Instructional Gaming Forum (IGFORUM)

AECT 2007 will begin soon, and I am really excited to be able to meet with old friends and meet new ones!

Here is a list of presentations and workshops that I have put together for you. You should find these sessions, workshop and symposium interesting because they are about games, simulation & Second Life. The attached MSWord file is formatted in such a way to make it easy for you to print out and take it with you to Anaheim.

You should notice a new trend in this year’s sessions: SecondLife. Many of AECT’s board members and Presidents have been sighted in SL. Perhaps you already know that AECT has a SecondLife presence? (Session 32-RB will tell you more).

You will also find more about modifying game content (commonly known as Game Modding) in this year’s Gaming Symposium.

Special Mention: You are most welcome to attend a special ISMF Workshop called “Introduction to Making Video Games and Machinima” (the workshop will focus on game modding using Neverwinter Nights’ engine). One of our divisional member has created a serious game mod using the Neverwinter Nights toolset, and the resulting game has been selected as one of the Finalist entry in the Second Annual Serious Game Showcase and Challenge. In this session, you will get to:
(1) play the game that made it to the Finalist entry,
(2) listen to a detail breakdown of the design of the game,
(3) have a perusal of all the resources and tutorials available to learn the toolset, and
(4) brainstorm for ideas that can be used in developing your own educational game entry
This session is made possible because the ISMF will be introducing Game Modding and Machinima as a category for the International Student Media Festival 2008. Most of us have a inaccurate assumption that “students” in ISMF means K-12, but Phil Harris has clarified that the Media Festival is also opened to all college students. Just think about the possibilities: you can have your students submit serious game mod entries to the ISMF next year. MPD has officially offered to help out in ISMF 2008, and we will soon call on you to step up as judges to the game mod competition next year.

If you are interested in attending the ISMF workshop, you will need to send an email to aect@aect.org to let them know you will be coming. (There may be limited seats to the workshop because it is primarily an ISMF workshop).

If you are interested to help out in MPD in the coming year, please make sure you attend the MPD membership meeting (Session 37-GR). Note: This (37-GR) is a new added session and may not show up in your regular session search. All MPD Officers and Board Members are requested to attend the Board Meeting (Session 15-S6).

Note: Important sessions have been marked in RED, and SecondLife sessions are in BLUE. We hope you find the game listings useful. Remember, if you know of somebody who like to work with multimedia, ask if they are a member of the Multimedia Production Division. And if they are not, do invite them to join us.