    -­‐    A  PC  desktop  or  laptop  for  a  student  in  the  role  of  an  “adviser”  who  will  control  the  media  that  is  being  created  and  mixed  together.    -­‐  An  Android  tablet  for  the  Oculus  headset  wearer  to  carry  that  will  be  attached  to  the  Oculus  Rift  via  an  HDMI  cable  and  connected  to  the  internet  via  wi-­‐fi  in  order  to  receive  the  merged  mixed-­‐reality  video  from  the  Twitch  video  streaming  account.    -­‐    A  USB  webcam  or  a  digital  camera  for  the  adviser's  PC  that  is  capable  of  recording  live  video.    A  built-­‐in  webcam  in  a  laptop  may  perform  the  same  function.    The  camera  should  be  pointed  at  whatever  scene  in  real  life  that  the  adviser  wants  to  be  mixed  in  with  the  virtual  media.    -­‐    Optional:  a  second  screen  to  display  a  copy  of  the  final  merged  video  feed  for  the  adviser  controlling  the  avatar  in  Second  Life/OpenSim  (this  video  could  not  be  shown  on  the  adviser's  main  display,  as  that  is  the  one  being  video-­‐captured  to  provide  the  virtual  reality  image  extracts).    -­‐  An  Oculus  Rift  virtual  reality  headset  (currently  $350  USD  for  the  Development  Kit,  but  projected  to  be  priced  lower  when  the  consumer  version  becomes  available.)    Find  out  more  at  http://www.oculusvr.com    The  headset  is  not  vital  for  this  project  to  function,  as  the  merged  mixed-­‐reality  virtual  and  real-­‐life  video  on  the  Twich  web  channel  can  be  viewed  on  a  normal  computer  display  or  even  a  smartphone/tablet  screen.      It  is  however  vital  for  providing  the  complete  user  immersion  that  a  virtual-­‐reality  meta-­‐gaming  activity  requires.    -­‐    Second  Life  or  OpenSim  viewer  software  (FREE).    It  does  not  have  to  be  special  Oculus  Rift  versions  of  the  viewers  (OculusRift  Channel  for  SL  

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or  CtrlAltStudio  for  SL  /  OpenSim).    This  is  because  the  student  controlling  the  virtual  environment  –  who  is  partnered  with  the  Rift  wearer  -­‐  will  not  be  wearing  the  Oculus  headset  but  will  instead  be  focused  on  generating  the  avatar  actions,  object  manipulations  and  activities  that  will  be  combined  in  real-­‐time  with  the  real-­‐life  camera  footage  to  create  what  the  Rift  wearer  is  seeing  on  its  internal  display.    -­‐    A  Twitch  web  video  streaming  account  (FREE).    Sign  up  at  http://www.twitch.tv    -­‐    An  account  with  Twitch's  recommended  PC  video  editing  software,  'XSplit  Broadcaster'  for  Windows  7  and  8  (FREE).    Download  the  software  and  register  an  account  at  http://www.xsplit.com    This  system  may  be  able  to  be  used  with  Mac  computers  if  one  can  find  Mac  video  editing  software  that  offers  similar  “green-­‐screen”  (chromakey)  features  to  that  of  XSplit  Broadcaster  and  will  work  with  Twitch.        For  the  purposes  of  this  guide,  we  use  XSplit  on  PC  because  it  is  very  simple  to  use  and  proven  to  work,  and  the  author  does  not  have  a  Mac  to  test  alternative  OSX-­‐based  software  packages  such  as  Camtasia  for  Mac  (http://www.techsmith.com).    We  encourage  Mac  owners  to  experiment  with  their  own  setup  and  share  their  findings  with  the  educational  community.    CONCLUSION    The  mixed  reality  system  in  this  article  is  the  very  definition  of  meta-­‐gaming:  the  information  inputs  provided  by  members  of  a  class  to  the  student  currently  wearing  the  Rift  headset  guide  that  wearer's  interactions  with  the  headset  and  the  VR-­‐RL  combo  environment  being  viewed  within  it  in  a  way  that  the  designers  of  the  virtual  component  of  that  mixed  environment  may  never  have  foreseen.        It  provides  a  core  framework  that  can  be  endlessly  expanded  upon  by  the  addition  of  further  software  and  hardware,  using  existing  school  resources  in  new  and  fantastic  ways.    Anything  that  can  be  image-­‐captured  with  a  cam  or  displayed  on  a  computer  screen  (including  the  

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user  interface  for  web-­‐connected  'Internet  of  Things'  equipment  such  as  consumer  robotics,  3D  printers,  etc)  can  be  harnessed  in  a  way  that  bridges  our  world  with  the  digital  one  so  long  as  there  is  a  plain-­‐colored  background  somewhere  on  the  real  or  virtual  scenery  that  can  be  cut  out  with  chromakeying.    Up  until  this  point,  there  has  been  a  clear  distinction  between  Virtual  Reality  (complete  immersion  in  a  digital  world)  and  Augmented  Reality  (the  overlaying  of  digital  content  on  the  real  world).    With  the  mixed  reality  system,  the  benefits  of  user-­‐created  content  platforms  such  as  Second  Life  and  OpenSim  that  were  previously  confined  to  those  environments  can  now  be  applied  to  the  real  world  to  build  and  use  virtual  content  in  real-­‐time.        In  short,  every  teacher  can  become  a  player!    

 Real  Life  and  Fiction  Meet

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IB  Guildees  pose  in  front  of  Immersius  after  successfully  defeating  this  monster  of  the  deep.  

   

This  interview  is  with  Chris  Luchs,  Associate  Dean  for  Career  Technical  Education  at  CCCOnline  for  the  Colorado  Community  College  System.  The  division  he  oversees  includes  Business,  Accounting,  Education,  

On  Becoming  A  Guild:    An  Interview  With    

Chris  Luchs  By  Grid  Jumper  (SL),    Tanya  Martin  (RL)  

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Early  Childhood  Education,  Computer  Science  and  Multimedia  Graphic  Design.    He  is  also  the  guild  master  and  Raider  leader  for  a  progressive  educators’  guild  in  World  of  Warcraft  that  also  delves  into  Minecraft,  Second  Life  and  does  excursions  into  other  Massively  Multi-­‐player  Online  Games  known  as  MMORPGs  or  MMOs.    Grid  Jumper:  The  theme  is  of  this  issue  of  VEJ  is  the  Metagame.  So  as  a  guild  master  how  would  you  define  the  metagame?    Chris  Luchs:  For  me,  the  metagame  includes  all  the  resources  and  user-­‐generated  content  that  exists  outside  of  the  game  and  official  game  website.  This  would  include  game  guides,  theory  crafting,  Auction  House  (virtual  economy)  tools,  addons,  fan  sites,  strategy  forums,  and  gamed  focused  databases  sites  (like  wowhead  http://www.wowhead.com/  ).  And  of  course  all  of  the  Machinima  or  videos  of  gameplay  and  tutorials.    

 Guild  Raiders  contemplate  the  take  down  of  Thok.  

   

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Grid  Jumper:  What  is  a  gaming  guild?    Chris  Luchs:  It  is  a  collaborative  group  of  players  (all  volunteers)  that  work  towards  a  common  goal  within  a  game  environment.  However,  this  does  not  mean  they  are  only  interested  in  gameplay.  There  are  banking  guilds  (guilds  that  focus  on  the  business  within  the  game),  Player  v.  Player  guilds  (guilds  that  focus  just  on  competing  against  other  players),  Role-­‐play  guilds  (guilds  that  focus  on  creating  a  more  in-­‐depth  backstory  and  narrative  for  their  character),  and  many  more.      Grid  Jumper:  You  have  many  educators  in  your  guild,  do  you  consider  your  guild  a  guild  of  educators,  an  educational  guild,  or  is  there  a  difference?      How  does  your  guild  differ  from  other  guilds?    Chris  Luchs:  I  should  start  with  we  are  gamers.  While  we  have  researchers  in  the  guild,  we  are  not  in  the  game  to  take  the  role  of  a  participant  observer  or  outsider.  We  are  gamers  and  we  play  endgame.  We  don’t  have  graduate  assistants  or  our  students  guiding  us  through  content.  We  are  not  in  the  game  to  take  a  look  around  and  then  bounce  to  the  newest  edtech  trend.    Chris  Luchs:  Since  we  play  endgame  content  our  focus  is  the  learning  and  collaboration  happening  there.  John  Seely  Brown  made  a  video  a  few  years  ago  entitled,  “Why  I  Would  Rather  Hire  a  High  End  Raider  than  a  Harvard  MBA.”    Here’s  the  link  to  the  video  and  article  (http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/01/03/researcher-­‐would-­‐rather-­‐hire-­‐wow-­‐players-­‐than-­‐harvard-­‐mbas/  ).      Grid  Jumper:  What  a  powerful  video!      Chris  Luchs:    We  like  wicked  problems  and  having  a  massive  amount  of  options  to  solve  the  problem  and,  yes,  most  of  the  time,  the  problem  is  how  do  we  slay  the  monster?  Along  with  being  gamers,  Inevitable  Betrayal  is  a  group  of  collaborators  that  create  educational  content.  

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Chris  Luchs:  Many  of  our  members  are  teachers,  instructors,  administrators,  coaches,  and  technologists.  We  are  a  mix  of  job  titles,  backgrounds,  and  areas  of  interest.    Yet,  we  all  work  and  play  together  to  create  instructional  content  related  to  endgame  Raiding,  player  and  team  performance  optimization,  and  exploration  guides  for  new  expansions.      Chris  Luchs:  I  think  what  sets  us  apart  from  other  guilds  is  that  World  of  Warcraft  isn’t  our  third  place.  It’s  not  our  equivalent  of  Cheers,  “where  everyone  knows  your  name.”  The  guild  is  our  online  home  base  of  operation  for  a  group  of  educators  committed  to  online  and  game  based  learning  advocacy.  There  are  lots  of  teachers  in  WoW  and  other  MMORPGs  who  play  but  don’t  talk  about  what  they  have  learned  as  gamers  or  bring  it  into  their  classroom.  Conversely  there  are  educators  and  researchers  who  may  be  writing  about  or  using  aspects  of  games  but  who  know  very  little  about  the  deeper  learning  that  is  happening  in  games.  We  have  a  guild  of  educators  who  are  presenting,  writing,  and  blogging  about  deeper  learning  at  endgame.  We’ve  been  finalists  in  the  EduBlog  Awards.  We’ve  done  everything  from  organizing  tours  of  Raids  for  conferences  to  3  endgame  specific  questlines  with  3D  Gamelab  to  holding  tweetchats.  This  summer  we’re  also  running  a  summer  book  club  focusing  on  showing  the  gameplay  written  about  in  the  book,  For  The  Win,  by  Cory  Doctorow.  [See  #Metagame  Book  Club  article  in  this  issue  of  VEJ.]    Grid  Jumper:  How  did  this  guild  start?        Chris  Luchs:  Initially,  this  was  developed  for  a  Global  Goblin  Run  collaboration  with  a  group  of  Australian  educators  led  by  Jo  Kay  and  known  as  the  Jokaydians.  We  also  organized  a  WoW  tour  for  attendees  of  the  Virtual  World  Best  Practice  in  Education  conference.  In  World  of  Warcraft,  there  are  two  factions.  They  are  called  the  Alliance  and  the  Horde.  There  are  other  educator  guilds  but  they  are  Alliance.  Inevitable  

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Betrayal  was  created  to  have  a  Horde  guild  to  try  out  the  new  character  choice  that  had  been  introduced,  which  was  the  goblin.    Then  Kae  Novak  used  the  guild  as  a  learning  space  for  the  Games  MOOC  in  2012  and  2013.  The  educators  from  the  Games  MOOC  seemed  to  like  it  enough  to  stay.      Grid  Jumper:  What  was  the  vision  for  the  guild  and  has  that  changed?    Chris  Luchs:  Our  guild  vision  has  changed.  We  still  do  provide  tours  for  educators  and  researchers  who  want  to  look  at  a  guild  in  a  MMORPG  but  that  is  not  our  primary  focus.  We  are  currently  focused  on  the  constant  learning  that  happens  at  the  endgame  content  both  in  10  player  and  most  recently  25  player  Raids.  One  of  our  members,  Dr.  Lee  Ann  Tylessing,  seemed  to  have  nailed  it  for  us  a  few  months  ago  when  she  asked  us  to  participate  in  a  presentation  and  gave  our  portion,  the  title,  “Advanced  Research  Skills  and  Strategies  in  the  Metagame.”  Here’s  the  preview  Google  Hangout  we  did  during  that  presentation.  (http://youtu.be/q_DMs1sKwU0  )    Grid  Jumper:  What’s  up  with  the  name?    Chris  Luchs:  LOL!  Yes,  I  guess  Inevitable  Betrayal  might  sound  a  bit  weird  to  some.  For  us,  a  lot  of  the  founding  members  were  big  Firefly  fans.  There  is  an  opening  scene  in  the  Firefly  series,  with  the  phrase,  “Curse  your  sudden  but  inevitable  betrayal.”  You  can  see  the  clip  at  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znxFrgql5dc.  We  also  have  a  small  Minecraft  server  outpost  called  “This  Land.”    Grid  Jumper:  How  is  your  guild  organized?    Can  you  describe  the  structure  and  hierarchy  if  there  is  one?        Chris  Luchs:  We  have  a  guild  master  and  a  co-­‐guild  master  to  handle  most  of  the  administrative  parts  of  the  guild  like  setting  ranks,  

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managing  the  bank,  and  providing  the  vision  and  direction  of  the  guild.  We  also  have  three  officers  that  help  out  with  recruitment,  interviewing  new  applicants,  mentoring  new  guildees,  and  approving  bylaws  and  other  governance  issues.  Our  officers  include  Kae  Novak,  Joseph  Doan,  Jerry  Buchko  and,  of  course  Tanya  Martin.  Then  we  have  a  few  members  that  take  leadership  roles  in  areas  of  interest  like  Retro  Raiding,  fishing,  crafting,  etc.      Grid  Jumper:  How  does  that  relate  to  the  Metagame?    Chris  Luchs:  A  lot  of  the  non-­‐guild  administration  pieces  relate  to  the  metagame.  The  Raiders,  both  progressive  and  Retro,  rely  heavily  on  the  metagame.  Our  crafters  use  and  recommend  resources  for  others  that  are  looking  to  chose  a  profession,  how  to  level  it  the  fastest,  what  to  sell/buy  things,  etc.  So  there  is  a  lot  of  sharing  of  preferred  sites  and  knowledge.  As  far  as  how  we  as  guild  contribute  to  the  Metagame,  it  would  be  through  our  Google  +  Community    http://bit.ly/ibgooglecommunity,  and  our  Flickr  Community  -­‐  Inevitable  Betrayal.    We  have  over  1000  screenshots  https://www.flickr.com/groups/inevitable/  and  we  continually  do  livestreams  and  make  recordings.    Grid  Jumper:  Have  your  guild  members  always  played  games?      Chris  Luchs:  I’d  say  that  about  half  our  members  have  always  played  video  or  computer  games  since  they’ve  been  available  to  them.  The  other  half  are  new  to  MMORGPS  like  World  of  Warcraft  but  have  experience  in  sandbox  genre  games  like  Second  Life,  Sims,  and  Minecraft.      Grid  Jumper:  Is  your  guild  involved  with  only  one  game  or  does  it  participate  in  multiple  game  environments?      

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Chris  Luchs:  We  always  have  members  trying  out  new  games,  but  for  us,  World  of  Warcraft  seems  to  be  our  virtual  base  of  operations  and  hub  of  activities.  What  we’ve  been  doing  lately  is  having  our  members  do  a  hangout  introduction  to  their  new  game  of  choice  and  then  archiving  it  for  our  members  to  watch  and  explore  when  they  are  ready.      Grid  Jumper:  Are  there  expectations  of  the  people  in  the  guild?    And,  if  so  what  are  they?    Chris  Luchs:  Yes,  our  expectations  for  guildees  revolves  around  activity  in  and  outside  the  guild  and  adoption  of  the  collaborative  culture  in  our  guild.  You  can  read  more  about  it  at  (http://inevitablebetrayal.shivtr.com/pages/expectations  ).      

 IB  Guild  members  fish  on  Timeless  Isle  while  discussing  guild  business.  

 Chris  Luchs:  The  main  expectations  that  we  are  looking  for  in  guildees,  is  to  be  active  long  term,  attend/watch  and  comment  on  the  monthly  

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State  of  the  Guild,  actively  participate  in  one  educational  event  the  guild  hosts  each  month,  share  information  by  posting  to  the  Google+  Community  once  a  month,  and  wait  to  level  your  first  toon  to  90  until  we  can  organize  a  leveling  party.  So  we’re  not  a  guild  of  lurkers  or  soloists.    Chris  Luchs:  As  you  can  see,  there  are  expectations.  But,  we  feel  they  are  readily  achievable  and  really  contribute  to  the  guild  culture  and  community.    There  is  a  3  month  probation  period  and  an  application  interview  that  we  do  to  help  new  applicants  get  a  feel  for  the  guild  and  to  give  both  sides  time  to  determine  fit.      

   Grid  Jumper:  You  mentioned  a  monthly  state  of  a  guild,  can  you  tell  us  about  that?    Chris  Luchs:  Yes  we  do  hold  a  monthly  state  of  the  guild  meeting  where  we  discuss  our  progress  as  a  group,  celebrate  individual  achievements,  and  discuss  upcoming  guild  business  like  gold  generation  to  pay  for  

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repairs,  upcoming  events,  discussing  Raid  progression,  Retro  Raiding,  and  areas  where  guildees  need  help.      Chris  Luchs:  We  do  them  on  Google  Hangout  and  broadcast  them  on  the  gamesmooc  youtube  channel.  Our  guildees  form  a  Raid  and  we  go  fish  to  help  stock  up  the  bank  with  foods  while  we  all  talk  and  discuss  the  topics  of  the  day.  So  we  have  the  audio  and  video  feed  from  youtube  and  then  we  also  have  the  in  game  text  channel  as  the  backchannel  for  all  our  guildees  to  share  and  comment.      Grid  Jumper:  How  is  your  guild  involved  in  the  metagame?        Chris  Luchs  :  We  are  active  contributors  to  the  metagame.  We  have  developed  50+  tutorial  videos  for  various  classes,  specs,  quests,  and  how  to  do  things  in  game.  We  also  have  an  extremely  active  Google  +  Community  where  we  share  machinima,  resources  we’ve  found  and  discuss  tactics  and  strategies  for  being  successful  against  bosses.      

 Guidlees  take  positions  and  discuss  strategy  and  timing.    This  is  a  time  when  

information  from  the  metagame  is  shared  and  discussed.  

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 Grid  Jumper:  Can  you  explain  what  a  Raid  is?    Chris  Luchs:  Sure….  a  Raid  is  a  part  of  the  game  that  typically  happens  once  players  have  reached  max-­‐level  for  a  given  expansion.  You  spend  all  that  time  leveling  from  1  to  max-­‐level  and  Raiding  is  where  you  apply  all  that  you  have  learned.  Raiding  is  really  the  graduate  school  of  gaming.    The  Raid  is  actually  a  series  of  bosses  designed  to  challenge  experienced  players.  Bosses  are  the  big  bads  of  the  gaming  world  and  Raid  bosses  are  the  biggest  of  the  big  bads.    :D      So  players  will  fly  to  some  location  in  game  and  gather  and  then  run  into  the  Raid.  They  will  have  to  battle  trash,  which  are  less  powerful  monsters,  mini-­‐bosses,  and  then  finally  the  Raid  boss.  Typically  there  are  a  handful  of  bosses  in  each  Raid.      Chris  Luchs:  These  fights  are  typically  the  most  difficult  in  the  game  and  require  a  team  of  dedicated  players  to  figure  out  how  to  master  the  mechanics  and  defeat  each  boss.  The  entire  Raid  is  hard  and  where  players  will  find  the  hardest  fights  and  best  loot.  Some  bosses  will  require  100+  attempts  before  they  can  be  downed.      Chris  Luchs:  Each  player  has  to  be  individually  optimized  for  each  fight  and  the  entire  team  has  to  be  optimized  to  be  successful.  In  Inevitable  Betrayal,  we  do  a  lot  of  work  with  our  members  to  help  them  succeed  as  we  group  source  gearing  up  for  Raids.  Gearing  up  refers  to  things  like  helping  get  better  armor,  potions,  gems,  and  other  things  that  help  the  player  become  more  optimized  to  their  role  and  the  fight.      If  you’d  like  to  learn  more  about  Raiding  in  general,  the  Inevitable  Betrayal  officers  and  really  the  whole  guild,  were  involved  in  developing  and  teaching  the  “Ready  to  Raid”  questline  in  3D  Game  Lab  in  May  2013.  

 Raiding  is  really  the  graduate  school  of  gaming.

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You  can  take  a  look  at  the  outline  here.  http://inevitablebetrayal.shivtr.com/pages/readytoraid    Grid  Jumper:  Now  there  are  different  types  of  Raids,  right?    Chris  Luchs:  Yes,  first  there  are  different  levels  of  Raids.  Most  games  have  gone  through  multiple  expansions,  so  there  will  typically  be  Raids  at  each  of  these  expansion  levels.  So  in  World  of  Warcraft,  Raids  are  available  at  level  60,  70,  80,  85,  and  90.  So  there  are  differing  levels  of  challenge  as  players  can  go  into  any  of  the  lower  Raids  with  higher-­‐level  characters.  Sometimes  we  do  this  to  help  introduce  new  players  to  Raiding.      Chris  Luchs:  The  first  level  of  differentiation  is  based  on  the  maximum  number  of  players  allowed  in  the  Raid.  This  number  varies  between  10,  25,  and  40  players  for  World  of  Warcraft.  Next  are  Raid  Instances  v  World  Bosses.  The  Raid  Instances  are  limited  to  10  and  25  players  and  occur  in  a  separate  phase  of  the  game,  so  it  is  only  the  team  and  the  monsters.  World  Bosses  require  up  to  40+players,  and  occur  out  in  the  open  where  everyone  can  join  in.      Grid  Jumper:  Can  you  give  our  readers  an  example  of  what  you  are  talking  about?    Chris  Luchs:  An  example  is  Oondasta  in  WoW.  When  Ooondasta  first  came  out,  it  required  120+players  to  down  him.  So  that  is  120  random  players  that  all  decide  to  group  up  and  fight  this  big  T-­‐Rex.  After  a  few  server  crashes,  WoW  reduced  the  power  of  Oondasta  to  where  it  took  only  60  players  to  down  him.  After  a  few  more  crashes,  Oondasta  was  reduced  further  so  it  only  took  40  players  to  down  him.      

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 Oondasta  

 Chris  Luchs:  Then  there  are  Retro  Raids.  These  Raids  are  typically  players  that  really  enjoy  exploring  the  old  content.  World  of  Warcraft  has  some  beautiful  and  challenging  instances.  If  you  missed  them  the  first  time  around,  you  may  want  to  form  up  in  a  group  and  go  back  in  and  experience  them  again.  One  of  our  guildees,  Rebekah  Luminous  regularly  organizes  these  on  Friday  nights.  [See  article  by  Rebekah  Luminous  in  this  issue  of  VEJ  for  more  details.]    Chris  Luchs:  Lastly  is  what  I’ll  affectionately  call  “Smash  and  Grab”  Raids.  The  main  goal  of  these  Raids  is  to  get  achievements,  titles,  mounts,  and  cool  looking  gear  as  quickly  as  possible.  These  Raids  would  be  players  at  the  current  endgame  level  that  run  back  and  race  through  the  old  Raids.  There  is  not  much  challenge  until  they  get  close  to  max-­‐level.  For  example,  most  level  90  players  in  WoW  can  run  any  level  60  to  70  Raids  solo  and  be  very  successful.  However,  once  they  hit  level  80,  they  may  need  6+  players  to  be  successful  in  a  10-­‐player  Raid  and  10+  to  be  successful  in  a  25  player.  At  85,  they  may  need  8+players  for  a  10-­‐player  and  15+  for  a  25-­‐player.    

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 Grid  Jumper:  Can  you  tell  us  more  about  a  Retro  Raid?    Chris  Luchs:  As  I  mentioned  before,  Retro  Raids  typically  refer  to  going  back  to  older  Raid  content.  This  is  typically  done  either  because  the  group  really  liked  the  fight,  wants  some  piece  of  loot  (cool  looking  gear  or  mount)  that  is  dropped  from  the  old  Raid,  or  wants  to  earn  an  achievement.  Currently  in  WoW  there  is  a  big  culture  of  Retro  Raiding  for  mounts  and  for  gear  that  can  be  transmogged.  Transmogging  is  a  new  part  of  WoW  where  players  can  make  any  of  their  current  gear  look  like  another  in  game  piece.  There  are  limits,  the  player  must  have  the  desired  transmog  piece  in  their  baRs  or  banks,  and  the  pieces  must  be  similar  (plate  armor  can  be  transmogged  into  plate  armor).  This  new  feature  has  really  increased  the  interest  in  Retro  Raiding  as  players  are  constantly  trying  to  customize  the  look  of  their  character.  Retro  Raiding  also  seems  to  go  hand-­‐in-­‐hand  with  one  of  our  guild’s  roleplaying  activities.  Inevitable  Betrayal  does  organize  seasonal  fashion  shows  in  World  of  Warcraft.    If  your’re  really  curious  you  can  watch/listen  to  our  last  two  fashion  shows.  The  dialogue  and  fashion  description  may  be  better  than  the  video.  Both  of  these  fashion  shows  were  done  in  Retro  Raid  instances.  The  Spring  Fashion  show  was  in  the  Conservatory  of  Life  http://youtu.be/ZAGS_Na3znM  and  the  Fall  Fashion  show  was  in  the  Firelands  http://youtu.be/-­‐698q1uO3P0.  You  can  really  hear  in  these  videos  how  often  we  go  OOC  or  Out  of  Character.      Chris  Luchs:  The  Retro  Raiding  really  applies  to  any  Raid  where  players  are  running  old  content.  They  can  be  true  Retro  Raids  where  everyone  has  their  characters  at  the  level  when  the  old  content  was  meant  to  be  played.  They  can  endgame  level  characters  going  back  to  explore.  Or  they  can  be  smash  and  grabs  where  higher-­‐level  characters  stomp  their  way  through  the  dungeon,  ignore  mechanics,  and  exact  revenge  for  past  deaths.  Either  way,  it’s  still  a  lot  of  fun!    

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 Inevitable  Betrayer  Guildies  participate  in  a  chess  game  as  part  of  vintage  

content  during  a  Retro  Raid  experience.    Grid  Jumper:  What  is  an  “Inevitable  Instructor?”    Chris  Luchs:  Well  .  .  .  it  was  inevitable!  If  you  have  a  group  of  educators,  they  want  to  learn  and  then  they  want  to  teach  and  share  what  they  learn.  The  Inevitable  Betrayal  guild  members  started  to  make  guides  for  their  guildees,  exactly  what  you  would  expect  –  slides,  livestream  of  game  play,  written  tutorials,  videos  and  yes,  hands-­‐on  workshops  in  World  of  Warcraft.      Chris  Luchs:  So,  Inevitable  Instructors  are  really  that  group  of  collaborators  in  the  guild  that  creates  educational  content.  Many  of  our  members  are  educators,  instructors,  administrators,  coaches,  and  technologists.  We  are  a  mix  of  job  titles,  backgrounds,  and  areas  of  interest.    Yet,  we  all  work  and  play  together  to  create  instructional  content  related  to  endgame  raiding,  player  and  team  performance  optimization,  and  exploration  guides  for  new  expansions.  After  we  made  about  10  or  so  video  guides,  we  started  to  discuss  what  do  we  call  these  

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in  our  guild  chat.  Marianne  Malmstrom  said,  “Inevitable  Instructors,  of  course.”  Here’s  a  link  to  our  playlist.  http://bit.ly/inevitableinstructors    

 Google  Hangout  Screenshot  

 Grid  Jumper:  How  do  Inevitable  Instructors  use  hangouts  and  hangouts  on  air?    Chris  Luchs:  Constantly!  In  fact,  part  of  the  briefing  to  new  members  is  that  any  guild  activity  at  anytime  may  be  livestreamed  over  Google  Hangout.  Typically  if  we  have  10  players  or  less,  we’ll  hop  in  Hangout  rather  than  another  VOIP  like  Ventrilo  or  Mumble.  We  often  have  a  player  in  hangout  and  record  the  fights  so  we  can  go  back  and  look  at  the  attempts.      Chris  Luchs:  But  the  way,  Inevitable  Instructors  use  Google  +  Hangouts  most  weekends.    We  livestream  Instructional  Hangouts.  Our  next  upcoming  Inevitable  Instructors  Weekend  Webinar  will  be  on  Sunday  

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July  13.    It  is  being  developed  by  Milo  Lyons  –  on  how  to  play  a  warlock.  Other  members  of  the  guild  have  run  with  his  warlock  workshop  a  bit  and  they  are  now  calling  it  Lock-­‐a-­‐palooza.    So  over  Hangout,  Inevitable  Betrayal  will  broadcast  some  slides,  instruction  and  then  livestream  the  in-­‐game  practice  and  play.      Grid  Jumper:  Your  guild  participated  in  an  Hour  of  Code  last  December.    Can  you  describe  how  you  did  that?    

Well,  as  you  know  Grid,  it  was  organized  by  someone  with  the  RL  name,  Tanya  Martin  (aka  Grid  Jumper  (SL)  LOL,  from  Broward  County,  the  sixth  largest  school  district  in  United  States.  Tanya  is  from  the  Talent  Development  Division  of  the  Broward  County  School  District.  She  is  also  one  of  our  guild  officers  and  our  guild’s  Director  of  Recruitment.  We  spent  an  hour  making  macros  and  looking  at  the  code.  There  is  a  livestream  

recording  of  Inevitable  Betrayal  working  with  macros  and  then  dueling.    If  you  are  really  interested  you  can  watch  it  at  this  link.  http://youtu.be/lgvIzzvR7w8    [The  IB  Guild  participated  in  Hour  of  Code  in  December  2013.    Guidlies  Learned  to  code  Macros  –  combination  buttons  coding  a  series  of  casts/powers.  Picture  above.]      

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Grid  Jumper:  As  an  Associate  Dean  of  Career  and  Technical  Education,  how  do  video  games  relate  to  the  career  and  technical  field?    Chris  Luchs:  The  relationship  is  in  the  epistemic  frame  that  games  provide.  In  CTE,  we  really  focus  on  both  academic  and  the  technical  mastery  of  a  skill  set.  Games  provide  a  lot  of  great  applicable  frames  for  us.  One  big  example  is  Business;  most  games  have  an  economy,  auction  house,  and  professions.  In  a  large  MMORPG  like  WoW,  you  have  thousands  of  business  transactions  occurring  each  day.  Players  have  to  set  prices  for  goods  for  sale,  buy  raw  materials,  engage  in  direct  and  indirect  sales,  and  model  a  lot  of  business/entrepreneurship  ideas  and  concepts.      Chris  Luchs:  So  it  is  very  easy  to  have  a  student  create  a  business  in  the  game  and  then  provide  them  with  criteria  on  how  they  should  track  sales,  expenses,  profit,  market  their  goods,  and  what  types  of  professions  they  can  choose.  WoW  offers  educators  the  chance  to  have  students  experiment  with  business  opportunities  in  virtual  manufacturing,  inventory  management,  accounting  for  a  small  business,  entrepreneurship,  sales  and  marketing,  retail,  and  wholesale.  The  key  is  to  define  the  epistemic  frame  within  the  game  and  your  curriculum  and  then  give  the  students  the  parameters  to  work  within.        Grid  Jumper:  Where  do  you  think  the  Inevitable  Betrayers  Guild    be  in  5  years?    Chris  Luchs:    I  asked  our  officers  this  question  and  this  was  the  consensus.  In  five  years,  Inevitable  Betrayal  will  be  “Roaming  the  post-­‐apocalyptic  landscape,  fighting  back  the  zombie  hordes  while  trying  to  grasp  at  some  fleeting  moments  of  what  we  considered  normalcy  before  it  all  fell  apart.”  It  seems  to  fit  with  our  mission  statement,  “curse  your  sudden  but  inevitable  betrayal.”    

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Grid  Jumper:  Is  your  guild  open  to  new  membership?    Is  there  a  process  and/or  information  for  those  who  may  be  interested?      Chris  Luchs:  We  are  –  but  we  want  to  make  sure  it’s  a  good  fit.  So  we  have  an  application  process  and  a  three-­‐month  probation  period.  We’re  really  active  and  group  oriented  so  that  doesn’t  fit  everyone’s  play  style.  We  are  more  of  an  “ask  what  you  can  do  for  your  guild  –  rather  than,  what  your  guild  can  do  for  you”  attitude.  Guilds  really  do  have  cultures.  On  the  online  discussion  boards  on  the  metagame  sites,  there  is  constant  discussion  on  types  of  guild  cultures  and  also  if  you  are  running  a  Raid  what  is  the  Raid  etiquette  that  is  specific  to  that  group.  You  can  take  a  look  at  Inevitable  Betrayal’s  application  and  how  we  explain  our  culture  by  going  to  this  link.  http://bit.ly/Zh3ytP      Chris  Luchs:  If  you  are  a  level  90,  you  don’t  have  to  join  our  guild  to  come  run  with  us.  We  also  conduct  open  Raids.    We  are  currently  looking  for  people  to  come  raiding  with  us.  We  have  open  Raids  every  other  week.  We  do  the  Ally  (or  Alliance)  side  on  Friday  evening  and  the  Horde  side  on  Saturday  evenings.  Here’s  the  link  to  go  take  a  look  at  the  open  Raid  site.  http://bit.ly/1n7xOG0  

 We  are  more  of  an  “ask  

what  you  can  do  for  your  guild  –  rather  than,  what  your  guild  can  do  for  

you”  attitude.  Guilds  really  do  have  cultures.  

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 Guild  Invite  

 Grid  Jumper:  What  would  your  recommendations  be  for  individuals  interested  in  getting  involved  with  games  and  the  Metagame  in  particular?    Are  there  prerequisites,  do  you  have  to  be  a  current  gamer  or  do  you  need  to  belong  to  a  guild?      Chris  Luchs:  There  really  are  no  prerequisites.  Being  a  gamer  and  belonging  to  a  guild  gives  you  an  advantage.  But,  the  games  and  the  metagame  are  accessible  by  anyone.  The  advantage  for  being  a  gamer  is  that  the  language  will  be  familiar  as  will  be  the  navigation  and  overall  aspects  of  the  game.  The  advantage  of  being  in  a  guild  is  that  you  benefit  from  the  distributed  knowledge  of  everyone  in  the  guild  and  their  ability  to  quickly  point  you  to  valuable  resources  and  metagame  sites.      Grid  Jumper:  Thank  you  for  taking  the  time  to  do  this  interview  with  me.  I  am  sure  the  VEJ  readers  have  enjoyed  learning  more  about  WoW  and  the  Inevitable  Betrayal  Guild  in  particular.  I  would  like  to  also  encourage  

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anyone  interested  in  WoW  to  check  out  the  numerous  resources  in  this  article.  Then,  if  you  see  a  fit,  we  hope  you  will  join  in  the  fun!    

     [A  special  thanks  to  Grid  Jumper  (SL),  aka  Tanya  Martin  (RL)  for  conducting  this  interview  with  Chris  Luchs  (RL),  aka  Abacus  Capalini  (SL).    Tanya  Martin  works  for  the  Office  of  Talent  Development,  the  division  tasked  with  ensuring  professional  development  standards  and  managing  all  professional  learning  provided  in  the  district.  Her  main  responsibility  is  working  with  Broward  Virtual  University,  the  online  professional  development  arm  of  the  department.  Tanya  co-­‐presented  on  game-­‐based  learning  at  FETC  2013  and  has  been  accepted  to  present  on  Machinima  at  FETC  2014.  Martin  regularly  investigates  and  blogs  on  immersive  and  game-­‐based  learning.  Her  educational  technology  blog,  Gridjumper’s  Blog,  won  the  2013  Virtual  Education  Journal’s  Reader’s  Choice  Award  for  Best  Virtual  Blog.  It  has  also  been  nominated  twice  for  best  educational  technology  blog  for  the  2011  and  2012  EduBlog  Awards.  In  2012,  she  was  a  top-­‐five  finalist  for  blogging  about  collaborative  3D  environments  for  learning  and  teaching.]      

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The  Minecraft  ABC  Project  

 By  Rosie  Vojtek  (RL),    

Roxie  Neiro  (SL)           I  am  the  proud  principal  of  Ivy  Drive  Elementary  School  in  Bristol,  Connecticut.    We  are  a  K-­‐5  elementary  school  with  approximately  400  

students.  I  have  had  the  joy  of  serving  as  principal  for  the  past  15  year.  Each  year  I  have  been  at  the  school  we  have  continued  on  our  “Journey  to  Excellence”  with  a  different  theme  such  as  Reach  for  the  Stars,  Climb  Every  Mountain,  Swim  to  Success,  and  Oh,  The  Places  We  Will  Go  to  name  a  few.  Next  year  we  plan  to  continue  on  our  Journey  to  Excellence  by  Building  A  Better  World.  I  am  very  excited,  because  there  is  no  better  way  to  motivate  and  capture  the  passion  our  students  have  for  learning  than  through  the  virtual  world  of  Minecraft.      

At  an  assembly  on  Thursday,  June  12,  2014,  we  announced  our  school-­‐wide  theme  for  next  year.  I  explained  to  students  that  there  are  a  number  of  ways  we  will  work  to  Build  A  Better  World.  First,  they  will  learn  as  much  as  they  can  so  that  they  can  achieve  their  personal  best.  The  skills  they  learn  today  will  help  them  build  a  successful  life  for  themselves,  their  family,  and  their  community  in  their  future.  Second,  our  school  will  continue  to  do  a  service  project  each  month  to  improve  the  quality  of  life  for  others  within  our  own  community  and/or  the  world  at  large.  And  finally,  our  students  will  be  able  to  learn  and  practice  the  21st  century  skills  they  will  need  to  successfully  collaborate,  communicate,  solve  problems,  and  become  competent  and  caring  global  citizens  by  working  together  in  the  virtual  world  of  Minecraft.    We  plan  to  do  several  grade-­‐level  and  school-­‐wide  collaborative,  project-­‐based  learning  activities  next  year.  When  you  put  children  and  Minecraft  together  in  the  same  sentence,  you  can  imagine  how  our  students  roared  with  their  applause  and  excitement.    

 

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Several  students  then  made  presentations  to  the  school  about  their  work/play  in  the  world  of  Minecraft.  I  also  invited  a  student  from  another  Bristol  School,  Greene-­‐Hills,  to  share  a  Google  presentation  he  had  recently  completed  on  Minecraft.  Jonathan  shared  his  Minecraft  ABC  slides  with  the  students  who  sat  on  the  edge  of  their  seats  in  awe  listening  to  his  every  word.    

 I  had  never  met  Jonathan  before  June  12th.  I  had  heard  about  his  

project  from  one  of  his  teachers.  His  parents  brought  him  to  Ivy  Drive  School  to  present  his  work.  I  was  so  impressed  with  his  presentation  that  we  have  published  the  entire  presentation  using  Issuu  and  posted  it  on  the  VEJ  website.  You  can  read  the  entire  work  by  Jonathan  at  www.virtualeducationjournal.com  .       Here  are  a  few  pages  from  his  project.  Enjoy!  

     

 

     

Minecraft ABC Project

Grade 5 By: Jonathan Greene-Hills

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Introduction Minecraft is a sandbox construction game that can be used to build your imagination. The player has the ability to build creative structures and buildings on multiplayer or singleplayer servers using only their imagination. It’s like virtual legos and has three options: Creative, Survival, or Hardcore (Adventure). Minecraft was created by Markus Persson (Notch is his nickname) and released on November 18, 2011. It is very popular and was awarded Player and Editors choice in 2011. As Notch said, “The sky's the limit!”

These screenshots were taken by me on June 4, 2014 while playing minecraft.

A is for Armor Armor protects you from many dangers. For example, armor protects

you from mob attacks, fire, lava, cacti, explosions, and enemy player attacks. You can make leather armor from cows or horses, golden armor from gold ingots, iron armor from iron ingots, and diamond armor from diamonds. It takes 24 of each material (leather, gold, iron, or diamond) to make a full set of armor. Chainmail armor exist in the game but you can’t craft it. You would receive it by trading with a villager, or by grabbing it when a mob drops it. On your hotbar, there is a row above your health bar. If you put on any armor correctly, another bar will appear above it showing mini iron chest plates. The more chest plates are filled, the better your protection is. If you have all diamond armor, your armor bar will be full. You can enchant your armor to enhance its protection, allow you to breath underwater to protect you even more from fire and falling. My opinion is to get iron armor first because leather armor barely gives protection, gold and diamonds are hard to find, and chainmail is hard to get.

This shows each type of armor from least to greatest in protection.

This is the recipe to create each type of armor.

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B is for Brewing (Potions) Brewing is the process of creating potions and splash

potions. You need three water bottles, one ingredient, and a brewing stand to brew a potion. Bottles can be crafted by glass or fished out of a lake using a fishing pole. There are many ingredients that you can use for example, pufferfish, spider eyes, golden carrots, and glistering melons. Pufferfish are used to make water breathing potions, spider eyes make poison potions, golden carrots make night vision potions, and glistering melons make instant health potions. My favorite potion is the swiftness potion, brewed and created with sugar.

Here are all the ingredients to making potions.

C is for Creeper Creepers (aka Creepus Explodus) are the most dangerous mob of them all

because their secret weapon is TNT. It is built with a TNT block in its body. It’s automatically programmed to follow any human, hiss, and blow up causing the player and everything near it to explode. It got its name from its creepy talent; to sneak up from behind you almost completely silently. It randomly spawns in the overworld, which is the normal land that you spawn in, at night. They can also spawn in areas with a light level of 7 or less for example, in dungeons and caves. Unlike zombies and skeletons, creepers don’t die in the sunlight. If you manage to defeat it before it explodes, it will drop 0-2 gunpowder pieces which can be crafted into TNT. They have no arms but they can still climb ladders. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!

This is a Creeper

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Z is for Zombie Zombies are one of the most common hostile mobs. They have green bodies spawn in the dark. They slowly walk toward you, making growling noises, and inflict damage when 1-2 blocks away. Like skeletons, zombies can pick up armor like helmets and tools like shovels and will burn in the sunlight. When defeated, zombies will drop rotten flesh. They can rarely drop carrots, iron ingots, and potatoes, and shovels, swords, or armor (if equipped). Zombie pigmen are half zombies, half pigs. They are naturally spawned in the nether and are created when a pig is stuck by lightning. They are like wolves, harmless unless provoked. I like to make a dark cave that zombies spawn in to collect the materials that they drop. ,;;/;./;////’/’ /’ jK}hj’;jk[l’]kkl][[=n [‘,,]==; ]

About the Author

My name is Jonathan P. I am 11 years old and live in Bristol, CT. I’m in 5th

grade at Greene Hills School. I belong to the gifted program and tech club. I like to go on vacation to Maine, Cape Cod and New Hampshire. I play two sports, lacrosse and basketball. I love fishing and hiking with my family. I love nature and enjoy exploring in the wilderness. I have several types of fish and a bunny. I also love growing a veggie garden every year. My 3 favorite subjects are math, writing workshop, and gym. Minecraft is my favorite video game. I hope you enjoyed reading my Minecraft ABC Book!

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After  we  finished  with  the  presentations  on  Minecraft,  students  were  able  to  spend  time  in  our  computer  lab  exploring  Minecraft.  Some  of  my  students  were  pros  and  some  of  them  had  never  seen  Minecraft  before.  But,  to  the  surprise  of  all  of  us,  even  our  newbie  first  grade  students  entered  the  tutorial  naturally  –  as  if  they  had  been  working  in  Minecraft  for  their  entire  lives.  We  the  adults,  on  the  other  hand,  were  the  only  ones  who  hesitated.  But,  alas,  the  students  did  not  leave  us  behind.  We  all  learned  a  lot  from  them  during  this  short  exploration.  I  expect  we  will  all  learn  a  lot  more  next  year  as  we  continue  our  Journey  to  Excellence  through  the  amazing  3D  virtual  environment  of  Minecraft.    

 Our  school  has  it’s  own  server  and  will  be  running  MinecraftEDU  

to  create  a  safe  and  secure  environment  for  students  to  use.  You  can  learn  more  about  MinecraftEDU  @  http://minecraftedu.com  .    MinecraftEDU  will  also  have  a  booth  at  ISTE2014,  so  be  sure  to  check  them  out  if  you  want  to  do  something  similar  at  your  school.        

The  Journal  Features  Educational  Innovator  

Scott  Merrick  In  

Starting  and  Maintaining  a  Virtual  School       “Scott  merrick  is  the  v-­‐Learning  Specialist  at  Metropolitan  Nashville  Public  Schools  (TN).  On  the  Journal  website,  he  recounts  how  the  District  built  a  virtual  school,  how  he  keeps  students  engaged  and  how  he  plans  to  expand  the  school’s  offerings.”    Be  sure  to  watch  his  three-­‐minute  video  and  read  more  at:    

http://thejournal.com/articles/2014/06/23/starting-­‐a-­‐virtual-­‐school.aspx  -­‐  1Y8yDlg4Y506vkif.99  

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   Creating  Apps  for  Android  and  IOS  in  schools  is  becoming  more  

and  more  popular.  A  year  ago,  the  Assistant  Superintendent  and  Director  of  Secondary  Education  asked  me  about  how  to  create  apps  and  to  possibly  start  an  App  development  class  at  my  school.  VSTE  (Virginia  Society  of  Technology  in  Education)  has  run  training  sessions  on  Android  App  development,  as  has  a  local  community  college.  About  50%  of  the  freshmen  and  sophomores  that  I  teach  would  take  an  app  development  class  if  it  were  offered.  The  computer-­‐programming  teacher  at  my  school  is  considering  restructuring  her  introduction  to  computer  programming  class  to  include  App  development.         In  2012,  I  started  looking  into  creating  Apps.  I  had  an  iPad  and  was  concerned  about  the  lack  of  good  educational  science  apps  that  I  could  use  in  class.  The  chairman  of  the  science  department  at  my  high  school  also  looked  into  this  and  decided  not  to  buy  iPads  for  the  science  department  because  of  the  poor  quality  of  the  apps.  When  I  went  into  the  App  Store,  I  saw  very  simple  apps  for  fossils  where  the  developer  had  merely  taken  pictures  of  fossils  and  included  some  information  about  each  fossil.  Not  only  was  the  app  very  simple,  but  also  there  was  no  systematic  discussion  of  major  fossil  groups.      

IOS  (Apple)  Virtual  World  

Apps    

By  William  Schmachtenberg  (rl),  aka  Dae  Miami  (sl)  

   

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  In  2013,  I  created  my  first  app  called  Science  Island  and  released  it  on  the  App  Store.      

     

Science  Island  was  a  virtual  island  in  which  you  could  explore  and  find  20  shells.  The  player  could  navigate  with  virtual  joysticks  around  the  island  and  answer  questions  in  geography,  oceanography,  chemistry,  geology,  and  meteorology.  I  included  real  world  meteorological  data  to  analyze  in  the  simulation.  Also,  if  the  player  gets  a  question  wrong,  feedback  is  provided  to  help  guide  them  to  the  correct  answer.    

 A  scoring  system  and  inventory  was  included  as  well.  David  

Campbell,  a  musician  and  composer,  who  also  teaches  at  my  school,  included  an  original  sound  track  for  the  app.    Science  Island  was  an  immediate  success  being  downloaded  in  over  40  countries  in  48  hours.  To  this  day,  it  still  gets  30  to  50  downloads  a  day.       I  next  released  Geology  Island  2  on  the  App  Store.  I  used  the  same  virtual  terrain  for  Geology  Island  as  I  had  used  for  Science  Island,  but  I  

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included  40  science  questions  mainly  focusing  on  volcanoes  and  rocks.  Players  could  explore  inside  the  volcano  as  well.        

A  few  months  later,  Ocean  Explorer  was  created.        

     

Players  could  search  for  20  animated  marine  organisms  including  a  great  white  shark,  giant  squid,  and  killer  whale.  When  you  touch  the  animals  on  an  iPad,  they  stop  swimming  and  a  question  is  displayed.  Feedback,  an  inventory,  and  scoring  system  was  included  in  the  app.    

 To  help  find  the  animals,  a  sonar  system  was  included  showing  

your  location  and  the  location  of  the  animals  in  the  game.  After  all  20  animals  had  been  found,  it  was  possible  to  locate  a  sunken  WWII  German  submarine.  Ocean  Explorer  is  one  of  the  most  popular  apps  I  have  submitted  to  the  Apple  App  Store.        

After  two  years  of  research  and  development,  I  created  3D  Fossil  Adventure.    

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Fossil  Adventure  was  based  on  road  cuts  along  route  311  near  Catawba  Mountain  in  Virginia.  This  is  one  of  the  classic  fossil  collecting  sites  for  the  Appalachians.    

 I  carefully  measured  the  location  of  these  stops  with  a  GPS  and  

mapped  each  one  into  the  app.  Digital  pictures  of  the  out  crops  were  used  to  texture  the  landscape,  which  was  based  on  US  Geological  Survey  Elevation  data.  Pictures  of  fossils  from  this  area  collected  over  the  last  25  years  were  included  in  the  App.    

 As  the  player  looks  for  25  fossils  in  the  area,  they  collect  and  

identify  the  fossils.  There  are  on-­‐screen  guides  to  help  with  the  characteristics  and  classification  of  the  fossils.  An  interactive  map  is  included  to  aid  in  finding  the  fossils.  It  includes  the  main  geological  formations  in  which  they  are  found.  Online  resources  are  available  on  my  website  to  aid  teachers,  students,  and  parents  who  wish  to  use  this  app  in  the  classroom  or  at  home.    

   

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    3D  Mineral  is  the  latest  app  I  have  created.      

   

As  the  name  suggests  you  can  explore  the  jagged  cliffs  of  this  virtual  area  to  find  20  minerals.  Upon  clicking  on  the  mineral,  you  are  asked  to  identify  the  mineral.  Just  as  in  the  fossil  app,  on-­‐screen  guides  aid  you  in  mineral  properties  and  classification.  A  GPS  and  topographic  map  system  in  the  app  helps  the  player  find  the  minerals.  

 Links  to  all  of  these  apps  are  found  on  my  website:  

www.evwllc.co.  That  website  includes  documents  concerning  the  effectiveness  of  Science  Island  in  my  classroom.    

 I  also  have  a  link  to  work  that  my  students  have  done.    Science  

Island  is  a  free  App,  whereas  the  others  are  paid  apps.      If  you  would  like  to  review  my  apps  and  send  me  comments  or  

submit  a  review  of  the  app  for  the  app  store,  email  me  at:  wschmachtenberg@gmail.com.      

I  can  send  you  a  promotion  code  for  any  or  all  of  the  apps  so  you  can  try  them  for  free  if  you  are  willing  to  write  a  short  review  of  the  app.          

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Screenshots  from  World  of  Warcraft  

 By  April  Hayman  

Retro Raiders – Friday Night Retro Raids

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Immerseus - 25 Man Inevitable Betrayal Guild

Raid.

Order of the Cloud Serpent -Tasedorae Receiving Her Cloud Serpent in Pandaria.

April  Hayman  is  an  Instructional  Designer.  Follow  her  on  Twitter:  @april_hayman  and  read  her  blog:  http://idlovesedtech.wordpress.com/    

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Professional  Education  Connections  in  Virtual  Worlds  

By  Beth  O’Connell  (RL)  Beth  Ghostravel  (SL)  

 Presented  at  the  VWBPE  Conference  on  April  10,  2014  

As  educators,  our  professional  connections  are  crucial  for  sharing  ideas  and  knowledge,  as  well  as  support.  Virtual  worlds  enable  us  to  connect  with  people  inexpensively,  at  all  hours  and  seasons,  adding  to  our  PLNs  (Professional  Learning  Networks).  This  information  applies  to  the  virtual  world  of  Second  Life,  as  I’ve  found  that  to  be  the  best  place  for  networking,  but  many  of  the  tips  apply  to  other  virtual  worlds  as  well.    

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Our  essential  question  is:    How  can  we  best  use  our  professional  connections  to  benefit  our  teaching  and  learning?        Think  about  the  professional  connections  you  already  have.  Write  down  one  professional  organization  that  you’ve  found  to  be  helpful.  

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 A  Little  about  Me    Here’s  the  story  of  how  I  got  started  in  Second  Life.  I  posted  this  in  my  blog  a  little  over  a  year  ago  (http://booklady9.edublogs.org/2013/03/15/professional-­‐virtual-­‐world-­‐adventures/)    

Last  summer  (2012)  I  took  a  class  with  the  NorthTIER  consortium  on  Virtual  Worlds  and  Games  in  Education,  taught  by  Laura  Briggs.  My  initial  goal  was  to  learn  to  use  Second  Life  to  attend  VSTE  meetings  and  professional  development  sessions  online.  I  learned  so  much  more  –  my  professional  and  personal  worlds  have  been  expanded  exponentially.    When  I  started  using  Second  Life  (SL),  I  had  a  steep  learning  cliff  to  conquer.  It  took  me  a  week  to  learn  how  to  move  my  avatar  around  effectively,  and  a  month  before  I  learned  how  to  change  my  clothes.  I  persisted  because  the  people  I  met  there  were  so  helpful  and  welcoming  that  I  wanted  to  participate  in  the  communities  that  I  found.  

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 As  you  may  know,  my  job  as  a  solo  school  librarian  is  extremely  isolating.  I  am  a  team  of  one,  in  a  building  of  800+  people.  My  district  is  kind  enough  to  let  me  run  SL  in  school,  making  it  possible  to  attend  inworld  meetings  during  the  day,  and  to  network  with  people  on  my  few  occasions  for  downtime.  I  am  able,  from  my  computer  here,  to  have  meaningful  professional  interchanges  with  people  all  over  the  world.    Currently  I  am  a  member  of  18  different  educational  groups  in  Second  Life.  I  attend  Virtual  Pioneers  meetings  on  Sunday  nights;  VSTE  meetings  on  Monday  nights;  ISTE  office  hours  on  Tuesday  nights;  ISTE  meetings  and  socials,  plus  VSTE  planning  meetings,  on  Wednesday  nights;  VWER  meetings  on  Thursdays  after  school;  and  BIO-­‐SE  and  Nonprofit  Commons  meetings  on  Fridays  during  school.  Because  the  latter  two  are  conducted  in  chat  rather  than  voice,  I  can  follow  along  even  when  I  have  classes  coming  in  to  check  out  books.  I  consider  myself  a  liaison  between  all  of  the  groups,  and  I  do  lots  of  cross-­‐postings  of  meeting  notifications  among  all  of  them.  I  like  being  able  to  connect  people  together,  and  help  create  community.  I’ve  been  enriched  so  much  –  it’s  a  virtual  world,  but  the  people  are  real.  

 That  was  last  year.  I  updated  my  blog  just  before  my  talk  in  April:    

My  professional  connections  have  gotten  deeper  and  more  numerous  over  the  past  year.  I  thought  about  saying  “my  *virtual*  professional  connections,”  but  although  the  meeting  places  are  virtual,  the  people  and  the  connections  are  real.  In  many  cases  they  extend  into  other  social  media,  and  into  physical  life  (PL,  also  known  as  RL  for  Real  Life).    

 It’s  a  virtual  world,  but  the  people  are  real.  

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I  still  attend  the  same  meetings  that  I  did  last  year,  with  the  addition  of  ACRL  (Association  of  College  and  Research  Libraries),  an  ALA  affiliate.  These  meetings  and  groups  still  do  not  contribute  directly  to  my  job,  but  I  feel  certain  that  my  passion  for  virtual  world  education  will  lead  somewhere,  eventually.  At  the  very  least,  they  boost  my  morale  and  satisfaction  with  my  current,  somewhat  challenging  job.      My  roles  in  these  groups  have  changed  over  the  year.  I  got  frustrated  with  trying  to  find  information  about  the  various  meetings,  so  I  wound  up  doing  publicity  inworld,  and  on  social  media,  for  all  of  these  groups.  For  Virtual  Pioneers,  I  co-­‐host  the  biweekly  Meet  &  Greets,  and  help  corral  people  on  tours.  I’m  a  VSTE  Facilitator,  helping  to  plan  events.  I’m  the  Producer  for  the  ISTE  SIGVE  Speaker  Series.  I  helped  start  the  Cultural  Community  Hub.  I’m  Transcript  Editor  for  VWER,  and  I  help  with  transcripts  for  NonProfit  Commons.  I  also  helped  with  streaming  sessions  for  the  OpenSim  Community  Conference  last  fall  (http://conference.opensimulator.org/2013/).  My  husband  feels  like  even  when  I’m  home,  I’m  never  home!      I  make  friends  wherever  I  go  in  SL,  at  least  one  a  day.  The  result  of  all  of  these  connections  is  that  when  someone  is  telling  me  about  their  project,  I  can  usually  think  of  someone  else  who  might  be  able  to  help  them,  resulting  in  more  connections  within  the  education  community.    

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Profiles   But,  enough  about  me.  Let’s  find  out  about  each  other.  How  can  we  find  kindred  spirits?  Browsing  profiles!    Look  around  at  the  profiles  of  the  people  you  encounter  in  virtual  worlds.  Don’t  be  afraid  of  appearing  nosy.  Profiles  (for  most  people,  anyway)  are  meant  to  be  read.  The  photo  above  illustrates  how  to  find  a  person’s  profile,  using  the  Second  Life  viewer.  Other  viewers  are  similar.    Here  are  some  things  to  look  for  in  profiles  when  you’re  seeking  professional  connections:    

2nd  Life:  Education-­‐related  group(s)  A  lack  of  unprofessional-­‐sounding  groups  

     

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Picks:  Education-­‐related  place(s)  A  lack  of  unprofessional-­‐sounding  places  

 1st  Life:  

Indication  of  RL  education  job  or  interests  (while  still  protecting  privacy)  

 When  you  find  someone  you’d  like  to  connect  with,  chat  with  him  or  her  a  little  (in  Nearby  or  IM)  before  sending  a  friend  request.  It’s  nice  to  break  the  ice  first,  and  tell  them  something  you  have  in  common.    Here  are  some  other  things  to  look  for  when  you’re  seeking  professional  connections:    

Appearance    Professionally  dressed  avatar  Human  avatar  helpful,  but  not  necessary  Clothes,  shape,  and  hair  not  from  the  Linden  Library  

 Speech  

Professionally  appropriate  (in  chat,  and  possibly  in  voice)  Uses  IMs  and  nearby  chat  appropriately    

Appearance  is  probably  the  least  important  of  these.  Sometimes  experienced  educators  are  new  to  SL;  they  may  look  like  newbies  here,  but  in  the  education  field,  they’re  not.  These  things  are  all  clues  about  how  trustworthy  the  person  behind  the  avatar  might  be.  None  of  them  are  totally  significant  alone,  but  together  the  clues  can  help  you  form  a  professional  opinion  about  the  person  behind  the  avatar.  You  can  use  these  ideas  to  make  yourself  look  more  professional,  too.  Often  people  will  have  an  avatar  for  professional  stuff,  and  an  alt  (alternate,  or  secondary,  avatar)  for  play.  Some,  like  me  use  an  alt  for  machinima,  or  more  group  slots.  

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Professional  Groups   The  following  groups  have  been  really  helpful  on  my  professional  journey  in  virtual  worlds.  The  meeting  calendar  at  the  end  of  the  article  includes  more  information  about  each  group  and    instructions  for  joining  groups.        ACRL  (Association  of  College  and  Research  Libraries)  As  a  librarian,  I  looked  for  my  people  in  SL,  but  I  couldn’t  find  them  at  first.  The  American  Library  Association  (ALA)  used  to  have  an  island,  but  that  had  closed.      I  found  the  Community  Virtual  Library  (CVL),  and  they  helped  me  find  the  Association  of  College  and  Research  Libraries  (ACRL),  which  has  monthly  programs  in  SL.    

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Virtual  Pioneers  Virtual  Pioneers  was  the  first  place  where  I  felt  at  home  in  SL.  This  is  a  group  of  people  who  are  interested  in  exploring  historical  sims.  Most  are  educators,  but  not  all.      The  upstairs  of  headquarters  contains  a  gallery  of  free  historical  clothing  from  different  eras,  and  a  wall-­‐full  of  information  from  past  tours.      Every  other  week  we  have  tours,  and  on  the  opposite  weeks  we  sit  around  the  campfire  and  chat.    

VSTE  (Virginia  Society  for  Technology  in  Education)  VSTE  is  where  I  got  my  start  in  SL.  It’s  a  state  affiliate  of  ISTE,  and  as  far  as  I  know  it’s  the  only  state  affiliate  in  SL.      Virginia  has  an  amazing  group  of  educators.  We  have  a  lot  of  fun  together,  but  we  also  get  a  lot  done  to  further  education  in  virtual  

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worlds.      We  have  a  whole  island,  which  includes  a  historical  simulation  of  the  Jamestown  Colony  and  American  Indian  Village.      

 ISTE  VEN  (International  Society  for  Technology  in  Education,  Virtual  Education  Network)  (formerly  ISTE  SIGVE,  or  Virtual  Worlds  Special  Interest  Group)  ISTE  is  probably  the  largest  educational  technology  organization  in  the  world.  The  SIGVE  is  the  largest  special  interest  group  in  ISTE.      We  have  a  monthly  speaker  series  and  biweekly  tours,  and  we  participate  in  the  annual  ISTE  conference  in  June.    

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CCH  (Cultural  Community  Hub)  Ewan  Bonham  and  I  started  this,  inspired  by  a  talk  about  the  Virtual  Education  Journal  (VEJ)  at  ISTE  last  year.  Along  with  StarLight  and  several  other  people,  we  look  for  communities  in  SL  that  educators  might  be  interested  in,  and  we  set  up  a  hub  with  information.      The  hub  pictured  above  is  the  first  location.  The  CCH,  hosted  by  Wisdomseeker  at  Whole  Brain  Health,  recently  moved  with  them.  The  new  location  is  given  below.  

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VWER  (Virtual  Worlds  Education  Roundtable)  This  group  has  met  weekly  in  SL  since  2008  to  discuss  education.  Every  other  week  is  Open  Forum,  when  anyone  can  bring  up  a  topic  for  discussion,  and  the  alternate  weeks  have  themes  set  in  advance.      The  meetings  are  in  text,  so  it’s  easier  to  keep  up,  and  the  official  transcripts  are  posted  online  at  vwer.org,  under  the  Library  tab.  I’m  a  little  behind  on  getting  these  posted;  after  the  2014  ISTE  conference  I  hope  to  start  getting  caught  up.      Kali  Pizzaro  runs  the  group,  and  Grizzla  Pixelmaid  and  Sheila  Yoshikawa  act  as  moderators  sometimes.  

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NPC  (TechSoup’s  NonProfit  Commons)  Although  this  isn’t  directly  education-­‐related,  Rhiannon  Chatnoir  organizes  interesting  topics  here  every  Friday.    I  always  learn  something  new,  and  as  in  all  of  these  groups,  meet  wonderful  people.    TechSoup  offers  lots  of  resources  for  nonprofits,  both  inworld  and  out.    -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐  Contact  Information  Let’s  connect!  Send  me  a  friend  request  if  you’d  like.  Send  IM  or  notecard  to  Beth  Ghostraven  in  SL  Time  Zone:  Eastern  Visit  me  inworld  at  the  Book  and  Tankard  Pub  in  Victoria  City,  Caledon  SLurl:  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Caledon%20Victoria%20City/75/150/23  Email  me  at  booklady99999@yahoo.com  I’ll  see  you  around  the  metaverse!  

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Weekly  Calendar  of  Education  Groups  in  Second  Life  

Updated  June  2014   To  join  a  group,  find  the  URI  link  given  here  just  under  the  name  of  the  group.  When  you’re  logged  in  to  Second  Life,  copy  and  paste  the  URI  into  Nearby  Chat,  then  click  the  link  to  go  to  the  group  profile.  Once  there,  you  can  click  the  Join  button  to  join.  Make  sure  you  have  a  group  slot  open;  the  maximum  number  of  groups  is  42.    Monthly  on  3rd  Sunday  at  12  noon  SLT:  ACRL  (Association  of  College  and  Research  Libraries)  and  the    ALA  VW  Committee  (American  Library  Association's  Virtual  World  Committee)  Community  Virtual  Library  (CVL)  Meeting  Space  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Imagination  Island/103/186/25          

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Website:  http://www.ala.org/acrl/  -­‐  http://www.ala.org/acrl/    Sundays  at  5:00  pm  SLT:    Virtual  Pioneers  Virtual  Pioneers  Headquarters  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduIsland  9/100/61/22        Group:  Virtual  Pioneers          URI:  secondlife:///app/group/c45940c7-­‐0e76-­‐c269-­‐9941-­‐09cfc08dec86/about  Website:  http://virtualpioneers.weebly.com/    Mondays  at  5:00  pm  SLT:    VSTE  (Virginia  Society  for  Technology  in  Education)  VSTE  Island  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/VSTE  Island/123/137/24        Group:  VSTE:  VA  Soc.  for  Tech  in  Education          URI:  secondlife:///app/group/ad9dc928-­‐e69f-­‐2aa6-­‐f7fa-­‐7361217a31fb/about  Website:  http://vstesl.wikispaces.com/    Tuesdays  at  4:00  pm  SLT:    ISTE  VEN  (International  Society  for  Technology  in  Education,  Virtual  Education  Network)  Office  Hours    ISTE  VEN  Headquarters  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduIsland  9/46/90/22        Group:  ISTE  SIG  Virtual  Environments          URI:  secondlife:///app/group/acfd7268-­‐7cb3-­‐9ba3-­‐e4de-­‐4d186820747c/about  Website:  http://sigve.weebly.com/index.html    Every  other  Tuesday  at  4:00  pm  SLT:    CCH  (Cultural  Community  Hub)  CCH  at  Whole  Brain  Health  (WBH)  

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http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Inspiration  Island/86/117/22        Group:  Cultural  Community  Hub          URI:  secondlife:///app/group/414c5c06-­‐d7bc-­‐6ceb-­‐5b4a-­‐3fecf8e2ab80/about    Thursdays  at  11:30  am  SLT:    VWER  (Virtual  Worlds  Education  Roundtable)  VWER  -­‐  Glasgow  Caledonian  University  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Glasgow  Caledonian/193/197/23          Group:  Virtual  Worlds  Education  Roundtable          URI:  secondlife:///app/group/c17c395b-­‐8368-­‐79be-­‐caed-­‐25b81a537855/about  Website:  http://www.vwer.org/(See  Library  tab  for  past  meeting  transcripts)    Every  other  Thursday  at  5:00  pm  SLT:    ISTE  SIGVE  Tours  ISTE  SIGVE  Headquarters  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/EduIsland  9/46/90/22        Group:  ISTE  SIG  Virtual  Environments          URI:  secondlife:///app/group/acfd7268-­‐7cb3-­‐9ba3-­‐e4de-­‐4d186820747c/about  Website:  http://sigve.weebly.com/index.html    Fridays  at  8:30  am  SLT:    NonProfit  Commons  Plush  NonProfit  Commons  Amphitheater  http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Plush  Nonprofit  Commons/104/128/24        Group:  TechSoup.org          URI:  secondlife:///app/group/64c700fd-­‐9d0c-­‐18fa-­‐a552-­‐0dc983dad553/about  Website:  http://nonprofitcommons.wikispaces.com/  

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           Other  Education  Groups  (for  event  postings  or  group  chat,  not  meetings)    BIO  -­‐  SE  (now  known  as  Virtual  Islands  for  Better  Education  or  VIBE)          URI:  secondlife:///app/group/941412d7-­‐dd25-­‐d37c-­‐b968-­‐29f2d5d0cbb3/about          Website:  http://wiki.bio-­‐se.info    Real  Life  Education  in  Second  Life          URI:  secondlife:///app/group/5eab5893-­‐dfa6-­‐905b-­‐4386-­‐011077994d3d/about            VWBPE  (Virtual  Worlds  Best  Practices  in  Education)          URI:  secondlife:///app/group/8b03480a-­‐793d-­‐ba5b-­‐5b6b-­‐dd10afb5d38e/about          Website:  http://vwbpe.org    -­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐-­‐    Bio  for  Beth  O’Connell  RL/Beth  Ghostraven  SL:  A  teacher-­‐librarian  with  18  years  of  experience,  Beth  came  to  Second  Life  over  a  year  ago  to  network  with  VSTE  (Virginia  Society  for  Technology  in  Education),  and  quickly  found  other  education  groups  for  which  she  publicizes  events.  She  attends  four  to  six  inworld  events  every  week,  and  enjoys  helping  people  connect  with  others.  Beth  is  a  VSTE  Facilitator,  the  Producer  for  the  ISTE  Speaker  series,  and  publishes  the  weekly  transcript  for  VWER  (the  Virtual  Worlds  Education  Roundtable).      

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My Avatar and Me -Spiff Whitfield (SL), Andrew Wheelock (RL)

Can you see the real me?

Can you see the wonder and peaceful whimsy?

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   Can you see the intensity and raw artistry?  

Can you see the creativity and unspoken passion?

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Can you see the history and timeless virtue?

Can you see the romance and lost simplicity?

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Can you see the real me?

Behind the avatar….

Behind his virtual stare…

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The wisps of hair?

My avatar is me…

and,

I am he.    [Stay  tuned  for  My  Avatar  &  Me  Part  II.  It  will  be  featured  in  the  August  2014  issue  of  VEJ.]

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Virtual  Worlds  for  Education,  FINALLY!  An  interview  with  Gordon  Holden  

 Heritage  Christian  Academy,  Vancouver,  British  Columbia  By  Scott  Merrick  

 In  the  last  issue  of  VEJ,  we  discussed  and  toured  two  iterations  of  

this  pioneer's  work  to  bring  virtual  worlds  (aka  3D  synchronous  online  learning  environments)  to  his  students  and  his  students  to  them.  I  hope  you  will  agree  that  Gordon  Holden  is  literally  leading  a  major  front  of  the  campaign  up  there  at  his  school  in  Kelowna,  British  Columbia.    

 Heritage  Christian  Online  School  is  centered  140  miles,  as  the  raven  

flies,  inland  from  Vancouver.  Gord  works  from  his  home  in  Courtenay  though.    Situated  on  the  eastern  shore  of  Vancouver  Island,  he  is  surrounded  by  forests  and  lakes,  with  the  world-­‐class  ski  hill  named  Mount  Washington  nearby  to  the  west,  and  an  ocean  laden  with  6-­‐25lb.  salmon  to  the  east.  He  has  team  members  working  with  him  from  locations  as  close  as  a  mile  away  (Ryan),  to  mid-­‐Vancouver  Island  (April),  Vancouver  (Heather),  the  interior  of  BC  (Michelle),  Sacramento  (David),  the  Silicon  Valley  (Cindy),  and  as  far  away  as  Indiana  (Scott).      

 Courtenay,  BC  

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 SM:  Hello,  Gord.  How  are  you?    GH:  Good  thanks  Scott,  and  you?    SM:  Great.  Okay,  we’re  getting  together  to  follow  up  on  the  last  interview.  At  that  time  we  said  we  hoped  to  hear  about  some  amazing  new  developments  there.  What’s  the  news?      GH:  Okay,  well  the  latest  is,  we’ve  since  been  in  touch  with  a  communications  company  that  offers  all  the  bells  and  whistles  that  Blackboard  does  (note:  Pearson  owns  Blackboard  Learning  Management  System).  They  want  to  add  a  3D  capacity  to  what  they  offer  so  we’re  collaborating  in  the  hopes  of  combining  our  environments  with  their  tools,  such  as  screen-­‐sharing,  whiteboards,  video  streaming,  and  actual  breakout  rooms,  etc.      SM:    Wow,  that’s  big.    GH:  Yes.  They  understand  the  benefit  of  being  able  to  meet  synchronously  in  environments  that  skirt  some  of  the  pitfalls  of  other  meeting  spaces,  both  from  some  personal  and  technical  standpoints.    SM:  Yes.  Well  I  know  that  for  SIGOL,  what  is  now  rebranded  as  the  Online  Learning  Network,  we  for  a  while  tried  to  use  Skype  and  Google  Hangouts  but  we  found  that  meeting  members  were  dropping  out,  getting  feedback,  breaking  up,  some  people  were  driving,  or  in  schools  with  sub-­‐par  broadband,  all  that.  So  we  dropped  back  to  using  the  POTS,  the  Plain  Old  Telephone  System,  for  leadership  meetings.      GH:  One  of  the  goals  is  to  totally  get  away  from  using  Skype  with  students.      SM:  That’s  what  we’re  using  now.      GH:  I  don’t  have  concerns  with  adults  using  Skype,  and  in  a  distance-­‐learning  situation  like  us,  it’s  so  convenient.  But  when  you  introduce  this  as  a  tool  for  students  to  begin  communicating  with  each  other,  you  may  find  you’ve  built  your  platform  on  the  sand  so  to  speak,  where  it  

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just  takes  one  good  storm  to  wash  that  solution  away.  I  know  how  foolish  that  sounds  to  many,  but  we  simply  embrace  the  concept  of  seeking  to  be  proactive  about  storm-­‐proofing  ourselves  with  better  resources  than  Skype.      SM:  That’s  a  point  well-­‐made  and  well-­‐taken.    GH:    And,  it  is  the  reason  for  developing  our  use  of  the  environments  we’ve  been  talking  about.    Unity  and  Active  Worlds  can  be  relatively  failsafe  environments  regarding  the  kinds  of  troubles  that  could  occur  when  students  are  involved.      SM:  There  are  certainly  issues  that  can  arise  in  Second  Life.    GH:  Yes,  and  they  do  every  once  in  a  while  despite  all  the  valiant  efforts  we  make  to  prevent  them.  The  fact  remains  that  some  students  will  find  a  way  to  push  the  boundaries  and  do.  Personally,  that’s  an  attribute  I  feel  we  need  to  treasure  and  value,  but  that’s  clearly  not  the  response  we  can  expect  from  parents  and  administrators.      SM:  Right.  The  reaction’s  going  to  likely  be  “lawsuit.”    GH:  And/or  the  complete  gutting  of  programs  that  have  taken  a  lot  of  effort  and  expertise  to  build.  As  educators,  while  we  might  personally  disagree  with  those  values,  we  do  have  a  responsibility  to  model  respect  for  others  that  may  not  share  our  values.  The  failure  of  some  teachers  to  do  this  has  driven  many  families  out  of  public  education.  The  educator’s  stool  will  only  stand  if  the  legs  of  effort  and  expertise  are  accompanied  by  respect.  We  would  not,  should  not,  and  do  not  expect  children  of  the  Hindu  faith  to  kill  frogs  for  science.  We  need  to  carry  this  attitude  to  its  logical  extension  with  other  stakeholders  in  education  as  well.      SM:  Agreed.    GH:  While  Unity3D  provides  many  safeguards  when  it  comes  to  being  interactive  and  immersive,  the  challenge  is  that  it  takes  considerably  more  time,  resources,  and  effort  to  get  there  just  now.  This  is  rapidly  changing,  but  still,  any  time  you’re  adding  something  you  need  to  republish  the  world  again.    

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 SM:  Yeah.      GH:  Whereas  with  ActiveWorlds,  it’s  almost  laughably  easy  to  add  anything.    And,  the  company  has  been  on  a  tear  over  the  last  two  years  upgrading.  I  can  seldom  sign  in  without  installing  a  new  upgrade.  I  suspect  that  much  of  this  is  due  to  a  partnership  with  another  media  company  looking  to  develop  a  3D  presence.      SM:  So  you  say  that  ActiveWorlds  is  working  with  a  media  company?    GH:  I  wouldn’t  credit  what  I’ve  shared  as  much  more  than  gossip  on  that  matter.  As  a  platform  for  presenting,  however,  ActiveWorlds  has  developed  to  the  place  where  the  only  thing  unavailable  is  screen-­‐sharing.  [For  more  information  about  ActiveWorlds  visit  https://www.activeworlds.com/index.html  ]    SM:  Right.  I’ve  been  working  on  that  particular  issue  in  Kitely  (OpenSim),  and  I’ve  discovered  an  online  platform  called  ScreenLeap  (http://screenleap.com)  and  with  a  free  account  there,  a  teacher  can  share  screen  to  a  URL  for  one  hour  a  day.  The  paid  accounts  allow  more  time  and  we  may  well  move  into  that,  but  for  tutoring  or  small  group  sessions  inworld  one  hour  a  day  might  just  do  it  for  us  in  Kitely.  It  works  pretty  well,  basically  URL  on  a  prim  and  with  Kitely  voice  capability,  it  may  be  a  good  start  for  our  teacher  who  plans  to  use  that  within  the  next  couple  of  weeks.  [For  more  information  about  Kitely  visit  http://www.kitely.com  ]    GH:  Thanks  for  that  tip  Scott,  I’ll  be  looking  into  Screenleap.  How  do  you  deal  with  the  nudity  in  Kitely?    SM:  We  haven’t  seen  it,  and  we  are  clear  about  expectations  for  appropriate  behavior  there  and  don’t  expect  any  problems  from  our  small  group  of  students.  If  we  do,  we  will  be  issuing  student  accounts  and  controlling  passwords.  They’re  working  on  bulk  upload  of  avatar  accounts  at  Kitely  at  a  development  level,  but  they  haven’t  gotten  there  yet.  I  simply  plan  to  generate  some  email  accounts  for  this  purpose  and  to  control  those.  Also,  I  actually  spend  some  time  actively  looking  for  offensive  material  or  behavior  in  Kitely  and  aside  from  a  nude  beach  sim,  where  no  

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one  was  present,  I  was  stymied.  And,  if  you  set  an  account’s  maturity  ratings  to  General,  it  can’t  then  be  reset.  We  think  it’s  a  non-­‐issue.  And  we  can  also  make  the  world  private  at  any  time.    GH:  So  it’s  a  moderated  environment.  It  must  be.  Most  public  virtual  environments  are  not  and  often  become  feral,  akin  to  “Lord  of  the  Flies.”  Many  children  come  to  assume  this  is  normal.  So  even  in  ActiveWorlds,  we  want  to  carry  the  expectations  of  the  IBURST  rules  in  Quest  Atlantis  and  the  mature,  moderated  atmosphere  forward.      SM:  Yes.  I’m  loving  what  I’m  seeing.  Unity  is  beautiful.  I  mean  if  you  can  get  those  media  tools  in  there  you’re  golden.  Golden  Gord.    

   GH:  Ha,  yes,  for  direct  instruction,  right.  Not  where  I  necessarily  want  to  be  going  though.  The  reality  however  is  that  the  promise  of  3D  interactive  VLEs  (Virtual  Learning  Environments)  will  never  be  realized  with  considerably  less  than  1%  of  the  teacher  population  involved.  While  most  are  mired  in  direct  instruction  mode,  Unity  at  least  lends  

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itself  to  giving  them  an  opportunity  to  do  something  familiar  in  a  new  way,  with  virtually  no  learning  curve  for  the  educators  and  students  users.  One  can  only  hope  that  this  baby  step  will  lead  to  evolving  and  adopting  a  much  more  exciting  and  educationally  sound  approach.  It’s  a  baby  step.  J      SM:  Yes.  Something  to  hope  for.  You’re  showing  me  AW3DU  now?  (http://www.aw3du.com  )  It’s  gorgeous!        

     GH:  Yes,  I  often  have  trouble  convincing  people  that  it’s  not  SecondLife.    Beyond  the  graphics  though,  ActiveWorlds  is  about  to  release  their  “curriculum  tool”  for  use  in  educational  universes.  I’ve  been  through  a  pilot  quest  that  used  this  tool  and  was  very,  very  impressed.  AW3DU  is  now  set  up  so  that  experiential  learning  and  the  curriculum  can  be  easily  integrated.    But,  we  were  talking  about  developments?      

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SM:  Yes.  We’ve  heard  now  about  the  developments  in  the  software  for  Unity3D  and  ActiveWorlds,  so  what  changes  has  come  out  of  this  for  you?      GH:  We’ve  begun  working  with  an  E-­‐learning  school  in  Alberta  with  25  school  sites  spread  across  northern  Alberta  and  into  Northwest  Territories.  These  First  Nations  schools  want  to  do  something  similar  to  what  happened  when  I  was  at  North  Island  Distance  Education  School.  I  had  two  new  First  Nations  brothers  who  were  apparently  disinterested  in  schooling.    They  were  apparently  interested  in  their  heritage  though.  So,  I  told  them  to  rescue  it.  When  they  asked  how  they  could  do  that,  I  told  them  to  “rebuild  your  village”  virtually.  It  had  been  ravaged  by  floods,  time,  and  emigration,  so  they  needed  to  reconnect  with  their  elders  and  other  relatives,  they  needed  to  conduct  a  great  deal  of  research,  and  actually  go  to  the  site  to  map  it  out.      

 First  Nations  Village  -­‐  Musgamagw  

   GH:  They  were  as  happy  as  pigs  in  mud  and  easily  absorbed  the  building  skills  needed  to  virtually  replicate  the  village  using  a  very  old  version  of  

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ActiveWorlds.  They  subsequently  embedded  the  history,  the  stories,  the  music  and  the  art,  and  the  language  of  their  people.  In  doing  so,  they  covered  the  Prescribed  Learning  Outcomes  of  our  Ministry  of  Education  in  “virtually”  all  their  subject  areas.    It  was  just  amazing.  These  two  shy  boys  accompanied  me  to  a  conference  where  they  presented  to  approximately  500  ICT  specialists.  They  received  three  standing  ovations,  a  confusing  development  for  them,  as  they  did  not  know  what  a  standing  ovation  was.  They  were  only  12  and  14.      SM:  Very  cool.    GH:  In  Alberta,  First  Nations  students  are  often  moving  from  place  to  place  with  their  parents,  for  work.  So  it’s  very  easy  for  them  to  lose  touch  with  their  roots,  which  are  very  important  to  them.  So,  having  built  them  virtually,  students  will  always  be  able  to  go  back  and  maintain  a  sense  of  community  in  those  virtual  villages.  I’m  very  excited  by  this.      SM:  You  should  be.    

   GH:  Perhaps  an  even  bigger  development  might  be  the  recent  commitment  by  Ambrose  University  to  move  into  virtual  environments.  They  want  to  partner  with  us  to  use  our  ActiveWorld  environments  for  Professional  Development  in  a  really  progressive  school  district  in  

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Calgary.  Instead  of  doing  PD  in  the  traditional  way,  which  as  you  know  sometimes  translates  into  a  situation  of  “wish  I  could,  wish  I  did…”    SM:  “Sit  ‘n’  Git.”  

 GH:  That’s  right.  What  happens  is  that  this  school  has  their  teachers  do  their  ProD  through  a  Masters  Program  that  goes  over  five  years.  These  teachers  attend  Ambrose  University  for  their  courses  and  are  responsible  and  accountable  for  demonstrating  the  outcomes  from  what  they  learned.  And,  of  course  they  are  rewarded  at  the  end  with  a  Masters  Degree,  which  represents  a  significant  increase  in  pay.      SM:  Really.  What  an  incentive.  The  incentive  that  keeps  on  incentivizing.      GH:  Indeed.  Additional  plans  include  integrating  ActiveWorld  into  their  Teacher  Training  Program.  They’re  even  talking  about  starting  up  a  Bible  College  where  international  students  could  attend  24/7  in  the  3D  VLE  we  provide.        SM:  Wow.    GH:  For  my  school,  the  biggest  development  for  our  Immersive  Technology  Program  will  be  the  “curriculum  tool”  offered  by  ActiveWorlds.  We’ve  been  getting  substantial  push  from  parents  and  students  to  expand  our  program  from  grade  5-­‐7  to  4-­‐8.  Unfortunately,  Quest  Atlantis  doesn’t  provide  curriculum  for  our  grade  8  students,  so  we  are  using  this  new  tool  to  begin  creating  a  quest-­‐based  resource  tailored  to  grade  8  this  year,  followed  by  grade  9  and  10  in  the  years  to  follow.      SM:  I  saw  a  lot  of  that  at  a  recent  district  resource  fair.    There  were  a  whole  lot  of  .  .  .  sort  of  .  .  .  cartoony  games,  that  are  espousing  an  effort  to  scaffold  and  differentiate  and  adapt  learning.    But  most  of  it  looks  just  formulaic,  off-­‐putting  to  me.      GH:  Well  of  course.  Formulas  beg  a  specific  result  that  becomes  the  answer,  instead  of  a  true  solution.  You  are  a  veteran  of  Quest  Atlantis,  where  the  only  significance  those  answers  have  depends  upon  the  

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meaning  ascribed  to  them  by  the  context  and  perspective  they  are  imbedded  in.        SM:  Which  sounds  a  lot  like  life,  right?    GH:  Indeed.  Any  important  questions  in  life  are  without  black  and  white  solutions.  There  are  no  stock  answers,  only  shades  of  gray.  How  unfortunate  for  the  child  that  spends  their  entire  educational  career  learning  that  answers  are  found  in  T/F  and  multiple-­‐choice  responses.  Now,  the  exciting  thing  is  that  because  our  students  have  worked  through  QA  to  grade  8,  they’re  very  familiar  with  how  to  properly  scaffold  experiential  learning.  So,  I  am  making  them  responsible  to  create  the  curriculum  for  each  other.      SM:  So  they  are  creating  higher-­‐order  questions.      GH:  Absolutely.  And  for  anyone  who  doubts  that  they  can,  I  can  only  say  that  none  of  the  work  my  students  have  done  has  ended  up  in  the  garbage.  It’s  too  valuable  to  throw  away.  We’re  actually  in  the  process  of  creating  a  3D  Wikipedia  of  knowledge  where  the  learning  is  experiential.      SM:  How  awesome  is  that.      GH:  Really.  So  I  have  a  backstory,  an  introductory  mission,  and  problems  that  needs  to  be  set  up  for  those  searching  for  “best”  solutions.  Like  those  two  First  Nations  brothers  that  preserved  the  history  of  their  people  while  meeting  their  learning  outcomes.    The  students  will  create  missions  for  their  peers  from  their  own  research  and  study.    SM:  So  just  to  keep  it  straight,  you’re  going  to  do  this  in  ActiveWorlds,  right?    GH:  Right.    

How  unfortunate  for  the  child  that  spends  their  

entire  educational  

career  learning  that  answers  are  found  in  T/F  and  

multiple-­‐choice  responses.  

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SM:  That’s  very  exciting.    GH:  Indeed.  Our  students  have  actually  become  true  partners  in  providing  their  educational  experience.  A  great  start  for  life-­‐long  learning.      SM:  Curriculum  designers.    GH:  Well  many  of  the  students  who  are  going  through  want  to  be  teachers.  I  give  full-­‐credit  to  the  incredible  group  of  teachers  I  work  with.  One  does  all  this  with  students  on  the  autism  spectrum.  She  cannot  talk  about  the  transformational  effects  without  becoming  emotional.  April  is  wonderful,  and  by  the  way,  “Amurican.”    SM:  “Amurican?”  (laughs)    GH:  She’s  has  a  lovely  Georgia  accent.  Yes,  April  saw  the  light,  moved  to  Canada,  and  has  become  a  real  blessing  to  many  here.  God  bless  America!  J  There  are  a  few  more  projects  simmering  on  the  stove,  but  I’m  not  quite  ready  to  speak  of  them.  I  think  perhaps  it  would  be  good  to  end  with  this  today.  If  we  can  finish  off  with  another  session,  I  hope  to  have  an  update  on  Quest  Atlantis,  and  would  love  to  initiate  an  examination  and  discussion  on  “The  Dangers  of  Engagement.”    How’s  that  for  a  teaser?      SM:  Gord,  as  always  it’s  been  fun  talking  with  you  and  I  hope  the  VEJ  readers  have  enjoyed  the  discussion  and  learning  about  all  you  are  doing  and  will  do.  We  are  separated  physically  by  some  3800  miles,  but  today  Skype  brought  us  together,  as  Second  Life  has  done  so  many  times  over  the  course  of  our  friendship.  I  hope  to  be  seeing  Gord  in  ActiveWorlds  someday  soon.            [Stay  tuned  for  Part  III  of  this  series  in  the  next  issue  of  VEJ.]        

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The  Inclusion  of  Disabled  Players  in  Virtual  World  Games:  

The  World  of  Warcraft  Model    

By  Don  Merritt,  PhD  Candidate  Texts  and  Technology  PhD  Program    

University  of  Central  Florida    [This  paper  is  based  on  the  ongoing  dissertation  research  of  the  writer  and  is  not  a  final  analysis.]    

My  dissertation  research  focuses  on  addons  in  WoW.  I  suspect  there  is  a  strong  correlation  between  addon  use  and  player  immersion  among  players  with  disabilities.  My  survey  instrument  closed  at  the  end  of  May  so  the  following  data  is  still  preliminary  but  so  far  suggests  that  there  is  some  sort  of  

relationship.  Data  analysis  and  follow-­‐up  questions  to  some  of  the  respondents  will  continue  through  the  summer  with  the  research  expected  to  be  complete  in  the  fall  of  2014.  

 There  are  two  assumptions  I’m  testing  that  I  will  discuss  here:    

1. Players  with  disabilities  make  extensive  use  of  interface  addons  to  manage  their  in-­‐game  experience  

2. Addons  used  by  a  player  with  a  disability  address  the  specific  disability  of  the  player  

 Much  has  been  made  over  the  years  about  the  potential  and  the  

importance  of  virtual  worlds.  They  can  be  entertainment  and/or  

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educational  spaces,  cultural  sites,  and  performance  platforms.  However,  often  lacking  in  this  conversation  is  a  deep  discussion  about  how  people  with  disabilities  come  into  these  environments.    

 A  recent  multi-­‐disciplinary  literature  review  highlighted  the  

research  gaps  in  understanding  the  relationships  between  virtual  worlds  and  userswho  are  disabled.  Among  the  gaps  were  a  lack  of  research  regarding  universal  design  standards  and  principles  within  virtual  worlds  as  well  as  understanding  how  people  with  different  types  of  disabilities  use  and  interact  with  virtual  worlds.  “An  important  factor  when  considering  people  with  disability  is  the  variety  of  challenges  this  group  encounters,  depending  on  the  disability”  (Stendal,  11)1.  For  instance  a  user  with  a  mobility-­‐limiting  condition  may  have  trouble  using  a  keyboard  and  mouse,  severely  limiting  their  interactions  within  a  virtual  world,  while  someone  with  a  visual  disability  such  as  blindness  may  not  be  able  to  interact  meaningfully  with  the  virtual  environment  at  all.  

 Despite  

these  challenges  there  is  anecdotal  evidence  of  very  successful  players  with  disabilities  within  virtual  world  games  and  World  of  Warcraft  in  particular.  The  website  WoW  Insider  has  featured  a  number  of  WoW  players  with  disabilities  over  the  years2.  WoW  Insider  features  have  covered  “Shorty”,  the  person  behind  Ability  Powered  Gaming3,  and  Hexu  and  Davidian,  a  completely-­‐blind  player  and  his  “guide  dog  guildie”  assisting  him  through  Azeroth  and  its  raids4.  It  also  recently  featured  Kephas5,  a  player  with  very  

                                                                                                               1  Stendal,  Karen.  “How  Do  People  with  Disability  Use  and  Experience  Virtual  Worlds  and  ICT:  A  Literature  Review.”  Journal  For  Virtual  Worlds  Research  5.1  (2012):  n.  pag.  Print.  Assembled.  2  http://wow.joystiq.com/tag/disabled/  3  http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/09/12/ability-­‐powered-­‐gnome-­‐builds-­‐resource-­‐node-­‐for-­‐disabled-­‐gamers/  4  http://wow.joystiq.com/2012/01/12/guide-­‐dog-­‐player-­‐and-­‐guild-­‐embrace-­‐sightless-­‐guildmate-­‐steer/  5  http://wow.joystiq.com/2014/03/02/kephas-­‐demonstrates-­‐how-­‐to-­‐play-­‐wow-­‐blind/  

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limited  vision  who  has  put  together  a  YouTube  video6  that  explains  how  he  uses  add-­‐ons  to  reconfigure  his  UI  to  make  it  more  useful  to  him.      

Add-­‐ons  (or  addons)  appear  to  be  a  common  thread  between  these  users.  Addons  allow  the  player  to  manipulate  the  game  UI  in  some  specific  ways  not  otherwise  possible  through  the  game  client.  There  is  a  large  and  well-­‐established  addon  developer  community  and  a  deep  pool  of  available  addons  built  up  over  WoW’s  nearly  decade-­‐long  run.  They  can  be  downloaded  from  sites  for  specific  addons,  like  CT  Mod  [http://www.ctmod.net/]  or  from  sites  that  host  lots  of  different  addons,  like  http://www.curse.com/  or  http://wowinterface.com/addons.php  .        

In  2009  Blizzard  set  forth  an  8-­‐point  policy  regarding  addons  and  addon  development  on  their  forums.  They  state  that  “[o]ne  of  the  

primary  goals  of  the  user  interface  is  to  allow  players  to  customize  their  game  experience.  .  .  These  guidelines  have  been  put  in  

place  to  ensure  the  integrity  of  World  of  Warcraft  and  to  help  promote  an  enjoyable  gaming  environment  for  all  of  our  players.  7”  It’s  important  to  point  out  that  they  say  “all  of  our  players,”  not  just  players  with  disabilities.  This  phrasing  suggests  that  this  policy  was  not  created  with  any  specific  category  of  players  in  mind.  [To  learn  more  about  the  addon  policy  see  http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1021053914  ]  

 In  March  I  distributed  a  survey  aimed  at  WoW  players  with  

disabilities  through  Twitter,  blogs,  and  websites  of  WoW  players  in  the  disability  community.  The  survey  includes  a  field  for  email  addresses  for  

                                                                                                               6  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=101ZEJF5z_8&list=UU0_EEH4gmK42pGSPvPSTN4g&feature=share&index=3  7  http://us.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1021053914    

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those  who  are  willing  to  answer  additional  questions  about  how  they  use  addons.  For  the  first  6  weeks  there  was  little  response  –  only  13  people  took  the  survey.  In  May  I  applied  for  and  received  a  grant  through  the  UCF  College  of  Arts  and  Sciences  to  fund  an  incentive  for  taking  the  survey  –  a  $10  gift  card  to  the  US  

Amazon.com  store.  The  survey  was  re-­‐released  over  Memorial  Day  weekend  and  picked  up  over  600  more  responses  in  three  days.  The  survey  was  closed  and  initial  data  collection  ended  on  Memorial  Day.  

   To  simplify  things  for  respondents  I  suggested  4  general  categories  of  disability  (and  one  “Other,”  catchall  option)  and  asked  respondents  to  identify  into  which  ones  they  fit.  The  categories  were  

not  mutually  exclusive  and  some  respondents  indicated  their  condition  fit  into  more  than  one  category.  Some  respondents  did  not  identify  with  any  of  the  categories.      While  the  latter’s  responses  will  be  included  in  the  final  discussion  they  

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are  not  included  in  the  data  below.  (I  assume  they  only  filled  out  the  survey  to  get  the  gift  card.)    Category   %  of  respondents  

(n=409)  Addon  use  by  category  

Visual        (blindness,  color  blindness,  etc.)  

30.1%   31.7%  

Auditory      (deafness,  tinnitus,  etc.)  

56.7%   45.7%  

Manual  Dexterity      (amputations,  limited  arm  mobility,  paraplegia,  etc.)  

11.7%   93.8%  

Cognitive      (dyslexia,  PTSD,  etc.)  

1.2%   100%  

Other   0.2%   100%    

 When  asked  

why  they  used  addons,  most  responded  that  managing  the  UI  played  an  important  role  in  how  they  were  able  to  interact  with  the  game.    

   Oftentimes  that  management  was  simply  moving  things  on  the  

screen,  but  several  explained  that  addons  assisted  in  planning  or  explaining  the  world  and  played  a  key  role  for  them.    

 Follow-­‐up  email  will  go  out  at  the  end  of  June  to  some  recipients  

to  ask  them  to  provide  more  details  about  how  they  use  specific  addons,  and  why.  

 The  next  step  of  my  research  involves  categorizing  WoW  addons  

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based  on  the  principles  of  Universal  Design  for  Learning  (UDL).  The  Center  for  Applied  Special  

Technology  (CAST)  has  a  breakdown  of  UDL  principles  and  guidelines  on  their  website  that  will  be  used  in  this  analysis8.    

 UDL  Principles  

 Categorization  of  addons  according  to  UDL  principles  and  

guidelines  may  be  tricky  in  some  instances  but  very  straightforward  in  others.  For  instance,  the  addon  Deadly  Boss  Mods  (DBM).    When  you  read  the  description  of  DBM  on  Curse.com9  you  notice  right  away  some  functions  that  fall  under  one  or  more  of  the  three  Principles  of  UDL.    For  instance,  DBM’s  ability  to  affect  how  bars  change  appearance  before  they  expire  could  be  considered  an  alternative  means  of  visual  

                                                                                                               8  http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines    9  http://www.curse.com/addons/wow/deadly-­‐boss-­‐mods    

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information  under  Principle  1,  and  (arguably)  also  a  method  of  supporting  planning  and  strategy  development  under  Principle  2.  These  categorizations  may  be  subject  to  debate,  however,  and  the  functions  of  other  addons  may  not  be  so  easy  to  categorize.  In  order  to  increase  the  reliability  of  my  categorizations  I  have  sought  out  additional  raters  who  are  familiar  with  both  WoW  and  UDL  principles  and  guidelines.  I  will  combine  all  of  the  ratings  for  a  more  reliable  analysis  of  the  addons.  I  have  identified  a  list  of  the  “most  popular”  addons  on  http://www.curse.com  that  will  get  categorized.  I  will  also  categorize  the  addons  listed  by  respondents  of  the  survey.  There  is  some  overlap  between  the  two  groups  of  addons  but  not  as  much  as  I  expected.    

   Once  categorized  I  can  try  to  identify  any  correlations  between  a  

particular  addon  and  its  use  by  players  with  certain  categories  of  disability.  Given  the  high  utilization  of  addons  between  those  with  manual  dexterity  and  cognitive  conditions  I  expect  to  find  some  very  clear  correlations.  Visual  and  auditory  conditions  may  be  less  obvious,  if  any  exist.  

   One  of  the  things  I  hope  to  learn  from  my  research  is  whether  

Blizzard’s  approach  to  addons  has  been  a  boon  to  players  with  disabilities.  If  it  has,  this  may  suggest  approaches  in  other  virtual  world  environments  that  could  make  them  more  accessible  to  more  people.    

   It  may  also  be  an  example  of  some  of  the  UDL  principles  evolving  

naturally  over  time  in  these  environments  –  most  addon  creators  are  not  professional  educators  or  UDL  experts.  They  are  simply  players  who  are  looking  for  ways  to  play  more  enjoyably.    

   One  may  cynically  say  that  Blizzard  has  allowed  players  to  do  the  

R&D  for  them,  and  of  course  there  are  some  business  interests  in  this  approach.  However  the  optimist  in  me  believes  the  result  has  been  an  accessible  environment,  one  that  may  offer  lessons  for  future,  less  commercial,  uses.  

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Minecraft,  a  wonderful  world  of  blocky  environments,  horrible  monsters,  and  endless  possibilities,  but  not  all  possibilities  are  restricted  to  the  game  itself.  Minecraft  is  also  a  prime  example  of  Metagaming.  Metagaming  is  defined  as    "a  broad  term  usually  used  to  define  any  strategy,  action  or  method  used  in  a  game  which  transcends  a  prescribed  rule  set,  uses  external  factors  to  affect  the  game,  or  goes  beyond  the  supposed  limits  or  environment  set  by  the  game.    

 

Another  definition  refers  to  the  game  universe  outside  of  the  game  itself."  In  my  opinion  Minecraft  covers  this  definition  perfectly.  Lets  break  it  down.  

 

 

Minecraft  and  Beyond      By  Trevyn  Slusser    

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For  action,  strategy  and  method  all  you  must  do  is  look  at  the  numerous  servers  out  there  that  fans  of  Minecraft  have  created.  Some  are  educational  where  as  others  are  a  game  within  a  game.    

While  one  may  be  more  action  packed  than  the  other  (depending  on  the  class)  both  serve  the  definition  in  both  

strategy  and  methods.  Furthermore  with  this  method  of  education,  it  transcends  its  original  purpose  flowing  out  into  the  world  and  nesting  in  the  minds  of  students.  

 

 Minecraft  once  again  transcends  its  limitations  and  even  the  gaming  universe  in  all  that  it  has  inspired  to  create.  From  music  to  art,  from  baking  to  plush  toys,  it's  easy  to  see  just  what  an  impact  Minecraft  has  had  on  the  online  and  gaming  community.  

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Many  have  joined  together  to  create  sites  dedicated  to  Minecraft  alone.  Talk  about  going  "beyond  the  supposed  limits  or  environment"!  

You  don't  have  to  take  my  word  for  it.  The  following  list  has  some  beautiful  examples  of  what  the  Minecraft  community  has  taken  and  created  with  this  amazing  game!    

Music:  

Don't  mine  at  night  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_XGxzMrq04  500  Chunks    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DGqquheYE4  How  do  I  craft  this  again?    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UU-­‐Ew4Wj0U    Community:  Skindex  http://www.minecraftskins.com/  End  Game    http://www.endgameserver.com/home  Wiki    http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Minecraft_Wiki  Planet  Minecraft  http://www.planetminecraft.com/resources/texture_packs/    MISC:  Minecraft  cake  http://youtu.be/flOKzsXEipM  Minecraft  clothes/toys  http://www.jinx.com/shop/coll/minecraft/

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ISTE EduMachinima Fest for Teachers and Students

Submitted by Tanya Martin

 Educators  attend  Machinima  previews  in  an  immersive  environment.  

 

Machinima  has  been  used  by  gamers  to  chronicle  achievements  and  learn  from  mistakes  as  well  as  by  artists  to  create  video  that  would  be  impossible  to  create  in  “real  life”.    Most  recently,  Minecraft  players  of  all  ages  have  been  creating  machinima  to  tell  stories,  explain  processes,  give  information,  and  just  capture  the  fun  in  video  format.      

Machinima  is  an  art  form,  using  video  capture  of  computer  games  and/or  virtual  world  activity  to  make  a  movie.      Many  of  the  requirements  in  making  movies  in  the  physical  word  such  as  script  writing,  directing,  camera  work,  special  effects,  sound  editing,  video  editing,  acting,  costume  design  and  set  design  are  used  in  the  making  of  machinima.    Potential  abounds,  for  teachers  and  students  alike,  in  using  this  art  form  of  media  creation  and  manipulation  for  teaching  and  learning.  

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The  annual  EduMachinima  Fest  is  held  at  the  ISTE  Conference  and  provides  attendees  with  a  Movie  going  experience  unlike  many  others.    This  year,  two  ISTE  Networks  are  sponsoring  the  EduMachinima  Fest.  Both  the  Games  and  Simulation  Network  and  the  Virtual  Environments  Network  will  sponsor  the  event  that  includes  productions  created  in  online  games  and  virtual  environments.    Attendees  can  enjoy  watching  a  series  of  machinima  demonstrating  how  students  and  teachers  create  and  share  their  manipulation  of  images,  sounds,  music  and  words  effectively  to  convey  a  message.    

Developing  a  machinima  product  is  one  way  to  demonstrate  skills  in  media  design,  self-­‐expression,  critical  thinking,  collaboration,  and  knowledge  of  multiple  academic  subjects.    The  skills  are  clearly  aligned  to  Common  Core  standards  and  our  digitally  connected  culture.    Attendees  will  be  able  to  vote  for  their  favorites  during  the  Fest  on  June  29th  in  Atlanta  and  winners  will  be  announced  at  that  time.  

The  2014  Categories  for  Machinima  are:  

Timed  Video  Categories  6  Seconds  and  Gone  (it’s  like  vine  -­‐  only  6  seconds)    60  Seconds  and  Gone  (you  have  60  second  to  show  us  something!)    60  Second  -­‐  3  Minutes  Metagame  theme    The  theme  for  this  year’s  Virtual  Environments’  playground  is  the  Metagame.  The  metagame  is  all  the  learning  that  happens  outside  the  game.  How  would  you  show  us  the  metagame?  You  have  between  60  seconds  and  3  minutes  to  try.    No  Time  Limit  Video  Categories  Digital  Storytelling    Digital  Sandbox/Building  (show  us  how  to  build  in  your  game,  world  or  server)    Let’s  Play/Tutorials    

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Curriculum  or  Content  Area  (Machinima  related  to  any  curriculum  or  content  area)    Google  Hangout  Livestream  (let’s  see  how  you  are  livestreaming  and  recording  gameplay  using  Google  Hangout)    Mixed  Media  (must  contain  at  least  80%  of  screencapture  in  video  games  or  3D  environments)    Channels  This  can  be  YouTube,  TwitchTv,  Vimeo  or  other  public  channels  where  at  least  80%  of  the  videos  are  Machinima.  

Additionally  judge’s   awards  will   be   given   for  Best   Overall,  Special   Effects,  Editing,   Sound,  Machinimatography  and  a  special  category:     ISTE  Conference  clips.      

 

Be  on   the   lookout   for   “Greenscreen”   video   capturing   stations   that  will  place  you   into   a   virtual   environment,  Minecraft,   or  World  of  Warcraft.    Then  come  to  the  Fest  and  see  your  performance  on  the  BIG  screen.  

Want  to  know  more  about  making  machinima?    Check  out  the  Machinima  Livebinder  at:  http://www.livebinders.com/play/play_or_edit?id=306926      Follow  the  EduMachinima  Twitter  @EduMachinima  

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It’s  all  about  the  Meta…..the  metagame  that  is!  Why  can’t  your  students  put  down  Minecraft?  What  is  about  World  of  Warcraft,  Guild  Wars  and  Clash  of  Clans  that  has  them  so  engaged?  We’re  not  talking  solo  play  but  collaborative  learning  online  in  virtual  communities.  This  learning  goes  beyond  the  game  world  and  extends  to  multiple  platforms  to  include  

YouTube,  blogs,  wikis,  twitter,  guild  sites  and  other  creative  endeavors.  

Have  you  taken  a  look  to  see  what  your  students  are  doing  in  these  worlds?  It’s  deeper  learning  and  it  can  totally  map  to  the  standards  we’re  being  asked  to  use.  

When  your  student  showed  you  that  lego-­‐looking  building  in  Minecraft  did  you  see  where  the  computational  thinking  took  place?  

In  World  of  Warcraft,  did  you  see  high  school  level  statistics  and  probability  straight  out  of  the  common  core?  

Over  Skype  and  other  VOIP,  have  your  students  told  you  about  the  international  collaboration  and  digital  citizenship  straight  out  of  the  ISTE  NETS?  

Metagame:    Virtual  Environments  Playground  

 ISTE  2014:  Monday  June  30,  2-­‐  5:30  pm  

GWCC  Building  B,  Level  2  (  near  room  B206)    

Playground  Coordinator:    Vasili  Giannoutsos  (RL)  Bluebarker  Lowtide  (SL)  

 

Be  Sure  To  Join  The  Fun!                                  Hope  To  See  You  

@  ISTE  2014  

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Have  you  seen  them  progress  from  Minecraft  to  Roblox  to  full  sandbox  genres  like  OpenSim?  

They  are  creating  tutorials,  videos,  worlds  and  even  online  civilizations.  That’s  the  metagame  and  every  afternoon  and  evening  your  students  are  in  there  online  creating  it.    

In  this  virtual  environments  playground,  participants  will  experience  the  authentic  learning  experience  that  goes  beyond  game  convention  into  the  Metagame.  Our  goal  is  to  give  participants  the  skills  and  tools  needed  to  support  students  in  building  the  worlds  of  the  future  and  a  community  that  extends  beyond  the  conference.  

Stations  include:  

• Virtual  Education  Journal  (VEJ)  with  an  Occulus  Rift  Demonstration  

• Minecraft  with  Marianne  Malmstrom  and  Laura  Briggs  • World  of  Warcraft  with  Inevitable  Instructors  • Open  Sim,  Kitely  and  Second  Life  with  Andrew  Wheelock  and  Scott  Merrick  

• Coding  with  Trish  Cloud  and  Laura  Briggs  • #metagame  and  the  Metagame  Book  Club    

We’ll  be  using  the  hashtag  #metagame  on  twitter  and  Google+  to  send  out  updates  so  please  follow  us  there.  

In  addition  to  this  year’s  playground,  VEN  has  a  Google  +  Community  and  synchronous  online  events  in  which  participants  can  network  and  continue  to  support  and  collaborate  with  each  other  throughout  the  year.  

Useful  Links:  

• VEN  Google  +  Community  http://bit.ly/sigvegoogle  • VEN  Weebly  http://sigve.weebly.com/  • ISTE  VEN    flickr  site  http://www.flickr.com/groups/sigve/  • SIGVE  Edmodo  https://www.edmodo.com/publisher/istesigve  • Virtual  Education  Journal  (VEJ)  http://virtualeducationjournal.com/  

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 Participants  will  experience  elements  of  alternate  reality  games  

(ARG)  using  mobile  devices,  transmedia  and  critical  thinking  skills  to  play  and  solve  the  mystery  as    students  would.    

This  is  Not  A  Game  (TINAG)  or  the  TINAG  attitude  is  one  of  the  elements  that  sets  the  tone  for  this  type  of  highly  engaging  and  challenging  game.  It  is  also  why  ARGs  work  so  well  in  engaging  students  in  exploring  real-­‐world  issues  and  solving  authentic  problems.  It  is  an  alternative  to  flipped  classrooms  and  case  studies  and  allows  students  to  play  a  role  in  a  situated  environment.  ARGs  also  allow  the  teacher  to  be  creative  with  how  technology  is  used  to  enhance  learning  and  create  a  playful  space  for  students.      

This  Is  Not  a  Game!  Learning  with  

Alternate  Reality  Games        

An  Interactive  Lecture  @  ISTE  2014  Tuesday,  July  1,  1:15  pm  –  2:15  pm    

By  Kae  Novak,  Tanya  Martin,  Chris  Luchs,  Joseph  Doan  and  Mellody  Collier  

 

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In  this  interactive  session,  participants  will  experience  in  an  abbreviated  time  period,  the  fun,  flow  and  fiero  of  an  Alternate  Reality  Game  (ARG).  ARGs  are  interactive  narratives  that  use  the  real  world,  technology,  movement  and  transmedia  as  platforms  for  learning.    Participants  will  be  able  to  identify  the  specific  components  of  an  ARG  that  allow  for  cognitive  scaffolds  and  problem-­‐based  learning.  They  will  understand  the  underlying  methodology  of  an  interactive  narrative  played  out  over  multiple  media  platforms.  Participants  will  also  be  able  to  determine  if  they  have  the  time  and  the  resources  to  integrate  a  full  ARG  into  their  curriculum  or  instead  use  certain  elements.  Unlike  other  forms  of  game-­‐based  learning,  ARGs  allow  teachers  to  be  game  masters,  storytellers  and  co-­‐create  the  game  and  the  experience  along  with  their  students.    

Keller’s  ARCS  Motivation  Model  will  be  employed  in  the  design  of  the  interactive  session  and  participants  will  leave  understanding  how  to  choose  elements  of  an  ARG  that  would  work  for  motivation  in  their  classroom.  Mobile  technology  and  transmedia  will  be  utilized  and  allow  

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for  assessment  of  participant’s  information  and  technology  literacy.  There  will  be  an  emphasis  on  finding  the  right  technology  tool  based  on  the  educator’s  particular  circumstance.    They  will  also  understand  and  be  able  to  articulate  how  ARGs  fit  into  the  7E  learning  cycle  of  Elicit,  Engage,  Explore,  Explain,  Elaborate,  Evaluate  and  Extend.      The  presenters  have  used  ARGs  for  business,  accounting,  mircobiology  and  criminal  justice  classes  as  well  as  professional  development  for  educators  and  administrators.      Session  Purpose  &  Objectives    After  a  short  welcome,  presenters  will  introduce  the  20-­‐minute  gameplay.  Participants  will  be  placed  into  teams  and  use  their  mobile  devices  to  research,  work  out  the  puzzle  and  solve  the  mystery  designed  for  the  interactive  lecture  session.  The  20-­‐minutes  is  designed  to  be  fully  engaging  so  that  participants  experience  the  orchestrated  time  prior  to  discussing  the  potential  in  classrooms.    Participants  will  make  choices  in  a  type  of  crowdsourcing  research  task,  in  an  effort  to  solve  a  defined  problem,  using  the  digital  tools  at  their  disposal.    The  remainder  of  the  hour  will  be  spent  in  an  interactive  discussion/brainstorming  of  ARG  design  and  elements  of  ARGs.      Presenter  Background    The  presenters  for  this  workshop  are  varied  in  their  experiences  and  come  from  different  parts  of  the  United  State  having  met  while  organizing  an  online  virtual  worlds  conference.  Kae  Novak,  Joseph  Doan,  Chris  Luchs,  and  Tanya  Martin  followed  up  that  conference  with  collaborating  together  to  design  and  deliver  a  4-­‐week  open  course  on  P2PU  entitled  ARG  Academy  during  summer  2012.  https://p2pu.org/en/groups/arg-­‐academy/.        Following  the  ARG  Academy,  Kae,  Chris,  Joseph  and  Mellody  Collier,  the  fifth  presenter  in  this  group,  were  involved  in  the  design  and  implementation  of  the  game  elements  and  were  breakout  session  presenters  in  ISTE  2013  Epic  Leadership  Symposium:  Gamification  

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Beyond  the  Hype.  http://inevitablebetrayal.shivtr.com/pages/iste2013epic.        This  unique  group  of  educators  collaborate  on  a  regular  basis  to  bring  innovations  to  their  respective  organizations.      Presentation  Website:  http://inevitablebetrayal.shivtr.com/pages/playarg        ISTE  Standards•T  (Teachers)    1.  Facilitate  and  Inspire  Student  Learning  and  Creativity    

b.  Engage  students  in  exploring  real-­‐world  issues  and  solving  authentic  problems  using  digital  tools  and  resources    Although  we  are  exploring  alternate  reality  games,  participants  will  explore  real  worlds  issues  and  authentic  problems  using  digital  tools  and  resources  the  same  way  that  their  student  would.  They  will  be  able  to  experience  the  augmented  reality,  extrapolate  from  it  and  bring  this  methodology  back  into  their  classroom.      d.  Model  collaborative  knowledge  construction  by  engaging  in  learning  with  students,  colleagues,  and  others  in  face-­‐to-­‐face  and  virtual  environments.    Participants  in  this  session  will  engage  in  learning  with  colleagues  face-­‐to-­‐face  and  virtually.    

 2.  Design  and  Develop  Digital  Age  Learning  Experience  and  Assessments    

a.  Design  and  adapt  relevant  learning  experiences  that  incorporate  digital  tools  and  resources  to  promote  student  learning  and  creativity.      Participants  will  learn  how  to  design  and  adapt  ARGs  which  utilize  digital  tools  and  resources  across  numerous  platforms  to  promote  student  engagement,  learning  and  creativity.  

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   Supporting  Research    Considerable  research  has  been  done  on  game  based  learning  and  augmented  reality  in  education  at  MIT  and  by  Chris  Dede  at  Harvard  University  looking  at  immersive  simulations  and  their  use  in  relation  to  student  learning,  engagement  and  assessment.    Less  research  has  been  done  on  ARGs  which  expand  the  learning  platform  to  the  whole  world  and  give  the  teacher  the  role  of  game  master  and  storyteller.  The  research  that  supports  ARGs  educationally  and  where  we  can  find  the  role  for  teachers  in  them  are  below:    McGonigal,  J.  (2006).  This  might  be  a  game.  (Doctoral  dissertation,  University  of  California)  Retrieved  from  http://www.avantgame.com/McGonigal_THIS_MIGHT_BE_A_GAME_sm.pdf    McGonigal,  J.  (2008)  Why  I  Love  Bees:  A  Case  Study  in  Collective  Intelligence  Gaming.  In  The  Ecology  of  Games:  Connecting  Youth,  Games  and  Learning,  ed.  Katie  Salen.  Massachusetts:  MIT  Press,199-­‐228.    Bellocchi  (2012)  reported  on  using  an  alternate  reality  game  as  a  way  or  engage  pre-­‐service  teachers  with  STEM  subjects.      Bellocchi,  A.  (2012).  Practical  considerations  for  integrating  alternate  reality  gaming  into  science  education.  Teaching  Science:  The  Journal  Of  The  Australian  Science  Teachers  Association,  58(4),  43-­‐46.      Tsvetkova  et  al.  (2009)  advocate  for  the  use  of  ARGs  in  Teacher  training  as  well  as  in  O’Donovan  et  al.  (2009).      Tsvetkova,  N.,  Stoimenova,  B.,  Tsvetanova,  S.,  Connolly,  T.,  Stansfield,  M.,  Hainey,  T.,  &  ...  Ortiz,  C.  (2009).  Arguing  for  Multilingual  Motivation  in  Web  2.0:  the  Teacher  Training  Perspective.  Proceedings  Of  The  European  Conference  On  Games  Based  Learning,  371-­‐378.      O'Donovan,  A.,  Tsvetkova,  N.,  Stoimenova,  B.,  Tsvetanova,  S.,  Connolly,  T.,  Stansfield,  M.,  &  ...  Ortiz,  C.  (2009).  The  Truth  About  Alternate  Reality  Games:  Args  in  Educational  Method,  Args  as  Educational  Method.  

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Proceedings  Of  The  European  Conference  On  Games  Based  Learning,  287-­‐293.      Additional  articles  and  publication  on  the  use  of  Alternate  Reality  Games  for  education  include:    Boskic,  N.  (2011).  Play  to  Become  a  Leader  and  a  Citizen  of  the  World:  ARGs  as  Teaching  Spaces  for  Personal  and  Social  Change.  Proceedings  Of  The  European  Conference  On  Games  Based  Learning,  675-­‐682.      W.  Butler,  J.  (2010).  A  Whodunit  in  Two  Acts:  An  Online  Murder  Mystery  that  Enhances  Library  and  Internet  Search  Skills.  In  D.  Gibson  &  B.  Dodge  (Eds.),  Proceedings  of  Society  for  Information  Technology  &  Teacher  Education  International  Conference  2010  (pp.  3197-­‐3200).  Chesapeake,  VA:  AACE.    Hakulinen,  L.  (2012).  Alternate  Reality  Game  for  University-­‐Level  Computer  Science  Education.  Proceedings  Of  The  European  Conference  On  Games  Based  Learning,  623-­‐626.      Holden,  C.  L.,  &  Sykes,  J.  M.  (2010).  Leveraging  mobile  games  for  place-­‐based  language  learning.  International  Journal  of  Games-­‐Based  Learning,  1(2)  1–22.  Retrieved  from  http://arisgames.org/wp-­‐content/uploads/2011/04/Holden_Sykes_PROOF.pdf    Moseley,  A.,  Whitton,  N.,  Culver,  J.,  &  Piatt,  K.  (2009).  Motivation  in  Alternate  Reality  Gaming  Environments  and  Implications  for  Education.  Proceedings  Of  The  European  Conference  On  Games  Based  Learning,  279-­‐286.      O'Shea,  P.,  &  Curry-­‐Corcoran,  D.  (2012).  The  viability  and  value  of  student-­‐  and  teacher-­‐created  augmented  reality  experiences.  In  T.  Amiel  &  B.  Wilson  (Eds.  (Eds.),  Proceedings  of  World  Conference  on  Educational  Multimedia,  Hypermedia  and  Telecommunications  2012  (pp.  2297-­‐  2320).  Chesapeake,  VA:  AACE.          

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Explore  the  potential  of  learner  analytics,  dashboards  and  data  visualization  offered  by  Massively  Multiplayer  Online  Role-­‐Playing  Games  (MMORPGs)  for  assessment  and  student  driven  learning.      Educators  and  students  spend  a  lot  of  our  time  generating,  reviewing,  and  sharing  data  with  our  students  and  colleagues.  What  story  does  this  data  tell  us?  More  importantly  how  can  it  be  harnessed  to  help  students  succeed?      While  most  learner  analytic  tools  in  education  are  currently  being  investigated,  prototyped  and  built,  a  plethora  of  complete,  mature,  and  robust  tools  are  already  available  for  players  of  popular  MMORPGs.  These  online  games  are  actually  massive  experimental  learning  spaces  where  participants  are  constantly  assessed,  provided  immediate  feedback,  and  provided  tools  to  monitor  progress  and  improvement  as  they  progress  through  the  game.  The  learner  analytics  come  in  the  form  of  the  various  addons,  mods  and  plugins  created  as  supplements  to  the  game.      This  session  presents  examples  of  these  learner  analytics  tools  and  discusses  how  gamers  utilize  them  to  learn  by  analyzing  the  data  to  

Learner  Analytics  in  MMORPGs:  Use  for  Curriculum  and  Instruction  

ISTE  2014  Poster  presentation  Sunday,  June  29,  2:00  –  4:00  pm    

 By  Joseph  Doan,  Chris  Luchs,    Tanya  Martin  &  Kae  Novak  

 

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evaluate  self  and  peer  performance  and  formulate  strategies  aligned  to  the  evaluation.      Session  Purpose  &  Objectives  

• Provide  examples  of  learner  analytics  and  tools  used  by  players  of  popular  MMORPGs  

• Discuss  what  these  tools  measure  and  how  they  gather  the  information  

• Discuss  how  players  utilize  these  tools    • Discuss  overall  scaffolding,  presentation  of  learning  material,  and  instructional  design  aspects  of  MMORPGs  

• Discuss  how  instructors  can  use  analytics  in  game  based  learning  

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Presenter  Background    These  four  presenters  are  member  of  a  gaming  guild,  which  presents  a  regular  weekend  webinar  for  educators  to  learn  more  about  gameplay  in  World  of  Warcraft,  Minecraft,  Elder  Scrolls  Online  and  other  MMORPGs.  Past  livestreams  can  be  viewed  at  the  Inevitable  Instructors  Playlist  http://bit.ly/inevitableinstructors  .   Presentation  Website:  http://inevitablebetrayal.shivtr.com/pages/analyticsinmmorpgs    ISTE  Standards  addressed  1.  c.  Use  models  and  simulations  to  explore  complex  systems  and  issues.    MMORPGs  use  sophisticated  modeling,  math  and  statistics  for  all  aspects  of  game  play.  To  optimize  performance,  the  users  must  research  this  modeling,  test  strategies,  and  then  develop  strategies  to  adapt  to  changes  in  the  models  as  the  MMORPG  developers  adjust  their  models.      3.  c.  Evaluate  and  select  information  sources  and  digital  tools  based  on  the  appropriateness  to  specific  tasks.    MMORPGs  have  thousands  of  devoted  players.  Many  players  have  developed  third  party  fan  and  supplemental  site  that  offer  advice,  strategies,  tactics  and  more  to  players.  Players  must  learn  to  sift  through  all  the  meta  data  and  select  the  sources  and  tools  that  best  fit  their  playstyle  or  immediate  needs.      4.  c.  Collect  and  analyze  data  to  identify  solutions  and/or  make  informed  decisions.    MMORPGS  are  real  time  fail  fast  environments  that  promote  collaboration,  rapid  prototyping  of  strategies  and  tactics,  and  quick  decision  making.  Many  players  have  done  preliminary  research  to  prepare  them  for  specific  challenges  and  adapt  their  strategies  and  tactics  as  they  collect  new  data  during  their  experiences  in  game.          

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Common  Core  State  Standards  addressed  9-­‐12  Modeling  

Learner  Analytics  in  MMORPGs  link  classroom  mathematics  and  statistics  to  gameplay  and  decision  making.  Learner  analytics  are  used  to  interpret  the  mathematics  in  terms  of  the  original  situation  and  validating  the  conclusion  by  comparing  them  with  the  situation  and  making.    Learner  analytics  provide  a  process  for  educators  and  learners  to  understand  modeling  conditions  in  order  to  make  individual  adjustments  as  necessary.    

 9-­‐12  Statistics  and  Probability  

Standards  of  Mathematical  Practice:  High  School:  Statistics  &  Probability                                  

 Understand  and  evaluate  random  processes  underlying  statistical  experiments  

CCSS.Math.Content.HSS-­‐IC.A.2  Decide  if  a  specified  model  is  consistent  with  results  from  a  given  data-­‐generating  process,  e.g.,  using  simulation.  For  example,  a  model  says  a  spinning  coin  falls  heads  up  with  probability  0.5.  Would  a  result  of  5  tails  in  a  row  cause  you  to  question  the  model?    Evaluate  models  from  addons  and  mods  to  see  if  they  are  consistent  with  in-­‐game  play.    

 Understand  independence  and  conditional  probability  and  use  them  to  interpret  data  

CCSS.Math.Content.HSS-­‐CP.A.2  Understand  that  two  events  A  and  B  are  independent  if  the  probability  of  A  and  B  occurring  together  is  the  product  of  their  probabilities,  and  use  this  characterization  to  determine  if  they  are  independent.  Determine  if  two  events  are  independent  during  gameplay.    

 CCSS.Math.Content.HSS-­‐CP.A.3  Understand  the  conditional  probability  of  A  given  B  as  P(A  and  B)/P(B),  and  interpret  independence  of  A  and  B  as  saying  that  the  conditional  probability  of  A  given  B  is  the  same  as  the  probability  of  A,  and  the  conditional  probability  of  B  given  A  is  the  same  as  the  probability  of  B.  Determine  if  two  events  are  independent  during  gameplay.    

 

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CCSS.Math.Content.HSS-­‐CP.A.5  Recognize  and  explain  the  concepts  of  conditional  probability  and  independence  in  everyday  language  and  everyday  situations.  For  example,  compare  the  chance  of  having  lung  cancer  if  you  are  a  smoker  with  the  chance  of  being  a  smoker  if  you  have  lung  cancer.  Independently  and  also  using  game  analytics  explain  the  concept  of  conditional  probability  and  independence  in  relation  to  their  own  and  others’  gameplay.    

 Use  probability  to  evaluate  outcomes  of  decisions  

CCSS.Math.Content.HSS-­‐MD.B.5  (+)  Weigh  the  possible  outcomes  of  a  decision  by  assigning  probabilities  to  payoff  values  and  finding  expected  values.  Using  in  game  analytics,  addons  and  mods  weigh  the  possible  outcomes  of  a  design  by  assigning  probabilities  to  payoff  values  and  finding  expected  values.      CCSS.Math.Content.HSS-­‐MD.B.5a  Find  the  expected  payoff  for  a  game  of  chance.  For  example,  find  the  expected  winnings  from  a  state  lottery  ticket  or  a  game  at  a  fast-­‐food  restaurant.  Using  in  game  analytics,  addons  and  mods  weigh  find  the  expected  result  of  an  encounter  or  equipment  drop.  

 CCSS.Math.Content.HSS-­‐MD.B.5b  Evaluate  and  compare  strategies  on  the  basis  of  expected  values.  For  example,  compare  a  high-­‐deductible  versus  a  low-­‐deductible  automobile  insurance  policy  using  various,  but  reasonable,  chances  of  having  a  minor  or  a  major  accident.  Evaluate  and  compare  strategies  based  on  expected  values  such  as  player  level,  item  level  and  percentage  of  equipment  drops  on  a  specific  encounter.    CCSS.Math.Content.HSS-­‐MD.B.6  (+)  Use  probabilities  to  make  fair  decisions  (e.g.,  drawing  by  lots,  using  a  random  number  generator).  Use  probabilities  to  make  decisions  on  group  sharing  of  winnings  based  on  random  number  generator.  

 CCSS.Math.Content.HSS-­‐MD.B.7  (+)  Analyze  decisions  and  strategies  using  probability  concepts  (e.g.,  product  testing,  medical  testing,  pulling  a  hockey  goalie  at  the  end  of  a  game).  Analyze  decisions  and  strategies  using  probability  concepts  such  

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as  assignments  within  a  group  or  decision  to  initiate  an  encounter.  

 Supporting  Research    The  use  of  MMORPGs  for  learning  has  been  explored  and  researched  during  the  last  decade  in  research  like  Childress,  M.,  &  Braswell,  R.  (2006).  Using  Massively  Multiplayer  Online  Role-­‐Playing  Games  for  Online  Learning.  Distance  Education,  27(2),  187-­‐196.  and  works  like  Steinkuehler,  C.  &  Chmiel,  M.  (2006).  Fostering  scientific  habits  of  mind  in  the  context  of  online  play.  International  conference  on  learning  sciences,  723–729.    Over  the  last  decade,  Jim  Gee  has  also  been  advocating  for  the  use  of  games  as  assessment  in  his  presentations  and  writings.      Gee,  J.  P.  What  Video  Games  Have  to  Teach  Us  about  Learning  and  Literacy.  2nd  ed.:  Revised  and  Updated.  New  York:  Palgrave  Macmillan,  2007.  Gee,  J.  P.  (Presenter)  (2008).  Big  thinkers:  James  Paul  Gee  on  grading  with  games  [Web  Video].  Retrieved  from  http://www.edutopia.org/james-­‐gee-­‐video  Gee,  J.  (Presenter).  (2010,  May  24).  Innovation,  gaming  and  assessment  [Web  Video].  Retrieved  from  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyiOlWXDd-­‐Q    Herron,  K.  (2012,  March  29).  [Web    Blog].  Retrieved  from  http://spotlight.macfound.org/blog/entry/jim-­‐gee-­‐on-­‐the-­‐use-­‐of-­‐video-­‐games-­‐for-­‐learning-­‐about-­‐learning    Yet,  player  analytics  and  learner  decision  making  based  on  analytics  is  an  emerging  trend  and  the  research  is  preliminary  in  nature.  Currently  the  Journal  of  Computer  Assisted  Learning  (JCAL)  has  a  call  out  for  a  special  issue  on  Learner  Analytics  in  Massively  Multiuser  Games,  Virtual  Worlds  and  Course.      The  NMC  Horizon  Report:  2013  Higher  Education  Edition  reports  learning  analytics  as  being  two  to  three  years  from  adoption.  The  learner  analytics  discussed  “assess  responses,  provide  immediate  feedback  and  make  adjustments  in  content  delivery  and  format  (  

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Johnson  et  al.,  2013).  MMORPGs  already  do  this  and  provide  dashboards  where  players  receive  actionable  data.  Johnson,  L.,  Adams  Becker,  S.,  Cummins,  M.,  Estrada,  V.,  Freeman,  A.,  and  Ludgate,  H.  (2013).  NMC  Horizon  Report:  2013  Higher  Education  Edition.  Austin,  Texas:  The  New  Media  Consortium.    In  Stage  1  of  research  conducted  by  Hou  (2012)  the  game  records  motion  and  event.  82  recorded  items  provided  information  on  learning  process  as  a  way  for  parents  to  monitor  players’  progress.  Hou,  H.  (2012).  Exploring  the  behavioral  patterns  of  learners  in  an  educational  massively  multiple  online  role-­‐playing  game  (MMORPG).  Computers  &  Education,  58(4),  1225-­‐1233.  doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2011.11.015    We  anticipate  that  the  popularity  of  game  based  learning  will  necessitate  that  educators,  curriculum  developers,  teacher  educators  and  administrators  understand  how  analytics  are  used  by  players  to  learn  and  drive  needed  research.    This  poster  session  seeks  to  present  a  basic  foundation  on  learner  analytics  in  MMORPGs.    

   

MUST  READ:  Report  Released  March  11,  2014    

Digital  Life  in  2025    Experts  predict  the  Internet  will  become  ‘like  electricity’  –  less  visible,    yet  more  deeply  embedded  in  people’s  lives,  for  good  and  ill.      A  collaborative  effort  based  on  the  input  and  analysis  of  the  following  individuals:  Prof.  Janna  Anderson,  Director,  Elon  University’s  Imagining  the  Internet  Project  Lee  Raine,  Director,  Internet  Project  Maeve  Duggan,  Research  Assistant,  Internet  Project    Read  the  report  @  http://www.elon.edu/docs/e-­‐web/imagining/surveys/2014_survey/PEW-­‐Elon%20DIgital%20Life%20in%202025_Report%20I%203-­‐11-­‐14.pdf      Find  related  reports  about  the  future  of  the  Internet  @    http://www.pewinternet.org/topics/future-­‐of-­‐the-­‐internet/pages/2/    

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#METAGAME  Book  Club  July  15  -­‐  August  16,  2014  

 http://sites.google.com/site/metagamebookclub/      

     Welcome!  We’re  doing  a  book  club.  Well,  actually  it's  a  Book  Club  +.  Inevitable  Instructors  along  with  ISTE's  Virtual  Environments  Network  and  the  Games  &  Simulations  Network  will  be  doing  a  summer  book  club  from  July  15  -­‐  August  16,  2014.    It  involves  reading  publications,  a  really  great  book,  going  to  websites,  watching  videos  and  even  going  in  game.  So  there  is  no  question  about  it  –  the  #metagame  book  club  is  a  Book  Club  +.    This  book  club  has  2  tracks.  There  are  Game  Studies  (great  for  English  and  humanities  teachers)  academic  readings  with  Sherry  Jones,  the  creator  of  the  Rhetoric  and  Games  or  rgMOOC.            The  second  track  will  be  facilitated  by  the  educator’s  gaming  guild,  Inevitable  Betrayal.    The  book  for  the  second  track,  is  the  young  adult  book,  For  the  Win,  by  Cory  Doctorow  (great  for  economics,  social  studies  and  anyone  looking  to  

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engage  their  students  in  reading).  It  is  also  gives  an  insider’s  look  into  massively  multi-­‐player  online  role-­‐playing  games  (MMOs  and  MMORPGs).      Vasili  Giannoutous  will  lead  up  the  literary  discussion  with  Kristina  Thoennes  and  Trish  Cloud.  The  Inevitable  Betrayal  guild  will  livestream  from  World  of  Warcraft  to  show  you  the  endgame  play  described  in  the  book.      For  the  Win,  also  goes  delves  into  virtual  economics.  From  World  of  Warcraft,  Chris  Luchs  and  Kae  Novak  will  livestream  how  the  economy  functions  in  a  global  online  game.    For  The  Win  is  available  on  Kindle,  in  print,  or  you  can  download  the  free  version  at  http://craphound.com/ftw/download/    This  is  an  open  book  club  for  all  educators.  We’ll  be  using  the  hashtag  #metagame  for  twitter  and  all  tagging  in  social  media.  The  model  for  the  book  club  is  based  on  social  network  knowledge  construction.      Participating  instructors  will  be  able  to  be  active  in  the  book  club  in  several  ways  from  lurking  (reading  the  discussions)  to  actively  creating  content.  This  will  be  a  great  opportunity  for  you  as  an  educator  to  build  your  game  based  learning  PLN  (Personal  Learning  Network),  learn  about  games  and  have  some  fun!      And  if  you  are  the  ISTE  Conference,  Metagame  Book  Club  facilitators  will  be  at  the  Virtual  Environments  Playground  2  pm  –  530  pm  GWCC  Building  B,  Level  2  (near  Room  B206)  so  drop  by  and  chat  us  up!    To  sign  up  for  the  summer  #METAGAME  Book  Club  please  go  to  http://bit.ly/metagamebooksignup        

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The  Recipe  of  Storytelling:  Step  3  of  3  

By:  Bluebarker  Lowtide  (SL)    Vasili  Giannoutsos  (RL)  

   

 As  any  part  of  any  story  or  narrative,  you  have  the  main  eight  

basic  ideas:  setting,  character,  conflict,  plot,  action,  climax,  resolution  and  conclusion.  But  we  are  talking  about  the  special  things  in  storytelling  that  not  many  people  know  about.    Once  you  know  them,  they  will  certainly  improve  your  stories  and  separate  you  from  the  rest  of  the  formula  fiction  out  there.  Let’s  call  these  the  secret  ingredients  to  making  a  great  story.  

 Today’s  secret  ingredient  is:  Subplot.    

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You  are  probably  wondering  what  a  subplot  is?  Why  is  it  different  from  a  regular  plot?  As  we  know,  a  plot  is  the  events  that  happen  and  surround  your  main  characters  as  they  progress  through  the  story  from  the  beginning  to  the  end.  Subplots  are  the  events  that  happen  to  the  supporting  and/or  background  characters  that  may  or  may  not  involve  your  main  characters.  Now  these  subplots  tend  to  be  more  geared  for  the  lengthy  novels  and  epics,  however  this  does  not  mean  novellas  or  short  stories  cannot  have  these  either.  

 One  may  ask  why  have  subplots  if  a  story  is  only  about  main  

characters?  In  truth,  a  story  is  a  living  and  breathing  world  that  has  everyday  characters  that  run  the  stores,  enforce  the  laws,  or  even  run  libraries.  These  are  their  stories  and  they  have  a  place  in  the  compendium  of  Literacy  Devices.    

 In  most  cases,  stories  are  a  gateway  into  the  experiences,  trials  

and  tribulations  of  the  human  condition,  and  by  extension,  about  us.  It  is  this  fundamental  component  that  has  kept  civilizations  alive,  long  after  their  fall:  from  ancient  Rome  to  the  Medieval  times;  from  the  stone  age  to  the  industrial  age;  and  even  from  Eastern  European  culture  to  the  land  of  the  rising  sun.    

 Stories.      No  matter  how  big  or  how  small,  stories  stand  the  test  of  time  and  

are  the  true  legacies  and  memorabilia  of  our  society  as  they  weave  the  story  that  is  humanit.  

   In  modern  times,  there  has  been  an  emergence  of  subplots  most  

commonly  known  as  episodic  television  shows.  From  high-­‐thrilling  dramas  to  kid-­‐friendly  cartoons,  episodes  are  essentially  extra  stories  that,  bit  by  bit,  continue  the  story  as  they  sprinkle  in  memorable  characters  and  events.    

 Another  form  that  subplot  has  jumped  into  is  superhero  comics.  

In  addition  to  the  main  hero  defeating  villains,  supporting  characters  have  their  day-­‐to-­‐day  jobs  that  often  help  or  hinder  the  main  hero.  For  instance,  Lois  Lane  is  a  reporter  for  the  Daily  Planet  and  often  needs  to  be  saved  by  Superman  because  of  the  predicaments  she  finds  herself  in.  

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Our  examples  for  this  article  are  two  adaptations  inspired  by  real  ink-­‐paged  books.  First,  Lewis  Carrol’s  “Through  the  Looking-­‐Glass.”  Second,  L.  Frank  Baum’s  “The  Wonderful  Wizard  of  Oz.”  These  are  two  beautifully  written  literary  classics  that  have  the  perfect  amount  of  spice  through  imagery  and  subplots.  So  cleverly  written  –  they  are  an  afterthought.    

 Tim  Burton’s  2010  film  adaptation,  “Alice  in  Wonderland,”  and  

Stephen  Schwartz  Broadway  musical  adaptation  ,“Wicked,”  which  is  a  further  adaptation  of  “Wicked:  The  Life  and  Times  of  the  Wicked  Witch  of  the  West”  by  Gregory  Maguire  have  brought  English  Literature  to  the  forefront  of  pop  culture  and  the  nation’s  youth.    Though  both  have  ground  breaking  visual  effects  and  state  of  the  art  technologies,  they  both  share  the  commonality  of  superb  story,  character  and  narrative  elements  that  make  them  really  shine.    

 The  subplot  spectacle  could  continue  in  many  ways,  such  as  with  

the  white  rabbit,  Bayard  the  bloodhound,  or  the  White  Queen  in  Tim  Burton’s  dark  revelation  of  the  curious  world  of  Wonderland.    But  the  subplot  I  would  like  to  focus  on  is  of  Mallymkun  the  Dormouse.    

 

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In  most  other  reincarnations,  the  Dormouse  has  been  a  slothy  mouse  that  sings  and  tells  stories  if  one  can  keep  him  awake.  In  the  adaptation,  still  accompanying  the  Mad  Hatter  and  the  March  Hare  at  a  never-­‐ending  Tea  Party,  Mallymkun  is  quite  the  juxtaposition  as  she  becomes  a  courageous,  swashbuckling  dormouse.  Mallymkum  is  very  action-­‐orientated  and  without  her  help,  Alice  would  not  have  escaped  capture  from  the  Bandersnatch.  Mallymkum  singlehandedly  defeated  terrifying  creatures  that  would  have  done  harm  to  the  main  characters.    

 Though  in  essence,  the  debate  of  Mallymkum  being  a  support  or  

main  character  could  arise.  Main  characters  are  trademarked  by  their  emotional  and  mental  changes  throughout  the  story  whereas  Mallymkum  remained  heroically  flat  throughout  the  film.    

 Within  “Wicked,”  we  find  the  perspective  switched  from  Dorothy  

to  the  Wicked  Witch  of  the  West  named  Elphaba.  The  story  does  try  and  explain  the  events  leading  up  to  her  apparent  death,  while  the  musical  provides  fantastic  singing,  bombastic  dancing,  and  charming  characters.  Within  the  characterization  of  the  cast  we  are  treated  to  a  different  side  of  Oz  –  about  a  world  filled  with  mysterious  troubles,  blind  figureheads  and  tragic  oppression.    

 

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Elphaba  wished  to  reveal  the  truth  of  the  matter  but  every  time  she  does,  bad  things  happen  as  her  spells  have  unintended  consequences.    

 The  subplot  I  would  like  you  to  consider  is  Doctor  Dillamond.  

With  a  more  profound  existence  compared  to  Mallymkum,  the  good  Doctor  was  a  representative  of  the  good  that  come  with  animal  rights  and  equality.    

 As  the  story  of  Wicked  continues  we  find  that  animals  have  been  

losing  their  ability  to  speak  along  with  the  equally  gaining  opposition  of  the  authority  of  Oz  to  lock-­‐up  and  subjugate  the  animals  of  Oz.  Due  to  Doctor  Dillamond’s  intellectual  connection,  his  capture  and  imprisonment  gives  Elphaba  her  added  motivation  to  oppose  the  Wizard  of  Oz.  The  Wicked  Witch  of  the  West  could  have  readily  been  an  enemy  of  the  Wizard  of  Oz,  but  with  the  subplot  of  the  animal  persecution,  it  was  added  fuel  to  the  fire.  

 As  we  have  seen  the  added  subplots  can  actually  drive  a  story  

forward  or  be  strong  motivators  for  our  main  characters  to  press  onward  with  more  determination.  Subplots  can  be  as  involved  or  as  simple  as  the  writer  wants,  but  don’t  get  so  wrapped  up  with  subplots  that  you  forget  you  have  a  main  story  to  tell.    

 There  are  several  ways  to  practice  visualizing  subplots.  First  off,  

‘people-­‐watching’  is  a  popular  pastime  for  sociologists  and  artists  that  could  be  done  in  a  mall,  park,  or  any  public  place  really.  But  for  writers,  watching  someone  and  trying  to  create  a  story  for  them  is  a  great  way  to  start.    

 Another  way  to  try  subplots  is  practicing  “A  Day  in  the  Life  of…”  

free  writing  exercises  of  shop  owners,  non-­‐player  characters  (NPCs)  and  sidewalk  walkers.  Imagine  what  a  person  does  in  his  normal  day-­‐to-­‐day  activities  or  interview  someone  to  gain  a  new  perspective  about  what  one  person  out  of  a  billion  does  in  their  life.  See  how  people’s  lives  connect  with  one  another  and  watch  how  the  affect  they  have  on  you  and  your  main  story.  You  will  be  pleasantly  surprised,  I  assure  you.  

   

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   Now  this  wouldn’t  be  complete  without  an  example  lesson,  and  I  

know  a  perfect  way  to  go  with  this  one.  You  may  have  already  been  doing  this  without  even  knowing  it.  History  is  a  great  subject  to  enter  into  the  inside  world  of  subplots  –  that  is,  the  story  within  a  story  if  you  will.    

   When  exploring  Units  of  War,  we  often  look  at  the  factual  

information:  who  won,  how  many  died,  when  the  battle  happened  or  what  kind  of  weapons  they  used.  But  this  is  also  another  exploration  of  the  time  period  and  the  way  they  lived.  Probably  one  of  the  favorite  state  history  topics  in  Virginia  is  the  study  of  the  Civil  War.  Ask  your  students  to  pretend  to  be  a  soldier  in  the  Civil  War.  Help  them  imagine  what  the  times  were  like,  the  places  they  would  see,  or  how  it  would  feel  to  be  fighting  against  their  family  members  because  their  views  differed.    

   The  North  versus  the  South  was  not  the  most  celebrated  time  in  

U.S.  history,  but  it  was  a  very  important  time  in  the  making  of  this  country.  Many  facts  can  be  incorporated  in  this  project.    The  

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information  will  be  more  personable  when  students  do  the  research  themselves.    Basically,  they  can  become  living  historians  when  they  find  enough  information  on  a  particular  person  or  event.  

   It  sounds  simple,  but  subplots  can  be  used  to  effectively  broaden  

an  audience’  view  on  the  bigger  picture  that  is  the  main  story.  Though  subplots  are  simply  a  story  within  a  story,  they  intricately  weave  and  layer  the  plot  with  other  elements  such  as  setting  and  characters.    

   Using  additional  story  elements  within  a  subplot  allows  writers  to  

begin  to  build  something  that  truly  becomes  a  work  of  wonder.  By  creating  and  blending  stories  and  content  with  research,  writer’s  begin  to  cross  the  different  thresholds  of  Maslow’s  hierarchy  of  needs  to  the  top  with  Self-­‐Actualization  –  problem-­‐solving,  creativity  and  interpretation  of  information.    

     

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Did  you  ever,  like  me,  log  into  World  of  Warcraft  (WoW)  and  feel  lonely,  isolated,  disconnected,  and  out-­‐of-­‐touch  .  .  .  as  you  stumbled  around  wondering,  now  what?  What  do  I  do?  How  do  I  start?  What  do  I  need?  How  do  I  play?  What  happens  if  I  die?      

 Well,  the  great  news  is  that  Norana  Cantrell  has  created  a  resource  just  for  us!  She  writes  on  her  website  that  her  guide  began  “when  I  was  taking  a  course  on  education  in  virtual  worlds.  All  of  my  fellow  graduate  students  were  adults  and  the  majority  of  them  had  little  to  no  experience  with  video  games.”        Ms.  Cantrell  continues  saying,  “A  lot  of  the  mechanics  of  playing  in  World  of  Warcraft  was  not  intuitive  for  them.  This  caused  me  to  realize  that,  while  there  is  a  lot  of  material  available  online  on  things  such  as  the  best  way  to  run  through  a  dungeon,  there  was  nothing  on  what  to  do  when  you  die,  or  even  how  to  turn  in  a  quest.”    Thus,  her  website,  http://noranac.wordpress.com/how-­‐to/absolute-­‐beginners-­‐guide-­‐to-­‐wow/  provides  just  that  kind  of  information  for  all  

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of  us  who  would  like  to  start  playing  WoW,  but  don’t  even  know  what  to  ask!  On  her  website  you  can  find  the  following  video  tutorials:    

• Movement  and  Walking  • Quests  and  Questing  • Combat  (aka  Killing  Things)  • Actionbars/Toolbars  • Your  Hearthstone  and  You  • Gear  and  Equipment  • Cleaning  Out  Your  Bags  • What  To  Do  When  You  Die  In-­‐game  

 A  huge  THANK  YOU  to  Norana  Cantrell  for  this  very  useful  guide  for  WoW  newbies  like  me.  Be  sure  to  checkout  her  video  tutorials  at  the  website  listed  above.  

         

                                                                 WoW  Photo  by  Izzy  Karu  

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Raids  are  content  created  to  keep  level-­‐capped  characters  challenged  and  actively  engaged  in  the  game.  When  new  expansions  are  released  and  characters  level-­‐up  to  the  new  highest  achievable  level,  raids  from  previous  expansions  are  not  as  challenging,  but  they  can  still  be  engaging.  Excursions  into  raids  that  characters  have  out-­‐leveled  are  referred  to  as  Retro  Raids.  

 

   Character  level  caps  are  raised  when  new  expansions  are  released,  

usually  years  apart.    Today’s  new  content  will  be  tomorrow’s  “retro”  content  with  a  vintage  appeal.  I  have  been  a  member  of  Inevitable  Betrayal,  a  guild  of  educators,  since  2012.  I  am  a  part  of  the  guild’s  progressive  raid  team  tackling  current-­‐content  raids.  Every  Friday  night,  I  organize  a  Retro  Raid  for  nostalgic  players  or  players  (like  myself)  who  were  not  around  to  experience  these  

Retro  Raids:  The  Vintage  WoW  Experience  

By  Rebekah  Luminos    

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raids  in  their  heyday.       A  raid  consists  of  several  difficult  opponents,  commonly  falling  into  two  categories:  “mobs”  (lesser  opponents  such  as  monsters,  beasts,  etc.)  and  “bosses.”    Because  they  are  not  as  difficult  to  defeat  and  drop  loot  of  lower  quality  than  what  a  boss  drops,  mobs  are  also  often  referred  to  as  “trash”.  In  current-­‐content  raiding,  the  mechanics  of  a  boss  fight  may  take  several  weeks  of  experimentation  and  research  to  overcome.  It  may  take  many  months  of  determination  to  successfully  prevail  over  all  of  the  bosses  of  a  current-­‐content  raid.  Retro  Raiding  is  less  challenging  because,  depending  on  how  much  of  a  gap  there  is  between  the  characters’  levels  and  the  intended  level  of  the  raid,  characters  may  outmatch  the  boss's  power,  sometimes  by  quite  a  lot.  A  Retro  Raid  can  often  be  cleared  in  as  little  as  a  few  hours.       Raids  are  designed  to  test  the  mettle  of  a  large  group.  Commonly,  there  are  two  raid  modes  in  World  of  Warcraft:  10  player  and  25  player.  Recently,  a  “Flexible”  mode  was  introduced  that  allows  for  groups  of  any  number  between  10  and  25  players.  Current-­‐content  raiding  requires  a  full  group,  and  all  participants  must  be  at  the  level  cap.  Retro  Raids  can  accommodate  less  than  10  players,  and  groups  may  include  characters  that  are  not  at  the  level  cap.  The  only  restriction  on  participation  is  that  each  of  the  characters  in  the  group  must  meet  the  minimum-­‐level  requirement  for  which  the  raid  was  originally  designed.  Some  Retro  Raids  can  be  completed  by  a  lone  character  (“soloed”),  depending  on  the  mechanics  of  the  fight.       Raids  often  have  achievements  associated  with  specific  actions  performed  during  encounters  with  bosses.  In  current-­‐content  runs,  the  encounters  are  challenging  enough  without  the  additional  difficulty  of  the  precise  actions  required  to  earn  the  distinct  achievements  associated  with  that  encounter.  A  Retro  Raider  looking  for  a  challenge  might  choose  to  pursue  raid  achievements  as  their  over-­‐all  goal.  Individual  raid  achievements  may  also  be  a  part  of  a  meta-­‐achievement.  In  addition  to  the  achievement  itself,  meta-­‐achievements  usually  reward  cool  titles,  epic  mounts  or  rare  companion/battle  pets.  For  example,  completing  Icecrown  Citadel  —  a  level  

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80  raid  —  in  heroic  mode  rewards  characters  the  title  “Bane  of  the  Fallen  King.”  And  the  meta-­‐achievement  “Glory  of  the  Icecrown  Raider”  rewards  the  Reins  of  the  Bloodbathed  Frostbrood  Vanquisher.  Guild  members  from  Inevitable  Betrayal  celebrated  getting  their  Frostbrood  Vanquishers  by  circling  in  a  flock  together.  

 In  addition  to  character-­‐related  achievements,  completing  Retro  Raids  

in  a  group  consisting  of  at  least  8  members  of  the  same  guild  may  earn  achievements  for  their  guild  as  well.  “Guild  Glory  of  the  Cataclysm  Raider”  unlocks  the  Reins  of  the  Dark  Phoenix  in  the  guild  store.  Items  in  the  guild  store  may  be  purchased  by  any  member  of  the  guild  who  has  earned  a  specific  reputation  with  their  guild  and  has  enough  gold  in  their  pocket.  

                    Collaboration,  coordination,  and  cooperation  are  essential  for  successful  raiding  both  current  or  retro  content.  In  current  content  raiding,  you  formulate  a  strategy  for  surviving  the  encounter  and  ultimately  defeating  your  foe.  In  retro  raiding,  you  formulate  a  strategy  for  obtaining  the  achievement  you  want  from  the  encounter.    It  is  during  these  current  and  retro  raiding  adventures  that  members  of  Inevitable  Betrayal  apply  and  refine  the  teamwork  skills  and  strategies  much  sought  after  by  organizations  and  enterprises  in  the  real  world.  

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Inevitable…  Raiding  in  World  of  Warcraft  

By  Kae  Novak  (RL),  Que  Jinn  (SL)    

We  know  that  you  love  your  other  guild,  server  and  regular  raid  group.  But  perhaps  you  have  a  level  90  alt  who  is  dps  or  heals  and  you  feel  like  dusting  them  off  for  an  occasional  social  run  with  a  group  of  educators.      We  have  the  tanks  -­‐  even  when  we  have  to  three  tank  a  boss.  So  we  would  be  looking  for  heals  and  dps  to  run  a  flex  run  and  who  knows  maybe  occasionally  a  25-­‐player  normal.    We  use  DBM  and  Recount  so  please  have  those  addons  updated.    We  do  have  a  raid  culture.......it's  well....we'll  show  you.    

   Happy  Holidays  Out-­‐takes    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PswvbelaLR0    

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and  it  looks  like  this  when  we  raid.  

 Wing  3  Boss  Attempt  on  Flex  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WueoRUuS5f8    We're  here  to  have  fun  and  ....so  we  frown  upon....well  frowning,  whining,  divas,  dramas  and.....players  with  savior  complexes.  It's  a  social  run  and  we  <3  players  who  realize  that  each  raid  is  a  new  combination  of  players  and  the  chance  to  learn  something  different  with  a  bunch  of  educators  who  game.    Dust  Off  Your  Ally  -­‐  Open  Run  We  take  out  our  Allys  twice  a  month  to  do  a  casual,  social  flex  run.  We  run  for  two  hours  so  please  be  on  time.  It’s  kind  of  like  a  potluck,  we’ll  bring  the  tanks  please  bring  dps  and  heals.  Please  sign  up  here.  http://bit.ly/allyrun    Horde@Heart  –  Open  Run  Twice  a  month  on  Saturdays,  we  do  a  late  night  casual  social  run  that  last  for  two  hours.  Please  sign  up  here.  http://bit.ly/1xcNyxp    And  of  course  as  soon  as  Warlords  of  Draneor  are  out  in  December  2014.....look  for  Expansion  Events  on  our  site!  http://bit.ly/1n7xOG0  

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      A game is an opportunity to focus our energy, with relentless optimism, at

something we’re good at (or getting better at) and enjoy. In other words, gameplay is the direct emotional opposite of depression. -Jane McGonigal, Reality is Broken Technology gives kids power that people their age have never had. Let's help them use it wisely. Marc Prensky

Photo  By  Trish  Cloud  

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achiev n. achievement

add n. additional monster/mob

AFK v. away from keyboard

aggro n. the monster’s focus,

aggression

ah n. Auction House (See also

trade, shop & store)

alt n. another account, not your

main avatar (See also char, toon,

mule, & twinks)

ally n. Alliance player (See also

alli, blueback & goodies)

AO n. Animation Override

aoe n. area of effect

ATM p. at the moment

avatar n. the form you take that

other users can see

BBL p. be back later

belf n. blood elf race

boe adj. binds-on-equip (See also

binds-on-account & No Transfer)

BRB p. be right back

brt p. be right there

buff n. beneficial spell

Builder n. someone who builds or

crafts places, clothes or items

byob p. bring your own buffs

cc n./v. crowd control

cd n./v. cooldown

cp n. combo points

cya p. see ya (later)

dc v. disconnected from

game/server (See also booted,

crash & restart)

debuff n. reduce stats

ding p. level up (See also ping,

ding! & *victory dance*

dk p. don’t know, n. death knight

dmg n. damage

DND p. Do Not Disturb

exp n. experience points

ftw p. for the win

fyi p. for your information

G2G p. Got to Go

gank n./v. planned kill from one

or more players

gg p. good game

gl p. good luck

gm n. game master

gn p. good night

grats p. Congratulations (See

also gz, congrats & congrazzles)

guild n. a group of individuals

that work together for a

common goal (See also clan,

group, party, linkshell & troop)

hax n./adj. someone who is

cheating or hacking

HD n./adj. High Definition

heals n. healer

hp n. hit points, health points

ilvl n. item level

IM n./v. instant message

inc v. incoming

inv n./v. to invite or inventory

inworld n. in game, online

Virtual Worlds Terminology

jk p. just kidding, joke

ks n./v. kill stealer (See also

kingslayer)

l33t n. elite (See also leet, LEET &

pro)

lag v. slow reaction while playing

due to server, computer or

internet

lfg p. looking for group (See also

looking for party, looking for raid

& looking for more)

lol p. laugh out loud (See also lul,

XD, rofl, lmao& lmfao)

lvl n. level

mats n. crafting materials

metagame n. game inside a game

mmorpg n. massively multiplayer

online role playing game

mt p. miss tell, mistype

n b n./adj. unskilled player (See

also noob, newb & noobie)

np p. no problem

npc n. non-player character

nvm p. nevermind

nuke v. deal dmg while ignoring

threat and agro

oic p. oh I see

omg p. oh my gob

omw p. on my way

oom p. out of mana

pc n. player character

pk n./v. player killer

plz p. please (See also plox & PLS)

port n./v. portal or teleport

pot n. potion

prims n. 3D shapes used to build

pwn v. to dominate, to defeat

easily (See also own & pwnage)

QQ emote. Tears, cry me a river

rez v. to make an item appear or

to resurrect a dead player

rl p. real life

rp p. role play

sculptie n. special prim used to

create complex shapes

shammy n./adj. shaman job class

(See also shammie & kitty)

sim n. a place, island or location

sl p. second life

squishy adj. cloth wearing class

sry p. sorry (See also soz & srry)

tank adj. defense, meat shield

tbh p. to be honest

thx p. thanks (See also ty & tyvm)

tp n./v. teleport

troll n./adj./v. to annoy, give bad

response for reactions, creeper

ts p. teamspeak

Uber p. very

Vent p. Ventrilo

Viewer p. program used to view

Virtual Worlds

wb p. welcome back

woot p. expression of joy or

exuberance (See also wohoo, ^^,

yahoo, & yay)

wow p. World of Warcraft

yw p. you’re welcome

zerg v. to rush, to charge

Common Emotes: :) = smile, :))) / :D =big smile,

:C=sad, ^.^ =happy, O.O=surprised, x.X=ouch

All Photo/Image credits belong to their respective owners. This is an

educational material provided for VEN, VEJ and the ISTE 14 conference.

Terms and definitions found online and were compiled by Blue. For

information about VEN, visit: http://goo.gl/8jNMaq .

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