Hairdressing, Serious Games and Learning
At a session at the Scil conference on serious games. Hope it is not too serious.
First up is Frederic Aunis on hairdressing. He works for L’Oriel. Kids end up doing hairdressing because they do not know what else to do or have failed at school. Hairdressers, he says, all over the world learn by doing. they need techncial and artistic skills, life and communication skills and a business understanding. But in schools business skills are not taught. Managers train apprentices in technical skills but not business skills.
Frederick has been developing a business game. His organisation is developing programmes for 20 million students (seems unlikely?). The game is called Hair Be12. It is translated into 13 languages and implemented in 10 countries. Now we get a demo. Choose a character and customise it. Then twelve episodes to the game. The first is on customer relations. A series of multiple choice questions. Then according to answers skills levels indicator moves up and down and turnover for business changes. No correct answers in game says Frederick. It’s like in real life. No-one complains but your turnover is hit. And there are bonus games. design your salon etc. At end get classification on the web based game - compared to others.
interesting that it did not really work as an individual self-learning game but took off when it was used in groups - it created, he says, “a wow effect.” And it has gone on to be used for facilitating meetings and organisational development within hair salons.
The topics have been ‘flattened’ to ensure game is applicable in different cultures.
Hm - not bad - looks quite fun, teaches something hard to learn any other way. At least it feels like a game. Maybe a bit limited in scope though. Big plus - he says it was relatively cheap to develop. My rating - cool. And a great presentation.
Contact url seems to be www.hair-be12.com - definitely worth a look.
June 2nd, 2008 at 9:34 pm
Did you know that you are not allowed to link to this site without their permission? Is that why you did not hotlink the address? Seems a bit OTT in this day and age. Shame because I wanted to recommend the site to language learners.
Quote from the legal section on their website:
“Moreover, the creation of hypertext links leading to the Site shall only be possible with the written and prior authorization of l’Oréal Produits Professionnels
L’Oréal Produits Professionnels shall accept no responsibility for the content, advertisement, products or services available on or from the sites associated with the Site.
Any permission request must be send to the following E-mail address: contacthairbe12@fr.loreal.com. “
June 28th, 2008 at 10:38 am
[...] tail. But for the past three weeks one post above all has dominated the lists. It is called “Hairdressing and Serious Games“. It is an OK post. I wrote it at a conference. It was more for me an excercise to improve my [...]