I’ve been playing a lot of Rocksmith 2014, and been very impressed by it as a tool to help learning; so I thought it would be interesting to talk about what the game is doing (or, for that matter, whether the word “game” is appropriate), and to compare and contrast that with Roger’s practomimetic approach. They’re both ways of using games to help learning, but beyond that, there are a lot of surface-level difference: one has a computer teacher while the other has a human teacher; one is largely an individual experience while the other is largely a group experience; I suspect that the two systems’ approaches to evaluation and use of motivators are significantly different, though I’m not sure; and I also suspect that the two systems have interestingly different approaches towards bringing in narrative, but again I’m not sure. But I also suspect that, even if those surface differences prove to exist, that there are going to be interesting similarities beneath the surface; again, though, I could be wrong!

So join us if that sounds interesting to you; no need to have any exposure to Rocksmith or to Operation LAPIS. We’ll talk on Thursday, February 6th at 9:30 pm EST / 6:30 pm PST; voice chat over mumble, leave a comment if you need contact info.