ACRL Roundup

I realize this post is about two weeks overdue, but I'll chalk that up to allowing myself plenty of time to roll things around in my head.
I saw and heard about some incredible gaming projects going on in academic libraries across the country. The University of Cincinnati is working on a game that we saw some screenshots from, and it looks amazing. I'm excited to keep up with its creation. I also heard a little about a game at James Madison that sounds awesome.
Of course, presenting our poster session with Scott was a great, overwhelming, exhausting experience. I think we ended up talking with and giving handouts to about 400 people. Since ACRL, we've heard from enthusiastic librarians all over the country who are eager to adapt our game for their own libraries. Hearing from colleagues really makes the whole process worthwhile.
On a (brief) philosophical note, I realized that the thing I like about gaming in libraries is that it is accessible to everyone. Librarians are creating and have created games that range in complexity from our two-person six month project to multi-year, team-built projects. There's room for anyone in gaming.

Gaming, not just for Millenials

There was an article in the New York Times today called Video Games Conquer Retirees that discusses how retirees are playing online games. Apparently many of them also love to play the Nintendo Wii. This article grabbed me because when librarians talk about gaming in libraries, we are usually trying to reach Millenials. This article shows that we should think bigger and focus on trying to reach nontraditional students with our games as well.

ACRL Poster Session Handouts

For those wanting the handouts and links after seeing our poster session at ACRL, here they are:
Information about the Game (Word document)
Make Your Own Game (Word document)
Game Poster (PowerPoint file)

Links:
Play the Game!
Get the Game Files

ACRL Blogging

It's late afternoon at the ACRL conference, and I'm attending the Blended Librarian session. I met a lot, lot, lot of people at my poster session this morning. We ran out of our 175 handouts in about 20 minutes, and we ended up getting cards and e-mails from another couple of hundred people.

Get Blended: Injecting Instructional Design and Technology Skills into Academie Library Jobs
Steven Bell
John Shank
Kathryn Shaughnessy
Sean Cordes

http://blendedlibrarian.org
Use Elluminate to webcast free sessions
John talking about what a BL is
Related positions include web & instructional lib, instructional tech lib, learning tech lib, instructional dev lib and electronic learning lib
Instructional design: to develop instructional tools and work on process
Instructional Technology: Work w/libs to pick appropriate techs

Qualifications: Multimedia software, organizational, project management, instructional design, communication, teaching, instructional technology
Project Management skills top need

Duties: digital learning materials, lib instruction, reference, info lit, keeping up w/ tech, assessment, training programs

Libraries adding instructional designers who are not librarians to get the skill sets

Sean
Role is to enhance lib's instructional program, identifying techs
Biggest challenge to BL: identifying what does need to be integrated with tech, bringing people together at all levels of institution, time and perseverance


Kathryn
Integrate info literacy into core curriculum
Biggest challenge for BL: libs not sure it's meeting a need, tech is beyond libs

Other stuff mentioned
Low threshold apps
Parks Multimedia studio
high end digital video editing system
Podcasts using audacity & innerTOOB
Wikis using PBWiki, Wikispaces, & PMWiki
Tutorial with captivate, blog with blogger, wordpress

Information Literacy Game updated again

Another update to the download files for the Information Literacy Game. As people download it and give it a whirl, I quickly learn where the problems are. This update includes a crucial file, the image for the gameboard itself!

It also includes a change in the CSS file and changed instructions in the gamedirections.txt file explaining how to change the URL of the boardgame.gif file.

If you've already downloaded everything and just need the board image, here it is.

To download the entire zip file again, here it is.

Upcoming Conferences

Scott and I are working the conference circuit over the next few weeks. Locally, we will be presenting poster sessions based on The Information Literacy Game at the UNC Teaching and Learning with Technology Conference on Wednesday, March 21. Then, the following week, we will be at ACRL. Our poster session there is scheduled for Friday, March 30, 10:00-11:00 AM. We're poster 32. Please stop by and visit!
I also plan on doing some blogging about all the new, wonderful things I learn while we're in both places, so check back soon.

Information Literacy Game updated

The game files available for download at http://library.uncg.edu/game/mygame.asp have been updated. Seems I forgot to include the actual sound files in the package! Also, included is a bug fix in the game script.

You can also download the files here.

Your own Information Literacy Game

For those folks that are interested, the Information Literacy Game is now available to be adapted for use in your library. You can download the zip file, which is complete with the question sets, images, web pages, scripts, sounds, and a text file called gamedirections.txt which explains what it all means.

If you are having trouble getting it to work for you, let us know and we can help. If you do put your own version of the game, tell us about it and send us a link and we'll include it in the links on our page.

Jenny Levine's Gaming & Libraries

I just finished the latest issue of Library Technology Reports, called Gaming & Libraries: Intersection of Services, and I'm re-inspired by the power of gaming. This issue covers school, academic and public libraries, and it's a very entertaining read. Jenny really drives home what a powerful marketing tool gaming can be, and that you don't have to break the bank to get started. If you're on the fence about gaming, or if you want to remember why you got involved in the first place, I highly recommend this publication.

Fame and fortune

The Information Literacy Game has been mentioned in The Shifted Librarian! Hurrah!

Gaming Presentation

I am developing a presentation for library staff on gaming in education and libraries. As soon as it is ready, I will place the PowerPoint file here.

ADRIFT

On the Bibliographic Gaming blog, I found this link to ADRIFT, a text based game generator. The software looks like it could produce quite complex games, in which you stipulate the rooms, objects, people, and actions that need to be accomplished to win. I think to make it interesting you would definitely need a lot of graphics and audio, and I am uncertain how much support there is for that in the program.

It might be interesting to use the game generator along with many pictures of the library (or the entire campus!) to make some sort of adventure game. The purpose could be to teach about a particular subject or to explore the environment in a more interesting manner.

Info Lit Game

The Info Lit Game I have been working on is now being put through play-testing by staff and student workers. Following some suggestions, I have added the capability for solo play. One person can play the game and is given 10 seconds to answer a question before it is marked wrong. 5 wrong answers and the player loses. After some play testers said the time interval was too short, I increased it to 15 seconds, and then 20 seconds.

Info Lit Game

Here is a screenshot from the Game:

Games in Education research

Futurelab has reports on research about teaching with games, including surveys on students' and teachers' attitudes towards gaming.

Information Literacy Game

The game I have been working on is just about ready for some serious play testing. We will be rolling it out to students some First Year Studies classes to get feedback. After some tweaks and fixes, etc. we should be ready to roll it out to (hopefully) much acclaim in the Spring Semester.

If you would like to try it out, go to this link.

Second Life Security Breach

The folks at Second Life have just discovered that their servers were compromised. The investigation is still ongoing. More details are here. To hopefully minimize some of the damage of the data loss, all Second Life users will need to change their passwords before they can re-access the game.

Web Conference on Games

I will be attending the September web conference entitled "Exploring the Learning Potential of Multiplayer Online Games." It really looks interesting.

If you're interested, go to Academic Impressions to learn more and register.

Been Away

I'm back. Heavier blogging will probably not resume until I finish The Game I've been working on. Things are coming along nicely, but it's still not ready for people to see, hence no link yet. I am hoping to be finished within the next month, when I will put up a link here to the game.

I am also developing a proposal for Computers In Libraries 2007, to show off the game.

Ajax Hacks

Just got a copy of the book Ajax Hacks for review and it is awesome. I hope to definitely upgrade the coding in the game I'm working on and perhaps add some other cool functionality.

Like all the Hacks series of books, this one has loads of codes and spiffy projects to try. The only problem is finding enough time to try them all.

Game Maker

Some nifty (free!) software that I have been looking at is called Game Maker and (big surprise) you make games with it. It is fairly easy to use, at least at the admittedly easy tasks I'm attempting (I'm sure the learning curve will steepen quickly if I try to more than implement pong) and there seems to be a large user community that can help with support.

This may be another possible method of making an info lit game. Further reports after I have a chance to fiddle around with it some more.