July 2013 E-Newsletter covering immersive technologies, serious games, gamification, upcoming conferences and elearning

1. Welcome to the July 2013 Immersive Technology Strategies Newsletter.
In this Newsletter
 Moscow E-Learn Expo Review
 International Simulation and Games (ISAGA) Conferences
 Martyn Ware and Immersive Sound Environments
 Smart Society Applications
 SMART Funding Grants for Innovation
 Gamification Thoughts
 Sensors and Visualisation Technologies
 Serious Games and Social Connect Conference Singapore
 Upcoming Conferences and Seminars
 Slideshare Archives
Moscow E-Learn Expo Conference Review
The E-Learn Expo Panel in Moscow
The 10th
E-Learn Expo Conference was held in Moscow on June 18th
and 19th
and I was privileged to be invites to be part of a
speaker panel along with ELearning Consultant Tim Neil and Paul Maidment, Director of BBC Motion Gallery Education. Tim and I
were speakers at the very first E-Learn Expo in Moscow and it was very interesting to observe how much has changed in the last
decade and how much remains the same.
The conference began with a series of keynote presentations from key players in Russian Educational Technology Development.
Amongst the speakers was my friend Vladimir Tikhomorov who has been a consistent thought leader in the use of technology to
shape and enhance education in Russia.I remembered a previous presentation of his when he outlined collaboration with South
Korea on the use of technology to personalise education to the individual student – still quite an advanced concept but one I
heartily subscribe to. This year, the main thrust of Vladimir’s presentation seemed to be a critique of Russia’s lack of progress in
implementing and exploring educational technology and the dangers of lagging behind developments in the rest of the world,
especially in online education and virtual universities.
The conference and exhibition was also an opportunity to catch up with Tim Neill who, in my opinion, is one of the industry
leaders in corporate training through the use of games and simulations. Tim now operates as an independent consultant and his
presentation demonstrated the enduring validity of the use of embedded continuous feedback and assessment within games and
simulations. His case studies were not only examples of effective learning and development, but also valuable processes for
corporate human resource management.
Presenting in Moscow
My presentation was a review of some of the changes that have taken place in the last decade in the realm of technology
enhanced learning. The very first E-Learn Expo had a big focus on Learning Management Systems (LMS) and I was one of the few
presenters that spoke about the role of virtual classrooms and the use of synchronous learning technologies. In 2013, LMS has
matured a great deal but it still retains its value for corporate management of human resources and learning content /
organisational knowledge.
Today, I believe that LMS is likely to evolve to become more of a personal tool for lifelong learning and development, like the e-
portfolio concept. This is because people no longer stay with the same organisation for many years and both individuals and
organisations need some framework for matching skills, competencies, attitudes and personality to job functions. My presentation
also discussed the shifting role of the teacher away from knowledge dissemination towards coaching and mentoring and I used the
opportunity to dynamically personalise the presentation to the audience and location with some of the free tools on devices such
as the iPad. A copy of my presentation “Technology Enhanced Teaching, Learning, Assessment and Development – the Future is all
in the Past” is available at http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/technology-enhanced-teaching-learning-assessment-and-
development.
International Simulation and Gaming (ISAGA) Conferences
ISAGA Delegates at Stockholm Social Dinner
I was in Stockholm at the end of June during the 44th
ISAGA Conference on Simulation and Gaming. Although I was not a delegate
at the conference, I was very kindly invited to attend a civic reception in the City Hall and had the opportunity to be introduced to
some key figures within ISAGA by my good friend and colleague, Professor David Crookall, who is a leading authority on games
based learning and especially debriefing. ISAGA conferences are very well organised and the 45th
Annual Conference in Dornbirn,
Austria looks like being extra special.

2. ISAGA 2014 Conference web site
One of the distinguishing features of the ISAGA conferences is that they include practical hands-on experience of games. ISAGA
2014 includes the following :-
 Presentation of state‐of‐the art developments in the gaming domain, including research, evaluation, facilitation,
debriefing and design.
 Plenary keynote lectures and keynote actions and panel discussion sessions.
 Thematic research sessions and poster presentations focus on gaming related to academic research and analytical science
traditions (with best paper and best poster award; peer‐review process).
 Active gameplay and open space interactive sessions with a focus on gaming as part of an art, craft and design science
tradition.
 A game for a real client will be designed throughout the conference and the design process will be documented.
Participants can actively design or observe the design process and the prototype game will be played in a plenary action
session.
 Special conference games will be exclusively developed for the event and played during ISAGA 2014. One game will use
traditional haptic game materials. It is highly interactive and will involve all participants for the whole duration of the
conference. Another game will use newest mobile phone and app technology. It will be a GPS‐ based adventure
conference game.
The ISAGA 2014 web site is at www.isaga2014.com
Martyn Ware and Immersive Sound Applications
Martyn Ware at Venture Theatre, Coalville
Martyn Ware is a legend in the music industry with a track record as a musician and producer of millions of record sales and a
founder member of bands such as Human League and Heaven 17. The millions of people who have bought his records and love his
distinctive use of sound are probably unaware of the pioneering work Martyn does with immersive sound applications through his
company, Illustrious. I came across Martyn at a seminar organised by Professor Lizbeth Goodman in London some years ago and
was impressed not only by his innovation and enterprise, but also his passion for use of technology to help disadvantaged people.
On July 6th
I visited the Venture Theatre in Coalville, Leicestershire at a very special evening which combined a highly entertaining
presentation and Q&A on immersive sound applications from Martyn with a buffet and great musical entertainment from
Northern Kind and Heaven 17. This small venue in the heart of a heritage site for the mining industry on the former Snibston
Colliery was described as “Like singing in Grandma’s front room”.
As well as giving some anecdotes and forthright opinions on the music industry, Martyn described some of his 3D sound projects
designed to create an immersive experience that engages and influences behaviour. Martyn did an excellent job for me at the
Serious Games Institute where he installed his soundscape technology in our seminar room. He spoke about projects like the
Millennium Bridge, city centre soundscapes across the globe and a very interesting project in Brighton where he used sound to
tackle anti-social behaviour on a Saturday night. His technique involved slowing down a well known track with the aim of slowing
down heart rates and calming late night revellers.
Martyn is living confirmation of a long held belief of mine that the most fruitful sources of technology innovation often come from
creative people without a technology background.
Smart Society and other European Projects
The Smart Society FP7 project is one of a number of EU projects I have been involved with over recent years. Along with projects
like MIRROR, SUPERHUB and ImREAL, Smart Society seeks to use technology to ENHANCE human capabilities whether that be
through stimulating reflective learning in MIRROR, influencing green mobility and sustainable transport in SUPERHUB, augmenting
virtuality with real-life experiences in ImREAL or exploring human-technology decision making in SMART SOCIETY.
The SMART SOCIETY web site at http://www.smart-society-project.eu/ provides further details of the project. It models Society as
a Complex Adaptive System (CAS) and explores how computing power can be harnessed to support human judgement and
decision making. Please let me know if you are interested in becoming involved in the project.
SMART Funding Grants
InnovateUK Web Site
The InnovateUK web site gives details of opportunities to attract investment from the Technology Strategy Board for innovative
small businesses – see https://www.innovateuk.org/-/smart
The Smart scheme offers support to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage in Research and Development projects
in strategically important areas of science, engineering and technology, from which successful new products, processes and
services could emerge.
The Smart scheme will support Research and Development projects which offer potentially significant rewards and could stimulate
UK economic growth. Funding is available to single companies. Any UK SME working in any sector may apply; applications are
accepted on a rolling basis for assessment. If you are interested in collaborating on a bid, please contact me at
david@davidwortley.com
Gamification Thoughts

3. X-Factor – Gamification Case Study
Gamification is a very elusive term to accurately define and I am not keen on it as a word to describe a process which I think has
great potential for developing sustainable solutions to many business and societal problems. At the heart of gamification is an
ability to leverage some basic human emotions, many of which are expressed most strongly within what most people would
recognise as games. One of the ways I find helpful to understand gamification is to “reverse engineer” a successful example such
as the “X-Factor”.
Entertainment industry agents like Simon Cowell compete to find the best talent around the world. There are literally millions of
talented artists who dream of stardom and the challenge for agents is to somehow attract the best talent without spending a
fortune advertising or paying talent scouts. The challenge for artists is to get noticed by the best agents and the challenge for both
agent and artist is to get maximum publicity and profile which traditionally can be very expensive and risky.
Amongst the basic human emotions is the thrill of watching a contest and somehow feeling an ability to influence the outcome.
The Roman recognised this centuries ago when they built the Colliseum and used such contests for political purposes.
If you take these challenges and “gamify” a solution like X-Factor, you establish a series of win-win stakeholder relationships in
which a large number of people contribute small amounts of money and time to generate substantial sums of money for the
benefit of a relatively small number of people. The X-Factor solution creates a situation in which the agent, instead of paying to
find talent, is paid for the privilege and gains a massive amount of publicity for the artist in the process.
The Gamification workshop I run uses a methodology designed to identify stakeholder “win-win” scenarios and use these to shape
technological solutions designed to cost-effectively strengthen relationships through approaches which engage those involved.
The structure of the two day version of the workshop can be downloaded here
Sensors and Visualisation Technologies
The Jawbone Up Sensor and iPad visualisation app
In the last newsletter I mentioned the Jawbone UP bracelet sensor and my intention to use myself as a human laboratory to assess
the impact and effectiveness of the latest developments in sensor and visualisation technologies. My aim was to see if having a
device which monitors my activities and lifestyle patterns could positively influence my health and behaviours. I see sensors and
visualisation technologies as a critical component to learning and development over the next few years and the source of some
very disruptive changes to business and society.
I began using the UP sensor exactly 4 weeks ago and I also bought a Withings wireless weigh scale to check my weight. I have
targets for the number of “steps” I take each day which equates to my activity level and I record what food I eat. The Jawbone app
gives me feedback on many different parameters around my activity, calories burned and consumed and sleep patterns and
supplements these with daily hints and tips.
So far I have been walking several miles a day and eating better and this has brought my weight down by over 4 Kg. I hope to
report further improvements over the coming months and draw conclusions about the role of sensors, live data and visualisation
within games and simulations.
Serious Games and Social Connect Conference
I will be presenting and running a workshop at the SGSC Conference in Singapore on August 26/27 . To register for this
international event go to :- www.seriousgamesconference.org
Upcoming Conferences
Below is a list of forthcoming conferences – also accessible at http://www.davidwortley.com/events.html
Date Event Name / Description Location Web URL
July 13-21 Euracademy event - Culture and Landscape
contributions to Rural Development
Loski Potok, Slovenia http://www.euracademy.org
July 16-19 The 9th International Conference on Intelligent
Environments
Athens, Greece http://www.intenv.org/
Aug 20-22 Serious Play Conference Digipen University, USA http://seriousgamesmarket.b
logspot.co.uk/2012/11/save-date-
2013-serious-play.html
Aug 26-28 SGSC Conference 2012 Singapore http://www.seriousgamescon
ference.org/

4. Aug 26-30 ISDE 2013 - Digital Earth Symposium Borneo Convention
Centre, Kuching,
Sarawack
http://www.isde2013kuching. com
Sept 11-
13
VS-Games Conference Bournemouth, UK http://www.vsgames2013.o rg
Sept 10-
12
Altc 2013 – Building New Cultures of Learning Nottingham, UK http://goo.gl/GSK67
Sept 12-
13
Segamed – Serious Games for Health and
Medicine
Nice, France http://unice.fr/medecine/actualite/a-
la-une-medecine/colloque-segamed-
2013-serious-games-en-medecine-et-
sante-12-13-septembre-2013
Sept 17-
21
ECTEL Conference on Technology Enhanced
Learning
Paphos, Cyprus http://www.ec-tel.eu/
Sept 25-
27
4th International Conference on Serious Games
Development and Applications
Trondheim, Norway http://ddsgsa.net/sgda
Oct 3-4 6th International GUIDE Conference on National
Education Systems and the economic crisis
Athens, Greece http://www.guideassociation
.org/guide_2013/index.php/ en/
Oct 3-4 ECGBL 2013 – European Conference on Games
Based Learning
Porto, Portugal http://academic-
conferences.org/ecgbl/ecgbl2013/ecg
bl13-home.htm
Oct 13 World Gamification Championship Final San Francisco, USA http://www.gammify.com
Oct 23-25 GALA Serious Games Conference Dassault Systemes,11
Paris, France
http://www.galaconf.org/
Oct 23-25 ESM 2013 - 27th Annual European Simulation
and Modelling Conference
Lancaster University, UK http://www.eurosis.org
Oct 29-31 WISE 2013 – World Summit on Innovation in
Education
Doha, Qatar http://www.wise-qatar.org/wise-
summit-2013
Nov 4-5 Games for Health Europe Utrecht, Netherlands http://www.gamesforhealthe
urope.org
Nov 5 OpenChina ICT Final Conference Vilnius, Lithuania http://openchina-Ict.eu/project-
events/final-conference/
Nov 6-8 ICT 2013 – EU Horizon 2020 Conference Vilnius, Lithuania https://ec.europa.eu/digital-
agenda/en/ict2013-conference-
programme
Nov 19-20 ICERi 2013 - International Conference on
Education, Research and Innovation
Seville, Spain http://www.iceri2013.org
Nov 21-22 Serious Games Expo Lyon, France http://www.seriousgamesexpo.com
Mar 19-
21 2014
ABSEL 2014 - Association for Business
Simulation and Experiential Learning
Orlando, Florida, USA http://absel2011.wordpress.com/201
2/04/03/absels-40th-annual-meeting-
march-6-8-2013/
Archived Presentations, Images and Videos
I am archiving as many of my previous presentation, videos and event images as possible. You can access these from my web site
at :- http://www.davidwortley.com/conferences.html or visit my Slideshare page at :- http://www.slideshare.net/dwortley/
If you would like any presentations, videos or documents circulated to my network, I am happy to provide this service free of
charge for any material relevant to readers of this newsletter. If you are interested, contact me at david@davidwortley.com.
Best Regards
David Wortley FRSA
Founder of Immersive Technology Strategies
Email : mailto:david@davidwortley.com?subject=General Enquiry
Skype: davidwortley
Second Life : Hobson Hoggard
Web: http://www.davidwortley.com
New Book: www.gadgetstogodbook.com
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