The Transformed “Building Site Safety Game” has gained 17th place as one of Australia’s 100 most innovative products or services, in one of the largest and most audacious innovation awards of its kind in Australia – the Anthill Magazine “SMART 100” Index.
About Building Site Safety Game
Transformed have developed a serious construction site safety simulator. This initiate was developed to assist in the experiential learning of safety risks in a construction environment.
The simulation is aligned to a nationally recognised unit of competency in the Diploma of Building and Construction (Building) and received funding under the National VET E-learning Strategy
It allows both learners and assessors undertaking mandatory OHS and site induction to experience a high-risk construction site without the potential for injury.
The safety simulation generates a number of risks at commencement, so that risks are different each ‘play through’. As learners navigate the 3D world with a keyboard and mouse, they identify risks, undertake a risk assessment and report their results to their manager.
As site safety is traditionally taught in a classroom, learners may get to apply safety principles through work placements, but they are often not sufficiently experienced in translating the theory learned into practice.
Delivered via high speed broadband provided by AARNet and the National Broadband Network (NBN), the simulator provides a photo-realistic look, built-in voice and a multi-user environment that allows learners to interact with each other. It also allows instructors to guide learners and provide instant feedback online.
This project helps to address the national skills shortage in building and construction, and demonstrates that the NBN can deliver engaging and interactive e-learning that otherwise would not be possible.
The project has the potential to address national skills shortages in other industries by catering for a wide range of learning styles and providing opportunities for regional and remote learners to bridge geographical distances.
About the Smart 100
The SMART 100 Index was created by leading business media channel Anthill Magazine in 2008 to identify and rank Australia’s 100 most innovative products, proving to be one of the largest surveys of its kind in Australia.
‘In true Anthillian style, the SMART 100 is an ever-evolving, ever-improving experiment,’ said Anthill founder and Editor-In-Chief James Tuckerman.
‘It identifies and ranks new Australian innovations by applying a combination of crowdsourcing, collaboration and common-sense. We employ the judgement of ‘mavens’ and readers.
‘Unlike your average awards program, we don’t lock a panel of expert adjudicators in a small room. Neither do we demand a thorough analysis of each applicant’s P&L statement. We don’t even request an historical snapshot of ‘runs on the board’ or commercial achievements.
‘This is because innovation is future focussed. It is about identifying and solving problems in ways that will change the way we live, do business and think.’
What is a ‘maven’?
Academics have known about the existence of Mavens for many years, claiming they have a particular psychotype. However, it was Malcom Gladwell’s book ‘The Tipping Point’ that really brought attention to this underutilised group in society.
Gladwell described Mavens as ‘those who are intense gatherers of information and impressions, and so are often the first to pick up on new or nascent trends’. ‘Maven’ is a Yiddish word that means, literally, ‘one who understands’.
According to Tuckerman, ‘The maven’s unique talent is his or her ability to unearth and identify, from all the new products and services available in the marketplace, the innovations that are worth propagating. A maven also generally has the ability to communicate the potential of the innovation to the broader public and, therefore, plays an integral role in the mass take-up of any innovation.
‘These people have the ability to identify innovations that will meet an important need for the population. The hypothesis is that Mavens will provide a more predictive measure of innovation than mass consumers or, indeed, experts in the field – because they have a unique ability to identify the importance and relevance of an innovation.’
What is Anthill Magazine?
Anthill was initially launched as a print magazine, in September 2003, by its current editor-in-chief James Tuckerman, who at the age of 26 quit his day job, departing a promising career in corporate PR, to pursue his own entrepreneurial journey.
Since then, it has evolved into one of Australia’s leading online communities for Australian business owners, ranked among the Top 50 Business & Finance websites in Australia by Nielsen Online Ratings. It is dedicated to innovation, entrepreneurship and the commercial development of Australian ideas.
http://anthillonline.com/anthills-smart-100-winners-revealed-2012/
