« Serious Games Showcase - London | Main | Open Source Location-Based Learning:Wikipedia on Smartphones via Semacode...Semapedia.org! »
September 01, 2005
PSP Launch Today!
Today is the long awaited UK launch of the Sony Playstation Portable (PSP), a beautiful, powerful, WiFi enabled gaming/music/photos and movie device. You can catch reviews of it everywhere, including the BBC here and the Guardian here. (There is a nice comparison on the BBC site of 6 handheld gaming devices here). Note the references to how difficult it is to view your own video and the lack of messaging capability on the PSP which in addition to the proprietary development platform inhibit off the shelf use for learning. A more promising device for learning is the Gizmondo, recently launched in the UK and the US, this handheld device also has some 30 titles but also includes GPS for outdoor location based gaming and a GPRS data card enabling network play and messaging. Another handheld device I'm tracking is the Nokia 770 mini-tablet - a Wifi enabled handheld with a browser which will play Flash, thus enabling low cost learning games development.
How might mobile gaming be used in a learning context in the near future?
While much of the discussion at the mobile games conferences I referred to yesterday have focussed on technical capabilities of 3D and multiplayer networked play as usual, there were a few mentions of important developments in location based and multi-platform networked gaming where you interact with your game world and fellow gamers across platforms from mobile to console to pc. Some of this is referenced on the Guardian games blog here by Kieth Stewart who attended the full day.
Location based gaming/learning gives you the ability to have context sensitive content (information based on where you are and what you are looking at) delivered into your hands, eyes and ears. I envision a few "channels" available for wherever you are from history to politics to "how does this work" to entertainment to yes, even the most cited and boring application, the location of nearby retail services. It's great to see more experimentation in this space as I also agree that it will become prevalent and invaluable. Multi-platform networked gaming is important because it connects people independent of device which is key to collaborative learning across distance. This would also enable the type of tracking important to many learning organizations - just as you would "accessorize" your Sim on your mobile device with skills, tools, etc. by trading with a friend you just bumped into (or found online), and play further when you got home on your PC - the same process could occur for accessing context sensitive knowledge objects (and people!).
Posted by Ron Edwards at September 1, 2005 09:19 AM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)