Archive for December, 2011

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Genetic Research Aided by Video Game Players

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

Playing computer games and video games is a popular form of entertainment for many people of all ages.  While some may think of playing video games as simply a hobby or pastime, there is at least one computer game that reaches beyond just fun by contributing to the greater good of mankind.  The game we are talking about is called Phylo.

Dr. Jérôme Waldispuhl of the McGill School of Computer Science and collaborator Mathieu Blanchette designed a computer game called Phylo as a method to assist scientists in decoding human DNA sequences.  Phylo has about 17,000 registered users who have helped decode various genetic diseases over the past year since the game’s release in November of 2010.  These video game players have assisted scientists in making significant advancements in the understanding of the genetic basis for several diseases including Alzheimer’s, diabetes, epilepsy, and certain types of cancer.  Phylo has assisted scientists in decoding the behavior of over 500 genes in a variety of diseases.

The puzzle-like game asks players to find solutions to arranging a sequence of colored blocks.  Game designer, Waldispuhl, explains “computers are best at handling large amounts of messy data, but where we require high accuracy, we need humans. In this case, the genomes we’re analyzing have already been pre-aligned by computers, but there are parts of it that are misaligned. Our goal is to identify these parts and transform the task of aligning them into a puzzle people will want to sort out.” So Phylo is his solution to solving these sequence alignment problems.  Players must enjoy the game and helping medical advancement because researchers have received over 350,000 sequence alignment solutions over the past year.  Developers hope to release an upgraded version of Phylo for use on tablet devices some time in the near future.

If the thought of making medical and scientific advancements through computer games appeals to you, perhaps you should investigate a career in the computer game design industry.  Gatlin International has an eLearning course, Video Game Design course and Virtual Internship Experience , to help you reach this goal.  This award winning online course and training program is an appropriate starting point for students who seek a professional career as a game designer and developer. It is also well suited for enthusiastic amateurs and gamers looking to explore this exciting field as a recreational endeavor.  Combining concepts in computer graphics, computer aided instruction and marketing, Gatlin International’s Video Game Design course is easy to use.  There is no prior game or graphics programming background required to enroll in this course; students will acquire the skills needed through Gatlin’s project centered Virtual Internship.  Your daily work in a game design job will depend largely on the specific job path you take. You can choose to focus your work on any phase of the computer game design process, from the initial planning, to designing characters and environments, to programming.  To register for this course or to view more details, visit the Gatlin International website today.

Exploring eTwinning

Thursday, December 15th, 2011

In our last article we shared the winners of the 2011 MEDEA Awards.  The recipient of the MEDEA Award in the European Collaboration category was an eTwinning project called the European Chain Reaction by the Qworzó Primary School in Belgium.   All of the winners of MEDEA awards are recognized for presenting an outstanding project involved with eLearning, but what is “eTwinning”?

eTwinning is a European educational project promoting collaboration in schools with a focus on the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT).  Countries participating in eTwinning include Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Overseas territories and countries are also eligible to participate in eTwinning projects. In addition, Croatia, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey can also take part in eTwinning.

The eTwinning premise is fairly simple:  Educators from participating countries may register their school with the eTwinning project using the online portal called TwinSpace.  Through this online portal, schools or classes interested in collaborating on a project can find each other, meet virtually, share ideas and practice examples, form groups, and participate in projects that are based online.  eTwinning projects can cover just about any topic the participating parties wish to work on.  These projects usually combine ICT and classroom activities and should also follow the national curricula of the schools that are involved in the project.

eTwinning projects can be carried out by two or more teachers, teams of teachers or subject departments, librarians, and students from schools across Europe.  The projects can be within the same subject or cross-curricular through the use of ICT. All of the communication and collaboration between the participating schools or classes is done using the Internet so no face-to-face meetings are necessary.  As you can see, participating in an eTwinning project could be a wonderful way to bring together two or more schools that would otherwise have no way of connecting.

The eTwinning organization also likes to recognize outstanding eTwinning projects with their annual eTwinning awards and eTwinning quality labels.  For example, this year in the age 12 – 15 category, an eTwinning award was given to a project called “BE TWIN! – Twinning up the Everyday Lesson”.  This project sought to introduce eTwinning activities into everyday school life.  This project also wanted to “…prove that ICT and teamwork can add to pupils’ motivation and involvement in all normally planned activities of different disciplines, and that eTwinning-based didactics is not time-consuming but creativity-inducing.”  The eTwinning Quality Labels have an application process and are awarded to projects that exhibit excellence in the areas of pedagogical innovation and creativity, curricular integration, collaboration between partner schools, creative use of ICT, sustainability and transferability, and results and benefits.  eTwinning award winners and quality label recipients from the current and past years can be viewed on the eTwinning website.

If you would like to learn more about eTwinning or to register to participate in an eTwinning project yourself, you may visit the eTwinning website at http://www.etwinning.net/en/pub/index.htm .

eLearning News: The MEDEA Awards

Tuesday, December 13th, 2011

The MEDEA Award recipients for 2011 were announced in late November at the Media and Learning Conference in Brussels, Belgium.  The MEDEA Awards are granted to individuals and organizations to support innovation and good practice in the use of audio, video, graphic, and animated media in education. These awards are also aimed at recognizing and promoting superior design demonstrated in the production of learning resources that incorporate the various media types.  MEDEA also appreciates the need and advantages in including media-rich resources in the learning environments that exist in the technologically advanced world we presently live in.

The MEDEA Awards were first introduced in late 2007 with the first award recipients announced in 2008.  This competition is conducted annually with all entries being judged by a team of expert jury members.  The 2011 MEDEA Awards received 115 entries from 28 different countries.  The award recipients announced recently included some interesting and noteworthy award winners.

The winner in the MEDEA Professional Production Award 2011 category was a Belgian entry, Monkey Tales Games.  This 3D video game is a math learning resource and was created by die Keure Educatief and Larian Studios in Belgium in 2011.  The game is composed of five high interest and relevant age-specific games with various themes aimed at different age groups:  The Princess of Sundara (7+ age), The Museum of Miscellany (8+ age), The Abbey of Aviath (9+ age), The Castle of Draconion (10+ age) and The Valley of the Jackal (age 11 and up).  This educational game may be used in a classroom, but it is mainly intended for use at home to encourage independent practice of math concepts learned in the classroom.

The Merchant of Venice is the title of the 2011 MEDEA User-Generated Award 2011 category.  This is an online educational game created in 2011 by Professor Uwe Gutwirth, University of Education Salzburg (PH-Salzburg) in Austria.  The Merchant of Venice requires at least two teams to play as the players taken on the role of Venetian merchants who must earn money through trading with foreign countries and building wealth with their earnings.  The first team to reach the Rialto Square with no debt wins the game and is accepted into the Hall of Fame.  This game is intended for use by Accounting students to support concepts they are learning such as double-entry bookkeeping, financial decision-making, report interpretation, and teamwork in an interesting and engaging way.

The award recipient in the European Collaboration Award 2011 was The European Chain Reaction by Qworzó Primary School in Belgium.   This is an eTwinning project (a collaboration project of European schools) that brought together primary schools from 13 different countries in an effort to create, film, and upload a chain reaction influenced by the notable humor artists Rube-Goldberg and Robert Storm Petersen.  This project aims to teach primary school children about science and technology in a fun and memorable way.

If you would like to read about the other finalists in the MEDEA Awards this year, you may visit the MEDEA website at http://www.medea-awards.com/home .  Here you may also view the show reel of the 2011 MEDEA Award winners or read more detailed information about the current award recipients.

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