Rating: 
Summary: A Systematic View of Leadership
Review: My exposure and subsequent interest in Mr. Aldrich's book began during the last semester of my graduate work in instructional technology. I was working with a team, which was created arbitrarily by the professor, to respond to a hypothetical Request for Proposal (RFP) to create a leadership curriculum for a large bank. We had to form a hypothetical e-Learning company, write a solution to the problem, and compete in a "showdown" against the other groups from the class in front of approximately 40 e-Learning business professionals to win the business. My experience with this group was horrendous. We argued bitterly, produced low quality work, and interacted as a team as well as a bunch of five-year-old children playing their first game of AYSO soccer. Fortunately, after seeing a presentation on Virtual Leader during one of the classes, I was able to obtain a draft copy of Mr. Aldrich's book from my professor. After reading the chapters on "What Would a Leadership Situation Look Like?", "Uncovering the Essence of Leadership", and "The Lure of Linear Content", our group not only began working better together, but we were also producing top-rate work. Our meetings were shorter and more productive, and even though interpersonal differences still existed, we were able to work around them toward our common goal - a sound response to the RFP and a cohesive, outstanding presentation of which we were all very proud. Why the change? Very simply - Mr. Aldrich synthesized the voluminous materials on leadership into a "Systems Framework for Leadership." In his framework, Aldrich defines leadership as "getting a group of people to complete the right work." Unlike most leadership models which are very specific and try to teach certain skills, this model focuses on the work, not the individual. In addition, Aldrich identifies three forces, which, when used in the correct combination, lead to producing the right work. These three forces include gaining power, generating ideas, and moderating tension. All of these forces are necessary. One cannot compensate for a lack in one by placing more emphasis on one or both of the others. In addition, each force is also a skill, which contains a subset of additional skills. For example, power skills include negotiating, writing, and communicating. Therefore, to be an effective leader, one must exercise each of these three forces and its corresponding subset of skills in the right amount, in the right combination, and in the right way to produce the right work. Too much of any one force diminishes rather that enhances leadership ability and the output of work. In closing, this insight was helpful to me as I worked with the team to accomplish our goals. In addition, I have not only benefited from Mr. Aldrich's book during this time, but I have also grown tremendously by applying this framework of leadership in both my personal and professional experiences.
Rating:
Summary: A "Big" Book
Review: The book is broken into four sections. Background: Aldrich gives the reader some background on e-learning and computer games today. This section is quite easy to read and funny at times, especially when he talks about the challenges of being an analyst.
* Do You Want Fries with That E-Learning?
* In the Game
* The Primary Colors of Content
* The E-Learning Arms Race Rethinking Educational Experiences: Building a simulation requires a higher standard of consistancy, rigor, even imagination than an academic lecture or book. Aldrich looks at the topic of leadership through the classic linear perspective, and then expands it along the new dimensions of interactivity. Other people have mentioned this as well, but I learned more about leadership here than through any other formal process.
* The Myth of Subject Matter Experts
* The Search for Contents
* What Would a Leadership Situation Look Like?
* Uncovering the Essence of Leadership
* The Lure of Linear Content * Rules for a Post-Textbook World: Simulation Design Principles The Technical Issues: In the same way that traditional academic leadership material made for insufficient content, so was the classic, existing computer game genres insufficient for a template. Aldrich explains the process of creating a whole new type of computer experience, (as different and as similar to computer games as computer games genres are from each other)based on their leadership content. I can see how people might skim these chapters (and I breezed through some pages myself), but I found them oddly satisying in bridging the chasm between high level theory to specific. Aldrich did a good job at making technical issues understandable to someone like myself who is not at all technical. Most importantly, he describes a kind of work that seems necessary to create a educational experience, but totally absent from most academic content today.
* The Beginning of Open-Ended Content: Sets and Figures
* What Do People Do All Day? The Animation System
* The Ultimate Hurdle: The Dialogue System
* Modeling a Little World: The Physics System
* Modeling the Inhabitants: The AI System
* A New Look at Work: The Interface System
* The Scariest Word of All: Gameplay
* Why Use Grades, Anyway? Metrics, Scores, and Simulations Conclusions: With each of the final chapter, Aldrich zooms out one layer. First he wraps up the Virtual Leader story, then discusses the implications for any simulation designer, any corporate environment, and most interesting and controversial, all schools.
* Virtual Leader vs. the World
* 17 Simulation Issues
* A Manifest Destiny: Simulations and the Training Industry
* Looking Back at Schools Simulations and the Future of Learning is undoubtably a "big" book, probably one of the most important books I have read in a long time. I have read it twice and still haven't come to terms with all of the discoveries and implications. Now I am just waiting for some colleagues to finish it to get some more perspectives.
Rating:
Summary: Heroic Journey to find the Holy Grail of E-learning
Review: This book addresses a very interesting subject and one that is near and dear to my heart. How does a generation, who spent their childhood playing games, react to linear learning? This generation has overcome the linear educational system and is now in the workforce facing the myriad of training courses provided by companies. Are these courses any more adequate than schools and university courses to teach a generation who are used to complex and immersive learning environments? Anybody who has ever played a computer/video game will realize that they are learning some very complex skills and actually enjoying it! Obviously most of theses skills being learned don't seem to be very useful anywhere outside the game, but the realization that learning is happening is one that has some fundamental implications to the future of education. All learning should be as fun as games and that has been the holy grail of e-learning. Clark Aldrich takes us on his own very personal journey from his days as the research director for Gartner Group's e-learning initiative through to setting up a company, Simulearn that could fulfill the promise of e-learning.
The book is split into 4 Parts that follow the 'Hero's Journey/Story Arc' of Aldrich's quest.
Part 1: 'The Call to Adventure' or "The Simulation Way" - where Aldrich first realizes the potential of e-learning and from his advantageous position of seeing all the current e-learning products available also realizes that no one has as yet achieved this potential.
Part 2: 'Crossing the Threshold' or 'Modeling Reality' - this is where Aldrich describes in detail the process of making the "Sim". It describes the design principles behind creating a truly immersive simulation and even goes as far as to describe the actual modules (Calculation, AI, Dialogue, Physics etc...)
Part 3: 'Approach the Innermost Cave' or "Philosophical and Technical Realities" - This delves deep into some of the hurdles, issues and problems that Aldrich's team encountered. He delves into some core pieces that are needed to make a truly immersive simulation game (Interface design, game play, scoring etc...)
Part 4: 'The Road Back' or "The Way Ahead" - This is where Aldrich summarizes his issues and hurdles into a list that will be valuable to anyone attempting to achieve the potential of e-learning. Summary:
Any book that starts off by insisting that you play games has to be one that is worth reading! I thoroughly enjoyed this book, but I have always been a sucker for good story about challenging technical projects. In all seriousness if you are interested in game based learning and the potential of e-learning then you will find this book very rewarding. Following Aldrich and his team through tackling this problem without stepping down from the challenges, is a fun read. There is a lot more design details than you would expect from a book like this. Aldrich really does lay bare the principles, designs and challenges that were faced. My only concern was that this whets your appetite and leaves you wanting more technical details, but I understand that this would be giving too much IP (intellectual Property) away. This is a quick and rewarding read and Aldrich's personal story makes this a surprising page turner.
Rating:
Summary: An easy read that will have you thinking for a long time.
Review: This book has a great casual style that makes it accessible to anyone, yet the ideas are significant.
It's pretty cool - he describes the process he went through to create a game to help people learn leadership skills. What I found interesting is how he came to define leadership, since he had to do it in a way that would permit 'quantization' and definition as a simulation. He admits that the ideas are not new, but I think his perspective is a fresh one. The way he has put them together is definitely new. The result is a visualization of leadership that plays on in your mind - great stuff.
It is also an interesting account of the process he went through when designing his simulation/game. When organized and well written, accounts of groups solving complex problems can be very illuminating, and this one certainly succeeds there too.
I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in leadership; e-Learning; and problem-solving.
Rating:
Summary: Are we entering a Post-Gutenberg era?
Review: This book strongly suggests that we are moving past the last five hundred years, where education was dominated by linear content (books, lectures, filmstrips), into a new, post-Guttenberg era.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Read!
Review: This is a challenging book, mainly because author Clark Aldrich never seemed to quite make up his mind what kind of book he is actually trying to write. He has so much to teach about simulations that he tries to cover the whole waterfront. He moves from lofty pronouncements about the nature of education to the minutiae of designing one particular simulation, to generalizations about the similarities between fast food and training, to specific analyses of computer games. Any one of these themes could have provided the unifying thread for an excellent book. As it is, this reads a bit like the notes for more than one book yet to be written. But the notes are interesting and extremely well informed, and we found the in-depth detail about the construction of the author's own simulation quite revealing. If you aren't familiar with the growing use of simulations, this is a good place to start learning. You're going to need to know.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read
Review: This is one of the best visionnary book I've read in a long time. Very inspiring. I cannot wait to try the software either.
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