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Here are some vids of the tool in action:

A key element of this is sound. Ambient sound can be used to found the scene in reality, whether it is the noise of traffic or the hum of machines in a factory. It can also be used to stimulate different moods, be it excitement or calm or horror. Then we have scene specific sounds such as a telephone ringing and of course, human communication.

Having spent a lot of time recently in airports and the security checks I thought that this would be a good context in which to explore sounds. At the same time we can have a look at changing default layouts and building custom interactions.

Here we are going to have the beginning of a sim scenario. There is a line of holidaymakers going through security, a guy on the scanner and two officials managing people coming through the metal detector. We’ll start with a view of the scene, it will be noisy and busy, with airline announcements and people moving. The girl at the front of the queue will walk through the metal detector which will set off the alarm beeper. At the same time her bag is moving through the scanner. The user is then provided with a custom display through which they can change camera views and make actions – the first of which is to choose which one of the security officials should search the girl. That’s it. You can decide what happens after that yourselves.

To get started I have loaded in some free to use sounds and icons from the web. These are not to be used in commercial projects without their owners prior consent. I went to http://www.freesound.org and picked up some background airport sounds. I have used these as two sounds in the sim – AirportAmbient and Beep.

I used icons for buttons which I got at http://www.websiteicons.net/ – this site is terrific for icons.

Right lets get started.

Setting up the Scene

 Using the Airport environment I have set up a scene around the security check. There are 4 people in line, plus a guy operating the scanner and two security officials. I have a set of random animations running on these characters.

There are 3 paths in the scene. One will take a character through the metal detector. The other two will lead either to the male or female security official.

There are a few markers in the scene. 3 are on the conveyor belt and will be used to move objects along the conveyor belt through the scanner. 4 are used for the camera fly through. The remaining marker is positioned in the middle of the metal detector. I use this to detect when a character passes over this point. If they do then we can set off the beeping alarm if we want to.

We then build in some simple interactivity using:

·         Communication Interaction

·         Custom Interaction

·         Play Sound nodes

My storyboard looks like this on the scene flow canvas:

In the SetupScene I change the camera; remove the inventory icon from the screen by using the HUD control node; and set the values for a few counters using the Counter Control node (I don’t actually use all of these in the demo but they are in there to extend the scenario).

Then we move into the start action:

In Move Bag group – the Bag object is moved to markers along the conveyor belt using the Manipulate Object node. A Timer node is used to pause this movement in the middle of the conveyor to suggest that the computer operator is looking at a scan of the bag. I use the Play Sound node to play a sound file at this point called AirportAmbient – this is a nice audio sequence that has a lot of background crowd noise and airport announcements. I downloaded it as wav file from http://www.freesound.org. I then converted it to OGG file type using a free program called Switch Sound File Converter – this also comes with an editing package.  OGG is the filetype we use for sounds in Thinking Worlds. Its open source and it cruches sounds down nicely. The original wav file was about 12MB but as an OGG it is 2MB. I always bear this in mind for web delivery. We try and keep Immersive Sims in packages of 4MB or under. If you include a lot of sound then this can be tricky on filesize.

The Play Sound node is easy to setup. I can give it an identifying name to remind myself what I am using it for. Then in the white boxes on the right of the node I can fill in values:

Select the sound file to open. Clicking here will open another window – Edit Sound Property – see below. Using this window I can scroll through the sounds in my library or I can click on Add Sound and load more OGG files into the library. When I am done I click on OK and the sound file name will appear in the appropriate white box in the node.

I can then change the volume setting for the sound file and finally select whether I want the sound to loop when it has finished playing. In this case I am selecting a long playing sound file that is going to provide background audio throughout the sim; so I set loop to ON.

In Openingcam group – I use the Manipulate Object node to move a camera on a journey through different markers (1-4).

When the camera reaches Marker 1 I then want to activate two different processes:

Firstly I want the character Girl1 to follow the spline path though the metal detector to the other side of the security barrier. I use a Follow Spline node to do this which asks me simply to select the path that is to be followed and which character will follow the path.

Secondly, I want to know exactly when Girl1 reaches the marker in the middle of the metal detector. So I set a Distance Watch node to activate at the same time. This then watches for when Girl1 is 1 unit (approximately yard) from the marker called “InsideScanner”. When this happens I want to play an alarm sound using the Play Sound node.

I populate the Play Sound node as before. This time I set Loop to OFF as I only want this sound to play once.

In the Animate Characters group – exist a series of sub groups. All are clones of each other. They use the Play Animation and Random Event nodes to assign random animations to characters. Then to loop around so that the characters are constantly changing animation.

See below for an example of one of the groups:

At the same time I trigger a Communication Message to appear on the screen:

I have edited the layout of the Communication Message by  clicking on the settings button on the main authoring interface

The Scene Settings window will appear. Click on Themes. In the example below, I then choose to edit the Communication Interaction layout. I select one that I have used before called “Searchinghouse”, however you can create a new one, the process is the same:

On the layout editor I can then change the position and texture of the visual components that make up the Communication Interaction (Background, text box, button). In the screenshot below I have selected the background and I am changing its texture to one that I have created.

NOTE – all textures must be saved as Direct Draw Surfaces (DDS). I use a free program Paint.NET to do this but there are other free ones if you search on Google. Also, the textures must be saved in the TEXTURES folder root or sub folder in the main Thinking Worlds authoring tool directory. When Thinking Worlds starts it looks inside the TEXTURES folder to find any textures that you are using in your sim.

In this example I have changed the position of the layout elements so that it is near to the bottom of the screen and more central. I have then changed the background texture to a purple type colour and the button image. For the button I downloaded a free icon from http://www.websiteicons.net/.

On completing the Communication Interaction we activate the ‘CameraSwitch Custom Interaction’ group. For this I have created a custom interaction that shows the user two buttons on the screen – a Camera button and an Advance button

On pressing the camera button then the user will switch between different cameras in the world. This loops around until the user clicks on the Arrow to advance. You can make out these different paths below;

The Interaction Control node activates the custom interaction called Interface1. This has two button controls in it. There are two options leading from this interaction. One activates a camera view, the other ends this group. The first step is to create a custom interaction. Return to the main 3D authoring view and select Create Interaction from the top menu icons. From the drop down list select Custom Interaction and give it an identifying name. In the demo I have created the following interaction:

This is a nice simple interaction – I have minimised the background that appears as a default and selected a transparent image for it so that it will not show on screen. Then I have created two buttons by clicking on the toolbox ‘Button’ option and then drawing a square boxes on the main layout canvas to the right.

In the Properties tab you can set values for each device:

Close the editor and the interaction will save. You can edit the interaction via the Interaction Editor Form – one of the main menu icons.

Returning to my Story Board we can see how this is utilised on the Scene Flow canvas. Select the Interaction Control node and select the custom interaction named Interface1. The node will take on the properties of this interaction. Then when I drag wires from this node, it realises that I have embedded two buttons in the interaction and provides those options to me – see below

On the Action button being pressed then I drag a wire that ends this group. On the Continue button being pressed then I initialise nodes that change the camera views in a loop that arrives back to the Interface1 interaction Control node. In the sim the user can keep pressing the Continue button (which has a camera icon) and changing the camera view. Then when they press the Action button (an arrow) the group ends and they see two different icons appear. This is from a second custom interaction that shows male and female button icons. When the user pressed one of these then Girl1 will move along a different path to either the male or female security official. If this was a real sim then sending a girl to a male security official would be a mistake as he cannot search her.

That’s where this demo ends. We were thinking about different elements to incorporate to take it further:

·         Random incidents as the queue is processed

·         Aggressive customers

·         Lost boarding cards

·         Reacting to scan images

·         Body searches via cameras

·         Multiple alarms on same person

·         Time based decisions

·         Queue build up

·         Restricted items

·         Progression bars to show scoring – customer happiness; time efficiency; legality bars etc

Authoring in Thinking Worlds there are three easy and rapid ways to create branching non-linear scenarios:

·         Branching Interaction

·         Freeform  Branch Interaction

·         Random Event Node

An author can create more complex, even sandbox like non-linearity in Thinking Worlds using the counters and arithmetic nodes and building state systems. However for the majority of eLearning developers the branching interactions and random nodes are enough to create scenarios that engage learners in challenging guided discovery.

Thinking Worlds

Lets get started.

Our player (Private Investigator) Cecil Clash and his faithful friend Alien Joe are hot on the tail of The Big Man – criminal kingpin of the city. The scene starts with the dynamic duo in a dimly lit corridor. An informer has told them that The Big Man is inside an apartment and up to no good.

Our branching scene will go something like this – bear with me.

Our heroes are in the corridor deciding their next move. The player can decide either: Joe and Clash enter the apartment; Joe enters on a reconnaissance; or to check out the corridor.

·         If they both enter then its bad news. Big explosion and game over.

·         If Joe enters alone then he gets it and Clash is on his own. Clash must then enter on his own and check it out before the Big Man makes an exit.

·         If they check out the corridor then clues can be found

If Clash looks behind himself in the corridor then he will find a trigger device for bombs in the apartment. He can disable these.

If he does not, then he can enter the flat and activate the bomb. He then has 5 seconds to either get into a side room or get back out of the flat before he is toast.

Assuming that goes ok, he must then get into the kitchen (this is where the scene picks up if the player took the option for Joe to enter first aswell). He switches on a radar to see organic movement in the kitchen. He can choose to stun the occupants or enter.

If he chooses to stun then he’ll find an old lady on the floor of the kitchen. If Joe is still alive then he’ll tell Clash about a secret code he has found in a picture in the hallway – the code can be decrypted to the year Newton published ‘Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica’ but the player has to work that out.

If he does not stun then he’ll meet the old lady. He’ll again have more options ranging from torturing her as a suspect to taking her back to base. Depending upon what the player decides then different things will happen – if Joe is still alive then he may get blown up and the player can find out the disguise that the Big Man is using. Plus, if Joe remains alive then he can tell Clash about the picture code.

Opening Scene

We enter the scene through a camera “OpeningCAM” placed at the end of the corridor. Cecil Clash and Alien Joe are engaged in an animated discussion outside of the apartment. Using 3 markers and the MANIPULATE OBJECT node, the camera slowly glides down the corridor, around the two main characters to settle behind them. In the mean time we are shown a text message on screen which introduces the player to the scene.

While the camera moves through the markers some random animations are played on the Alien Joe character. These continue to loop between them; controlled by a COUNTER called funnily enough LOOP. When the camera finishes its journey to marker 3 then the value of LOOP is set to 2. When the player closes down the on screen message this sets off a COUNTER WATCH node that keeps checking for the value of LOOP to equal 2. I use two timers to ensure that the COUNTER WATCH keeps checking this. When the camera reaches marker 3 then the value of Loop is set to 2 and this group activity will end.

Looking inside the RandomAnimateJoe subgroup we see the first use of the RANDOM EVENT node.

The node is super simple to use. Create and drop it onto the scene designer canvas. I then drop 3 PLAY ANIMATION nodes onto the canvas. I select a different animation from the drop down list for each of these nodes and apply it to the Joe character. Then I just simply link the RANDOM EVENT node to each of these outcomes. At runtime it will simply randomly select between them. If I linked to twenty different nodes then the same thing would happen.

So, an animation will be selected and played on Joe. However, I want this to keep looping so that Joe is animated until the camera has finished its fly though AND the user has clicked the onscreen message to indicate that they want to proceed. To loop the animation I link each of the PLAY ANIMATION nodes to a COUNTER WATCH node. This node checks the value of a COUNTER – in this case the counter named LOOP. It checks against the value of 1. If the value is less than 1 then it loops via a TIMER node (0.1 sec delay) back to the RANDOM EVENT node and selects an animation node again. If the value of Loop = 1 then the random selecting and playing of animations will stop.

We then initialise a second subgroup called FIRSTBRANCHING. In this set of activities we’ll enable a conversation between the player and Joe to provide background and then give the player choices on how to proceed. This will use a SIMPLE BRANCH interaction.

Branch Interaction

In the main 3D authoring window, click on the Create Interaction icon or Interaction Editor icon to create a Simple Branch interaction. Name the interaction OptionsONE. You will see the following template on screen to author the interaction.

Authoring a Simple Branch interaction is nice and easy. In the left hand window you define how many options you want the learner to be presented with. In this case I have created three options. Use the buttons to add or remove options and to change their order.

In the right side windows you can add detail to each option that you have defined. Firstly specify an Identifier. This is a short description of the option choice – this is not visible to the learner during the Sim. It is helpful to you and others who may co-author with you. The Identifier will appear on the Wire Details that link the Simple Branch node to other activities. When you are authoring you will be glad that you put in a simple easy to remember Identifier.

Then specify the main TEXT – this is the option message that the learner will see on screen and so will help to inform their decision making. Lets see this in the subgroup:

On starting this subgroup the INTERACTION CONTROL node is used to run a CONVERSATION interaction. In gameplay this is some small talk between the two characters to provide more background to the scenario. Notice that Alien Joe is still being randomly animated. After the CONVERSATION interaction is ended then a COUNTER CONTROL node sets the value of Loop to 1. This ends the animations on Joe.

We then switch camera to get a better look at the two characters. Then the INTERACTION CONTROL node is used to activate the OptionsOne simple branching interaction. When you drag a wire from this control you will see that you are given different options to specify.

If you have used useful Identifiers then these should make sense to you. Drag the wires from the node and set them for different options as below:

In this case I have used each branch option to change the value of a COUNTER called OPTIONS. We can use the different value of OPTIONS to set in train different activities once we close down this group.

Exit this group and look at the main view of the Scene Flow designer. You will see that there are three clear paths to follow. These relate to the three main player choices:

·         Both Joe and Clash enter

·         Just Joe enters

·         Examine the hallway

I use a COUNTER WATCH node to check the value of the Options counter. This will have been set to either 1, 2 or 3 by the simple branch interaction. So this node checks for the value of 2. Then branches off into different streams if it is: less than 2 (i.e. 1), 2, or greater than 2 (i.e. 3).

The remainder of the script uses more branching and counters to add depth and variability to the plot and gameplay:

-          Whether the player identifies the old woman as the Big Man

-          Whether the player gets access to the riddle in the picture

-          Safe places to hide when a bomb goes off

-          Disabling the bomb

-          Whether Joe lives or dies

Have a look at the script and play about with it.

This week we are in London for Game Based Learning 2009 and next week the tool will be demonstrated in san Francisco at the Serious Game Summit – we have a presentation on Tuesday 24th of March in the afternoon. Come along to see Sims being built live and direct.

Look forward to catching up with people there.

paths and cameras

Add character

Animating without coding

Putting output results into a message

Create custom interaction

Create groups on the Story Board

Storyboarding pass and fail paths

“I agree that there should be a base knowledge that students need to know about their country and their community affiliations,” she said. “But its relevance lies not just in knowing historical fact but being able to see what can be gleaned from historical inquiry, including cause and effect, progress and decline, and historical significance. You still have to know what happened, but you also have to be able to put it into a larger context of what was happening at the time, why it was happening, and what relevance it has to the current day.”

Critical Thinking

While it’s important to know facts and dates, Trofanenko believes history teachers should challenge students, especially high school students, to think like historians.

“We need to start thinking differently about our students’ abilities,” she said. “They can think critically and engage in historical inquiry if they’re actually given the opportunity. Instead, we make them learn facts and test them on their ability to regurgitate them at the end of the week. I think that’s really insulting to them.”

Trofanenko believes that students today are a lot more critical than they were in years past.

“With the amount of information that’s out on the Internet, I don’t think you can fool kids anymore,” Trofanenko said. “They’re much more savvy now about looking things up than they were even a few years ago. They’re certainly critical about other things in their lives, so why can’t they be critical of history as well?”

Thinking like a historian, according to Trofanenko, entails studying primary source documents, thinking about the historical context, weighing the evidence and then making an argument – “something all high school students are capable of doing,” she said. “That helps students develop a historical consciousness, which is the ability to ask why a particular historical narrative or a historical concept is advanced or not.”

Similar concerns have been raised in response to curriculum changes in the UK.  Lisa Hamilton writing in the Spectator takes issue with the dumbing down of expectations and absence of critical evaluation skills.

“Suggesting that children are incapable of dealing with complex narrative is intensely patronising. They manage fine with Harry Potter. Like it or not, our island story is a rollicking good read, with as many battles and murders as Grand Theft Auto. Certainly, much British history is of necessity concerned with the activities of elites, but is it not worth understanding why this is so?”

“also seem blind to the reality of how history will be increasingly absorbed. Is it not irresponsible to deny children the capacity to assess information for bias, distortion and inaccuracy in a world of unsupervised, unfiltered internet access?”

Immersive Sims

Seems like an ideal opportunity to incorporate Serious Games / Immersive Sims. The Making History series from Muzzy Lane are excellent examples of this. Guided discovery with progress based upon increasingly complex thinking skills and the development of more complex knowledge stuctures. Coupled with the ability to MOD the application for user generated content.

I’d add our own small contribution through Rome in Danger. Placing learners back within the historical context faced with non linear thinking challenges and social puzzles.

“If you ever argued with your mother when she told you to get some sleep after studying for an exam instead of pulling an all-nighter, you owe her an apology, because it turns out she’s right. And now, scientists are beginning to understand why.

In research published this week in Neuron, Marcos Frank, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience, at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, postdoctoral researcher Sara Aton, PhD, and colleagues describe for the first time how cellular changes in the sleeping brain promote the formation of memories.

“This is the first real direct insight into how the brain, on a cellular level, changes the strength of its connections during sleep,” Frank says.

The findings, says Frank, reveal that the brain during sleep is fundamentally different from the brain during wakefulness.

“We find that the biochemical changes are simply not happening in the neurons of animals that are awake,” Frank says. “And when the animal goes to sleep it’s like you’ve thrown a switch, and all of a sudden, everything is turned on that’s necessary for making synaptic changes that form the basis of memory formation. It’s very striking.”

The team used an experimental model of cortical plasticity – the rearrangement of neural connections in response to life experiences. “That’s fundamentally what we think the machinery of memory is, the actual making and breaking of connections between neurons,” Frank explains

See full article at http://www.physorg.com/news153578717.html

Thinking Worlds enables designers, SME’s, trainers, ID’s and teachers to rapidly create 3D Immersive Simulations and Serious Games without any programming! The tool massively reduces the complexity of creating Immersive Sims and puts the power into the hands of the trainers, designers and content experts. Using simple templates, drag and drop 3D and flow diagrams a designer can rapidly create complex scenarios and games.

Come along to Stand 85 at Learning Technologies for a demo. You can build your own Sims and publish to the web live from the exhibition ready for users to play through the browser. See below for more screen shots.

That certainly ring alarm bells for me. How did they learn to walk? I’d better not let my nine year old anywhere near a road or tell her off as shes about to step infront of a bus.

kids - they never learn!

The article points to behavioural research, which shows that eight-year-olds respond disproportionately inaccurately to negative feedback. Based upon this work, Dr Eveline Crone used fMRI techniques to compare the brains of three different age groups: children of eight to nine years, children of eleven to twelve years, and adults aged between 18 and 25 years. Individuals in each group were given test items in which they must discover a rule. They received a tick or a cross as feedback. Looking at the brain scans during this activity showed distinct differences – In children of eight and nine, cogntive control areas of the brain react strongly to positive feedback and scarcely respond at all to negative feedback. But in children of 12 and 13, and also in adults, the opposite is the case. Their ‘control centres’ in the brain are more strongly activated by negative feedback and much less by positive feedback.

The danger in this study is that it may lead to the conclusion that young children cannot learn from errors and we should avoid them in education. That to my mind would be a big mistake (get the pun? I am over 12 after all). One of the recurring themes at Online Educa in the Generation X discussions was the fact that many kids never learned about failure until they entered the workplace.

Perhaps we need to reposition ‘errors’ – why should they be negative feedback? Children can learn fantastically well from errors when they are motivated to do so and get good feedback. Look at just about every video game kids play – they make errors and die thousands of times as they master often difficult tasks (see Super Mario, brain training, etc etc).

Can't play until your 12!

No problems there. They love it; reflect on how and why the error occurred and have no problem discussing it with their peers. Similarly in sport. They take a shot in football and miss but that does not stop them trying again and again. If they learned only from positive feedback and not mistakes then they would never ride a bike or would be much use in evolutionary terms.

Maybe getting a simple cross (what does that tell you?) and giving no further feedback is the problem or worse the kid feeling like their stupid. Look at the work of Michael Frese and others on error management methods. When errors are postioned as positive learning experiences and individuals are given the tools to manage them then they can significantly improve learning performance.