Wk 4 Publishing_Leadership Project

There are two technology conferences that I would love to present my AR project at.  My first choice is the Games + Learning + Society (GLS) Conference.  Their website has a "call for papers" that specifically "encourages the submission of . . . innovative talk formats which focus on game design, game culture, and games’ potential for learning and society more broadly." I chose this conference because it is all about reinventing learning through games and simulations. The fact that they are looking for presentations on the potential for games in learning and society makes it a perfect fit for my AR project. 

My second choice is International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference.  I chose this conference because it is an international technology conference that is well respected in the education community. This year marks their 32nd annual conference. They boast to be one of the world's premiere education technology events, which is part of the reason being heard for my research in that type of forum would be a dream come true.

Publishing/Leadership Thinking Outloud Blog #1

Publishing/Leadership Thinking Outloud Blog #2

http://levonda.com/AR/Vickery LeVonda PubLeadProject.pptx

Wk3 - AR Abstract

ABSTRACT

In order to compete in the 21st century workforce it is necessary for people to gain the required  teamwork and leadership skills that are currently being highly sought after.   MMORPGs are highly social environments that provide the opportunity to teach these needed skills.  This action research project shows how this type of social learning highly motivates players to communicate effectively, work together as a team in order to coordinate and cooperate with one another, and lead their guild members through key quests and missions using the MMORPG, Guild Wars.  The findings of this research showed that participants felt communication and teamwork skills were learned using this method.  However, the finding showed leadership skills needed to be researched in more depth.

Wk3 Publishing_Leadership project part 2 of 2: Publish or Present

There are more places to present than I initially thought on using gaming in education, but some of the conferences or symposiums that I think my project would make a real impact at are:

Games in Education Symposium  

Games+Learning+Society (GLS) Conference
 

New Media Consortium [NMC] Conference

Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference 

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Conference 

  

Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education (SITE) Virtual Presentations

PodCamp

I am sure that there are possibly other sources out there that I am unaware of that would allow me to present my Action Research on learning social skills through gaming, but I am still searching for those.  I could also see this making a powerful Podcast after our look this week into podcasts. Even sharing it with other educators on SlideShare is another alternative, but actually being a part of a conference or symposium would be great.  At any rate, I still feel that creating a presentation versus writing an article is the best choice for presenting my research and after looking at all of the above choice for conferences to present at I have chosen the Games+Learning+Society (GLS) Conference.   

Research in Guild Wars

I began my Action Research project in Guild Wars last week, but with the holidays we are a bit behind schedule and trying to get everyone situated.  We had some problems with participants and the Moodle interface I was trying to use, so I have setup a forums to use instead.  Last week we completed the pre-searing quests in Guild Wars getting everyone to about level 7, so that we were able to enter post-searing this week.  We are basically following the Guild Wars storyline completing the various quests and missions that lead us through them.  


Pre-searing only allowed us to work in groups of 2/2, then the first several quests/missions of post-searing only allowed for groups of 4/4, we have now entered an area where we can work in groups of 6/6 and will eventually come to the point where we can work in the max group of 8/8 that Guild Wars allows.  This causes us to have to split up in groups, but I feel this is a good test of leadership and teamwork skills because it allows different people to work together and share their skills with the group.  


I have noticed that so far there isn't a whole lot of teamwork going on as everyone is trying to adjust to the members in their group and excited about the various quests/missions.  There is more solo work going on within the groups than actual teamwork, which unfortunately results in several deaths/revives that would be necessary if they worked together.  My goal with this project is that they will eventually realize that they can accomplish more when working well together than they could alone or by running ahead without their team members.  We are coming to the close of week 2, so we shall see how it turns out.

VirtuGuild.com/forums

FV_AR Pitch

This is my final video for the ETC course at Full Sail University online. It is a pitch for my Action Research project on using Guild Wars to teach Social Skills.

I invite you to participate in this research project with me if you are interested by visiting: http://www.virtuguild.com/invitation.html.