IBM Releases Innov8, a ‘Serious Video Game’ for Learning

Vnunet.com has an article up on IBM’s latest release of a video game designed to help university students and young professionals develop a combination of business and IT skills:

IBM creates video game for budding entrepreneurs

Gaming Nexus also has an article up on this project with some good pictures:

IBM announces new video game to teach business skills

There’s a preview video up at YouTube:

Sneak Preview – IBM’s BPM Simulator

Over 2,000 universities around the world can download this game for free starting this week, more than 30 colleges and universities have already incorporated the game into their programs.

Here’s a quote from the Vnuet.com article:

“This type of simulation, often referred to as ’serious gaming’, has the look and feel of a game but corresponds to business activities, such as improving operational processes.

It has emerged as an increasingly successful method to train the networked generation to develop new skills, in the same way as airline pilots initially learn using flight simulators.”

I had a really hard time convincing our Administrators and School Board to step out on the bleeding edge and adopt Second Life as a platform for our students. I am pleased that this year when I go back to the board I will be able to show examples from Sun, IBM and others of virtual environments being used by Fortune 500 companies for training purposes.