Start: 2012-02-23 12:00:00 > End: 2012-02-23 14:30:00
Location: Meeting room 1, Jennie Lee Building, Walton Hall
Professor Sara de Freitas is visiting the Open University on the 23rd February and will give a talk during her visit which will grab the attention of anyone interested in the learning potential of gaming. The talk takes place in Meeting room 1, Ground floor of the Jennie Lee Building at 12:30 pm (with lunch at 12 noon).
Her lecture will focus upon outlining several grand challenges that face us as a result of global economic downturn, growing population and globalisation. These challenges are exacerbated by the development of interconnected systems which are vulnerable to systematic collapse. At the same time as these real world challenges new technologies and forms such as social networks and online games are becoming more and more pervasive and are now played by increasing numbers of people. This trend towards pervasive social game play is leading to a trend known as gamification, where the use of game elements and metaphors to solve real world problems, motivate learners and raise awareness, to provide therapy and to train hard-to-reach groups is leading to a new trend where games are increasingly used to solve problems and provide engaging education and training. This lecture focuses upon flagship projects in the area of emergency management training, as illustration of the capability of games to be used to save lives and help us to become more robust and resilient in the face of the significant global challenges we face.
Sara is Director of Research at the Serious Games Institute at the University of Coventry where she leads an applied research team working closely with industry. Appointed Professor of Virtual Environments, she holds a visiting senior research fellowship at the London Knowledge Lab, London, is adjunct Professor at the University of Malta and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Relevant web links:
- The Serious Games Institute: http://www.seriousgames.org.uk
- Learning in Immersive worlds report: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning_innovation/eli_outcomes.html
- Serious Virtual Worlds report: www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/seriousvirtualworldsreport.
- Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age book: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415875431/
- Digital Games and Learning book:
- http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=157255&SubjectId=940