Milamber Blog

People learn more when they play.

They remember more when they do.

They engage more when they share.

So why is most learning so ineffective and boring?

Christmas is a time when our lives are filled with ‘Games’ and ‘Stories’. Our TV’s are packed with stories, both old and new. We gather together with our families and play games, like Charades. Asking such questions like is it a Book, Movie or TV program. Our DVD’s come now with software that un-package the movie so that is can be played on multiple devices such as iPad’s, iTouches, iPhones, or even on your Laptop. Books can be played on Kindles, iPad’s, and read the old fashioned way on stuff we call ‘paper’.

Whichever medium we experience these Stories there are ‘Seven Basic Plots’;

• Overcoming the Monster
• Rags to Riches
• The Quest
• Voyage and Return
• Comedy
• Tragedy
• Rebirth

One theme that resonated this Christmas was the Hero’s Quest or Hero’s Journey. A hero is faced with a challenge and has to overcome various obstacles to achieve some goal. The focus is the achievement of the goal or objective and this can be in this world or another.

Joseph Campbell’s used the term monomyth, when referring to the hero’s journey and this was described by Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949).

Campbell held that numerous myths from disparate times and regions share fundamental structures and stages, which he summarized in The Hero with a Thousand Faces:

‘A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.’

This can be broken down into various Acts and Stages as shown by the following diagram:

What was also evident this Christmas was the Quest theme was being used not only in movies, but also in games, as we see below:

Questing in Role-Playing Games: the basic PLOT……

The quest in a role-playing game may begin with setting the objective of finding a lost artefact, or treasure, or some form of knowledge. This artifact might be in several pieces, and to collect the various components results in overcoming one or more challenges by the hero.

By designing the quest around specific challenges, various skills may be taught, improved, honed to excellence etc. thus a carefully designed quest may allow the heroes to shine and show the qualities that make them heroic or just improve them. Basically certain traits can be built into the game structure so that the architect of the game can teach the player or hero to learn through participating in the role-play and thus attain certain skills or improve those skills.

A Few Examples:

The Hobbit, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Indiana Jones series, etc.

The basic quest story can be broken down into a series of stages:

1. The Call – the hero has a calling from someone or due to an event that must result in a long difficult journey to achieve some sort of goal or objective.

2. The Journey – the hero sets off (with or without companions) on a long tortuous journey encountering a series of trials, challenges, or ordeals. For example, battling monsters, dealing with temptations, travelling between two different kinds of opposites or worlds.

As part of the journey there must be capture or daring escape’s, hospitality or life threatening ordeals, helpful advice or cunning trickery, wisdom or guidance and other themes can be built into the storyline to enhance the skills that want to be transferred to the hero.

3. Arrival and Frustration – the hero sees the goal, can almost get there but then new barriers, or obstacles or challenges arise that block him or her from the goal. At this point the hero is often at a low ebb and must dig deep to summon the strength to overcome these last challenges to reach the goal.

4. The Final Ordeals – here the hero has to undergo a series of final tests or challenges, or tasks to prove that they are worthy of the prize, be that an artefact, treasure or knowledge. There may be a guard or monster to the artefact which requires a battle to overcome them to release the prize.

5. The Goal – the hero finally overcomes the last obstacle in a death defying feat and wins the prize, or secures the knowledge, and lives happily ever after…..

So this structure within the role playing game has the capability to be designed in a way to teach certain skills or hone certain characteristics and in a highly effective way:

Which is why we are leading with the following messaging in 2012:

Learning via games:
Engages our curiosity
Encourages active decision making
Taps into deep human needs for challenge and mastery
Connects human desire for novelty and reward
Breaks learning up in to bite sized chunks
Activates more of our brain than traditional learning methods.

This ‘youtube’ video gives a very pictorial representation of the Hero’s Journey from a Joseph Campbell (sort of) perspective using Star Wars, Harry Potter and clips from the Wizard of Oz to highlight key points – the author of this video accentuates 5 key themes:

Here is a copy of our recent shareholder presentation.

This is a great advert from Kaplan University!

And one of the most inspiring videos I have seen on how the Digital Evolution will help talent learn anyplace, anywhere, at anytime.

Welcome to the ‘education’ revolution!

INTELLEGO HOLDINGS PLC (‘Intellego’ or ‘the Company’) – Acquisition of Digital Learning Marketplace

The Board of Intellego, the AIM traded digital learning business, is delighted to announce it has entered into a non-binding memorandum of understanding (“MOU”) to acquire an investment in the Digital Learning Marketplace (“DLM”) project from Milamber Limited. There are two phases; development and commercial exploitation.

Development – the DLM is being built as a revolutionary new learning platform intended to allow Corporations, SME businesses, and professionals to access their day-to-day and future learning requirements with the goal of helping them improve their business performance.  The Directors of Intellego believe that the DLM will be the first source of truly personalised learning giving users the ability to create their own focused courses in affordable blocks, built from materials supplied by a diverse range of providers.  It will enable the owners of learning content to trade and monetise their learning assets.  Participants in the project include Pearson Education (19%) and Ashridge Business School (6%).  The DLM is designed to have global appeal, with engaging content available in small “bite-sized” units that are easily accessible, and affordable.

The Consortium partners will (pro rata to their respective interests in the project) receive a £740,272 grant from the UK Government’s Technology Strategy Board (TSB) (“Grant”), such is the importance of digital learning to the future education needs within the UK, to provide funds to help the Company finance the development of the DLM platform. The Consortium partners have agreed to match-fund the Grant giving the project a total investment of £1,498,224.

Commercial exploitation – the DLM is expected to be fully operational in 2013, in the interim there will be limited scale commercial trials and testing.

The proposed arrangements comprise an initial investment of up to £160,000 to secure a majority interest in the project during the two year development stage followed by Intellego’s option to maintain this interest into the exploitation stage.  If for any reason Intellego decides not to exercise the option then Milamber has undertaken to buy-back the Interest from Intellego for an amount equal to Intellego’s investment save for the first payment of £40,000.

Milamber, in which Andy Hasoon is a 21% shareholder, (Intellego’s CEO and Director) owns a 6.86% interest in Intellego (40,000,000 ordinary shares of 0.05p).  Accordingly, the transaction is a Related Party Transaction as defined by the AIM Rules.

The independent Directors of Intellego (being all the Directors with the exception of Andy Hasoon) having consulted with the Company’s Nominated Adviser, consider that the terms of the MOU are fair and reasonable insofar as the Company’s shareholders are concerned.

Angus Forrest, Chairman of Intellego said: “The investment in the DLM is our first major transitory move into being a pure digital learning provider. We are excited by the opportunity, that Andy Hasoon has brought to us, which has the potential to transform Intellego into a global player, and consider that the transaction provides a structured approach for Intellego Shareholders to participate in that opportunity”.

Andy Hasoon, CEO of Intellego said: “As the education market aligns ever more closely with online content and learning, the DLM has created a strategy which will ensure it remains the leader of this exciting and revolutionary step change. We promise our customers around the world that we will provide the most comprehensive, relevant and enjoyable learning experiences available.”

-ends-

For further information:

Intellego Holdings plc

Angus Forrest, Chairman                                                                           020 8977 8744

Andy Hasoon, CEO

Beaumont Cornish Limited (Nomad)                                                     020 7628 3396

Roland Cornish

Rivington Street Corporate Finance (Broker)                                       020 7562 3357

Jon Levinson

Allenby Capital Limited (Broker)                                                             020 3328 5656

Nick Naylor / Nick Athanas

Leander (Financial PR)                                                                             07795 168 157

Christian Taylor-Wilkinson

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Intellego

Intellego is a digital learning company which specialises in the provision of productivity improvement, compliance and process change using training to provide the solutions.  The appropriate solution may be digital learning or instructor lead, or blended learning a mix of the two, to regulated industries and distributed workforces.

At the weekend we hosted our first ever Hackathon in London to promote the development of innovative and commercial mobile Apps.

The Autumn Hackathon was the first in a quarterly series of digital technology hack days bringing together developers from the UK and Europe to pool their talents in a competitive environment to create new applications for the booming mobile and social networking platforms. The event was held from 9am on Saturday morning, with the developers coding through the night to 5pm on Sunday at CentralWorking.com – the trendy, boutique co-working club off Tottenham Court Road in central London. 

A panel of leading entrepreneurs, VCs and developers judged the competition, awarding prizes in two main categories: The most innovative App and the App with the best commercial potential. The winners of the Autumn Hackathon were each awarded prizes of £2,000 of legal services from law firms Irwin Mitchell and ADL Legal, plus Chrome Laptops for each team:

Most Innovative App: an iPhone Lightsabre, designed by Kornel Lesinski using the iPhone’s gyroscopic capabilities and neural network technology, he created a multiplayer lightsabre game that links to a TV.

Best Commercial App: A top ‘Trump’ education game, designed by Team Trump Trifecta that allows different skins to be applied to the card sets to provide multiple game types. Quality tested and played by a five year old, the team proved the game worked and engaged its audience.  

Intellego will be running the Winter Hackathon in late January 2012 which will focus on mobile Apps for the estimated 2 million visitors to the London Olympics next Summer.

Andy Hasoon, CEO of Intellego, commented, “We are delighted to be the lead sponsors of the Hackathon events. Intellego is all about promoting educational development through digital, online and mobile technology, so working with some of Europe’s leading App developers has been an exciting experience for us.”

Judges including leading entrepreneurs & developers awarded prizes including £2000 worth of legal services from a top technology law firm. Entries will be judged on innovation, commercial potential, usefulness & fun factor.

To encourage greater involvement of those in further & higher education, teams are limited to three members but allowed a fourth member who is a full time student.

4 of our Hack Teams

Checking quality of one of our Hacks – it worked!

One of the teams at 9am Sat and at 3pm Sun…..did they move?

The Winners

Kornel Lesinski – aka Hack Winner

- Created a game that reads gyroscope data from iPhone – Creating an iPhone Light Sabre on the TV screen via (http://pornel.net:8000/watch.html)

 - Uses ‘pusher.com’ a websocket api

- Bounced data from iPhone to US to Germany (where his servers are) to US to iPhone

- He created a neural network and had to train his system to recognise moves i.e. Over 400+ moves needed programming so iPhone and Neural Network recognise gestures made with iPhone  

- Works as multiplayer game.

Watch Video! Click here……….. Hackathon Final

Organised by Milverton Wallace for Milamber Digital.

ADL Legal, Irwin Mitchell & Intellego sponsor Autumn Hackathon!

ADL Legal Solicitors are one of London’s leading firms in hi-tech commercial, technology and intellectual property law. Based in central London, the firm was created by Nick Lockett, the first lawyer in the UK to specialise in internet and online law in 1992.

Irwin Mitchell are one of the UK’s most successful and respected law firms with a national network of offices. We pride ourselves on our open and innovative approach and in providing clear and straightforward advice. Above all we are committed to putting you first.

Intellego - People learn more when they play. They remember more when they do. They engage more when they share. So why is most e-learning so boring?

Thanks to us, the next generation of digital learning won’t be dull. Intellego, and our subsidiary PIXELearning, are re-defining management education. Our team of world-class instructional designers and developers are already delivering award-winning learning products, but now we’re about to take digital learning to a far more interesting place.

Using a blend of games, simulations, online role plays, social networking and content from the world’s leading thinkers and writers, we’re taking learners and immersing them in a learning ecosystem that will deliver the most effective training ever devised.

For more information go to:

http://hackathoncentral.com

AGM Statement 2011 and Board Changes

The Annual General Meeting of Intellego Holdings plc, the AIM traded must have
digital learning business, will be held today.  At the Meeting the Chairman,
Angus Forrest, will make the following statement:

“I am pleased to update you on the Company’s progress.  The previously announced
plan to increase the emphasis on owning and creating its own intellectual
property has advanced with the acquisition of PIXELearning Ltd (Pixel) in May
2011.  The aim is to raise gross margins and generate more revenues and
recurring income.  In the past four months the balance sheet has been
strengthened as a result of injections of capital and the administration of
Intellego Group Ltd.

Board Changes

The critical feature of any business is its management, and today we announce a
number of changes.

Through the acquisition of Pixel, we were joined by Andy Hasoon who has 19
years’ experience of the learning industry and who will take on the role of CEO
with immediate effect.  Andy Hasoon said “I am looking forward to growing sales,
focusing investment in marketing, developing distribution channels and
strengthening our sales force in order to expand the customer base and increase
the sales per customer.  In addition to seeking expanding our product portfolio,
we have been evaluating several other acquisitions and expect to make
announcements in the next quarter.”

Other changes are as follows:

Bruce Leith reverts to his role as non-executive Director.

Robert Murphy has resigned as Finance Director and Company Secretary to pursue
his other business interests.  The Board of Intellego thanks Robert for his
contribution to the Company over the past two years during the transition stage
as Intellego evolves from a distributor to a publisher and for the notable
achievement of substantially improving the balance sheet.   The interim Finance
Director, a non-Board appointment, is Derek Watson FCA.

I remain as Chairman.

Business update

The business is being developed through three complementary services:
1.  Gap analysis tools and content delivery systems
2.  Learning Content
3.  Assessment tools

Pixel has been fully integrated creating new opportunities to incorporate the
latest in serious games functionality into our product offerings.

Whilst we are creating an increasing number of high value opportunities, the
general economic uncertainty has caused delays in customer decisions and sales
have been lower than anticipated.

Outlook

The main emphasis is on growing sales and we are focussing investment in
marketing, developing distribution channels and strengthening our sales force in
order to expand the customer base and increase the sales per customer.

In addition to seeking complementary library acquisitions, we have been
evaluating several other acquisitions and expect to make announcements in the
next quarter.”

PIXEL recently ran a seminar (8^th Sept 2011) for our customers at PIXEL and Intellego on ‘Why Serious Games Work’.

http://pixelearning.wordpress.com/2011/09/13/elearning-innovation-seminar-the-presentations/#more-487

I must say the last presentation by Helen Routledge our Instructional Designer Manager at PIXEL was excellent.

With over 70 attendees to the event from blue chip companies the event was a real success.

PIXEL and Intellego will be running more of these ‘thought leadership’ events in 2012.

                         (‘Intellego’ or ‘the Company’)

                           PLACING TO RAISE £300,000

                          APPOINTMENT OF JOINT BROKER

The  Board  of  Intellego,  the  AIM  traded  regulatory and compliance focused,
digital  learning business, are pleased to  announce that the Company has raised
£300,000  (before  expenses)  through  the  placing  of 150,000,000 new ordinary
shares  (the “Placing Shares”)  at 0.20p per share  (“the Placing”). The Placing
has  been arranged by Allenby Capital  Limited (“Allenby Capital”) and Rivington
Street Corporate Finance.

The  net  proceeds  of  the  Placing  will  be  used  to  continue the Company’s
acquisition  policy, which the  Board started with  the purchase of PIXELearning
Ltd  announced in May 2011.  The objectives of  the acquisitions will be to grow
the   scale  of  the  business  whilst  acquiring  IP,  profits  and  generating
shareholder value.

The  Placing is conditional on admission of the Placing Shares to trading on AIM
(“Admission”).   Application has been made to  the London Stock Exchange for the
Placing Shares, which will rank pari passu with all existing ordinary shares, to
be  admitted to trading  on AIM. Admission  is expected to  become effective and
dealings to commence on or around 9 August 2011.

The  Board is  pleased to  announce that  Allenby Capital  has been appointed as
joint  broker to  the Company.  As part  of the  Placing, the Company has issued
Allenby  Capital with warrants to subscribe for 2,907,233 new ordinary shares of
0.05p each  in Intellego (the “Warrants”). The Warrants are exercisable at 0.20
pence per ordinary share for a period of 3 years from Admission.

Following  Admission the number of shares  in issue will be 581,446,682 Ordinary
shares  of 0.05 pence per share. This figure  may be used by shareholders in the
Company  as the denominator for the calculations by which they will determine if
they are required to notify their interest in, or a change to their interest in,
the  share  capital  of  the  Company  under  the Financial Services Authority’s
Disclosure and Transparency Rules.

Milverton Wallace – Milamber’s Head of Digital Media has launched our first Hackathon on the 22-23 Oct 2011.

You can find out more about the event at:

http://www.hackathoncentral.com/