Educational Gaming Commons

A game developed by University of Washington PhD students, with help from game designers, aims to help move medical science forward through folding proteins. The game is called Foldit, and by playing it maybe someday you'll be credited for finding the cure for HIV.

We had our largest lunch gathering yet today for our monthly brown bag discussions. We spent the majority of the time looking at a virtual world called ProtoSphere by Proton Media. This is the only virtual world available built from the ground up for education and training. We had faculty members from various colleges discussing collaborative opportunities utilizing class projects within ProtoSphere, where different course sections would be responsible for things like designing the learning environment, implementing the environment and evaluating the learning outcomes.

We are currently in discussions with Proton Media for a PSU-specific instance of ProtoSphere. We'll continue to post updates to the EGC blog as talks move forward. Look for an announcement regarding the next brown bag lunch for May (probably the final week of May sometime).

We will be working with the Library to host a gaming event to support National Gaming in Libraries Day, April 18th. Additional information taken from a promotional email from the Library:

To coincide with National Gaming in Libraries Day (during National Library Week), the Penn State University Libraries will be hosting a gaming event on Friday, April18, 2008, from 1:00-5:00 p.m. in the student lounge area of Pattee Library. Sponsored by the University Libraries and Penn State's Educational Gaming Commons ( http://ets.tlt.psu.edu/gaming/), the event will feature the latest consoles and games for anyone to enjoy.

Systems include the Nintendo Wii, Sony PlayStation 3, and Microsoft Xbox 360. Staff of the Libraries and EGC will be on hand to discuss gaming and its connection to Penn State. For more information, please contact Andrew Calvin at arc143@psu.edu.

We plan on holding our next virtual worlds lunch on Thursday, April 24th, in room 209 of the IST Building. The last couple of gatherings have led to a wide variety of discussions around technology, policy, and education in not only virtual worlds, but also gaming in general.

On the 24th, I'd like to take some time to demo a virtual world specifically dedicated to education and training called ProtoSphere. You can learn more about it by visiting the Proton Media website.

We look forward to seeing you on the 24th!

I unfortunately could not make it to the events this weekend, but two IST student organizations held gaming events in the IST Building.

The IST Game Design Clug held a Super Smash Brothers Brawl tournament Saturday afternoon. The president of the club said they had ~30 people show up to get their game on.

The IST Computer Networking Club (CNC) held a Counter Strike: Source and Team Fortres 2 Tournament in the Cybertorium later in the day. They also had approximately 30 people participate for close to 6 hours of gaming. The network club also designed and implemented a LAN in the cybertorium for the event, which included a stat-tracking server for both games so they could determine a winner at the close of the event. This is a great example of tying educational experiences to gaming.

Does anyone else know of similar groups that exist around Penn State? Here at the EGC we're hoping to get more involved with these student organizations and identify areas we can help grow the community.

Thank you to everyone who made it to our second brown bag lunch this past Wednesday in the IST Building. We're exploring a new location for April's meeting and will post the information once it is finalized.

We covered a lot of topics on Wednesday, including:

• Are educators sucking the fun out of games when we try and create game-based learning experiences?
• Is it feasible to create a multi-disciplinary team of faculty at PSU to examine virtual worlds and work towards funded research opportunities to run experimental research projects?
• How can PSU provide physical infrastructure for faculty members who would like to use, for example, Second Life, Sim City, World of Warcraft, and other gaming software in Penn State lab environments?
• Creating a system where faculty work with designers to create lesson plans or modules around an existing game

I hope everyone came away with some new things to think about and new ideas to experiment in the classroom or in a research setting. I look forward to continuing the discussion next month!

Just a quick reminder, we'll be having our second brown bag lunch this Wednesday in room 209, IST Building, 11:30-1. Late comers welcome.

I've been keeping an eye on this for a while, and last week's Game Developers Conference unveiled quite a bit of information regarding the PS3 Home Network. If you haven't heard of this, it's a virtual world designed for the PS3 and allows users to create and customize an avatar, interact with other PS3 Home users, and integrate somehow with various PS3 games. At the GDC presentation, they announced the Home Development Kit (HDK), allowing users to create content for their virtual living spaces. You can read more about the GDC presentation at Joystiq

We will be holding our first event to promote the EGC, most notably the Affiliate program, this Thursday from 2-5pm in room 209, IST Building. Please stop by to learn more about our plans for the EGC and an opportunity to play Rock Band.
See the PSU Live Story for more information.

The next virtual worlds lunch has been scheduled for Wednesday, 3/19, in room 209 IST Building from 11:30-1:00. We had a great discussion last week, and look forward to exploring various virtual worlds tool and projects with members of the PSU virtual worlds community in March.

Thanks to everyone who made it to the virtual worlds lunch today in room 209 of the IST Building. We had faculty, staff, and students all participate in discussions that ranged from identity in virtual worlds to accessibility issues related to virtual worlds. We also received great feedback on some of the things we're trying to do here with the EGC, such as more social-oriented services that would take our affiliate database to the next level.

We are planning on another informal lunch in mid-March. I'll post the date once we have a room reserved. Thanks again!