Cross-posted at edu.blogs.com 

Will must have finally ended up with some spare time hunting around YouTube this morning to find this. University researcher Johnny Chung Lee has taken a £34.25 Wiimote, some old ballpoint pens and some infrared buttons you could find in your Physics department to create a system that can turn any surface into a multi-touch interactive surface, much like that shown off my Jeff Han earlier this year.

Give the amount of effort Learning and Teaching Scotland has put into promoting gaming for learning, and the approval from our regulatory body that has been illustrated in the awarding of the George Gray Research prize to a project about Rollercoaster Tycoon for enterprise education, it’s really great to see yet more uses for the technology that go beyond simply playing the games. In this case, it’s just the remote control to the popular Wii gaming console.

And, as Will points out, it’s a great example of the importance of sharing, the importance of openness in the research, teaching and learning processes. Johnny could have done what other academics do: present it at a big conference and get the plaudits years after having worked this out, meaning us mere mortals in the classroom would have had to either work it out the hard way or miss a great opportunity. He didn’t. He presented on YouTube, and then took the process apart so that we can do it ourselves.

If only more teachers and academics shared their nuggets of brilliance in this way. Take a look yourself and be in awe.

Categories: Gaming, Technology, Video