 |
|
|
|
|
ISAGA Dez. 03 Newsletter
(geschrieben von: Willy.Kriz am 28.11.2003, 10:42 Uhr)
|
|
Newsletter der ISAGA - International Simulation and Gaming Association:
Contents:
Report from Kazusa Akademia Park, Chiba, JAPAN
Best Paper Award:
Closing Address: Closing Remarks of Richard Duke, ISAGA 2003, Kisarazu, Chiba, JAPAN
A Note from the General Secretary:
About ISAGA
Cultural diversity
ISAGA Network
Goals
Gaming & Simulation Landscape
Membership
Affiliate News:
JASAG
NASAGA
OzSAGA
SAGSAGA
SAGSET
Of Special Note:
Passings:
Next Year?s Conference
Next Issue:
Operationalizing Simulation and Gaming
Newsletter Editors:
Contributors:
Report from Kazusa Akademia Park, Chiba, JAPAN
Konnichiwa!! Welcome to the 34th Annual Conference of the International Simulation and Gaming Association (ISAGA) held in concert with Japan Association of Simulation and Gaming (JASAG). The main theme of ISAGA2003 was ?Social Contributions and Responsibilities of Simulation & Gaming.?
The 34th Annual Conference of the International Simulation and Gaming Association (ISAGA) was held during the week of 25-29 August 2003. Kazusa Akademia Park, located in Chiba Prefecture, served as conference site. Additional lodging accommodations were found in the delightful city of Kisarazu, which also is a transportation hub for buses, trains and taxis, making access to the charms of Japan easily reached.
Chiba Prefecture consists of 79 cities, towns and villages (including 33 cities, 41 towns and 5 villages), and is also where the Tokyo Aqua-line, the bridge across Tokyo Bay, is found.
With attendees from around the world, this year?s annual conference proved to a well attended and extremely lively. More than 400 registrants participated or attended the nearly 40 sessions. A combination of plenary sessions, paper sessions, and demonstrations spanning topics including social contributions of simulation and gaming as well as using games for policy development and many more topics.
Undoubtedly one of the more titillating presentations occurred during the first session of the first day when presentations were made regarding the social contributions and responsibilities of simulation and gaming. Under the rubric of ?what is the field of simulation and gaming? several panelists explored the expansive nature of this evolving field.
Papers presented during plenary sessions were devoted to exploring the concept of simulation and gaming. Research shows that simulation and gaming occur in the following disciplines: information engineering, information science, knowledge science, social engineering, management, organization theory, decision making, business consultation, social psychology, educational technology, education, economics, political science, sociology and other fields. This has led to studies in simulation and gaming distributed amongst 129 difference titles.
Trending shows that several core disciplines from 1995 to 2003 contributed the bulk of research in simulation and gaming. These four disciplines are: information engineering/information science/knowledge science with 22% of the research papers addressing simulation and gaming. Social engineering contributed 19% to simulation and gaming research. Management theory/decision making theory contributed an additional 19% towards research in simulation and gaming.
Despite these respectable percentages in continuing development of the field, research shows that many of these fields use labels that appear close in wording, such as games and gaming, but in fact, expand a vast difference in meaning.
Many of the discussants points are exemplified in the joint JASAG/ISAGA conference presentations. Of the more than forty sessions, topics spanned creating games to facilitating a simulation session.
As an example, a workshop hosted by Elyssebeth Leigh and Larraine Spindler clearly focused on presentation of simulation and games. Larraine reports ?in our workshop we presented our speculation that facilitators of simulations and games can be arranged within a spectrum of preferences for types of activities. These preferences can be accessed via consideration of such things as personal profiles and ?style inventories? and predilection for particular learning strategies and approaches to education. The significance of this is that the kinds of simulations that different people choose to use will be subtly influenced by these preferences as will their capabilities for managing simulations that are outside their preferred modes.
?Participants identified their own positions on four personal style and educational frameworks and then rated the strength of their preferences for either open and closed simulations. The results of this initial trial supported the hypothesis and the discussion has given us energy to proceed with further research.? Elyssebeth and Larraine offer their ?many thanks to the participants for their enthusiastic engagement in the workshop.?
And at another venue, presenters explored development of games for pleasure. Presentations from representatives from universities in Japan and Korea demonstrated their products, the viability of market share in different continents, as well as potential for continued development of said products for distribution.
The variety and plethora of topics is clear indication that after 34 years, simulations and gaming continues to grow and adapt to its environment. Sometimes controversy assists in spurring the conversation. Nevertheless, the field of simulation and gaming, despite its longevity, its growth in the number of institutions sponsoring a simulation and gaming program, and the numerous articles published addressing simulation and gaming techniques and strategies, there continues to be a need for discussion to explore meaning of the phrase ?simulation and gaming?. This discussion will undoubtedly continue to be well-discussed for the coming years.
As we close the 34th session of the International Simulation and Gaming Association annual meeting, we say ?arigato? to our wonderful JASAG hosts and look forward to continued discussion of future direction of ISAGA and its impact in the field of simulation and gaming.
Best Paper Award:
Congratulations to Dr. Willy C. Kriz, of the University of Munich, who was awarded the Best Paper Award for his ?Creating Effective Interactive Learning Environments and Social Contributions through Gaming Simulation Design (Part 1)?. Dr. Kriz? paper addresses simulating a change environment during a year-and-a-half study. Study participants engaged in six consecutive seminars with each seminar providing attention toward a unique task aimed towards facilitating change through simulation. Using learning from Senge, Argyris, Schon, Klabbers, and previous work by Kriz, the study intent was for ?fostering of systems-thinking (especially skills for analysis and sustainable development of complex system dynamics), fostering of team-work skills (especially training of competencies for better problem solving, decision making, communication and exchange of mental models in groups) and learning about methods of gaming simulation? (Kriz, 246). The study included more than 100 active participants.
Dr. Kriz? paper won out over hundreds submitted. Award was presented by Dr. Joseph Wolfe at the closing ceremonies.
Closing Address: Closing Remarks of Richard Duke, ISAGA 2003, Kisarazu, Chiba, JAPAN
Good Evening.
On behalf of all attendees I would like to thank Professor Shiratori for his efforts as Chairman of the organizing committee for this joint JASAG/ISAGA 2003 conference.
Our thanks also go out to all those who made this such a successful conference ? faculty, students, sponsors, and all the others who have worked so hard on our behalf.
Congratulations for a very fine experience!
I would also like to congratulate the winners of the JASAG Awards as well as the two young professionals.
I feel it is appropriate to single our Professor Klabbers and to extend appreciation from all of us for his selfless contribution to ISAGA for more than three decades. He has served as the backbone and as the central nervous system of ISAGA since its inception.
We salute you Jan!
One good thing about aging is that memory becomes a collage. Many, many gaming conferences in many different cities over a 34 year span are all blended into a single, albeit multifaceted memory. This JASAG/ISAGA 2003 conference adds richly to these memories.
But memory can play tricks ? so please forgive me if I fail on some of the details I present.
Now, a little about history.
Full detail about the evolution of formal gaming organizations is not appropriate tonight, but a few highlights may be of interest. The successful struggle by gamers to reach this point in time should be encouraging to those who are concerned about the future of the profession.
As you know, this is the 34th meeting of ISAGA. You might be interested in my recollection of the first meeting of ISAGA.
In 1969, I was doing a gaming project in Germany with several American and German colleagues.
In early summer, I mailed 38 letters to gamers I knew and invited them to come to Bad Godesburg over the weekend of July 4th and have information discussions about gaming.
We had expected perhaps 5 or 6 people and we made no provision for a conference. 78 people showed up!
It was possibly the worst organized conference ever held,
but maybe the best in that it brought together so many gamers who remain active friends and colleagues to this day.
There has been an interesting evolution of gaming organizations.
One of the earliest groups in the United States, dating from the 1950s was called the East Coast War Games Council. The primary substantive interest of this group was military or war gaming.
Participation in this group expanded in the early 1960s and the name was changed to the National Gaming Council. The interest of this new group focused more on problems of city planning.
Later in the 1960s, the participants who attended the National Gaming Council were primarily educators. Their primary interest was improved teaching. The name of the organization was changed to NASAGA.
More or less in parallel with these events, many other gaming groups were formed. These included ABSEL, SAGSET, JASAG, and many others.
These organizations differ in structure, emphasis and substantive focus.
They also differ in their perception of, and their definition of, gaming simulation.
As I address this group tonight, I am struck by how far we have come as a discipline.
When I completed a small municipal budget game for Lansing, Michigan in 1958 it would have been completely impossible for me to imagine a conference of this magnitude ever taking place.
Speakers at the opening ceremony indicated approximately 400 participants from about 40 countries!
The proceedings are more than 400 pages!
The documents from this conference probably exceed the entire gaming literature produced prior to 1975!
Now, a few words about the long struggle to achieve the status of an academic discipline for gaming/simulation.
One thing is clear. An organization cannot be strong unless the discipline is strong.
Several speakers addressed this concern, some quite directly.
Professor Shiratori presented a seven-point plan to strengthen the discipline. As professionals, we should give careful attention to these points.
ISAGA and JASAG can work together on these concerns. For example:
Ampora Garcia and her colleagues in Spain in have gathered the collections of several prominent gamers who have retired. She now has a formal repository for these materials.
Professor Tsuchiya, here in Japan, has been kind enough to gather together my collection of books, articles, and project documents.
We should encourage others who retire to contribute to these or new collections.
Now, let us be true to our calling and play a game!
For the next few minutes, please focus on the profession in which you were trained ? sociology, engineering, economics, etc.
Please assume that we are all attending a conference on critical problems in the third world.
Following the completion of this imaginary conference, a content analysis of the proceedings is completed.
The results will probably show that the word, statistics, will not occur with much frequency.
BUT THE MAJORITY OF THE PAPERS WOULD HAVE EMPLOYED THE DISCIPLIE OF STATISTICS IN THEIR DEVELOPMENT!
We find the same situation when analyzing the proceedings of any gaming conference.
We learn about the substantive content addressed, but not about the gaming/simulation technique employed.
The point I want to make is that gaming/simulation is a service discipline, much like statistics.
The struggle we face to gain the status of a discipline has many parallels with the evolution of statistics as a discipline.
What does the future hold?
To gain a perspective on the future of gaming as a discipline it is helpful to look back in time.
Over the years there have been distinct waves of activity, an ebbing and flowing of energy. New substantive interests have often breathed new life into gaming organizations, e.g. urban problems, educational techniques, problems of systems dynamics, and current, project management.
The spark has always re-ignited as each new generation discovers the power and utility of this approach. Each new generation guilds on the knowledge of the last and the results often amaze an old-timer like me.
Consider technology just for a moment. The young members of this conference hold more computing power in their pockets at this moment that entire universities possessed 15 years ago.
Both Dr. Anderson and Dr. Walsh provided evidence that this technology can be used to improve, and perhaps to inure society.
I believe Kiyoshi Arai is correct when he expresses the belief that gaming/simulation is on the threshold of regeneration. Dimitri Kavtaradze argues that there is an urgent need to get the public to think about future time and that gaming is uniquely suited for this purpose.
Jac Geurts and I have just completed a book that addresses five themes. Through this conference these five themes have surfaced repeatedly. They are ?
1. The complexity of the issues faced by society;
2. The urgent need for improved communication when addressing these situations;
3. The need for increased creativity in solving complex problems.
4. The need for improving methods for gaining consensus, and
5. Through improvements in addressing these first four themes, the ability to achieve a great commitment to action.
I believe quite strongly that these five themes are enhanced by the disciplined use of gaming/simulation.
A Note from the General Secretary:
About ISAGA
Jan H.G. Klabbers - General Secretary
Bemmel, October 24, 2003
Re-inventing the ISAGA Newsletter
In the 1970s and early 1980s I edited the quarterly ISAGA newsletter that as hard copy was distributed by regular mail to many places over the world. It was an informal platform for gamers to exchange ideas, raise questions and have a debate on a variety of issues. It was meant to establish links with colleagues, who otherwise had difficulties to connect to the world of gaming and simulation. The newsletter was also meant to reach individual gamers working at remote places in the world. It received special attention from colleagues of the former USSR. For many of them it was the only window to learn about gaming outside their countries. Klaas Bruin, my successor, continued editing along the same track. In the early 1990s the newsletter became embedded in the Journal Simulation & Gaming, as part of the section ?News & Notes.? With the Internet, ISAGA decided last August that a web-based newsletter would be a good opportunity to re-establish the informal platform for information exchange, discussion & debate. The Editorial Board consists of Nina McGarry ? general editor- with Fumitoshi Kato and Thomas Eberle as co-editors.
Brief history of conferences
ISAGA has been established in 1970. Dick Duke - at that time involved in a gaming project in Germany - invited a number of colleagues to visit Bad Godesberg and to have an open fire chat on gaming and simulation. To his surprise many more people showed up than he could handle. Somehow, he has managed the chaos well, as since then ISAGA has organized 34 annual, international conferences. In 2003 ISAGA visited Kazusa Akademia Park at Chiba, Japan. In 2004 the conference will be in Munich, Germany. ISAGA2005 will be in Atlanta, USA, ISAGA2006 will be in St. Petersburg, Russia, ISAGA2007 will be Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Those who are interested to participate in and learn more about ISAGA2004 should visit: www.sagsaga.org/isaga2004.
Cultural diversity
National and scientific diversity ? in general terms cultural diversity ? are one of the great assets of ISAGA. It requires an open and informal atmosphere for members and conference participants to join in. Currently the Steering Committee consists of 48 scholars/professionals from Australia, Austria, Estonia, Germany, Finland, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, UK, and USA. Their academic backgrounds cover: architecture, biology, business and public management, computer science, cross-cultural communication, economics and business administration, environmental information, educational science, history, informatics, information science, policy informatics, political science, psychology, project management, research methodology, sociology, social science, telecommunication, and urban planning.
ISAGA Network
It is the ISAGA policy to have formal links with fellow associations such as the North American Simulation And Gaming Association (NASAGA), Society for the Advancement of Games and Simulations in Education and Training (SAGSET), Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning (ABSEL), Japan Association of Simulation And Gaming (JASAG), the Swiss, Austrian, and German Simulation And Gaming Association (SAGSAGA), the Australian Simulation And Gaming (OzSAGA), and the Italian Simulation & Gaming Association (SIGIS). Very recently, links have been established with EsSAGA ? the Spanish Simulation & Gaming Association. Members of these associations have representatives on the ISAGA Steering Committee. Through these formal and informal linkages, ISAGA is shaping a global network for all scholars and practitioners involved. Many international conferences have been organized in close cooperation with these national associations. In addition, a series of conferences have been arranged in various countries to draw attention to this emerging field and raise awareness among scholars about the potentials and track record of gaming and simulation. Those conferences aim at attaining a critical mass of gamers in the countries involved.
Goals
ISAGA is an organization for scientists and practitioners developing and utilizing gaming and simulation methods in the social, human and technological domains throughout the world. ISAGA has sketched the following framework - see Table 1 - to bring some order in the wide variety of games and simulations and their many fields of application.
Gaming & Simulation Landscape
Table 1: Gaming & Simulation landscape (See also Klabbers, Jan H.G. 2001. The emerging field of simulation & gaming: Meanings of a retrospect. Special issue of the Journal Simulation & Gaming, Vol. 32, No. 4, December 2001, p. 472) [on following page]
Each cell encompasses a variety of gaming and simulation forms, such as computer-supported, and computer-assisted games, board games, role-plays, scenario games, free-form games, frame games, rigid-rule games, etc., and therefore, it will be no surprise that the gaming and simulation landscape shows high diversity in form and content.
During the 1970s and 1980s ISAGA paid much attention to game design, and evaluation of learning through games. Evaluation studies are still scarce, as games are notoriously difficult to evaluate. Developing a common frame-of-reference, as a basis for a suitable evaluation methodology, is complicated. One of the reasons is that the languages of practice of the different gaming communities involved are stubborn
Foci of Interest:
I. Theory & Methodology
II. Instrumental design (tool development)
III. Research
IV. Training & Education
a. collectivecompetence b. individualcompetence c. intra-, cross-culturalcommuni-cation d.learning &education e. manage-ment &planning f. organi-sationaldevelopment g. policydevelopment
Areas of Interest(reference systems)
1.Business
2.Economy
3.Education
4.Environment
5.Health care
6.Human -cultural resources
7.Human services
8.Int. Relations
9.Military
10.Natural resources
11.Religion
12.Technology
13.Urban/rural settlements
14. .......
Table 1: Gaming and Simulation Landscape
objects. Those who are used to board games will not easily cross over to computer-supported games and vice versa. They not only address different issues, they moreover adhere to different forms of knowledge.
Membership
It has been ISAGA?s policy to provide a low threshold for gamers all over the world to become a member. Very simple procedures for becoming a member have been applied. Those, who attend the annual conferences, automatically become members for two consecutive years, as the fee is included in the conference fee. As a member, they will pay a lower fee for attending two subsequent international conferences. In addition, those who express their interest in writing to join as members are included. The underlying idea was that professionals, who lack financial resources to pay the fee, should not be excluded from the community of gamers. Over the years, this policy has not been very effective. Therefore, the Steering Committee has decided very recently to raise regular fees from those who sign up as members after the ISAGA2004 conference. It is restructuring the membership procedures accordingly, offering several new membership benefits. Details will follow in the near future.
Affiliate News:
JASAG
Japan Association of Simulation And Gaming (JASAG), consists of scholars, businesspeople, and educational practitioners throughout Japan, aims for a significant progress of the interdisciplinary approaches as well as the science and technology. JASAG was promoted in 1988, and founded on January 21, 1989. In July 1991, JASAG hosted ISAGA ?91 with the Science Council of Japan (SCJ) in Kyoto, Japan. In August 2003, JASAG co-hosted with the SCJ in Kisarazu, Japan.
The Association forms both domestic and international networks for scholarly communication. Acknowledging that simulation and gaming approaches may transcend boundaries between humanities, social and natural sciences, members of the Association are expected to further develop advancement of simulation and gaming and to create foundations for various research projects and applications.
1. Annual Conference
Every fall, the Association organizes an Annual Conference for the exchange of ideas on simulation and gaming. The Conference is open for educators, scholars, businesspeople, and other related organizations and companies. The Conference combines symposium, workshops, and experiential sessions providing a wide breadth of opportunity for potential members seeking to explore simulation and gaming approaches explore the many venues of the field.
2. Symposium
Themes of the symposia include urgent and/or insightful issues. Through the symposium, discussants from various simulation and gaming approaches attempt to provide comprehensive evaluations on current research issues as well as on applications of recent development in science and technology. Every spring, the Association organizes a Symposium, in commemoration of annual JASAG Awards.
3. Subdivisions/Regional Subdivisions
Subdivisions of the Association attempt to examine themes that require continuous explorations. Members can participate in any of subdivisions depending on their interests and research topics. Further, the Association welcomes proposals for creating new subdivisions.
Regional subdivisions are for promoting scholarly communication and for creating human networks. Regional subdivisions hold meetings several times a year.
5. Distribution of Journal
The Association publishes a journal, Studies in Simulation & Gaming, for members. Members are encouraged to submit papers. As this journal includes papers on simulation and gaming approaches and related academic discussions, members can familiarize themselves with the current state of Japanese scholarship in the field of simulation & gaming studies.
6. Distribution of International Journal
As Japanese chapter of International Simulation And Gaming Association (ISAGA), JASAG distributes Simulation & Gaming: An International Journal to its membership. Members are encouraged to submit papers to this journal.
7. Newsletter
Newsletters offer current issues on simulation and gaming for the members. Various postings by the members contribute to create human networks. Also, information on meetings and other occasions is distributed via the Internet, postcards, or fax.
8. Presenting JASAG Awards
Acknowledging the members? contributions for studies on Simulation & Gaming, the Association annually presents awards such as JASAG Prize, Prize for Academic Excellence, and Prize for Research and Design Excellence.
---------------------------------------
Contact:
Japan Association of Simulation & Gaming (JASAG)
c/o FOST
1-4-24, Hiyoshi-Honcho, Kohoku-Ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 223-0062 JAPAN
· PHONE: +81 45-562-5447
· FAX: +81 45-562-6132
· E-mail: secretary@jasag.org
· URL: http://www.jasag.org/
NASAGA
NASAGA (North American Simulation and Gaming Association) held their annual meeting in Montreal, Quebec, CANADA, during the week of October 15-19, 2003. The conference, co- chaired by Sonia Ribaux and Charles Dupont of Montreal, was rated a ?fantastic conference. More than 155 attendees participated in more that 33 presentations and simulations, experiential exercises and training ideas. An award for Lifetime Achievement, the Ifill-Raynalds Award, was presented to Allan Feldt, University of Michigan. Dr. Feldt is best known for CLUG, an urban development simulation.
Three new board members were elected during business sessions a the Conference. Additional, more than $6,000 was raised from the auction held at the Grande Finale dinner.
Some of the items auctioned at the dinner were books, simulations, sweat shirts, posters, donated professional services, and of course ISAGA registration fee for the Munich conference.
Membership in NASAGA remains free. To visit the NASAGA web site at www.nasaga.org. All ISAGA members are welcome to join and participate in NASAGA online discussions.
NASAGA?s next meeting is scheduled for Washington, D. C. in October, 2004.
Charles (Chuck) Petranek at CPetrane@usi.edu
OzSAGA
OzSAGA is a small (as yet) entity with a tradition going back to the late 1970's when novice 'gamers' decided that working together could help us to develop our skills as designers and facilitators of complex activities. We looked with envy at the news from ISAGA, but in those days 'the rest of the world' was a long way from Sydney and only Elizabeth Christopher was able to become part of the international
community.
That earlier body began as ?The Sydney Games Group? and was then registered as the Australian Decision Simulation and Educational Games Group? (ADSEGA). It held several conferences before encountering the kinds of problems we discussed at the 2003 ISAGA conference ? viz ?Are simulations and games - Tools? Disciplines? Fields of practice? Something else that is more than or none of these?
Members were gradually faced with career choices that usually led to decisions to pursue more traditional disciplinary paths and ADSEGA eventually faded away.
In the mid 1990?s Elizabeth Christopher was seized with the idea of hosting ISAGA in Australia and two of us (Elizabeth Christopher and Elyssebeth Leigh) began the task of building a new entity that could take up the excitement of those earlier combined practitioner/researcher activities and re-establish simulations and games as a field for study and practice across Australia.
At ISAGA 1996, in Riga, our proposal to host ISAGA 1999 at the University of Technology, Sydney was accepted by the Steering Committee and much of our available energy in the ensuing period went into preparing for a successful conference. Elyssebeth was also occupied with the task of editing and publishing her first book (?Learning through Fun and Games? Leigh and Kinder, McGraw Hill, Sydney 1999) ? which was launched by Jan Klabbers at the opening reception in 1999.
Since then OzSAGA has begun to build an online community and held its first full-scale seminar in Sydney earlier this year, with plans to continue the process at a second meeting in Canberra later this year.
OzSAGA members? interests are ? as might be expected ? very diverse. We have people occupied with military simulations, games design for a variety of educational purposes, role-play in academic settings (both face to face and online) and research into various topics including appropriate methods for assessing the transfer of learning. Three members of OzSAGA attended ISAGA 2003, and two members of the OzSAGA steering group - Elyssebeth Leigh and Larraine Spindler - have also joined the ISAGA Steering Committee and are active on various sub-committees.
In the time ahead we plan to build a robust and active body of practitioners and researchers to promote the place of simulations and games in a variety of educational, research and planning arenas.
Elyssebeth Leigh?s email address is: Elyssebeth.Leigh@uts.edu.au
SAGSAGA
SAGSAGA (Swiss Austrian German Simulation and Gaming Association) was founded in 2001. The idea was a sub-organization of ISAGA for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Goals are identical with ISAGA-Goals.
SAGSAGA is a community of Scientists, Consultants, Trainers and Teachers, using and developing gaming simulation for personal and organizational development. Membership rates are (all prices in Euro)
15 for Student members,
30 for personal membership
100 per year for Companies and Institutions.
Network-Meetings are held twice a year. They are free of charge for all members and for interested persons who want to get an impression of SAGSAGA and its activities. Recently a Network-Meeting was held in Munich on November 7th and 8th. Games and Simulations were presented about political education (a gaming simulation about decisions in the European Union) and Strategic Security Policy. A workshop dealt with systems thinking and gaming. About 65 persons from Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic and Germany attended the 1 ? days meeting.
On February 11th SAGSAGA will present the 20th European forum of gaming simulation at the LEARNTEC in Karlsruhe http://www.learntec.de.
Program Information: http://db.kmkg.de/cgi-bin/download.pl?file=/infos/1136-2.doc
ISAGA Conference Munich 2004
35th Annual Conference of the International Simulation and Gaming
Association (ISAGA) and Conjoint Conference of SAGSAGA
Date: 6 -10 September 2004
Location: Ludwig Maximilians University, Munich, Germany
Conference Theme: Bridging the Gap: Transforming Knowledge into Action through Gaming and Simulation
Information: http://sagsaga.org/isaga2004/
Contact: isaga2004@sagsaga.org
ISAGA Steering Committee: 5 and 10 September
SAGSAGA general meeting: 10 September
ISAGA 2004 Summer School will be held before the conference.
Title: The Art and Science of Simulation and Gaming Design
30 August - 4 September 2004
Ludwig Maximilians University
Munich, Germany
Teaching Staff:
Prof. Dr. Jan Klabbers,
The Netherlands/Norway, University of Bergen
Prof. Dr. Dick Duke,
USA, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Prof. Dr. Elyssebeth Leigh,
Australia, University of Technology, Sydney
Dr. Paola Rizzi,
MBA, co-organizer of summer school, Italywid, Udine
Prof. Mieko Nakamura,
Japan, RyutsuKeizai University, Ibaraki
Information: http://sagsaga.org/isaga2004/
Contact: isaga2004@sagsaga.org
Special Teacher Workshops will be held on September 10th (most of them
in German Language)
Contact: Thomas Eberle office@thomas-eberle.de
SAGSET
Formed in 1970, SAGSET is a voluntary professional society dedicated to improving the effectiveness and quality of learning through the use of interactive learning, role-play, simulation and gaming. In this regard, its membership is of interest to:
· academics
· trainers
· teachers
· educational institutions
· training providers
· suppliers of simulations & games
SAGSET encourages and supports the development of gaming, simulation and other forms of active learning in all aspects of education and training from Primary School to University and in all levels of adult, lifelong learning from shop floor to the board room.
Simulations and games are teaching and learning methods in which participants are directly involved in making decisions and learning from the outcomes of these. Their active, student centred nature means that they are memorable and highly motivating. They enable the exploration of the complex nature of the real world and interdisciplinary, interacting subjects as well as the more basic needs of understanding, doing and skills practice
SAGSET offers:
The International Simulation and Gaming Research Yearbook
An authoritative publication looking at all aspects of the development and use of simulations, games, role-play, case studies and other active learning experiences.
Annual Conferences
Providing an opportunity for academics and practitioners to share information, network and participate in workshops and interactive activities.
Interact
A newsletter for the exchange of views, information on international conferences, and suggestions for the development of interactive learning. Interact is published three times a year (in March, September and December).
Back Copy Catalogue
Many editions of SAGSET's past journal (Simulation Games for Learning), conference proceedings and past yearbooks available for members at discounted rates.
Additionally, this web site provides:
Advice for users of Games and Simulations
It provides the opportunity for you as a practitioner to enhance your skills of games and simulations.
Sources of Information and Interactive Learning Materials
Provides information about other sources of information on interactive learning and suppliers of Interactive Learning Materials with contact names, links to web sites and e-mail addresses.
News about Interactive Learning
News about current projects, conferences and new material.
Research Topics
Information about current, new and on-going research into the simulation and gaming and its' use to provide better learning.
Contacts
Networking information
SAGSET contact: Fred Percival at F.Percival@napier.ac.uk
Of Special Note:
Passings:
Last week [26 September 2003] I received the sad message that Prof. Dr. Hans Gernert, former president of ISAGA, suddenly had died August 15. He was in an accident.
Hans Gernert hosted the 1989 ISAGA conference in Weimar in the former GDR. To organize the conference under the conditions of the GDR regime was quite an accomplishment. A few months after ISAGA89, the Wall tumbled.
Hans was the General Secretary of the Eastern European Simulation and Gaming Association, representing gamers in the GDR, Russia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Rumania, and Tjecho-Slowakia, with formally approved ties with ISAGA during the 1980s, when the communist regimes still were in control. Hans had arranged this approval mainly through his connections with the East-German Evangelian Church. He did not belong to the Communist Party.
In 1997, during the ISAGA conference in Tilburg - The Netherlands, he resigned as he was going into retirement from the Humboldt University in Berlin. He was of opinion that he could no longer contribute to ISAGA.
I met Hans for the first time in 1978 at IIASA, International Institute of Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg Austria, during a conference on simulation and gaming. Since then, we have cooperated in several simulation and gaming activities, exchanging views on and experiences with business simulations in the two different economic regimes - the command economy of the communist states, and the market economy of the west.
When we started preparing the 1989 ISAGA conference in 1988, in Weimar he took me to Buchenwald, the notorious Nazi-prison camp during WWII. We reflected on our different and also common memories of being children during that time.
While visiting Buchenwald in 1989, we had a long conversation about our experiences as children during WWII, both knowing what it means to live in the front-line, caught in the middle between fighting armies. We were aware that both of us had lost our innocence at a very young age. Buchenwald, Dachau were not names to develop a positive image of mankind at this stage in life. Maybe because of the horrors of war, later in life we kept trying to fill a void by inviting 'integrity', 'trust', and 'civilization' in our homes, keeping a fair distance from 'greed' and 'envy'. At Hans' side of the Berlin wall, it was more difficult to nourish integrity, trust, and civilization. At my side, greed and envy often were awkward guests. Hans became aware of this split after the fall of the Berlin wall. He did not become a cynical man. His weapons were ironic comments on living in the GDR. His sense of humor made things bearable to him. For that reason, he was always good company.
In the early nineties, the Humboldt University in former East-Berlin was in a process of fundamental change, all professors were screened for their ties with the former communist regime, and in combination with this they were judged about their academic credentials, and scientific integrity. During these times Hans was very unhappy, as the outcomes of this highly political process were very uncertain, and he felt trapped again by historic conditions. He was one of the few members of the faculty that survived that ordeal, all others were fired. He continued his scientific work until he was 64. He then decided to retire.
He did not feel at home anymore in 'East Germany', and moved to the west, to a small town near Berlin, called Blankenfelde. There is much symbolism in this name. Blankenfelde means 'fair', 'pure' or 'bright fields', I guess the name refers to the light yellow cornfields during the summer. He enjoyed living there peacefully. Maybe he had been looking for a Blankenfelde all his life.
He once told me, it must have been in the mid 1990s, that his son, an engineer, had become involved in mapping all existing subterranean electricity cables, sewerage, etc. that linked West- and East-Berlin before the city had been divided in 1945. A large part of those infrastructures still existed physically, but due to heavy bombing of government buildings, most of the administration had been lost. The wiring still existed during the cold war, most of it was shut off, some of it was used for spying. To rebuild Berlin, it was necessary to restore the historic city below the city. To me it seemed like excavating Berlin's sub-consciousness, I interpreted from Hans' phrasing that he thought more of delving in Berlin's abdomen. This story still intrigues me.
Hans has stopped telling stories.
We were good friends, keeping in touch with each other after he resigned.
Hans was 69 when he died.
Jan Klabbers
September, 2003
Next Years Conference
ISAGA 2004: Munich, GERMANY
ISAGA 35th Annual Conference is sponsored by SAGSAGA and is scheduled for 6-10 September 2004.
The theme for the conference is:
Bridging the Gap: Transforming Knowledge into Action through Gaming and Simulation.
When changing from passive reproduction of inert knowledge to active production of applicable knowledge and to the development of useable competencies, gaming simulation has much to offer. Gaming simulation is an interactive learning environment that makes it possible to cope with complex authentic situation that are close to reality. At the same time, gaming simulation represents a form of cooperative learning through teamwork. One single simulation game allows for multiple context of use, and newly gained abstract knowledge can be used to explore unfamiliar domains. This learning under multiple perspectives creates flexibility and is helpful to bridge the gap between knowledge and action.
Deadline for paper abstracts is 30 April 2004 with notification of acceptance 15 May 2004.
The conference site is situated in historic and beautiful city of Munich. Time is scheduled through the conference to walking and bus tours of the city.
Immediately preceding the conference, Ludwig Maximilians University of Munich will host International Summer School in Gaming Simulation. Dates for Summer School are 30 August to 4 September.
For more information, please refer to the web site, www.sagsaga.org/isaga2004 or email Dr. Will Kriz at wkriz@edupsy.uni-muenchen.de or Dr. Thomas Eberle at office@thomas-eberle.de
Next Issue:
Operationalizing Simulation and Gaming
The 34th Annual ISAGA Conference presented lots of rich data on interpretation and usage of simulation and gaming. Do we use simulation and gaming synonymously? Are they separate terms for separate applications? What is the difference of the terms? Where are the similarities of the terms? The next issue of the ISAGA Newsletter welcomes your 1,500 word or less contribution to operationalizing simulation and gaming.
Newsletter Editors:
Thomas Eberle, office@thomas-eberle.de
Fumitoshi Kato, fk@sfc.keio.ac.jp
Nina McGarry, nmcgarry@gwu.edu
Contributors:
Elyssebeth Leigh
Larraine Spindler
Jan Klabbers
Richard Duke
Charles Petranek
Fred Percival
|
| (1654 mal gelesen) |
|
|
|
|
© 2003 SAGSAGA
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home
Neuigkeiten
