Shhh! We're Working Here!

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Shhhh! Its been busily quiet here at the EMC this afternoon. Ray and Ken are out, Lauren's not here today either, leaving just Sarah and myself behind the "glass".
There have been about 15 students silently, thoughtfully working away. It's a funny thing —I'm so fond of each one of them. I can recognize their hopes, their anxieties, their passions, and most importantly their spirits and bright shining intelligence.
I am remembering those likewise who worked so diligently and played so hard here. I was first prompted by a college meeting about our grads and their employment out of EMC.

To note is that to date we’ve worked with roughly 130 students since start-up (2 years). This summer we had a full house with approximately 30 students working on 6 projects all summer long. This Fall many of those projects will end but we have a number of others that will continue.
So here's our grads:

• Kate Baxter, ’09 Software Engineering, is a Junior Programmer at 2K Boston and recently returned from doing a “sea-mester” abroad sailing the Caribbean for 40 days in a program focused on leadership, communication and experiential education. Kate began with the original IBM project, joined the second IBM project, and then our UN team. She was also a Governor's Institue of Vermont in Information Technology (GIV IT)resident advisor.
• Emily Benton, '09 Game Art & Animation is working freelance on art for Disney. Emily was the artist on the original Masie Learning 2007 conference and then the MPI: Meet Different conference. She was also a GIV IT resident advisor.
• Dan Bergeron, ’09 Marketing, is working as an Account Manager at 800response. Dan was on our UN project as a market researcher and first identified soccer as the unifying cultural theme!
• Corey Cunha, ’09 Software Engineering, is working as a Developer at EF Educational Tours in Boston. Corey programmed on our CIMIT and Cystic Fibrosis projects.
• Casey Hopkins, ’09 E-Business, is a SEO Analyst at Dealer.com . Casey was on our UN project as a researcher traveling with us to South Africa.
• Wes Knee, ’09 Game Art & Animation, is interning as a 3D Infographiste at Mistic Software in Montreal working on art for Nintendo DS games. Wes was on almost everything to include America's Army, Info Lit, CIMIT, the various Masie, CIMIT and MPI conferences, and the UN project to include presenting at MIGS last year on the UN project - that's where his current employer saw him first. He was also a GIV IT resident advisor.
• Lauren Nishikawa, '09 Game Design, both ourselves and Amanda Crispel (Hoozinga) scooped her up. She's the Junior Creative Director for our Empowering Play (UN) Project. Lauren just was on EVERYTHING and was the first recipient of our EMC Interstellar Award. She was also a GIV IT resident advisor.
• Iain Bissett, ’08 Game Design, is working at 3DVIA in Boston and has a great blog documenting his professional life: http://www.iainbissett.com/. Iain was our writer/designer on the first IBM interactive project.
• Renee Gillett, ’08 Game Design is an interactive designer at the Museum of Science in Boston – creating games for the museum’s exhibits. Renee participated in many demonstrations - to include the original Game Change Summit in Kingbridge where she first met her future employers.
• Tim Hamel, ’08 Game Design and 3D Art & Animation, is working as a Level Designer at Vicarious Visions and has worked on the Transformers games among others. Tim worked on various projects to include the original IBM interactive and was first leader of our student chapter of the IGDA.
• Nick Malatuma, '08 Game Art & Animation, is working as an artist at the EMC on our UN project to End Violence Against Women. That's him below with some of his incredible artwork!

So here's to our students - past and present. They have built the EMC right along with us. They are our bright future!

Once Again, On Wing

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This time we are flying home to Vermont—a tired but successful bunch. It will be lovely to be back again. This has been an intense process—uprooting, forming bonds, learning from strangers, grasping concepts, filtering to find the solution, implementing, adjusting, and then the presentation—within the hectic, unnatural environment of the conference floor.

Game time was at 4:00PM. The team completed and presented a playable version of the “Meet Different: Go Green” game—a graphically beautiful quiz style game. Minor edits are still required. It’s an expandable design wherein questions are randomly selected from a database created in XML. Future development can include adding deeper questions and answers by the larger community. The player chooses answers to questions corresponding to planning a conference. The choices represent a balance between economics and the environment. The player is rewarded with a visual representation of how their choices effect the environment.

The “Meet Different: A Social Sim” game was not completely playable at launch. The team took on a complex structure to meet a marvelous concept. Lauren was programming AI (artificial intelligence) into the objects and characters that make up the sim. I am looking forward to the completion of that game. The player is presented with an open floor, drag and drop objects fill the menu below. Each object corresponds to a conference design element: food, technology kiosks, signage, furniture, etc. Once the room is arranged the player clicks on “Open” and a simulation begins. People enter the room each representing three different personality types: the early adopter, the traditionalist and the facilitator/connector. The game’s goal is to birth ideas between these diverse groups. Lauren has been programming behaviors into the elements and characters on attractions and how the character types would respond when brought together by the elements. The player will see which environments spawn ideas between the groups. Future improvements could include adding granularity to the elements and game characters.

But enough of description, we need testers! You can play the games at MPI’s website here: http://www.mpiweb.org/cms/mpiweb/pec2008/peccommon.aspx?id=13996

Before we left, John and Elliott challenged the students to investigate the language of learning in games. One rewarding result of this event was hearing our student team elaborate on the power of games to teach. Wes Knee touches on it in this YouTube interview created by attendee Kristi Sanders.

In the final presentation, we opened up a forum between the student creators, our faculty and staff, Mary, Katie, Brooke, and conference attendees. The conversation topics ranged from games for learning, to networked technology, to how to create fun in games, to MPI member goals, to working with young people and the impact they will bring to the work world. In this conversation Ben, Chris, Emily, Lauren, Vanessa and Wes put words to their experience this week. They clearly demonstrated their growing understanding of the potential of games and emergent technologies for learning and creating change in the world. They also clearly demonstrated that change in the forms of new ways of thinking and working, borne of technology and networks, is landing soon regardless of our readiness to prepare for it.

Creating in Houston

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Ben, Chris, Emily, Lauren, Vanessa and Wes have been through a whirlwind, kept their heads and straight forwardly went upon their mission since we have arrived. 

This is despite meeting the MPI Board of Trustees, being photographed and videotaped and then projected to the assembly of 2000+.

They have gone straight to work creating their games brainstorming, investigating, reaching out to attendees and back to the Champlain campus for assistance. Attendees have been actively seeking out the game lab and providing questions, knowledge and feedback. The more challenging game concept has been the idea of "meet different". Essentially a question of designing for change. Change with a goal of fostering deeper communication. The co-creation model has unique value for this question.

I'm excited about the two games. They have moved beyond conceptual and into production.

From our online project management web tool, here is Lauren's description of that challenge posted to the Champlain College community:

 
"I think we've finally settled on an idea, after lots of listening and discussing. We're going to make an event-designing sim with some drag-and-drop components, and once the user has designed a space, it will be filled with people of both traditional and open mindsets.
Basically, it becomes a game of setting up a space that has enough information to help the traditionalists understand what's going on, while also adding enough engaging material to prevent the open-minded people from getting bored. As long as these people are excited about being in the room, they can create new ideas/connections if they're standing near each other. The objective is then to generate as many new ideas/connections as possible. Feel free to give some feedback on this, or continue to support us when we need real help. We're reusing the dude from the Asymbolation game, if anyone else is as amused by his return as we are."

Atlantis from the Air

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Seems like we've been here before. Oh yes we were! Weather turned blustery yesterday afternoon as we were attempting to travel to Houston for the Meeting Professional International conference. 

We had to rebook and were at the Burlington airport by 4:15 am. The students will be creating two games in the next three days: one on convening meetings that more effectively reach organizational goals. The other on how event planners can begin crafting "green" events.

Our looming environmental crisis has been a theme this week. The campus took part in Focus the Nation with author Bill McKibben issuing the wake-up call at Champlain. He clearly pinpointed the edge we are precipitously dancing on. He speaks out for both individual and political action but also for seeking new technological solutions to our energy needs.The following day Hope, Bob Bloch, Moneer Greenbaum and I met with Ann Jones-Weinstock from NRG. NRG is a successful Vermont engineering company that develops wind energy products. Her point was that NRG is focused on offering long lasting, realistic solutions. She wondered how NRG could help Champlain bring bright young minds to the question.

Our point exactly.

In preparation for their challenge this week, our student team interviewed Mike Dupee. Mike guides Green Mountain Coffee Roasters corporate responsibility actions. He spoke of “green washing”. Like white washing, it means putting a green spin on products or activities that make the consumer feel good but in actuality do not bring about positive environmental change. An example would be a recent catalog I received. It teased me to better the planet through purchasing organic cotton sheet sets printed in a green leaf motif. However promoting consumerism and mailing catalogs achieves the opposite result. Mike also linked the environmental question to the human equation. How should corporations work with world workers producing oil, coffee, cocoa, etc.? They receive minimal fiscal reimbursement with little consideration of sustainable practices. Why should and how can corporations work to balance that?

Tying ends together Elliott Masie and John Abele visited us yesterday. We drew together: students, faculty and staff in an open forum essentially on games, technology and learning. The conversations took a deep look at how these and the talents of our students can impact our world. Elliott has returned from Africa where he helped distribute malaria nets with Malaria No More. Malaria is spreading due to two major environmentally bound factors. First being the initial remedy against the mosquitoes, DDT, did more harm than good. The second — global warming is increasing the range of the mosquito borne illnesses. While in Africa, Elliott creatively applied technology—videoing, blogging and posting; connecting the recipients of the nets to those who donated them. This mimics the rewarded learning and communication system found in games. Those who take action can witness the impact.

But my mind is seeking answers to save us from destroying our home. How can we learn fast enough and then implement as quickly what needs to be done? Can new ways of communicating and thinking brought about by our networked, participatory culture bring about real solutions? What is the “Wikipedia” model that can leverage the “Wisdom of the Crowds” to find true solutions? Can we then “game-ify” the system to bring lasting change?

Our student team, Wes, Lauren, Ben, Emily, Vanessa and Chris, along with Hope, Ray, Peter and myself are finally airborne. The frozen, icy airfield behind us, we’ve traveled through the tumbly clouds to a sliver moon morning. As I sit here the clouds below look like a snowfield and I can imagine them embracing the continent. 

The sun rises above the horizon. Light breaks across in golds, blues and pinks. My heart catches in awe. We are at the time of Atlantis. The choices lay before us. Shall we continue with this beautiful world, or will we choose to annihilate ourselves? “This pretty planet” can continue an eternity without us. We do not have the same option.