There has been the question of introducing games for students on moodle, and I'm sure this will keep coming up. Of course we already have our quizes, crosswords, Snakes and ladders, mix n match etc.

It would be nice to be able to have some games like this to be shown, easily available free on your desktop. N.html But can such selected games be used on moodle, great for young learners, or those learning English or another language as beginners. Even better if you are capable of designing your own.

I've just notice these blender 3d tutorials, only thing is if there could be a format available to export the game to moodle. Is an attempt to work towards being able to let game developers better access to moodle. But also at same time extend things for regular / resources within moodle. It is just not 'blender' it is unity3d, construct 2, flash games, and other html5 / canvase games. Along with say and being able to give game developers a framework / API, to pull user names, grades, tests questions / answers, books (html / pdf, other), into games and much more, and being able to use them as part of a game. In the video you posted.

You have not yet voted on this site! If you have already visited the site, please help us classify the good from the bad by voting on this site. Aug 27, 2009. I have been searching the internet trying to find a Gaming Ladder Script. I finally found one. Re: NUKE LADDER. Apparently the Nuke Ladder comes as a Free Demo, but the Full version is licensed. I created a page in cms file name nukeladder.php than uploaded the file nukeladder.php to my site here.

Sensor, controller, actuator, is the primary notation of the video. In ->advanced editor pages, the mention of.events, conditions, actions, would be same thing as sensors, controller, actuator. Just labeling them differently.

->skill tree editor is a push towards how a person might level up in a game, or regular actual real life skills (being able to read at different levels, being able to do bigger math problems, etc.). Vs just being able to pickup and user a bigger weapon in a game. ======================== game creator may not have a clue about another language. Or how to adjust game speed for a certain age. Little bit change for a teacher in moodle. And everything connects, letting teacher act more like a administrator / manager vs actual game developer. Is what i am looking.

For a game like above link. It is not just Blender? What other professional quality game/movie maker works well with LInux, windows and MAC, and doesn't cost you anything.

There is no free trial with Blender, as it is already free (FOSS) just like moodle. Just click the button, and it is installed on your desktop within two minutes, no questions asked, not even your email, plus support from thousands of members, and a website flooded with tutorials, just like the one above. I'm talking about useful educational games, not shooting matches. What are useful educational games? What type of games are you talking about as being useful? What info would you want control of in moodle. So as to be able to adjust these games to a individual student?

How would you want to track each student information within moodle? What would you like these games do? Would a typing game be something? Would fill in 'word' story book be a game? Were student had to either type, or record an audio file and it be a game?

Would different math games come into play in order to beat some monster up? What is an educational game?

Besides graphics. What content is wanted and how would it apply to being a game?

What would you need in a blender game that would make it educational? ============= lots of questions, but hoping to get more out of you john, so i can understand what it is you want / need and what would make things better.

Just saying blender and FOSS. *shrugs* to much of a blanket statement. And yes spell it out. I can be rather be thick headed at times. On the pacman issue, there is an excellent website which has exactly this feature and can easily be embedded in Moodle. There are also a of other games and gadgets which can aid the busy teacher. The arcade game generator might fit the bill for the original poster.

=============== sorry for post of this nature. Was going back quick skim on this thread. And was nailed with AVG. When i clicked on above link.

Like everything this may be a false report. With me not using classtools.net on a routine basis, it is hard for me to take into account. If good or bad. Larger websites regardless of nature stuff happens.

Hopefully this will be resolved soon. Previously going to website all was fine. When i initially read Andy post.

And was going to click back on link for a refresher of what the site was about. Your post were ya go into list of 'higher order thinking' to me ya almost going to far out, and asking to much, in your overall post. You are asking a computer to become a human. Technology has not caught up to that point. Your post was a good read overall!, getting through first 2 chapters. Tad hard to follow. To many 'quotes from other things' and needing a background of reading many books it seems like to make sense of what is being said.

Will see about reading over it later. Other 2 references. To much on plate already.

==================== some were flash, html5 / javascript,, some download and install, some mobile phone support. OK.but does that mean.that cocktail is why the player does not have a choice.what I mean is, if you choose this direction/pathway you might.or if you choose this pathway/cave/forest whatever you might be able to???? Severe lack of choice for the player across the lot.CHOICE important.enbales sense of freedom.control during engagement.and ownership of outcomes.instead of: use the arrows to put the fires out.derr! Or, choose the right letter/blend to make the given word.hidden didactics.boring for kids and then they go and play minecraft! Getting in to programming. • KISS (keep it simply stupid) flash and/or html5/ javascript maybe, and that is a long maybe. Each mini game = a new activity or resource type.

Ya download and install into moodle. Just like you might install one of the many third party activity types at • download / install on computer *shakes head no* i am against this in so many ways, it is not funny. Being techie in family. And getting a call how do i install this game for my kid? The added frustration needs to end. Before it even begins and that is (downloading and installing on computer) there be 1000's of flash base games, html5/javascript games out there on the internet that do not need an install doing.

• and newer SCORM = TIN CAN API, i only see big companies using. So they can offer more of there games to multi LMS. • ' provider' = *shakes head no* for nearly all of the learning games i have seen up to this point. The exception is for a MMO (massive multi-player online) game. Were the game requires specialized software. LTI provider for a learning game.

Seems like to much distraction, more so if they are geared towards younger kids. Even for the upper 7th/8th grade and above kids. The learning games are small enough. That i would think be easier to have them as an activity / resource directly within moodle. So a teacher has direct control what is and what is not valid for there students.

Vs just sending all there students to some random game website and no direction what so ever. Hi Ryan, Re: 'you are asking a computer to become a human.' -- Or more explicitly, pointing out that computers can't do what human teachers, at least effective ones, do. I think it was Arthur C. Clarke who said, 'If a teacher can be replaced by a machine, he should be.' I think edugames receive disproportionate amounts of attention and resources for the learning benefits they can provide and for their track record so far (I'm including several kinds of adaptive testing/teaching that use similar game dynamics). If they were as effective as some pundits claim, we'd have had cheap education for all a long time ago.

They can be effective under narrow sets of circumstances and when used judiciously. And there are also non-edugame alternatives to those that can be more effective for some people.

I suspect many of the anecdotal 'it works' claims by learners, parents, and teachers are products of personal preference (e.g. Some learners prefer rote memorisation over 'exploring boundary conditions' because of personal beliefs about learning), confirmation bias (only noticing and/or remembering evidence that supports your hypothesis), and/or post hoc fallacies (because outcome follows treatment, outcome is caused by treatment = fallacy.

Doctors have a saying, 'If you treat a cold it lasts for about 7 days. If you don't treat it, it lasts about a week.'

I am getting ahead of myself. Book 'psychology the science of mind and behavior 6th edition by gross' chapter 41 intelligence. Starting to get into IQ tests, and other type of tests. I have yet to read through entire chapter. But would the small little cheap learning games, be a way to obtain IQ test data? Real time notation, of how long it takes to figure certain things out, different ways of displaying problems that is not purely text based. But rather 3D virtual worlds and figuring out were you are in some map, in some car / bike / boat / airplane game.

And obtaining extra details, that may be impossible to obtain through pure text? I mean the games are well pretty simple.

Nothing major about them to complex a more simple psychology test, they do provide different way of presenting information, and how to apply information. That may not be obtainable through a writing fill in dot test.

I remember WPS (words per second) for typing, and some (words per minute) reading. Scores in old games. And in recent searching for 'learning / teaching games' showing off math skills via math per minute. Picking on for a timely thread. Home ►Moodle in English ►General ►General help ► or to all of above. Am i asking for to much? Hi Ryan, For Flash games, my SWF Activity Module ( ) already records elapsed time in Moodle's grade book along with all the usual user data.

It's been doing that since the first version for Moodle 1.9. I believe that there are other activity modules that do similar things. There are some well-established tests for spatial-temporal reasoning (manipulating objects in 3D space in your mind's eye). They don't require anything as exotic as interactive animated 3D models. I don't think the issue is technology preventing such tests from becoming more widespread, it's that it's a skill/ability that we don't seem to value in education (We measure what we value). Similarly, there are some excellent tests for language learners that can be automated, e.g.

The c-test, that aren't popular despite the positive supporting research evidence and ease of use: Perhaps the biggest barrier to new learning, teaching, and assessment methods, approaches, strategies, and techniques is 'educational orthodoxy' or to put it another way, an uncritical mind-set of 'This is the way we do things here.' That is unwilling and/or unable to seriously consider the alternatives. Although I've seen some impressive pilot projects in universities, I suspect that multimedia, interactive, learning, teaching, and assessment rubrics and activities might be better received and taken more seriously in vocational training departments and organisations than in academic institutions. Hi again Here a link to a game (Memory) which really does work!

For learning. The kids like playing it and they remember the content too. The other included games are not as effective, but included with the main word list. Example - EFL Vocab for a simple story text: I've used it for lots of other purposes, such as Guitar Chord Shapes, Atom Diagrams, Chemical Symbols and even Bird Names with Song mp3s!!! Mail me via stories4learning.com if anyone wants the javascript files. Just number the gifs or jpgs, number the mp3s similarly and make a word list to share across all 3 games. Regards Alan.

Perhaps a point worth making about edugames is that they should be designed according to evidence supported pedagogical principles. It's insufficient to say an edugame 'works.' Works at what?

What do learners gain from it? Is it purely rote memorisation with the associated lack of knowledge transfer and high attrition rates? Or does it encourage and enable learners to make sense of the learning objectives. Edugames have a very poor track record when it comes to higher-order thinking and learning outcomes. In EFL and ESL, edugames have been used for decades and there have been many software packages, some of them quite sophisticated, that promise to teach foreign and second languages. While they help learners to memorise lists of vocabulary and perform well on explicit form focused language tests, there is little evidence that they support or contribute to language acquisition, or spontaneous use of target languages, either spoken or written. And of course, every vendor of edugames will tell you, 'Ah, but my games are different because.

' In short, if your learners need to cram for explicit form focused tests, then edugames may help them if they use certain games intensively just before each test, e.g. Spaced repetition exercises ( ). Don't expect miracles from edugames. Hi Matt, all Yes point taken.

But then, as a working teacher in a small specialized school, I don't really have a chance to execute large scale random trials. I really do have to estimate what works for me. Over the last 11 years, the standard of EFL (for one) has been clearly better at our school and confirmed by several sources. The Memory game has been but just a small part of an innovative unusual approach based on Functional Grammar.

I like to think of the 'lone' teacher as a reflective practitioner. I do read larger scale research (sometimes) and try to apply some aspects to my own localized teaching. However, at the end of the day, I know my students' pecularities best and won't solely offer them 'pills' derived from many large scale and sometimes conflicting random trials. However, I agree that some control and justification is still necessary. Read this for a humorous take on the serious predicament: It seems to me that one needs a considered foot in both camps really!!!!

It just not black and white. Regards Alan. Hi all, maybe pertinent to the discussion 1.

Moodle is underpinned by theory. The research-teaching/learning nexus is about applying theory for practice. How that is done can be in the form of action research.cycles that include a plan-do-review framework.and can be done by the lone, reflective practitioner.practitioner research is more ad hoc-situated, so for example a one-off trial/application/evaluation and so on-with no necessary follow up-it is down to practitioner's identification of need. A research study in the social sciences, including education, attempts to apply theory or seek out theory in/for practice. And, attempts include frameworks, methods, methodologies and so on that aim to measure/observe/inquire about what is going on in a segment of representative practice or grand scale insights can be sought with the purpose of finding out about how practice might be enhanced.or what issues exist and so on.

There is no point in putting theory in a little box and separating practice into another where never the two shall meet, if we are to believe certain theories have merit. The point being, in convincing others of the links between theory for practice then we need a way to convey those linkages-or not of course. Higher order thinking (in short-cognition/distinguishable from metacognition because the latter can be considered as conscious and deliberate thoughts that have as their object other thoughts (Hacker, 2002), as outlined in your post Matt, does not include social environment. Without that factor we have a sole reliance on a developmental approach (cog/metacog develops with age (Baker, 1994; Brown, 1987; Flavell, 1971; Piaget, 1972; Schneider and Pressley, 1989). The second school of thought suggests that social environment, pedagogical practice; the nature of the cognitive problem posed and the individual's affective state at a given time impact upon cognition/metacog/higher order thinking skills (Larkin, 2000; Pelligrini, Galda and Flor, 1996) and Flavell and Wellman (1977) acknowledge social interactions can influence cog/metacog-e.g. When working on a group task. According to Flavell (1977, p.107) children are not wholly incapable of thinking about thinking due to a formal operational process that is developmentally led, because formal operations are performed upon the results of prior concrete operations e.g.

Once the action has been undertaken in a concrete manner.e.g. Object touched.then pictorial representation can develop.and then abstract and so on..but this only happens over time with development/maturity. And Alan's memory games do have value.as it was Kluwe (1982) who distinguished between declarative knowledge 'stored data in long-term memory' such as knowledge about literacy for example, and that procedural knowledge is stored processes of a system e.g.

Processes directed to the solution of a problem. Therefore according to Kluwe, cognitive thinking mostly takes place using declarative knowledge stored in long-term memory.

Processes that monitor the selection and application, as well as the effects of solution; processes and regulate the stream of solution activity-represent metacognitive procedural knowledge (Kluwe, 1982, p. And of course there is Pea (1993) who stated that cog is not just about an ability to think in a particular way.cog involves thinking, other people, symbolic media and exploiting the env and artefacts. This is akin to Perkins' (1993, p.

90) distributed cog.person-plus involving situations of authentic and extended enquiry. Haughland and Ruiz (2002) did research that supports children learning best through interaction when using IT increasing critical thinking skills and problem solving skills. And the benefits of IT for enhancement in cog/metacog/higher order thinking skills, critical skills.has been shown across other research undertaken by.( Haughland and Wright, 1997; Larkin, 2000;; Pappas et al., 2003; Siu and Lam, 2003 and Wertsch, 1978). Google liking me today. Finding lots of educational game websites.keywords. • educational games • online multiplayer educational games • multi player education game • educational games 9th grade some highlights (lots of websites, below just happen to be what was still open in a browser tabs) • • • • • • general listings of websites for edu games • • other keywords • SCORM • TEMPLATE • *cringies* very bad keywords. I sunk into my chair with depression.

As websites with these keywords brought back. (EDIT: re-reading, this is not a at ya Matt Bury, up to just a couple hours ago. I was finding some very ugly websites that dealt with educational games, that reminded me of 1990's DOS / windows 3.1 with 5 1/4 floppy disks) overview of above. • a lot are showing better 'free' vs commercial pay to play. • i am also seeing not much connection to any sort of LMS. Other words no way of handing out a worksheet / assignment and complete these math problems for a grade. Err go play this game and get X score within X amount of time and have it auto record in a LMS • not seeing much of adjusting this or that in a game to deal with this students current skill levels and what this given student needs to overview.

• most games are all little 'mini games' there really is no linking between them, so as to be able to progress through them. • some of the websites allowed a teacher to sign up there class to the website. But not much further than that. It was all done in given website. So ya miss out on moodle activities / resources. And just deal with a games on there website. • some were flash, html5 / javascript, java, some download and install, some mobile phone support.

• mutli-player *meh* ya ok, it is there. But no leader board / tournaments / ways to break students up on different criteria to place them in different select groups. • there was a lot of games that had 'time' associated with some sort of scoring. • as things moved away from say 7th grade and higher. Graphics went away. To more basic general games. Of entering stuff on keyboard or mouse clicks, with no fancy stuff.

• a lot of games seemed WAY TO STRICT. Get 1 wrong answer and 'end game' and start all over again:/ • there was no history in many of the games. To display wrong answers at end of a stage.

So as to provide extra notification. • a lot of the games provide instant feedback. Upon wrong answer, some maybe on correct answer. • the wrong answer got rather annoying. 'took me to another popup, and a couple clicks to get back to the game. It was almost like a yelling, NO YOU ARE WRONG THAT ANSWER IS INCORRECT in how wrong answers were displayed in some games. It was not like hey you are wrong lets move on, and go through more like examples and not a real big deal.

• educational games mmo • running into difficulty, there is mention of them. But nothing is coming up to try a demo or like. ((this is getting more into actual 3D virtual world games / FPS / RPG style of game play.

====================== misc other. I was hoping to see more LMS side of things. To deal with 'leader boards' / tournaments, and being able to identify and break up students on a wide variety of different criteria. Along with linking multi schools together. Example say in one school district there is 100 8th graders. And then those 8th graders split up into 25 students per classroom.

In retrospect. Most online games require a larger number of players. Say 1000 to 2000 players. In order to obtain a better peer to peer environment. Were asking a question, is more likely get a fast response and possibly extra help.

I have a hard time comprehending small size class room experiments for online learning. And not being able to link say all 8th graders in 300 miles that are taking english 108. And bring them together in some common forums, user chats, activities / resources / tournaments / etc. So as to allow student to student learning / teaching, within a somewhat control environment. The only thing i am seeing to above. Is system admins (IT staff) bringing together 2 to 5 schools in there school district, and placing moodle at a central site / servers, to help with IT staffing.

Was hoping to pull up some better 'educational games MMO' but nada. Not even need for 3D graphics, would of settled for some old MUD (text based gaming). That allowed audio / texting like communication, without need to see some character move around in a game to see who is nearby you. OK Ryan, in view of your 'overview of above'. A lot are showing better 'free' vs commercial pay to play. This is a positive I suppose, how popular they are when you have the likes of minecraft at home and/or in computer club remains a question for thought.essentially, the arrow nav can be tricky for younger children especially when asked to use ctrl/shift as well. I am also seeing not much connection to any sort of LMS.

Other words no way of handing out a worksheet / assignment and complete these math problems for a grade. Err go play this game and get X score within X amount of time and have it auto record in a LMS. Right nice gap-identified.but there is no reason to have to focus on poor design across the lot.some nice stuff includes: -audio too -fun factor and you have picked out gaps for nice stuff/potential across the following: not seeing much of adjusting this or that in a game to deal with this students current skill levels and what this given student needs to overview. Yes.gap there most games are all little 'mini games' there really is no linking between them, so as to be able to progress through them. Yep thumbs up another gap some of the websites allowed a teacher to sign up there class to the website. But not much further than that. It was all done in given website.

So ya miss out on moodle activities / resources. And just deal with a games on there website. Ditto some were flash, html5 / javascript,, some download and install, some mobile phone support. OK.but does that mean.that cocktail is why the player does not have a choice.what I mean is, if you choose this direction/pathway you might.or if you choose this pathway/cave/forest whatever you might be able to???? Severe lack of choice for the player across the lot.CHOICE important.enbales sense of freedom.control during engagement.and ownership of outcomes.instead of: use the arrows to put the fires out.derr!

Or, choose the right letter/blend to make the given word.hidden didactics.boring for kids and then they go and play minecraft! Mutli-player *meh* ya ok, it is there. But no leader board / tournaments / ways to break students up on different criteria to place them in different select groups. Agree.more gaps.good.code for that needed then J there was a lot of games that had 'time' associated with some sort of scoring.

Yes.I would put that as an option. As things moved away from say 7th grade and higher. Graphics went away. To more basic general games. Of entering stuff on keyboard or mouse clicks, with no fancy stuff.

I know.switch off time! A lot of games seemed WAY TO STRICT. Get 1 wrong answer and 'end game' and start all over again:/ see my hidden didactics point there was no history in many of the games.

To display wrong answers at end of a stage. So as to provide extra notification. Brilliant-well spotted! A lot of the games provide instant feedback. Upon wrong answer, some maybe on correct answer. Now this is a gap.that can be reversed.with choices for correct action.that pushes motivation to move further into the game.even if along the same level.see what I am doing.attacking it with motivation at the forefront-rather than didactics.code issues.pedagogy.learner engagement first.I know as you have done too Ryan J the wrong answer got rather annoying. 'took me to another popup, and a couple clicks to get back to the game.

It was almost like a yelling, NO YOU ARE WRONG THAT ANSWER IS INCORRECT in how wrong answers were displayed in some games. It was not like hey you are wrong lets move on, and go through more like examples and not a real big deal. Brilliant-well spotted.

Conclusions.lots of room for improvement.in terms of switching around structure in the first instance.promoting success.for movement forward but with choices and the same for fail.still move forward.or perceived movement forward through choice/pathways.handing over to the learner that decision is key.what next.and what are my options.to achieve my end goal.what will motivate the learner along the way???? And so on Looking forward to a nice early years J. The question here seems to be whether you are looking for games which coincidentally bring something to a given course and can be embedded, or whether you mean whereby game elements (such as levelling up) are built into the exercises/coursework? There is a whole industry built around gamification and. Gamification can be built into the course by the teacher using conditional activities and badges and other stuff that's already in Moodle. The idea of creating a game from scratch which enhances the course being offered strikes me as full-time job in itself.

First things first: Ryan, when you say: *picks on dawn alderson' your going to have to do better than that. To much overview. *evil grin* need more fine grain details. And you can have that.but Ryan we need to keep the docs succinct.not 4-5 pages Ryan.how about we have a new doc to explore those questions in depth.I will do the scoping exercise as a starter for 10.

Andy: you are quite right. Pedagogically there is a difference between tokenism: adding on a bit of fun/game at the end of a normal run of the mill activity.so say a comprehension that involves diagnosing with miscue analysis and on. And having 'a game as an activity' where the learning is led by the learner.a direct contrast to my example of miscue A.because MA takes a- what can't they do approach.whereas through play/game/learner-led this can provide diagnostic opportunities for what they can do!

Catch em when they are good.and so on.So not promoting a very well-long established.arguably deficit model for learning!!!! *steps down from soap-box and sighs* D. Ryan-Dawn here! Hi, you raise some interesting points/questions in your post.and to the point.which makes a change eh.am playing Ryan.playing!

OK let's note them (with slight annotations) and I will return to them over time, in other words, invest some thought about this-tis sounding good: a) what are useful educational games and associated links/names/purpose-targeted age group? T his requires a scoping exercise. B) what work/coding/enhancements/etc would need to be made in moodle, to be able to adjust these games to an individual student? This depends on the outcomes from a) and what I think in the dev world is called PoC. C) how would you want to track each student information/ progress (not peripheral stuff-like log-in-need to keep it focused to support progression/continuity for development) within moodle? The answer to this is easy.gradebook/conditional activity/maybe some of the nice quiz connections.stuff already in moodle d) purpose of game?

Would be age/development/progress(either/or/both attainment/achievement.related=providing choice in terms of the latter) e) How do we define the nature of a game/gaming for moodle's ITS? Need more time to chat and decide about this f) what is an educational game?

Something that engages a person; to enable an opportunity to learn and develop.not sitting in the pub perhaps g) what would you need in a blender game that would make it educational? Aim, focus, purpose, rationale=all explicit for the learner.goals, fun element, different pathways, interaction with others, plot, daemons in other words excitement fuelled by anf for what if thinking, scary.whoooo hooo hooo type thingy maybe.and so on D. Time to get myself into trouble here.

=============== adding to Natalie Denmeade post on most of the links on this wiki page, have some sort of 'education' thing in the header of there websites. Or each one more geared towards education usage. Below are some highlights. • • • ================ *picks on dawn alderson' your going to have to do better than that.

To much overview. *evil grin* need more fine grain details. ================ Alan Hess, if you could get a 'ITL provider' to some game website, and had completion / restrict access options for your activities / resources. So that you could say. If students completed this reading assignment, this math quiz, and this essay, they get remaining time to play what ever game they want at XYZ website? (( other words parental access and setting restraints on kids of how long and when/if they can play games)) back in the days.

There was limitation of what 5 1/2 floppy disk game was available to play. Passport Deutsch 3 Lehrerhandbuch Download Youtube there. So i am wondering something like above might be better? Allowing kids a bit more free range of what games they wanted to play as a reward? Or possibly get X sum of cash/coin/gold or what ever in a game, to get a better start?

For a reward for completing stuff and/or getting a better score in given activities / resources? Yes, I think we need to make a distinction between edugames and gamification. Gamification is a set of curriculum development strategies, based loosely around ideas from behaviourism (operant conditioning: ) that have been made popular by commercial social networking services like Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, etc. I believe that this isn't the question in the original post. For Edugames there are two main levels to address: Edugame templates - Ready made games with all the rules and logic already coded.

Non-developers can use these to make an unlimited number of variations of the games with specific sets of questions, tasks, topics, multimedia, etc. Examples of edugame templates: If you want to deploy gaming templates in Moodle, the easiest way is to zip them up as SCORM compliant packages. Make sure that the templates you get are SCORM compliant and work with Moodle (not all SCORM interpretations are the same!) Actual game software development - Using an integrated development environment (IDE) and a set of 'gaming engine' code libraries (Ready written code that just does what you want it to. No need to reinvent the wheel!) Developers can easily create text and multimedia-based games as well as 2D and 3D action games. You generally need professional or dedicated hobbyist level software development skills to do this. Examples of IDEs + code libraries (free and open source): Actionscript (Can be cross-compiled to Javascript and other languages): + or A dedicated gaming IDE, GODOT Engine If you can use gaming engines, writing the code to send grades to Moodle is relatively trivial, e.g.

I hope this helps! Teaching English through English (ESOL) is my main interest. This website looks like what I'm looking for.

It would be great if we could simply show a selection of such games in moodle, It would also be great that teachers could quickly learn how to make such games and design them to meet their own requirements, and hopefully they don't take too long to create once learnt. In regards to blender and being a keen user of blkender, yes it would take too much time to make some decent 3d educational games. It's possible with a team of professionals, but not for one busy teacher. Hi John, Understand. When you say Teaching English through English (ESOL) is my main interest. The website there.and having a selection of those games in moodle and teachers being able to make such games. Well, this is what I am struggling with: 1.

Are you saying you just want to teach reading/spelling/writing skills with these games? And are you saying you just want to promote independent activity (of the stimulus-response sort?) 3. And, are you saying you just want to have such games linked in moodle, so that moodle activities can be seamlessly linked with those games? You see, teaching English through English would also involve using the language across contexts with others too.

So, paired working.promotion of saying/hearing the language, whether on topic with the focus language or incidental stuff, like it's my turn.do that look, you can do this.I did that.and when you point at that and so on.. I wonder how much those games, whether in moodle or in a different tab alongside.actually promote a whole-language approach for learning.some might say yes-dependent on age. Yet, if an isolated learner is to practise strands of the Enlish learning process, so reading/spelling in isolation, through stimulus-response activity. Is that really effective? Each to their own.but in my experience (many moons ago) children working at/with a screen together or online together/or popovers even that promote talk (so using English or home-language/hearing it) can engage children where they draw on a number of resources already in place.to make connections between what they know with the new/or consolidation purposes (formulaic/telegraphic speech for example).I think that is where we are now. You see, to me it is the advanced children who gain from such independent activity as outlined in those games.and ironically it is the advanced children who switch off quickly with those games.because they can nav quickly, have more language strategies and therefore get bored after a very successful first attempt-no matter if the stimulus is trickier-the structure of the game is boring so they cease to engage.but I could be wrong.

Hi Just a quick point from a personal situation. I can see what John means, he'd like a plethora of ready made games to use as where and when appropriate? What is often not discussed, is the character and enthusiasm of the teacher in particular. When I teach, I often 'tread the boards' in the manner of a stand up comedian or entertainer. And it does rub off on the learners and awake their interest for the particular material, both live and later online. To boot, with some coding knowledge, I can embed games ad-hoc 10 mins before a session begins. An easy selection would be great for those who can't.

Those of us who can work this magic, easily forget how baffling it can be for otherwise very talented teachers. I teach in a very spontaneous manner, picking or preparing materials according to the target audience and my estimation of what will work.

It's very individual and I'd challenge any policy maker to define how it's done. However, I'm not the only one. Flexible, reflective and creative teachers are everywhere!

Compare Vygotsky to Piaget. Piaget style learning is basically linear, so no problem for some styles of e-learning, but Vygotsky and his 'Zone' is a multi-dimensional learning space. One doesn't really know what choices are at the next junction. Thus the palette of games might be very useful, or on the other hand even no use at all. Who will know? But nice if they are there. Link to explanation of Piaget vers.

Vygotsky (if unfamiliar) Regards Alan. Alan, As a 'Flexible, reflective and creative teacher' I am horrified by what other people see as 'eLearning'. Technology should give me MORE choice and flexibility - not restrain me to a system that worked great with one cohort and would fail miserably with the next.

That's why I am more interested in applying game design to the overall learning journey (of a skill or a qualification) rather than games within a learning session (although I do that too sometimes). Last year I ran 'Game of Thrones' competition and this term I am adding Moodle to the mix instead of a simple spreadsheet. I am preparing each week as I go (using Weekly topic format) and deciding which activities best meet the learner journey (onboarding / problem-solving / mastery/ mentoring). I am blogging about this on a Facebook group:. Today I used a WIKI so students could give each other a mark for their participation in the activity. It really sits comfortably with my reactive teaching style.

Last year I had a majority interested in video so we did a little film as a class. This year I have lots of gamers ready for some real coding. I got them to sign up for the Coursera MOOC on Python and am doing it myself too. They made a hilarious game about OHS today which inevitably ended up with a sprite of a student falling into a dozen pieces (and twitching feet). They used Unity. Other times we have used Construct 2 - another great free HTML5 game creator. I see Moodle as maturing into an ideal platform for both games and gamification in the next 48 months for the 'average' tech-confident yet time poor teacher.

The other tool I have my eye on is this:. The layer where we could quickly swap out particular data for the 'game' is held within the file, so a simple editor, or a link to a Moodle glossary/ could work as an entry point for teachers. There has been talk of integrating this in Moodle but nothing stable as yet. You are always a game changer for me Natalie, just when i think something is going to be ok to move on.

Htttp://dev4x.com seem to have changed there pages around yet again. Interesting flow chart per say they do have going for them! It seemed there goals / completion charts moved up some. Went a head and signed up via join us form. It can not hurt anything. I am not getting anything back for 'h5p joubel' and searching for 'h5p moodle' i did get some back.

But right a over a year old. I did run across a single page on about a plugin. But then it took me to moodle.org then i lost it in the tabs. To your concern Natalie, you are wanting to avoid.

Having to create something on the spot. And then take 2 hours click through menus, to assign it to a skill tree or like. So as information will be processed correctly. Some place i remember reading it takes 200 hours prep work for 1 hour of course time.

I am not sure i could even fight that battle of paper work. But you do bring up a interesting concern.

How to reduce overall. I never really thought about it. A quick first initial response/thought. Trading one for the other most likely. I do not see how to get around it.

Primary goal is to get to a point were students are gaining more knowledge quicker and easier. And letting the teacher focus more per student. Vs 'one size fits all' in that respect, i would think trade of paper work for clicking in moodle to deal with something. Would be an overall improvement. But still same old same old paper work. And with anything new, you either get out of the microscope with less paper work, or you initial get overloaded with extra paper work. About only thing that comes to mind.

Is converting all the bloody physical paper work, into forms on the computer. Much like one of moodle's activities / resources. The so called revolution of a paperless office.

Why is there more paper work now? If I was face to face i would have a better feel of what subjects to bring up and how far to push the comfort zone. Online I have no idea who all of you are and am thoroughly enjoying the brain dump. I have been researching this for about 3 years solid. Thanks for reading and discussing this - I am finding it very inspiring.

I have prototypes of a lot of this in a Moodle course I will invite you all to have sneak peak at soon. This is the website for Joubel:. After an email chat the other day they are going to remove the Moodle project as featured as they only have a prototype that worked on an earlier version of H5P. I was wanting to know if theirs is the official one about to be released.

And didn't get a straight answer. They said they would be happy to continue development if funded.

Thinking about this some more and wanted to expand. Yes my concern is around the workload, an that the workload will be distributed. Say I want to plan a 30 hour unit on 2D animation. I used to research, plan a sequence of activities and assessments, write this up into a 3 - 5 page document including all the ASQA framework requirements, have another teacher validate the documents, and upload all docs to places where my management, auditors and students had access, Let's say that is about 1 - 2 days work. The latest revised system has added layers to this process of providing unit mappings, feedback forms, etc etc so that time has doubled to 2 - 4 days. Now that I have tried mapping every activity to every outcome and level I am realising that the workload will be much higher again - perhaps 4- 6 days work - (or more). And then the cross referencing will begin to other units.

So my concerns about taking this process up into the skill trees we have been discussing is that we are doing this to improve the choice and quality of education for the learner. But how does the average educator feel about this? Once we (the ed tech gurus) create an assembly line of production that means the workload is distributed away from one teacher.

That teacher loses ownership and opportunity for creativity, hence motivation. I don't think any of us in this conversation see ed tech as a replacement for teachers. We value humans as having the most crucial role to play. So we need to protect and nuture teachers throughout the process. The way that technology has been applied across the education spectrum has sometimes (often) been torture. Have you seen the body language when you mention a word like 'Moodle'? There are the adventurous few.

But the majority fell huge anxiety based on past experience. If you say the word 'upgrade' it is like hearing the word 'grenade approaching' run for cover. Anyone in my sector at the moment knows how terribly we are all affected by a recent ' upgrade'. The admin staff are the most affected, it is affecting their health and life. I would love to see some research on how software roll-outs have affected teacher morale. If you think of teaching as a game.

Someone decides to become a teacher. They level up over time. The ultimate win state may be having an office to yourself, perhaps being the principal, or watching your students apply their skills over a lifetime. Teachers face each day with varying degrees of motivation. I love the process of researching a new topic and imagining how to apply that to my new students.

I want to wait until I know them before I lock in the assessment details. When someone says 'oh we had an expert write your session plan for you and now you are just a coach and assessor within these boundaries'. I quit and go find something else in life that motivates me.

The game isn't fun anymore. As planners we need to keep Teacher Motivation as a higher priority than Learner Motivation. Crap resources with an awesome passionate teacher are far better than the best resources and a teacher with the enthusiasm of a security guard. That is why I promote activities like H5P, Brainrush.com, and Zondle.com to be used within a Moodle Course (Skill tree) sequenced by the teacher. Alan, is also along these lines. Did you make it?

Hi Natalie, I think the issues and insecurities arise when roles and responsibilities are poorly defined/blurred. Apart from the issues with most teachers feeling apprehensive and unprepared for online learning and teaching, most teachers aren't curriculum developers.

They're given their syllabuses, curricula, and course materials before the beginning of each course and are only expected to teach it. Traditionally, it's the curriculum developers' job to make sure that all the learning objectives are adequately covered by the curriculum*. It's a highly skilled and difficult job to do well and beyond most teachers' domain of knowledge. Matt, It's good to have these discussions across sectors. I think you are in the Tertiary /University sector whereas my experience is mostly Vocational - and blended delivery.

I can imagine it is like that in a large well funded institute - at least I imagine that you are well funded;). In smaller colleges teaching lower level trades we have a different scenario. New teachers are only handed a syllabus (What they need to learn) see the animation example I used earlier. Sometimes they have access to previous teacher's resources or some validated assessment tasks they can reuse IF they have the time, skill and confidence. Early in my teaching I came across a pre-made unit on 2D animation in a national repository and asked some more experienced teachers why they weren't using this content in other similar units.

They said that the time it took to cover each topic was unreasonable. The more practical approach was to teach three units together in a project-based approach say Animation, Planning and WHS. Also the content quickly became outdated and the effort to fix small errors or update terms was cumbersome.

Curriculum development by a team with specialised roles works well in some scenarios. The distribution has to be large enough to cover the expense of high quality, tested and reviewed material, and resources available to maintain the currency over the life cycle of the content. In a Vocational setting neither of these conditions exist. Vocational Teachers do want to use technology. Perhaps what I am imagining is an Ikea approach where we agree on the interoperability standards (LTI, IMS, xAPI) and offer small pieces guaranteed to fit together. When I first saw Moodle, many moons ago, that is what I imagined it would be. I encourage teachers to start with a blank course and build it as they go to the level of skill they currently have.

Over the years they extend those skills. So the passionate Photography teacher is given a blank course.

He uses the forum to take notes on what was covered in class this week. He uploads some Word Docs with a session plan and assessment tasks. Next semester he chooses something else to add to his Moodling skills. This is almost the exact opposite of the Curriculum Development approach of a course pre-populated with content or a template that teachers are expected to populate. The students prefer a teacher with Industry Skills and stories to tell of what it is really like in the workplace. Enforcing high tech standards and complex resource development workflows on trade teachers is not useful to the learners or the teachers.

The technology has to be easy and quick or it won't be adopted by teachers. I wonder if any primary or secondary teachers have something to say on this topic of Curriculum Development? I am hesitant to reply. Due to wanting more feedback from others (actual teachers / curriculum developers). And i know i can over dominate a thread. (bad habit) i talked to someone from they have other requirements, and approach to those specifics, i do not know. 'no real specifics' but overall conversation was good.

About only way moodle could help the situation. Is if courses could be delivered via 'html5 database scheme' were entire course could be held in a database within there browser for so many X days.

Or a handful of courses could be uploaded to say a usb stick per say. And courses served off of that into smartphones / tablets. ((it could be days between getting internet more so high speed internet)). Other issue most likely facing is needing a bunch of extra content (resources) to push to student via usb stick or like. So material is available to the student.

And then when student is able to come back to school (possibly days). Pulling that information off the usb stick or like and update students records / grades. ======== Natalie about 'moral' KISS (keep it simply stupid) i full understand that. (call center tech support job, to dealing with my mom) *shakes head some* i will leave that to another conversation. About 'roll out new software / updates' i fully understand, will leave that to another thread at a later time. There is a lot of effort that goes in there and just pure knowledge of information to deal with tech support per say.

There is a lot of teaching involved per say. I have moved away from it.

(added some comments to ) between advanced editor *on above link* and the (open source content on a moodle website) is what i am currently looking. I am interested in your opinion Natalie, on the advanced editor. As in being able to goto some website pick a game and drop it into moodle. And have it interact with moodle. (adjusting stuff), via 'events, conditions, actions' how would you like something like scratch.mit.edu in moodle. That you could adjust things, create some extra complex settings?

Would this open things more up to you. And maybe reduce some paper work (being able to copy/paste) stuff from others might have created and edit it, on the spot. To adjust a course and/or create a course?

Hi Ryan, Re: 'being able to goto some website pick a game and drop it into moodle. And have it interact with moodle.' -- Adding activities to Moodle and having Moodle record learners' interactions with them, e.g. Duration, grades, and/or generated artifacts, requires some kind of wrapper module that can act as an interface, capturing the data output from the 3rd party activity and then translating it into something that Moodle can use.

The usual sequence for activity modules is: • Teacher creates an activity instance and configures it. I this case to deploy a 3rd party learning interaction. • Instance creates a grade item in Moodle's grade book. • The learner uses the activity instance, generating data. • Moodle logs record that the learner has accessed the instance as well as other salient usage data (for tracking purposes).

The activity module developer must explicitly write the code to inform Moodle about users' activities for the logs, so this can be as detailed or sparse as you like. • The learner's activity may generate some learning outcomes/assessment data. This must be captured by the wrapper activity module and sent to Moodle's back end, where it can be 'translated' into suitable data to put into Moodle's grade book and/or other database tables. In order for 5.

To work, you need to know exactly how the 3rd party activity works and what the output data from it is, what format it's in, and what it means. Truck Driver Schools In Ontario on this page. This is why many wrapper activity modules for 3rd party apps are for one particular app or set of apps only.

The only general activity module that is standardised to accept a wide range of learning activities is the SCORM module. However, all 3rd party activities must be SCORM compliant and the output/generated content and artifacts must conform to the SCORM specification, which was designed many years ago in the 'bad old days' of test-oriented elearning for the military.

The Moodle Scratch filter doesn't integrate the Scratch Java applets with Moodle's back end, as far as I know. It's also no longer supported past Moodle 2.2. Poodl (suite of modules), NanoGong, and SWF Activity Module are supported and do provide integration with Moodle. I hope this helps! Hey Matt, things began to click for what ever reason after reading your post!

I still just cringe when i read wrapper. Sent an email to to see about some sort of 'rules/triggers' aka 'events, conditions, actions' and be applied to Tin Can API. If it happens at TIN CAN API specifications. It would take a larger burden. Off my shoulders. Seeing that there website was recently updated. And a list of adopters of it on there.

It would seem a lot extra examples can be found at, someone has a plugin for tin can api Monday, October 13, 2014, 6:43 AM for moodle ver 2.5 might be something there. =========== if TIN CAN API can get some sort of 'event', 'condition', 'action' and sharing some information via. Like notations. But via json / xml.

For the TIN CAN API. More information might get moving for 2 way communication, and ability to adjust stuff on the fly.

In both directions. At moment i am just seeing data itself being passed back and forth. Via json / xml. On a different note a few of my collage teachers, i remember stating something like all they got was hey you are hired. For this role.

Fend for yourself. And needing to order books for students and going through them and deciding what to choose within a couple weeks time, so books could be ordered and students buying/picking them up at local collage book store, along with finding information for students to work on. Via worksheets / assignments, etc. I also remember teachers grabbing from multi books.

And complaining about information not up to date. Or covers things very well. I would like to say there was some 'paper work' how much i do not know.

Of teacher sending info to collage. Of what they were going to cover and when they were going to cover it. But then there was a couple other collage teachers. That had different requirements. 'higher blah blah paper work' they had to go. Stuff already in place.

This is more for classes that had already been around for some time ((non IT / tech stuff)) language, math and like. Natalie if you could print the picture out on say 1 or 2 pages with glossy paper. And hand out at say a conference. That would be a very informative doing! Being on internet and being able to link to it even better! Suggest doing a 'insert image' into this thread. Thx for video BEH!

No wonder why i'am having problems with TIN CAN API. 'i did this' vs 'event, condition actions', and use of 'verbs' vs sentence structure explanation. Or rather Rules ECA explanations. I got through 25 minutes worth of video.

Running out of internet usage for the billing period. And i thought kids/teenagers were bad. I made a similar poster on gamification a few years ago which did get distributed and translated into four languages! See: bit.ly/mfm2013.

This focused more on player motivation and encouraged diversity in assessment choices. And yes I do take it to conferences.

I am a regular presenter at Moodle Moot and iMoot. I have recordings online explaining it in depth Last year at Cairns I facilitated two workshops on gamification and was surprised to see so many people from the uni sector interested. The embedded images took up too much room as they had to be large enough to read the font. 'Finally, SCORM is incredibly complicated and difficult to understand.

Here's an extract from a user's post on: 'Right now I'm trying to figure out how to do basic SCORM compliancy (e.g. I have an authorware file with pictures of my cats and their names, buttons are there, one even has a quiz question) How do I go from there to saying 'Haha! This is SCORM Compliant! These are the steps to follow to ensure our product complies and we get paid!” I've downloaded the tools off of adlnet, and I'm driving myself crazy at this point.” And the reply: 'I feel your pain. I spent the last two years hoping for such a solution, and the bottom line is that the solution only exists by pouring over the documentation on the ADLnet.org site. Here's the nutshell, but if you do a project for the navy with only this information, you will run into trouble.

The best I can do for you is point you to ADLs 'SCORM 2004 Conformance Requirements” pdf file and offer my consulting services. I lived on the ADL product downloads page while I was learning to develop for the SCORM.” I think that with the amount of time and resources an organisation could spend on adopting SCORM and providing IT support, it might in some cases, be more cost effective to develop proprietry frameworks for authoring and deploying e-learning interactions. It would certainly be less time-consuming to use one of the many alternatives available.' Additionally, Moodle HQ had to hire a specialist SCORM developer to make it work with Moodle. They couldn't work it out for themselves and the folks at Moodle HQ and the Moodle community are no slouches. Also, Oxford University Press noted that they had to make different SCORM packages for different LMS' because SCORM was so complicated that nobody seemed to be interpreting it the same way.

Buyers needed to know if the packages were Blackboard SCORM, Moodle SCORM, or some other SCORM. To me, that defeats the whole point of having interoperable standards. If the solution you're looking for is a test, then SCORM is probably what you're looking for. Buy one of the many SCORM compliant rapid elearning IDEs, e.g.

Adobe Captivate or Raptivity, and do the best you can with that. Unless you're going into large scale production (where you'll have dedicated full-time professional developers and curriculum developers), it'll save you a lot of pain, dead-ends, and wasted time. But before you choose SCORM, make sure that Moodle's own quiz module can't already do it. Using Moodle's native tools is preferable in my opinion. Hurray for Moodle's quiz module! But don't over-use it.

Remember the bit above, 'SCORM's narrow definition of a learning interaction where every solution to a learning objective is a test. Never mind teaching to the test, SCORM is teaching with tests.' Matt, There are some good discussions here on Moodle.org about xAPI and LRS which is quite a complex subject worthy of it's own topic. I spent quite a bit of time exploring xAPI and eventually realised that it is a shame it is being sold as another version of SCORM.

The two have little in common as the approach is so totally different. There is no content in xAPI - it is the protocol for exchange of data. The LRS is the record store. So the content has to be somewhere else. It is more flexible than SCORM as the actual content and structure of that content is not prescribed. Only the way that the final data / results are stored.

It's more like a giant Moodle events log. It can be generated from a number of sources online /offline and collated into a central record. This can already be achieved in Moodle through LTI or Scorm. High level development skills are required to generate valid Tin CAN statements.

Certainly not in the domain of teachers! I am hoping apps like H5P do that level and then create a top layer for teachers to add specific content. Form that point of view it is more complex than SCORM. For longer learning interactions using Articulate or Captivate and exporting as TIN CAN Api compliant will be the same process as producing SCORM now. I totally agree that core Moodle can do a lot of what these products offer.

The responsive themes we use now are much better to navigate. It is so much easier to stay within Moodle and add pages, lessons or quizzes. At the moment I am sitting on the fence on whether Moodle needs to be an LRS, or connect to one. If I had to choose I would say that it already offers similar solutions in a much simpler way.

LRS need a reporting interface to understand all of that data being generated. Moodle has awesome inbuilt reports already done so it is years ahead in that respect. Did somebody mention 'Tin Can'? Great to see you guys discussing and that Natalie is doing a great job of explaining things.

Certainly Tin Can is a lot more flexible than SCORM and is able to track a much wider range of activities. I'd love to see it if one day all the events in Moodle's logging system could be tracked with Tin Can and sent to an LRS to be analysed in comparison to data from outside the LMS. On the Moodle launch plugin, somebody mentioned that it's targeting Moodle 2.5. This is true, but I'm yet to find a Moodle version it doesn't function with. There's also to convert the deprecated add_log_log calls to use the new Event classes that are the way things are done in Moodle 2.7+. If anybody wants to contribute to development of that plugin or to putting Tin Can into Moodle in general, feel free to and ask me how!

Oh, i should also mention: People have expressed concerns about the work required to implement SCORM and to achieve interoperability. With Tin Can, we deliberately made it so that as much of the complexity is put on the LRS as possible. This means that building an LRS within Moodle would be hard (but why bother anyway - use an existing one and plug it in!) but that it's relatively straightforward for a client activity provider to send and receive Tin Can data. In fact using our, we've had reports of people getting basic Tin Can tracking going in less than 30 minutes. The hardest part of tracking Moodle events with Tin Can will be getting the data out of the Moodle database, not sending that data to the LRS. That said, interoperability is still a hard problem.

SCORM made it easier (even though it was still very hard) and Tin Can and our code libraries makes it even easier, but it is still hard. When tracking from Moodle we'll have to consider very carefully what data we send and how that will be handled by systems reading and using that data. Andrew, hi this post might be off kilta.but I think worth the while. When you say: 1. With Tin Can, we deliberately made it so that as much of the complexity is put on the LRS as possible.

To me this looks fab.I can't see a problem only nice possibilities. This means that building an LRS within Moodle would be hard. I assume this is because of the OS nature of moodle-right? If not.why hard? Looking at the diagram.those four components-the simulator -is that the tricky part?or is it to do with the db design/functionality in moodle? (but why bother anyway - use an existing one and plug it in!) Not the most convenient of options if truth be told.

The hardest part of tracking Moodle events with Tin Can will be getting the data out of the Moodle database, not sending that data to the LRS. Linked to 2-again I assume? Hey Andrew Downes • Tin Can ApI ->LRS (learning record store) about all i can tell about it, is it would be good for like a 'skill tree editor' in a game.

• overall all i see is tin can Api is passing data. There is no communication layer / protocol layer. When i goto look at a network layer example TCP/IP it has a few layers within it. • if i look at moodle.

Or any software tincan API relies on. As soon as a third party developer creates a new plugin, for example Tin Can API just became outdated. In above, what am i missing, were am i not connecting the dots? Hey Andrew sorry about previous post. Off in my own little world.

Below links (work in progress) • • i need 'rules events, conditions, actions' at the tincanapi so i can pass entire set of 'rules' back and forth between software. And i need to be able to load up 'custom sentence structures' (not just pre-defined verbs). See scroll down to 'combine rules' and other logic of bobthecow/ruler in tincanapi. I need to pull up a list of variables and there types from one software, and push them into another software, and have them load up in different rule sets (custom sentence structures). I need the visual programming found in scratch.mit.edu as well as the Rules ECA (event, conditions, actions) i need to push/pull (2 way communication) between software. So if say a monster in scratch.mit.edu dies.

I need to be able, to pull up a list of monsters, with an option 'unit dies' in moodle (still in research advanced editor). These have nothing to do with pre-defined verbs, events. I need to load them up via xml,json, in the communication layer.

And passing of data and logic if, then, else, foreach, dowhile stated and defined in tincanapi. I need the basic math functions, and comparison operators. If i take an 'object' OOP (object oriented programming) and pass it into a JSON. So i get say monster(health(min:50, max:100),monster_type:undead,name:codjer) from a game engine, i need tincanapi.

To pass monster type, health type, name array through xml to another software. So i can load up a different 'customized sentence structure' and be able to drill down. So that i could make a statement of. If monster('codjer') grade is between (30 and 100) then send email to student('johns') or if student(mike) dies then make a mark in gradebook(student(mike), grade(F)) ya sentence structure kinda funky in examples, but that is what i am looking for.

I am not looking for tincanapi to define verbs for me. I need to be able to make 'sentence structures' for myself. And be able to send sentence structures back and forth between software.

So i can see if UNIT DIES then do THIS. If (event_type(object_type)), (condition_type), then do (action_type) in moodle. When i goto tincanapi.com all i am seeing is a long list of verbs that covers a lot of things.

But i am not see anything of the above. Hey i get the list of verbs. And (do not remember if all i saw was just event, or just action types).

I am not seeing the extra, i was hoping to see. And wondering if i am just not connecting the dots some place?

Or if i am looking at something simpler. That would qualify more like a 'skill tree editor' in some game. Were it has more of a limited very defined structure to it. And that is structured directly to the game engine, and that structure can not be used out side of the game engine.

My internet is on a fritz. They are working on gateway unit, is what i have been told hopefully this goes through, and does not result in a double post. Adding another example to my last post. If say inserted some into there website. That denoted (rules ECA). So that a teacher, could pull link up into moodle.

From and obtain a list of 'event types, condition types, action types' from the page. Along with a list of variable types. All through xml otherwords through tincanapi. Then as a teacher, within moodle.

And setting up some activity for students to read about history of (_fill in blank_) and being able to capture what that page gives for events, conditions, actions. I could say hey. Student needs to read for X length of time. Or do a page edit to a wiki page. Or find out if page has to many words above person 'reading level' i need other software, and the developers to offer up the rules (ECA) in there own words. And then i need to be able to at management systems, such as moodle or a LRS (learning recording store) software.

Be able to push/pull rules ECA. And adjust things. In a visual programming way such as scratch.mit.edu, and many other websites like it. I should not need to create a custom plugin for each software. In there native programming code. It would be nice to simply pass rules ECA back and forth. And let each software have there own rules eca code in them.

Is it not worth thinking about starting small? TinCanAPI.it is obvious to me that LRS/LMS communications need to be finely grained for what you want Ryan.sentence structures.and while I may be wrong.sentence structures come with semantics.(more depth-as opposed to verbs).I said I could be wrong, of course.

Alternative thinking for joining the dots (poss)= H5P and some further innovation with conditional activities.I think the latter has scope to offer a much broader repertoire of choices/functions-building on the premise of what it is set up to do. Hi Andrew, Thanks for joining in. This is really feeling like a giant dinner table with cross conversations going on - and you never know who is listening;) As you are here. If I have a test LRS set up on Watershed demo should it work with the Moodle plugin to show an activity stream? Will it show a range of activities eg Moodle activities that are tin can api compliant, the book marking tool, and the checklists from my Watershed account?

I have entered the LRS end point and authentication details but still get no results - just a blank box (Moodle 2.7). (Perhaps I should be posting this question somewhere else.) I have used Rustico's Scorm cloud successfully but tried to install Learning Locker on Amazon Cloud hosting but got lost somewhere with security keys.

If Watershed is limited as a demo only is there a free simple LRS I can use for proof of concept? I was googling some links for Ryan and see that you have joined the TIn Can Api team. That is great news! I researched Tin Can for quite a while a few summers ago and really found some clarity when I came across your tincanapi UK site. The whole solution is really quite simple. But a shock coming from such a a complicated background as the SCORM world.

Hi Natalie, The best place to ask about the plugin is github or to email me directly andrew.downes@tincanapi.com. As a rule I don't follow Moodle forums due to the inability to subscribe to a single thread so that's a bad way to contact me! I picked this up because it's on the internet and you used the term 'tin can api' so it came up in my daily Google search. On to your question, if you got the plugin working in Cloud, they should also work with Watershed the same way. And yes the learner stream plugin should pull in all the data from Watershed, not just data from Moodle. I have this set up and working with Watershed and whatever version of Moodle is on my laptop (2.8 I think).

Are you logged on to Moodle with the same user account (email) as the actor in the statements? I believe the plugin only shows the current user's own statements.

The learner stream plugin is probably a little quirky though - it's only really an early prototype and needs a lot of work to be useful. Hi Natalie Thanks for the links. So you are proposing a higher structure which would allow 'learning tasks' to be part of a bigger 'gaming' picture? Like John, I await with anticipation. I'm sort of experimenting with such ideas in my eBooks, in order to keep the weak readers I teach on task.

After all, convincing learners of what the point to school based learning is, is more than half the battle. Whatever the method, the considered and reflective teacher must always be present to avoid (as Dawn said) the 'more able' storming ahead!

And the gap in ability rises exponentially in the course of traditional schooling when it is not addressed. I like the 'hidden curriculum' iceberg metaphor in Genre Pedagogy to illustrate this. (See ) There was some talk a while back by some e-learning visionaries saying Moodle and other LMS platforms will slowly become redundant, whilst the World Wide Web is its own learning space! So nothing more necessary! (???) In reply to this, Martin Dougiamas says: 'A school needs to be somewhere! (MoodleMoot Dublin 2013)', hence Moodle. And a school also has teachers!

Will certainly keep an eye on h5p.org Alan. Re: 'There was some talk a while back by some e-learning visionaries saying Moodle and other LMS platforms will slowly become redundant, whilst the World Wide Web is its own learning space!

So nothing more necessary! (???) In reply to this, Martin Dougiamas says: 'A school needs to be somewhere! (MoodleMoot Dublin 2013)', hence Moodle.

And a school also has teachers!' -- Yes, an extension of the LMS vs. WWW argument is that the WWW is like sending learners to an enormous shopping mall/centre and then wondering why they were distracted and didn't learn much related to the subject area/topic. We all learn stuff all the time, that's true. However, education should be focused, directed, purposeful, systematised learning with mediated learning experiences (MLEs), not a barrage of disparate information aimed at selling you stuff, i.e.

Informercials, advertising disguised as articles, and every kind of pseudoscience and quackery you can imagine on the web. If you do decide that learners would benefit from being exposed to the unfiltered web, you have to provide them with the means to filter it and make sense of it themselves.

That means providing effective mediation for those learning tasks. LMS' are necessary walled gardens that should optimise learning opportunities. I think there are some legitimate criticisms of many LMS' but that doesn't mean we don't need them. Didn't somebody once say something about throwing out the baby with the bathwater? Yes that is my vision - see my message to Dawn with the link to a universal learning map and this overview of gamification of learning: The game world is already doing this but they are dealing with a different - smaller - set of performance criteria and missions.

The more complex simulations like World of Warcraft, Civilisation and Minecraft are the areas we can look to for inspiration.. Let me share my concerns and doubts with you too.

The Australian Vocation Ed (VET) Sector has a great framework of qualifications / units / Elements / Critical Evidence / Performance criteria/. Compared to Unis and secondary schools I chose to be in this sector due to their competency based approach of flexible and holistic assessment. Over the last few years this sector has been privatised and subjected to unbelievable audit and compliance standards. The end result for my learners is that each assessment must be planned and handed out on the first day.

Tight deadlines.The paper work for each unit is over 50-70 pages. I teach about 17 units - so if I printed everything and put it under their noses on the first day they would faint. Actually a few years ago I did print out everything for one lagging student. In those good 'ol days the assessments were about 5 pages. She collapsed under the desk and went purple. Her fingers curled up as they lacked oxygen.

She told me she couldn't breath or talk much during this panic attack but this always happens at exam time and she would be alright in a few minutes. Last year one student was so stressed that a major incident happened which I know was directly linked to me handing him a very long assessment. I know UNIs do this but in VET we are know expected to include every tiny detail in writing up front as this will 'help' the learners - and ensures they have no legal basis for complaint.. Most teachers are casual and expected to do this preparation in their own time. The tasks must be declared down to the last step and mapped to every element and underpinning knowledge and skill. Which they probably covered in the previous unit anyway but using MS Word as your technology of choice hinders cross referencing and takes up 50% of your time copying and pasting out of a National Data source (in xml) into 7 separate word docs - at least ten times. I recently was a 'student' of a similar system and was asked to type in my name on forms about 30 times throughout the process.

These forms were downloaded and uploaded to Moodle. (It felt like they had Altzeimers. ) As a technology professional I know we can do better than this but. This person has summed up my gut feeling now that I am trying to implement my vision. Basically it is a struggle between a Project Based Approach and a way of defining outcomes that doesn't kill them by over classification.It takes a lot of work to cross reference every element to each task or project.

Who is going to do this? And will they be paid? Once the investment (from somewhere) is made the process to update and maintain the content needs to funded as a long term project to keep it current. It feels like a new version of communism to realise that this is only economically viable at state or federal levels. So maybe we are better with messy mish mash of plans from individual teachers who haven't lost control to a central state system?

At least they haven't lost heart in a robotic assembly line approach to learning. So my concern once I start trying use the detailed mappings is that I am created a virtual version of the paper overload. Mapping out the performance criteria, levels and rewards in angry birds is not the same as designing World of Warcraft or Minecraft. If you tried it in Minecraft it would ruin the game altogether. I liked it when I was give a detailed rubric as a professional and was trusted to deliver accordingly without having to write it all down and consciously map a gentle, organic process.

Natalie: I see Moodle as maturing into an ideal platform for both games and gamification in the next 48 months for the 'average' tech-confident yet time poor teacher. The other tool I have my eye on is this:. The layer where we could quickly swap out particular data for the 'game' is held within the file, so a simple editor, or a link to a Moodle glossary/ could work as an entry point for teachers. There has been talk of integrating this in Moodle but nothing stable as yet. NATALIE THIS IS GENIUS!!!!!!!!! Now why have you held this little gem between your armpit for so long eh!!!! Will just go stale in that space!

Looked at I specifically like the potential of the following: Image hotspots..popover REALLY REALLY NICE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Interactive video.wow! Offers an opt for a range of co-participatory games.I mean even if just voice over narrative.with stopping points.see this.I have no idea why this video (has 1, 858,865 views) along with many others that make up the Stampy cult ( this is my 8 year old son's fav!). Presentation app.is simple.nice for groups perhaps.to create/annotate short adventure stories.including all sorts of media Timeline is neat I think learner/player can sequence events.attached to previous game/moodle activity (thinking about the process they were involved with) is a really nice consolidation/promote metacog tool Same for summary app-potential So, Natalie I wonder have you let know about this???? And can I ask you a question please: Is H5P web 3 in nature?

Because of the semantic web integration implications, such as using HTML5 microformats ( I think that means able to re-use tags unlike before-might be wrong)? Dawn I am glad this has inspired you! Like Zondle.com, this type of 'pre-fabricated' content for teachers at a granular approach gives teachers more choice. They can build their session plan quickly with pre-made 'bricks', unlike SCORM and learning objects which were just distance education models in a browser and offered a whole pre-made house. Usually a cold lonely house. The success of teachers finding and sharing content like H5P is conceivable thanks to Web 3 potential for sophisticated curation and tagging.

The Gates foundation is doing a lot to lead the discussion around globalising of tagging and names used for educational outcomes / standards. XAPi is leading the way with this their list of verbs..

These need to be in place before skill trees will work across broad collections of content. In the meantime us humans can join the dots between Open Education Resources as teachers / coaches. Or perhaps we are Librarians.

I am keeping an eye on the official Moodle plugin and will let you know when it is functional. Someone has made a prototype in Moodle that is working so that is a good sign! Anyone with funding could speed this up Google Joubel and H5P. I see this happening at the fundamental levels first as no-one objects to a globalised approach to learning to read your ABC's. Countries will fight for their individuality as the skills reach higher levels.

A granular approach works at the highest levels too- but there may not be as much sharing. *rubs chin* lots of info! *big grin* building off of everyone's comments.

Little to much to pin point each of you. And for most part just nodding in agreement to comments. Regarding i do not think it is worth while. Setting a standard of that nature. Concept yes is good.

I have a hard time with it. I would be better off going to each company and say hey, can you create a little button. Much like youtube videos.

Were i can click 'embed' and copy some code, and then go paste it into moodle course. Each company has different software they run, and each software most like has some sort of 3rd party plugin that is different in how it is setup. And how it gets used.

Letting the companies do there own thing, more likely get better results. If all you want is to embed / iframe stuff into course. I am also not a fan of XML / Json like doings. All it does is create an extra layer of programming blah! While it does have it's uses. Personal note.

I am here at moodle.org for a reason, vs going to some other general leaning/teaching website. In that regards i do have my pride, and i would just like all games be geared directly to moodle. In above regards.

I am more looking at a customized 'activity' that is kinda of a mix between 'LTI provider' and 'embedding' with a little bit of a mix of Matt Bury for stuff that requires flash. • you goto ->add activity ->copy/paste, upload a zip file, give a link to something. • t his is were the connection between moodle and game happens. • save above page. • go back and edit settings.

• this is were individualize settings happen per game • this page would more likely resemble many of the 'edit pages' of any of the other activities / resources that are found within moodle. 'group settings, restrict access, title, description, etc. • but it would also give some additional settings just for the game. • this is were i am against use of XML / Json / • this is were Matt Bury would come in handy.

• the difference between Matt and XML /Json / h5p.org is there is direct link between game and moodle. Without need for all the extra BLAH that comes with XML / Json. • EDIT: looking back at Natalie Denmeade statement. The layer where we could quickly swap out particular data for the 'game' is held within the file, so a simple editor, or a link to a Moodle glossary/ could work as an entry point for teachers. • XML as in 'game settings' on this given 'edit settings page'.

I might be willing to accept. But i am going to need a bit more push.

No pictures yet, i have idea. Have a feeling above is going to change rather rapidly. And i expect it to change at this point. ============== i am still a newbie to most of this.

And still playing major catch-up to all of you. With that *thank you!* for all the stuff up to this point. And more to come hopefully! It is appreciated *heart felt smile*. • portion of his site • • your site inspired me to dig a bit further matt! • google key words • c test esl • results • • • wish above 2 websites were multi plugins (activity /resources) for moodle. And ability to adjust them.

Both in settings, but also html / / javascript / php to some extent. • • this one reminds me of moodle quiz. But wish the 'red text' after giving answer. Was connected to a 'skill tree' ==================== making games easier for teacher adjustment on the fly quickly and easily = compromises • a kid finding some sort of script of how to cheat on internet (fairly possible) • security, so some teacher and or student, does not take out moodle, (delete everything, or adjusting there grades). = not as adjustable as you might want them to be.

Other words, this is how this game is setup, you have these handful of options. To adjust, but not much beyond that. • the following = high risk of security and high risk of cheating.

But easy to adjust pretty much anything via teacher and/or student. High learning curve to use and adjust as a teacher.

• ) • ) • • majority if not all of these games. Less risk of security issues perhaps non at all (within reason), still high risk of cheating, but not as easy to adjust. You may only get a handful of settings to adjust these games. Lower learning curve to adjust and use as a teacher • • • • • • • • • • • • • ======================= html5 / javascript / css / php games will more likely lend themselves easier to adjust for moodle. Due to it would be in same programming languages that moodle is built off of. And ability to easily adjust some css / javascript / template on the fly possibly.

Including colors / font type / font size to deal with / disability types out there. Flash = not as easy to adjust, (say change a graphic image, or move score board around, may have issues with accessibility / disability type of doings.) more steps are required to adjust fundamental looks and behavior of flash games. (within reason) ((more along the lines of refeering to 'point 2 above' listing all of the small quick little games)) ========================= pro's and con's, darn if you do, darn if you do not. What compromises are you willing to deal with?

Hi, I would like to reply to Alan and Ryan, if I may. Polite- hat on here. A struggle, bit of a neck crane.trying very hard May not succeed,,,but trying is important-right. Alan, re: I teach in a very spontaneous manner, picking or preparing materials according to the target audience and my estimation of what will work.

It's very individual and I'd challenge any policy maker to define how it's done. However, I'm not the only one. Flexible, reflective and creative teachers are everywhere!

How about you change teach/teacher to learn/learner.and what does that sound like? Nope, it is incorrect to say: Piaget style learning is basically linear, his theory was linear.how that gets translated into practice is different across contexts.and it was Margaret Donaldson who contradicted his theory in that her research with children showed cognition can develop sideways.just like the spontaneous way you teach Alan. Children can dip in and out of the stages for development. Re: but Vygotsky and his 'Zone' is a multi-dimensional learning space. One doesn't really know what choices are at the next junction. This could be said for all constructivist theories/application if we are to consider Piaget's theory as non-linear.

Thus the palette of games might be very useful, or on the other hand even no use at all. Who will know?

But nice if they are there. Nice if they are there.I am still not getting the rationale.who knows about useful? Please, having lots of stuff.does not equate to being used/useful.too much choice.now where I have I heard that before? Ryan, my compromise.to see you shift out of your comfort zone with what you safely know-'nice if it is there'!!!! I am hesitant to make a list of websites / companies and start calling, and see about bringing stuff directly into moodle via activities. Part of issue.

Is needing a back bone errr some sort of standard, that can be applied to list of all games in general. I am also not confident in the games i have seen.

To me they do not build up to a point. Instead they just do overview.

And they are geared to folks that already know information. To me this does not seem like a good way to focus energy. Looking at moodle ->course ->activities ->quiz and then ->activities ->quiz ->all the third party addons/plugins. The overall quiz like ability to adjust things. Is what i am not seeing in the learning games. Being able to have a teacher insert a list of words. 'cow, horse, shark, whale, mouse, etc.'

And then add 'plural' to a setting of a game. Might be more useful. ======== being able to say • array_A = (1,2,3,4,5) • math_type = (-,+,x) • array_B = (5,6) and then the game covers subtraction, adding, multiplying over 1 through 5 by 5 through 6 would be a way to narrow down focus and set limits of the game. I would assume game starting from easy, 1+1, and working it's way up to 5x6 and mixing things up some.

It is kinda pointless tossing a student into a game were they are doing fractions / ratios / multi add, subtract, dividing, if they have not even reached 10x10 in multiplication tables. I felt rather challenged as an adult that i thought was good at math. And some of these games were so far above stuff.

It just boggled my mind, and i was purposely getting some stuff wrong in attempt to keep game low level as if i was a younger kid. ====== • being able to drop a list of words into a 'crossword puzzle' and then students picking some picture outline of there favorite cartoon character being useful. Possibly giving option to print it out. And/or use different colors / markers within the game interface on the computer.

• being able to, upload a bunch of pictures of different animals, and then names. Into a game, and then selecting some sort of 'sentence pattern' to be used to test the students. Would be useful. 'the customization' = useful, not the pre made product that can not be changed = not useful at least in my eyes.

• being able to launch some racing game. And each student having different questions/answers they must meet. To kinda level the playing field. One student gets 1 through 7 x 6 multiplication, while another student gets 3 through 10 x 3 through 8 for multiplication tables. • being able to upload videos of A-Z of someone with video directly on there mouth, showing movement of jaw and tongue and teeth useful. If tied to some sort of feed back system.

In united states it would be sesame street, or pbs.org learning tv shows. ================== to the above. I have been trying to brainstorm of how some sort of way 'easy way' that could be replicated over many games. So the information could be written up in say. And then shown to a game programmer.

And say this is what i need. And this is the information i need sent back to moodle. So as a teacher can track students progress and trouble areas, and adjust game to each of there students. Vs sending the teacher all over internet trying to find some specific game, that just gives details about what they want the students to go through. A badge, a score, a level, a time does not cut it for me. Questions gave, and answered received = getting better. *looking at*.

Re: 'html5 / javascript / css / php games will more likely lend themselves easier to adjust for moodle' -- Actually, Moodle presents problems to developers who want to deploy multimedia and multi-part apps/presentations in Moodle because of the way the file management system works. On Moodle.org forums, developers are almost always directed to wrap their games and apps up as SCORM modules. This is one of the many reason why I developed the SWF Activity Module (for deploying multimedia and multi-part learning interactions) and the Presentation module for HTML5 multimedia and multi-part slide show presentations: (It's essentially a wrapper and wizard for the RevealJS presentation Javascript slide show library). In short, Moodle 'out of the box' is a particularly poor platform for deploying synchronised multimedia apps and presentations. It's heavily dependent on 3rd party plugins in this respect.

• 91850 comments • Jul 03, 2017 • 160054 Views Education for Problem Solving A common meaning of the world problem within the context of education is, according to Webster's Dictionary a question raised for inquiry, consideration, or solution Problem solving is the act of thinking creatively-and-critically about ways to tackle an undesirable situation. You will agree with me that an important goal of education is to help students learn how to think. Education for problem solving will help students to think more productively by helping them to combine creative thinking skills to generate ideas and critical thinking skills to evaluate ideas. Being able to apply both thinking skills are necessary for becoming a well-rounded and productive thinker. These are the kind of minds we desperately need in Nigeria and in Africa as a whole. Nigeria is a country replete with problems begging to be solved. Africa is a continent largely underdeveloped and bogged down by problems left unattended.

These problems have over time deteriorated into monstrosities that we are too afraid to even think about ways to tackle them. But the truth remains that these problems exist and must be solved if we are to make life better in our country and continent. My thinking is, we should tailor our educational system such that learners are equipped and empowered to solve problems, our problems; problems we are facing now and the ones we may not even know we need to solve because we are blinded by the humongous ones we have known and lived with for so many years. This approach to education will help students to improve a wide variety of abilities some of which I had mentioned earlier critical thinking and creative skills. Other skills students will learn when we tailor our education for problem solving are: collaboration skills, communication skills, leadership and personal productivity skills, flexibility and adaptability skills, among others. Furthermore, educating learners for problem solving will heighten their awareness of the world around them, the problems in that world, and how they can play a role to make the world a better place.

This will help to even promote peace and unity as learners will grow to appreciate the value of human life because their education helps them to focus on human suffering and limitations with a view to alleviate suffering and break down the barriers of limitation. A learner who is educated to think in this way will not go on to pursue fulfilment in actions that are destructive to human existence. Instead their energy will be channeled towards contributing to the advancement of their families, communities, nation, and world.

Education for problem solving signals an end to education that is abstract devoid of practical connections to real world challenges and ushers in a new dawn where learners can easily make the connection between what they are learning in the classroom to what they can contribute to their world. 16 minutes ago Excellent work, Nice Design How? Obamacare directed Medicare, the nation's largest health insurer, to change its fee-for-service payment system, which tends to promote more tests and treatments when less care (or more preventive care, or better-coordinated care) would often produce better results at a lower cost. It came after the company offered a public apology for significant problems when it launched two of the largest services in March. NHS Direct said the problems meant calls took twice as long as they should have to be answered. Yuleisy Carmenates, 30, a public health worker in Santiago, said that Castro offered 'nothing new' in his speech, but 'at the same time his words were encouraging for Santiago which needs as much encouragement as possible.'

I grew up rooting for the Giants and still root for the Giants and especially root for this coach and this quarterback, because of the run they have given all of us over the past five or six years. They have given us too much, way too much, to give up on them after six games like this, every one of them winnable except the game in Carolina. We found an agency that was politically isolated and super-secret, but not the least bit interested in wiretapping the phones or reading the mail of Americans. NSA had been pulled in, reluctantly focusing on anti-Vietnam War demonstrators and civil rights activists by the Nixon administration. 35 minutes ago We need someone with experience Swaddled in scarf and jumper, he speaks in a low husk, his speech both clipped and rolling. He seems tired, or perhaps distracted by the demands, only two shows in, of marshalling this two-hour-plus, multi-character, special show. He’s stated that this brief residency is the only time he’ll ever perform The Last Ship.

European Union diplomats have echoed this sentiment, and the 28-nation-bloc added to the pressure on Netanyahu to return to talks by announcing this month that it would bar financial aid to Israeli groups operating in the occupied territories - putting Israel on guard that its patience was running out. According to Scott Stephens, UC Berkeley associate professor of environmental science, increasing the means for early detection would help officials make faster, informed decisions on how to manage the blazes as well as plan for effective evacuations. 'Wildfires would be smaller in scale if you could detect them before they got too big, like less than an acre,' Stephens said. State news agency MENA said Karman, who had previously announced her solidarity with supporters of Mursi, overthrown by the army a month ago, was on a list of people who were not allowed to enter Egypt. The number of sick children waiting more than two years for a consultant outpatient appointment at Crumlin Hospital has doubled since the end of last year, with some patients waiting four years or more to see a specialist. 46 minutes ago How much is a First Class stamp?

NEW YORK, Aug 2 (Reuters) - The Dow industrials and S&P 500ended at record highs for a second day on Friday, posting modestgains despite a mixed employment report that showed U.S. Hiringslowed in July. One of the sources said a deal could be signed in the nextfew days. In the negotiations the units are being valued atroughly $1-1.2 billion including debt, two of the sources said.The people declined to be identified as the talks areconfidential. Another European headwind could come from the EuropeanCentral Bank's asset quality review. On August 30, HASH chiefexecutive Chief Executive Constantine von Overstretch toldReuters he 'presumed' the review would lead to the bank havingto make extra loan loss provisions. Forty years after a brutal dictatorship, Chile remains firmly conservative in social matters.

It legalized divorce in 2004, becoming one of the last nations in the world to grant married couples that right. The Dow finished today’s session up 169 points at 15,460. The industrials are now up 18 percent this year. All 30 stocks in the Dow finished the session higher. The biggest winners were Intel Corp., The Walt Disney Co. And Microsoft. 2 hours ago This is your employment contract The entire range can be bought with an Intel Core i7, i5 or i3 processor and you've also got massive choice when it comes to hard disk configurations, including a 1TB hard disk, 256GB SSD or a combination of an HDD and a 32GB flash cache.

Wireless and mobile connection options are also varied, with the maximum specification supporting the latest 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard and 4G mobile internet. Fonterra was among the foreign dairy manufacturers finedlast month for fixing the price of infant milk formula - whichis highly prized among Chinese who don't trust locally madeformula after a series of food safety scandals. 'It's a huge privacy problem,' said Rotenberg. He said theU.S. Federal Trade Commission should review the policy change todetermine whether it violates a 2011 consent order Googleentered into which prohibits the company from retroactivelychanging users' privacy settings.

'It requires a wilful suspension of disbelief to see thisagreement as anything other than the start of a diplomatic blindalley, and the Obama administration is being led into it byBashar Assad and Vladimir Putin,' they said. Over the week, a resolution authorizing military strikes against Syria in retaliation for an alleged chemical weapons attack against its civilians appeared less likely to pass the U.S. Diplomatic efforts to allow Syria to surrender its chemical weapons, averting a U.S. Strike, also calmed investors. 4 hours ago I'm a member of a gym 'Police and detectives were called to the scene and are undergoing an investigation with the local authorities,' The Calling said in the same statement. 'Despite rumors of this being a drug related situation it is clearly NOT the case and there was NO abuse of alcohol also backed by medical examination.'

There's nothing 'grey' about it. '50 Shades of Grey,' E.L. James' racy best-seller that's now in movie production, portrays a relationship steeped in intimate partner violence, according to a study published Monday in the Journal of Women's Health. 'I love the energy of the street, so when M.I.A. Suggested we use bootlegs of Versace, I thought it was such an incredible idea,' said Versace boss Donatella Versace.

'The collection is everything that I love about the new Versus Versace - it's fast, loud, unafraid, and brings together the worlds of music and fashion. I can't wait to see people wearing the collection.' The biggest con is saying de-taxing extreme wealth creates jobs. If you took the same $100 million and gave it to one person and another $100 million and split it into $50,000 chunks and gave it to 2,000 people, with the caveat neither group could earn another dime for the next year, the economic activity generated by the 2,000 would swamp the individual. The 2,000 would spend on food, clothing, and shelter.

The individual, past some point, would slow their spending to ensure they had money left over. Hijuelos was born and raised in New York City and enrolled in local community colleges where an array of early writing teachers -- Susan Sontag, Donald Barthelme, and Frederic Tuten -- encouraged him to continue to pursue his craft. He was also exposed to Cuban and Latin American writers including Jose Lezama Lima, Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Carlos Fuentos, whose work inspired him. 4 hours ago I'm at Liverpool University Obama abruptly appeared in the White House press briefing room to offer his thoughts on the trial of George Zimmerman, the Sanford, Florida, neighborhood watch volunteer who was found not guilty of murder for shooting Martin, 17, in a struggle in 2012. I couldn't havebeen any older than nine when I walked up the hill to Cedar Cliff for somesummer Keystone Games basketball, and bumped into Pete Lisicky, who was therecheering on his little sister.

Notwanting to give away that I, too, transformed into Pete Lisicky for hours at atime while shooting long jumpers in my driveway, I instead put on my tough faceand told him that we'd beat all the Big Ten teams next year. He gave me an autograph anyway.

Dr Clifford Mann said changing emergency doctors’ contracts could stem the tide of trainees who are opting out of A&E training in favour of less demanding and stressful specialities. They spent nine hours with prosecutors overnight and weretaken at 3:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) back to police headquarters wherethey will be held until they appear before an investigatingmagistrate on Tuesday.

The plan to overhaul the country’s new constitution and elect a new parliament and president in six months is designed to show the country and the world the army’s desire to return Egypt to civilian rule – following the shooting of more than 50 Islamist protestors on July 8. 4 hours ago Free medical insurance It also sharpens the political implications of the choice facing rival ANA Holdings Inc, which in coming months is to make a similar decision on replacing its ageing Boeing long-haul fleet with more fuel-efficient planes. The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere on the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

'There is the concern that (tapering) could be bigger thanis expected - it's not unusual to see a bit of caution ahead ofthe Fed,' said David Jones, chief market strategist at IG,adding that the market could handle a fall of 2-3 percent backtowards end-of-August levels, having run up so quickly. 'For the hiring manager, this is a screening interview. It's no different than if you were to do a phone interview or an in-person interview,' says Alison Doyle, a job-search expert for About.com. 'This interview is going to get you – or not – to the next stage of the hiring process.' In the film, James Bond, played by Roger Moore, is seen driving a white Lotus Esprit off a pier and into the water. Once submerged, the car sinks toward the bottom before sprouting fins and propellers. Moore is shown piloting the sub with a passenger, played by Barbara Bach, inside a dry passenger compartment.

5 hours ago magic story very thanks More than 20,000 people - most of them children - receive monthly benefits aimed at helping them buy food and other basic supplies through North Carolina's welfare program, called Work First, which is fully funded by the federal government. Recipients must reapply each month. Securing important people is an important duty of these agencies, but collectively they protect the continuity of the entire U.S. (This week, the non-government, but that's a technicality.) I'm the first person to say, 'Chill out, guys' when an airplane breaches the air defense zone around the capital region; the event is routine and commonplace.

But the ADIZ is not there for theater; it's there because it protects the U.S capital from attack. If that means I have to evacuate a building for a while, or listen to television anchors speculate about tweets that get information wrong, I'm OK with that. The three others are WeChat in China, developed by Internetcompany Tencent Holdings Ltd and promoted by Argentinefootballer Lionel Messi; South Korea's KakaoTalk, run byprivately-held Kakao Corp; and Japan-based Line, a unit of NaverCorp of South Korea. The NZ$3.50 per share sale price compared with guidance ofNZ$3.25-NZ$3.75 a share when the offer opened last month. Theshares, which will be dual listed on the New Zealand andAustralian stock exchanges, will start trading on Aug 19.

Whether the lunchtime meal qualified as finger food is debatable. More clear: It was as healthy as it was tasty. During the second annual Kids' State Dinner, Obama hosted 54 kids who had won her Healthy Lunchtime Challenge recipe contest. Junior chefs from throughout the country submitted recipes for meals that are both healthy and delicious; the contest, designed to promote healthy eating, is part of the First Lady's 'Let's Move!' 5 hours ago I've got a full-time job While the i3's 34,950 euro ($46,400) price tag is well above the conventional BMW 3-Seriessedans, it also qualifies for tax breaks and generous upfront government incentives in marketssuch as Britain and the United States. Silva risks losing that support if she runs with another party because it could undermine her image as a fresh voice whose lack of ties to traditional Brazilian politics and reputation for honesty have appealed to young Brazilians. The probe by China's National Development and ReformCommission into five leading foreign infant milk companies isseen by some analysts as part of a broader Chinese plan to boostconsumption of local infant milk products, and could heraldfurther consolidation of the sector.

Researchers discovered that pairing CMV with SIV had a unique effect. They found that a modified version of CMV engineered to express SIV proteins generates and indefinitely maintains so-called 'effector memory' T-cells that are capable of searching out and destroying SIV-infected cells. So divided is the GOP, that John McCain, a former Republican presidential candidate, is only half-joking when he says in an interview that it would be a “tough choice” if the 2016 race for President was between Hillary Clinton and Rand Paul, the Libertarian Republican from Kentucky who Mr McCain once described, not inaccurately, as a “whacko bird”. 5 hours ago How do you do? People who earn significant chunks of their salary in cash also need to make sure they're saving enough of that cash to pay the appropriate amount of taxes in the spring. The IRS keeps a close eye on people in professions that pay in cash, like waiters, by using formulas that estimate expected income. If you report less, you could be flagged for an audit – not something you want.

Speaking about the film at the LA Film Festival earlier this summer, Jonze described Her as: 'a movie set in the slight future of LA and Joaquin Phoenix's character buys the world's first artificially intelligent operating system. It basically turns into a human, this entity, this consciousness, on his computer.'

'The earlier that a hearing loss can be picked up in a baby, the better the outcome that baby will have. It is therefore very important to screen all babies at an early stage. Most babies born with a hearing loss are born into families with no history of hearing loss,' explained consultant ear, nose and throat (ENT) surgeon, Mr Peter O'Sullivan, who is also chairperson of the Cork Newborn Hearing Screening Implementation Group. Ten-year old Tesla Motors Inc delivered nearly5,000 of its Model S - priced at $70,000 before a U.S. Federaltax credit - in the first quarter, helping it to its first-everquarterly profit. Its shares have quadrupled in value this year. But Mr Willetts said it was “perfectly legitimate for universities themselves to spot talent, to look behind the grades if they think there’s someone there who’s really got the ability to benefit from going to university.”.

6 hours ago Sorry, I'm busy at the moment Business dating. A few days ago in Beijing five dozen European companies were present to meet Chinese businessmen.

The aim was to try to sell European green technology expertise. The delegates were accompanied by two European Commissioners. Several statements of joint intentions were signed, such as with the Chinese minister for industry.

Other Ukip-pers suggest I'm wrong to get in a tizz about remarks made by Mr Bloom such a long while ago - almost a decade ago in fact. Fair point, but the problem is he's made a habit of repeating such comments. In April this year, he opined that businesses shouldn't employ women of childbearing age, for example. A judge ruled she won't send LSU running back Jeremy Hill to jail for a probation violation last spring, a ruling that leaves it up to coach Les Miles to decide whether the Tigers' suspended leading rusher last season will return to the team. ICC spokesman Fadi El-Abdallah said Kenyatta's defense lawyers had filed a request for the Kenyan president to not physically appear at his trial in the Hague next month, but participate via video link. 'Measures of extreme consumption.

Need to be routinely included in prevention studies so researchers can identify what types of interventions also reduce extreme drinking occasions or whether new approaches warrant investigation,' they write. 7 hours ago How long are you planning to stay here? Bridget looks a million dollars, but her clothes and accessories come from charity shops and she survives on just £100 a week. Her most expensive recent purchase was a pair of Doc Marten boots for £4. Bridget has been a campaigner all her life and does not intend to give up now – taking on the task of raising the profile of older women. Modi's success at chaperoning Gujarat's economic growth wasfor years overshadowed by religious riots just months after hetook office in 2002.

At least 1,000 people died in the violence,most of them Muslims at the hands of Hindu mobs. Bankers and companies slammed the restrictions on firms,some of whom have been looking to expand beyond India where theeconomy is growing at its slowest pace in a decade, hittingdemand for products ranging from cars to steel. The Livestock Marketing Information Center in Denver calculated that feedlots in July, on average, lost about $82 per head of cattle sold to meat companies, the 27th straight month of losses. Industry calculations indicate the use of beta-agonists such as Zilmax and Optaflexx mitigated those losses an estimated $30 or $40 per head, said center Director Jim Robb.

They also say they are fighting an unfair battle. Chevron has overwhelmingly more resources.

And Donziger and the villagers accuse Kaplan of bias. In a court filing, they wrote that Kaplan's 'contempt' for Ecuador, 'its courts, and its laws has only grown more prominent over time.'

7 hours ago Have you seen any good films recently? 'It's not clear yet how far this review is going to go,' said Omarova. 'Are they going to make a large change to what they're authorized to do, or will they say that the decision to let bank holding companies start trading in physical commodities over 10 years ago was the correct one?'

The law also guarantees a cap on loan interest rates, ensuring that undergraduate rates can never rise above 8.25 percent, while graduate loans are capped at 9.5 percent and PLUS loans have a limit of 10.5 percent. Green hurt his left knee near the end of Cincinnati's first training camp practice on Thursday, twisting his leg as he planted to try to make a sideline catch. Green said an MRI that found no structural damage. Obama’s decision to skip the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings in Indonesia and the East Asian Summit in Brunei next week “is a blow to America’s image in Asia, where symbolism is everything,” said Ian Storey, senior fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. “It projects the image that America is politically dysfunctional and fiscally irresponsible, and not as committed to Asia as the Obama administration would have us believe.” “Pretty crazy finish the last two times here,” he said. “I executed them both well, but there’s some luck involved as well. I mean, it’s super exciting to finish like that.

To win the match here and then to halve the match this morning, it makes it even better.”. 7 hours ago Sorry, I'm busy at the moment This method of growing minibrains in a lab could be used to or test medications, or to study other brain disorders.

'Ultimately, we would like to move to more common disorders, like schizophrenia and autism,' Knoblich said, though he added that it's premature to speculate when scientists will develop minibrains complex enough to do so. 'We will continue to consult with Congress on all Iran-related legislation as we have long before last week. Iran has an imperative to improve its economy, because every single economic indicator is negative for them,' said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. Sure enough, Curiosity's Sample Analysis at Mars instrument cooked up a tiny sample in its little oven and found that roughly 1.5% to 3% of the soil was made of water. The scientists think this water may have come from the atmosphere, pulled out of the thin air. But if anyone can bring this technology into the mainstream, experts say, it's Apple.

It has, for example, embedded the scanner into the iPhone's home button, while other mobile devices usually have it on the back, making it awkward for the user and increasing the number of failed attempts. Others among the young and unemployed can be trained to be part of the 'agricultural revolution' _ a federal government project to make this mass food importer return to self-sufficiency, he said, adding, 'We want to convert them to become very usable to society, the community and the state.' 7 hours ago I'm not working at the moment Earnings before interest and tax (EBIT) rose to 734 millionDanish crowns ($132 million) in April-June from 674 millioncrowns a year earlier, slightly above a forecast for 724 millioncrowns in a Reuters poll. The case has the potential to weaken a key element of the federal campaign finance regulations remaining after the 2010 ruling, and it could pave the way for challenges to the restrictions on contributions that remain. Supporters say those laws are key to preventing wealthy donors from exerting an undue and potentially corrupting influence on the political process, while opponents say the laws choke free speech.

'Just as we did in 2012, the first aircraft will examine thelarge-scale environment that tropical storms form in and movethrough, and how that environment affects the inner workings ofthe storms,' he said. The flame will then begin a seven-day journey across Greece's mainly mountainous northern regions before it arrives in Moscow on October 6 for the longest relay in the history of the Winter Games, through the hands of 14,000 torchbearers. Google Trekker uses a 4ft, 40lb backpack fitted with a 15-angle lens camera to take 360-degree pictures every 2.5 seconds in public places that the Street View cars and Trike cannot get to, with the images added to Street View on Google Maps.

8 hours ago The line's engaged SapuraKencana Petroleum and Wah Seong,both widely tipped to win fabrication jobs from the Refinery andPetrochemical Integrated Development (RAPID) project in southernJohor, fell 3.5 percent and 2.1 percent respectively. This has been another major area of uncertainty. Over the past decade there have been a number of small volcanic eruptions that have thrown aerosols, small droplets of liquid, high up into the stratosphere of the atmosphere. SIR –The BBC’s promotion of such causes as global warming and multiculturalism is an ever present endorsement of Left-wing orthodoxies. Millions of voters rely on the BBC to keep informed. This is therefore a serious threat to democracy. Researchers have uncovered a previously unknown role for the acetylcholine-activated inward-rectifying potassium current (IKACh) in cardiac pacemaker activity and heart rate regulation, according to a st.

Since going 2-0 down at Lord’s, Clarke has repeatedly peddled the optimistic line that Australia can still win the Ashes, so both he and team needed a score if that notion were ever to be taken remotely seriously.