Good Morning and welcome everyone to Serious Games and Virtual Worlds.
During the next three weeks we will hope to explore, debate and share our collective understanding of these two subjects which are currently being developed both academically and commercially to great effect and success.
Today, Wednesday, we request that registrants post a brief introduction and indicate what specific interest they have in Serious Games and what questions they are seeking answers to.
All registrants have been accorded a 30 day free licence to register at www.IndustryPlayer.com, for which I am the VP of Corporate Relations. To download a special SCOPE code has been created in the dropdown at the download menu. Select SCOPE and you will receive free credits to play for 30 days. IndustryPlayer is unique in its immersive dynamic business world design as an MMOG, and the creator, Thomas Lehnert, has much improved the game dynamics in the last couple of months to offer educators offline versions for classroom application. We can discuss the ways that MMOG portals can provide a cosntructive, stimulated learning environment and see what people think about this type of serious game from first hand experience.
On Tuesday, 10th April, we have a special guest, Ron Edwards, CEO of www.ambientperformance.com who will co host a simulcast in Second Life and skype and we recommend that anyone wishing to attend, create their avatar in good time and have their skype id available.
I believe that the future of Serious Games in education will enhance the ability of the educator to truly engage the 'digital native' in ways that make learning more enjoyable and continuous. The Digital Classroom is prescient, is this something you believe, as educators, will improve your ability to achieve learning objectives and outcomes?
These and other questions can be explored in the coming weeks and Im delighted to have this opportunity to meet so many educators who are seeking greater understanding of what can be accomplished with games.
Tia Carr Williams