Gamification stuff we love: Learning technologies 2015 #lt15uk
I have been supporting this event for a good few years, initially in a corporate buying capacity and now very much prospecting for potential business partners and suppliers. Last year I was ghastly disappointed by the lack of games, simulations and gamification, thankfully this year there was plenty of it. A good few game based learning organisations had made the trip to the Olympia from Gamelearn from Spain to efactor from Poland and Sim Venture from York, to name but a few. I will look into each of them further and write up reviews in this wednesday blog as I go.
The conference remains an expensive add on, which is probably mainly destined for corporate purses, hence I just came in on the not so ample free time that week. The highlight was to notice that game based learning and gamification in learning are definitely on the way up. Growth engineering is working on a gamified learning authoring software (alleluia, finally someone with vision), which in my view will make every learning designer in companies want a piece of the fun. They had a teaser version on demo and I will be trialling it in the next few weeks also, so come back for more updates. They were also voted the best gamified LMS by Craig Weiss, who is a prolific eLearning blogger and well respected in the online L&D world for his opinions and advice.
Last year only e-learning studios from Coventry brought games and the Oculus Rift to showcase the roller coaster ride, this year their stand had trebled in size and was still popular for their own showcase on Oculus or google cardboard immersive experiences. It is great to see them grow and evolve.
Our business partners Curatr had a beautiful looking stand in a better and more central position to promote their learning platform which both allows social learning and gamification in a MOOC friendly set-up. I am always happy to talk to you about their systems.
The conference this year tried to make the most of a back channel on social media with twitter streams, bloggers and hangouts, which were well received. So it’s going social, global and local all in one go…hmm but did that earn me a level up, a badge…or just an experience point 😉
The future of e-learning is looking hopeful and more game like as I get ready to travel to ICE Totally Gaming for my next exhibition adventure.
Were you at this years’ learning technologies in London, what was your top take away?
