Terrance Green, Ph.D., Lorain County Community College
Karen Riggs, Director, Game Research and Immersive Design Lab (GRID), Ohio University
County Fair: An Intergenerational Game for Appalachians
Tells the story of a graduate seminar led by professors at the GRID Lab and the Appalachian Rural Health Institute. Five hard-core gamers wrote a white paper to precede a design document for a game called County Fair, to be distributed on a CD-ROM as part of a community health package for diabetics and their families in rural Appalachia. County Fair will be a role-playing Sim for players throughout an extended family to learn how to prevent and manage diabetes via engagement in an entertaining game.
BrainAge: Breakthrough Intergenerational Learning Game
The game development industry has had a difficult time reaching over-40 adults and, in fact, has long ignored them. Now enters BrainAge, a game for all ages released by Nintendo for its DS handheld device. What can developers learn from this outrageously popular game, and how can this knowledge be applied to make applications more attractive for older and mixed-generation audiences? An expert on aging, games, and technology delivers prescriptives for industry. Karen Riggs, director of the Game Research and Immersive Design Lab at OHIO University, is an avid BrainAger in her spare time.
Social Media and Citizen Journalism: Research, Culture and Trends - Mashups, You Tube and My Space
Workshop: Building Collaborative On-line Communities
Wiki Know-How: A Demonstration and Workshop of Usability of Wiki Websites in Education, Business and Other Pursuits
Joel has over 10 years of experience in the information technology industry on the technology side and on the publishing / content side. Prior to joining Near-Time, Joel was founder and President of Leverage Factory a trade book and content syndication company. Previously, Joel has been involved with several successful technology start-ups in North Carolina including Extensibility, eTix.com, Bandwidth.com, iO Systems, and Ventana Communications Group.