New Virtual U - Conference 2005

Game Simulations for Educational Leadership & Visualization: Virtual U and Beyond

The Education Arcade, The Comparative Media Studies Program at M.I.T., The Virtual U Project, and The Serious Games Initiative invite you to join us for a two-day workshop at M.I.T. This workshop is designed to look at the past, present, and future of games about education and educational life.

The workshop will include a deep look and dissection of Virtual U, a university management simulator. Now entering its fourth year of life Virtual U is recognized as a pioneer of a new class of games commonly called "serious games". Drawing upon the lessons learned from the Virtual U project participants will explore the use of cutting-edge game-based approaches that could aide leaders, students, faculty and the public-at-large as education faces the challenges of a fiscal management, global economics, and the transition to a knowledge-based high-tech world.

Day I: Friday April 15

What I Learned Building VU

Time: 3:15pm-4:15pm
Speaker: William Massy

The original designer of Virtual U, Bill Massy, will present a look back at the project and detail his personal journey from subject matter expert to game designer. These dual tracks provide for an interesting story not only about the past, present, and future of one of the more well known serious game projects but also on the work involved mixing high-level subject matter with game design. Bill will cover the friction between creating a game that accentuates important implicit relationships vs. explicit predicted outcomes.

What in Educational Leadership Should Games Be Utilized For?

Time: 4:30pm-5:30pm
Moderator: Eric Klopfer
Panelists: Susan Shaman, Kurt Squire, Denis Prisk

The challenges facing education today is vast. As the global economy increasingly becomes a knowledge economy entire communities and generations will require sweeping changes and improvements in education. Virtual U shows by example how game-based simulations can provide useful insight into the management of a particular educational system. We know that both the needs of education and the capabilities of modern-day computer games are great. As games increasingly allow us to express ideas, views, and knowledge to a new generation of leaders how should they be used in the educational field?

This panel of educational leadership experts will debate what sorts of problems exist and hypothesize what types of training, education, and insight game-based solutions might be best tailored for.

What Does it Take to Build A Serious Game?

Time: 5:45pm-6:30pm
Speakers: David Rejeski & Ben Sawyer

If we are to see more efforts like Virtual U, America's Army, or Incident Commander, and even commercial efforts like SimCity, and Tropico those not privy to the construction of games and serious games must get a crash course in the needs, budgets, and timelines such projects require.

Dave Rejeski, and Ben Sawyer, who head The Serious Games Initiative will provide a brief overview of the process, models, and common issues that successful serious game projects face in order to finish both the game, and see that it is actually put to use.

Reception & Demos

Join us for a reception at a the home of conference host Henry Jenkins, Chair of M.I.T.'s Comparative Media Studies program and PI of The Education Arcade.

Day II: Saturday, April 16

Coffee and networking

Time: 8:00am - 9:00am

Day two starts at 9:00am but prior to that coffee will be served and general networking time offered.

Virtual U: Life to Date - Lessons and Opportunities

Time: 9:00am - 10:00am
Speakers: Ben Sawyer, Jesse Ausubel, William Massy

Virtual U is a product, a project, and an example of how games can provide utility toward our understanding of complex systems, issues, and policies. This panel of key Virtual U project members is designed to look back at the lessons of Virtual U and use those lessons to seed new ideas for future game-based simulation efforts. By looking specifically at ideas that have been generated by the existence of Virtual U but have yet to be acted upon this panel will provide attendees some inspiration for new serious games about education.

Instructional Design & Virtual U

Time: 10:15am - 11:15am
Moderator: Josh Powers
Panelist: Susan Shaman, Doug Toma, Dennis Prisk

Some of Virtual U's most stalwart users will discuss the trials and successes of utilizing Virtual U in classroom and seminar settings. While offering a case critique of the product itself, this panel will try to formulate specific practices and tips that are likely to apply to many other serious game efforts once they make landfall in an everyday classroom setting.

Serious Games & Education - Examples and Threads to Consider

Time: 11:30am - 12:30pm
Moderator: Kurt Squire
Panelists: Phil Steinmeyer, Eric Marcoullier, David Rejeski

The best initial way to design serious games is to look first at what models and game designs in the commercial industry might work well when applied to specific problem spaces outside entertainment. This panel of game developers, and game experts will attempt to provide some insight into the types of games, and technologies readily available for inspiration, modification, and application in future educational leadership games. The panel will also weigh in on the engineering and design issues specific to some commonly used game genres that are often held up as the ones to use for a variety of serious game efforts.

Lunch

Time: 12:30pm - 1:30pm

Lunch will be served to all attendees on Day II

Educational System Design Breakouts I

Time: 1:30pm - 2:45pm
Group Leaders: Dennis Prisk, Eric Klopfer, David Rejeski, Ben Sawyer

After a series of panels and lectures all participants are asked to join several working groups that will formulate and comment on the creation of possible new game-based projects that could follow in the footsteps of Virtual U. We have broken these into two hour-long sessions. In the first session participants will comment on some existing game designs, and budgets that have been generated from previous meetings held by the Virtual U project and The Serious Games Initiative.

We are currently planning four groups focused on community colleges, national education policy, high-school simulation, and a student game development contest. Each group will have an appointed leader who will present the current design and run through a series of questions to generate further feedback.

Educational System Design Breakouts II

Time: 3:00pm - 4:00pm
Group Leaders: Dennis Prisk, Eric Klopfer, David Rejeski, Ben Sawyer

The second breakout session will focus on suggestions and plans to make each project achieve funding and support necessary to be developed. Each group will focus on two-stages of support, first will be funding and plans necessary to develop a full design, project team, and initial prototype. The second will be necessary funding, funding targets, and logistics to build a full 1.0 version and support it for up to two-years.

Design Presentations & Feedback

Time: 4:15pm - 5:15pm
Moderator: Henry Jenkins

Once each group has finished its work we will ask for the leader to present a ten-minute summary followed by 5-10 minutes of feedback from all participants.

Final Follow-up & Action Planning

Time: 5:15pm - 6:00pm
Moderator: Ben Sawyer

The final session of the workshop will be focused on any remaining thoughts and ideas participants may still want to share but will focus most on overall feedback on how to push new projects ideas from plans into reality during 2005.

The collective audience will decide on some further specific actions that could be taken, and solicit leaders and other supporters in attendance to commit to and implement any of the actions outlined by the specific presentations or in general support of all the projects.

Among the three we would like to see happen are:

Appointment of a two project co-leaders for each project. These leaders would lead post-conference follow-up via pre-assembled email listservs. They're responsibility would be assembly of a final project proposal and PowerPoint presentation by June 1.
Identification of two-three groups that would be specifically targeted for a funding and project presentation and commitments by participants to arrange such meetings before end of 2005.
Identification of 10-20 specific individuals who should be formerly contacted on June 1 about the project to provide further assistance (funding or otherwise) with a commitment by participants to assemble their full contact information to provide for a follow-up mailing once a final draft project plan is complete.