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Call for Papers on Game Based Learning closes today!
eLearning Papers seeks contributions about Game Based Learning in both sections: In-Depth and From the Field. Deadline June 3, 2011
In parallel to the phenomenal rise of the digital game development industry through time, the acceptance of games in other sectors has also been changing. Computer game skills have been increasingly applied in almost all areas of human activity within modern societies. Digital games have now been embraced by the academic research community as a research topic, as well as discovered by the education sector as a highly interactive media that can support and foster learning. As a popular and powerful media, computer games are being considered for use in various education and training settings to motivate learners, to focus their attention, and to help them to construct meaningful and permanent records of their learning.
Games have high presence in informal segments of learning – but in formal education, games are still often seen as an unserious activity and the potentials of games for learning remain undiscovered. However, when evaluating games with their children, 85% of parents believed that computer games contributed to learning as well as providing entertainment.
Beside fantasy and fun elements, games have potential to foster players’ ability to communicate and interact with others during gameplay. Computer games can help players to think critically when they are required to construct connections between virtual and real life. Game-like learning environments can provide motivating interdisciplinary learning settings, creating opportunities that could improve student collaboration skills as well as help them learn new concepts and synthesize new information. Games have also been praised for the potential they offer in learning business leadership and other skills by practicing in a safe environment.
The potential of Game Based Learning (GBL) is still underestimated. It can play a major role in renewing learning as it is perceived by learners in all levels of education and training systems. eLearning Papers seeks contributions about mixed realities, virtual worlds and gaming in both sections: In-Depth and From the Field.
We specifically invite contributions which address one or several of the following issues:
- Innovative game based learning technologies, applications, tools and environments
- 3D virtual worlds supporting learning, e.g. in language learning or leadership training
- Use of mobile games and location-based technology for learning
- Innovative applications of mixed realities for learning
- Use of simulations in education, corporate training and military
- Technology for massive multiplayer online games (MMOGs) for learning
- Interactivity design in game based learning applications
- Player immersion and learning
- Case studies and best practices in GBL
- Social and collaborative aspects of GBL
- Implementation issues associated with GBL
- Learning design, good gameplay and instructional theory for GBL
- Use of role plays for learning and training
- Assessment and evaluation in GBL
- Gender, age, cultural and ethical issues in GBL
- Rating of games for learning
- Accessibility of games for learning
The article submission has been extended to June 3, 2011 The provisional date of publishing is 14 July 2011. For further information and to submit your article, please contact: 
Guest editor:
Professor DI Dr. Maja Pivec, University of Applied Sciences FH JOANNEUM in Graz, Austria
The submissions need to comply with the following guidelines:
- Submission language: English
- Title: must effectively and creatively communicate the content of the article and may include a subtitle.
- Executive summary for In-depth section should not exceed 200 words.
- Executive summary for From the field section should not exceed 50 words.
- Keywords: up to five relevant keywords need to be included.
- In-depth full texts: articles should range from 4,000 to 6,000 words.
- From the field texts: texts should not exceed 1,200 words.
- Conclusions: special importance is given to the representation of the conclusions, which should be clearly stated both in the summary and at the end of the article.
- References: All the references must be adequately cited and listed.
- Author profile: author name, institution, position and e-mail address must accompany each submission.
- Images: Please send high resolution JPEG files
See the complete guidelines at: Instructions for writers
Open Education: a wake up-call for the learning industry?
The full title of this White Paper produced by the ELIG Secretariat is
Open Education: a wake up-call for the learning industry?
Is open education fundamental to a sustainable learning industry
or a noble but commercially flawed cause?
Key Message
Based on research from across the breadth of the learning industry, there are clear indications that the commercial learning industry has not yet fully engaged with open education (OE) or open educational resources (OER). The commercial hesitation to adopt OE is in large part due to a perceived lack of associated new business models. It is also due to the perceptionof OE being a potential threat to existing learning business models. This view neglects the important innovation potential that OE brings to the learning market. We present evidence that OE is growing quickly – e.g. in the academic world– even though only few industry members are currently supporting it. This creates a potential for market disruption – in similar ways as the music industry has experienced with the rise of Internet filesharing or the software industry with the rise of Open Source. To not proactively engage with open education, its production, use or practices, could present a serious threat to the sustainability of the current learning market.
Future of Learning Introduction
Paths to internationalisation: Higher education policies, trends and strategies in Europe and Slovenia
The collection of eight articles presents case studies and contemporary discussions concerning the internationalisation of higher education in Europe and globally, with insights into trends and strategies in Slovenia. It addresses several global trends and shifts in modern societies in an attempt to shed light on higher education in the modern societal context.
AVATAR – The Course: Recommendations for Using 3D Virtual Environments for Teaching
The AVATAR project developed a global course for teachers, which was delivered remotely over a period of four months.
The course had nine modules, distributed via e-learning and v-learning platforms. The course was created in English, however to support the learning curve of multilingual and international groups, several modules were moderated in national groups. This communication details the rationale behind the course, documents two case studies of completed projects within a virtual world, highlights the challenges and successes of the modules, and culminates with conclusions and recommendations for running courses and lessons within an online 3D virtual world.
Call for tenders: Return to Work – Work-based learning and the reintegration of unemployed adults into the labour market
The purpose of this study is to investigate how work-based learning that focuses on the acquisition of key competences can contribute to getting low-skilled unemployed adults back into the labour market.
StudyWorld 2011
Developing 21st century skills: Web 2.0 in higher education. A Case Study
This is an account of a collaborative project regarding two pilot university courses and the follow-up study, concerning the integration of Web 2.0 as content and teaching method, which was carried out with 47 students from October 2010 to February 2011, between two Universities of Applied Sciences in Berlin and Munich.
is an account of a collaborative project regarding two pilot university courses and the follow-up study, concerning the integration of Web 2.0 as content and teaching method, which was carried out with 47 students from October 2010 to February 2011, between two Universities of Applied Sciences in Berlin and Munich.
Fostering the Use of ICT in Pedagogical Practices in Science Education
The FICTUP project (Fostering the Use of ICT in Pedagogical Practices), funded with the support of the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Union, aims to (1) create innovative training materials that suggest concrete pedagogical activities using ICT, accompanied by a close tutoring process, and (2) test the impact of the material and the tutoring on novice teachers' use of ICT in the classroom.
The innovative training material, developed collaboratively by both experienced and novice teachers to ensure its accessibility, focuses on specific classroom activities that use ICT. Each case includes a detailed description of the activity (PDF file) and three short, pedagogical videos (ca. 2-6 minutes each) that describe the transversal ICT skills brought into play during the activity. During the first year of the project, nine cases were implemented, some of which focused explicitly on the use of ICT in science education. This paper presents a number of different sample applications, such as “Device – measurement – evaluation: Use of ICT in physics (Hungary)”, “Exploring growth factors: Applying inquiry learning in biology (Finland)”, and “GeoGebra software: Mathematics teaching (France)”.
The increased use of ICT has led to the introduction of new pedagogical approaches, including Resource Based Learning (RBL) where varied learning needs are supported by a wide range of ICT assets. Science subjects in particular are extremely amenable to the advantages offered by RBL and the associated ICT assets. The implementation of technology-supported collaborative inquiry allows teachers to design the educational setting as an integrated whole that provides students with relevant technological tools, directs them to collaborate effectively, and promotes epistemologically high-level and creative ways of working with knowledge.
How new technologies can help with ‘invisible disabilities’
In recent years the idea that Internet would contribute to a new era of participatory democracy has become dominant, but there is a real risk that what has been proclaimed as a tool of democracy can turn into a factor leading to social marginalization for those who are not able to master the processes of reading/writing proficiently. To avoid this risk, it is necessary that the educational and social institutions consider the problems and difficulties that people with disabilities have to face when they use modern technology, and provide them with specific tools like training, and software.
Only in this way can technology be considered, if not the solution, at least a part of the process to minimize the impact of dyslexia on individuals, to promote social inclusion assisting with the difficulties, the anxieties and the problems that the dyslexic have to face in everyday situations.