The Digital Game-Based Learning(6)

One reason this is interesting, says Costello, is that “people said that ‘this is too hard for my people to do.’ If a 3rd grader can figure it out than probably anybody can figure out how to learn 3D. We’ve had that experience. We’ve had dyed-in-the-wool 2D draftspeople who’ve tried 3D products before without success, pick up Monkey Wrench, and within 30 days they’re up and going. They’re making progress in learning, having fun, feeling good about themselves, and learning a new way to do things.” “Customer response has been universally positive to The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy,” says Art Ignacio, Director of Educational Operations. “Whether it's in Japan, Italy, North America or Singapore, customers really like the idea of turning games into learning tools.”

So what makes the game so successful? It is, as we shall see, the combination of the two powerful factors that make all good Digital Game-Based Learning a success. Those factors are the motivation of the game, which pulls you into the learning without your

增强现实 虚拟现实 人机交互

really realizing it, combined with a learning methodology that is fast, effective, and definitely un-school-like. “Let's face it, this is a far more inspirational and effective alternative to inches-thick manuals and tedious, text-heavy computer-based training manuals," says Costello.

For those interested in design, The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy is an example of what I call “loosely-linked” Digital Game-Based Learning (see Chapter 6). A templatized, task-based learning methodology makes it both easy to learn the material and easy for the makers to change the learning tasks as the underlying product evolves. The “twitch-speed” videogame part gets the player’s adrenaline flowing, provides context and motivation for the tasks, and is a reward after each task has been done. What makes this format interesting is that both the tasks and the game can be updated separately. People inside and outside think3 are continually creating new learning tasks using the game format, which can be easily integrated into the game. And as technology evolves and the initial game becomes less “state-of-the-art,” the same tasks can easily be integrated into a new and better game. This Digital Game-Based Learning approach is ideal for open-ended, task-based content. But, as we will see in the course of this book, Digital Game-Based Learning can take a wide variety of approaches for different goals, content, audiences and budgets. So let us examine another approach. (For more on The Monkey Wrench Conspiracy, see Chapter 9).

Case Study 2

In$ider: How to be sure the people who audit the books

get it right (and like it!)

Remember the old saw: “What’s an accountant? — an actuary with a sense of humor!”? CPAs, and auditors in particular, are not known historically for having fun. But to paraphrase Bob Dylan, as we will show in detail as the book progresses, in these times, the people are a-changin’. Today’s average corporate auditor is 24 33, and was possibly using a joystick before ever picking up a pencil. In fact, “sharpening your pencil” is a reference — much like “dialing” a telephone — that many of today’s auditors, whose only sharpening is of their computer skills, might not even get.

The world of today’s young accountants, like the rest of its generation, moves at “twitch speed.” Changes in the ways corporations finance themselves and manage financial risks require auditors to have to learn whole new complex areas, often practically overnight. A great example is financial derivatives. Invented by, and long the exclusive province of the “rocket scientist” traders and marketers at the world’s top financial firms, in the 1980s and 90’s they began finding their way into more and more corporate financial structures, posing a series of difficult learning challenges.

First, people at the sellers needed to know more about these arcane and complex products, beginning with the marketers. Everybody inside companies like Bankers Trust — a derivative hot-shot in the 80’s and early 90’s — was eager to learn more about them. But the knowledge was scarce, and the ability to teach it even scarcer. Pulling the

增强现实 虚拟现实 人机交互

“rocket scientists” off the trading floor to teach was unthinkable — they were minting too much money for the firm. So at one point in the 90’s Bankers Trust Company paid a consultant $10,000 per day to give one-week derivatives courses, offered several times a year to long waiting lists. Nice work if you can get it! It did the trick — this was an audience who wanted to learn the stuff — but at an enormous cost.

Next came the buyers of derivatives — typically corporate treasurers and CFOs. Derivatives are risky products, which can either lead to enormous profits if you bet big and guess right (e.g. on the direction of interest rates) or to enormous losses if you guess wrong. Used properly they can reduce risk; used improperly they are wild speculation. Relatively few corporate buyers had a sophisticated understanding of the way these products worked and their risks. So sellers, like Bankers Trust, tried hard to train their clients — traders at Bankers created game-like simulations to illustrate exactly how derivatives could hedge corporate risks (see Chapter 9). Played by small groups of potential clients at corporate off-sites at fancy hotels they helped, but they only reached a small audience, and derivatives were difficult products. The lack of buyer knowledge about derivatives eventually caused enormous losses, scandals, and pain for both sides. At Bankers Trust, stock selloffs as a result of lawsuits brought by customers literally halved the market value of the bank, and was a factor that led to its eventual sale and dem …… 此处隐藏：5948字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……