new games-in-ed resources

So much to post - so little time. Here are a few game-related gems that I came across while cleaning out my email inbox (i.e., things forwarded to me by friends/colleagues).

Benefits of Video Games in eCampus today: http://www.ecampustoday.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?print&i=54917

Major study shatters stereotypes about teens and video games - a collection of information from the MacArthur foundation: http://www.macfound.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lkLXJ8MQKrH&b=4192109&content_id={CF9B933A-8261-4FE5-B9AD-AD751CDEEFC6}&notoc=1

Good day for Civics Games...

This just came out as part of the newest Teaching and Learning
magazine published by IU:

http://www.indiana.edu/~tandlpub/story.php?story_id=85


And a more formal announcement re: Sandra Day O'Connor's Supreme Court Game, starting to roll out this September:


http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/around-the-web/?i=54067;_hbguid=dac4cf1d-bb4d-4bc2-978c-682aa2c1ddc1

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSN0438944120080605

www.ourcourts.org/

Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds

I virtually participated in a few sessions of the conference held by the Federal Consortium for Virtual Worlds this past week. From my vantage point (about 20 feet away...and more than 500 miles away) it looked to be well attended by a wide range of professionals interested in virtual worlds. I suspect that they'll post video clips on the site at some point (as they seem to have done that for past events).

http://www.ndu.edu/irmc/fedconsortium.html

News you can play

http://www.playthenewsgame.com/

Just checked this game out - seems interesting and looking forward to seeing the results of my first "game" played on the site. I played a game that looked at lowering the legal drinking age to 18 - it illustrated a brief history of this issue, particularly how it has intersected with debates about the legal age to serve in the military/go into combat. I played as the state of Missouri (selected by the computer) and was able to indicate what I thought should happen, as well as predict what I thought would happen.

New evidence suggesting that young children benefit from technology use

Tech encourages students' social skills by Meris Stansbury (Wednesday, April 23, 2008).

This article highlights results of two a studies done with young computer users (preschool/early grades) and finds that there are indeed benefits to its use.

More evidence to support the value of games in Education

eSchool News had a few more articles in its most recent issue:

Gaming helps students hone 21st-century skills by Laura Devaney (Thursday, April 24)

and

Students want more use of Gaming Technology by Meris Stansbury (Tuesday, April 8)

Games on kids "must have" list for school...

Since I don't have time to read the full report - I'm just going to pull some quotes from other summaries...it is great that students can see the potential of gaming - and even articulate specific benefits of gaming over other other modes of instruction!

From: eSchool News

Students want more use of gaming technology
Results from Project Tomorrow's annual Speak Up survey reveal a disconnect between students', adults' views on technology in schools
By Meris Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News

What students want
"Educators are largely missing out on what could be a huge opportunity to capitalize on their students’ appetite for electronic games and simulations to teach them about core curriculum topics, results from a new national survey suggest."..."online or electronic gaming is one of the technologies that students use most frequently—and that educational gaming is one of the emerging technologies that students would most like to see implemented in their schools."

The disconnect between what students want and parents/teachers want?
"...Yet, only one in 10 teachers has adopted gaming as an instructional tool."
"64 percent of students in grades K-12 say they play online or electronic-based games regularly. On average across all grade levels, students are playing electronic games about 8 to 10 hours a week. More than 50 percent of students in grades 3-12 would like to see more educational gaming in their schools—yet only 19 percent of parents and 15 percent of administrators favor that idea."

but maybe kids know best...
One teacher, using games in her classroom notes “'We are witnessing a metamorphosis of sorts. Within the first few weeks, we saw students seeking assistance from their teachers before the scheduled time for math, so they could beat their friends. … It’s driving up math scores. When our students are experiencing success on the game, it transfers to success in the classroom.'”

"Just over half of the students surveyed (51 percent) said they’re interested in educational gaming because games make it easier to understand difficult concepts. Fifty percent said gaming would make them more engaged in the subject, 46 percent said they would learn more about the subject, and 44 percent said it would be more interesting to practice problems."


And another review of the same study From: Network World

Most kids want educational video games in school, survey shows. ... So?

Submitted by Paul McNamara on Wed, 04/09/2008 - 1:15pm.

"Among the survey findings:

• More than half of students in grades 3 through 12 believe educational gaming would help them learn;
• Only 16% of teachers, 15% of administrators and 19% of parents are on board today -- although there was significantly more support for further exploration of the potential;
• And, 11% of teachers say they're already using video games in class, no matter how much you roll your eyes.

Then there was this little nugget, which may explain better than any other data point why this topic is even being discussed: Only 3% of elementary school students say they do not play video games of any kind.

Students surveyed say learning via video games would help them better understand difficult concepts, become more engaged in the subject matter and practice skills."

to be or not to be...fun

From Wired:

Trying to Design a Truly Entertaining Game Can Defeat Even a Certified Genius

I think there's something to be said about finding the right audience...Arden may not have appealed to the WoW set, but I suspect there's an audience out there that would have thought it was the best thing since sliced bread to have less emphasis on fighting. I'd add a #6 that says something along the lines of - never underestimate the power of marketing (or the price tag for good marketing).

Trends and Continuums

A few recent articles of note from the Model Intel Classroom Site:

Ed Tech Trends: http://www.modelintelclassroom.com/resources_articles/ed_tech_trends

and:

Continuum of Technology Use:
http://www.modelintelclassroom.com/resources_articles/continuum_technology_use

The later article had a great image that suggests the disconnect between students' home and school use of technology.
To some extent it is an over-exaggeration - but it most certainly the case for some students that they will be making abundant use of technology at home and only occasional access to it at school.

Do you want fries with your game?

An Online Game So Mysterious Its Famous Sponsor Is Hidden

By STEPHANIE CLIFFORD

Published: April 1, 2008

McDonald’s is the sponsor of an enigmatic Olympic-themed online game called The Lost Ring.


So I was feeling a little out of the loop when I read this. Guess I need to get back on the Unfiction mailing list. ;) In any case, sounds like a great game - and good to see that there is still large corporate interest in funding immersive gaming experiences.

What a beautiful idea!

Experimenting With Makeup: What Puts the ‘Ick’ in Lipstick?

By NATASHA SINGER

Published: March 27, 2008

At a Saturday seminar called Cosmetic Chemistry in Boston, young girls and their parents find out what after-shaves and lipsticks are really made of.


A great hook to get girls interested in science. It reminded me of a recent site visit experience - wherein a facilitator was telling me about the Internet Scavenger hunts that he had kids create for each other as a way to hone web navigation skills. One of the most advanced girls that he worked with came up with a scavenger hunt that called for participants to find, among other things, brands of lip gloss. It struck me as disappointing that lip gloss was the most exciting thing this girl could think of to have people search for on the Internet - but in retrospect, I suppose what really mattered was that she was using the Internet - and getting her peers to do so as well. It's all about meeting people where they are - and this project makes a great effort to do just that.

Game and Be Healthy

From Gamasutra: Ubisoft Announces Pedometer-Driven My Health Coach: DS

Plug your pedometer into your DS and you're on your way to making fitness a lot more fun. The product, entitled My Health Coach: Weight Management, by Ubisoft is set to hit retail shelves this summer. Players are trained on proper ways to maintain the balance between diet and exercise and are generally rewarded for healthy behavior. Whoever said that gaming was an unhealthy hobby had best be rethinking that notion!

productive play

Forming healthy habits and promoting activities that are helpful are at the core of the new virtual world for kids and tweens: HandiLand: http://www.handipoints.com. Parents set up a list of tasks and kids can received in-game currency for doing those tasks in the real world. I wonder if it will fly with the Club Penguin set that seems content to collect and spend their points in-game - and if it will pass the "cool" test for kids on the upper end of the target age range spectrum (e.g., 10-12 year olds) but it is definitely a great concept from a parental point of view.

online slideshow applications offer new way to share

From: TechLearning, March 1, 2008 (by Cory Plough): Web 2.0 Tools Motivate Student Creativity

This article suggests what many have suggested before: that students perform better when they are creating material for an audience beyond their classroom. In addition to blogs, it cites a few presentation applications that facilitate sharing beyond school walls:

Slideshare allows users to create shows in PowerPoint (or similar software) and them upload them to the web.

Zoho Show is a web based application and therefore accessible to those who merely have access to the web (and not necessarily a host of expensive software).

Or how about Animoto, a video production website that allows users to upload pictures, pick music, and produce a short 30 second movie.

Acccording to Plough: "It's hard to assess student learning in a 30 second project, but using this tool to replace a paragraph or two of an essay or as an intro to a presentation project gets students interested in the assignment." If a picture's worth 1000 words, then a 30 second video (which Animoto suggests 12-20 images for) is worth a least a couple pages of written work.

But wait, there's more! From Plough's blog (which I'm adding to my list of links):

Toondoo allows users to create comics or cartoons and share them with others.

Sketchcast is an online program that allows you to create sketches mixed with your voice.

Voicethread lets you add your voice over pictures.

Overstream allows you to put words over a video that you or someone else has created.

I would have loved having more teachers like him when I was in school!

Virtual world promotes getting active in the real world...

Here's a great new idea on the virtual world front: you buy the handheld device for about $40, create an avatar on it...that you can plug into the computer to explore a virtual world (me2universe.com) ...but here's the really cool part: the handheld device has a motion sensor on it - and your motion in the real world creates currency that you can use in the virtual world! What's not to love?

See Blog Entry by Scott Traylor of 360kid.com:

Giant Leap Forward with Kids' Virtual Worlds February 22nd, 2008 Irwin Toy creates the ME2, a handheld product that collects "motion points" in the real world and converts those points into online currency.

...til someone pokes an eye out...

Its all fun and games!

*********** CALL FOR PARTICIPATION *****************************

************** Fun n'Games 2008 ******************************

20-21 October 2008
Eindhoven University of Technology
Eindhoven, The Netherlands
(url: fng2008.org)


* CONFERENCE THEME *
Fun n' Games 2008, is a single-track conference that is aimed at bringing
together researchers, designers and developers interested in applications
of novel technologies in the areas of games and entertainment.
This event is aimed at providing a venue for sharing and show-casing recent
work in this area whether this concerns research experiences and findings,
design work or innovative applications.

* CONFERENCE TOPICS *
- Advanced Game Concepts
- Game Design Methods, Principles and Processes
- Games for Children
- Games for the Elderly
- Evaluating Games and Fun
- Serious Games
- Mobile Games and Entertainment
- Pervasive Games
- Tangible Interaction in Entertainment Applications
- Understanding the Game Experience
- Persuasive Aspects of games
- Entertainment Beyond Gaming
- Affective Computing Applications for Fun and Games
- Novel Media Entertainment Applications
- Robots for Fun and Games
- Social aspects of Fun and Games
- Games and Rehabilitation technologies
- Multimodal Interaction and Gaming
- Smart Toys and Playgrounds

* SUBMISSIONS *
Submissions should be made electronically from the conference website
(fng2008.org). All submissions should be formatted using the Springer LNCS
format (available from www.springer.com).

Submission are invited in the following categories:
+ Technical Papers (6 or 12 pages)
Technical papers should present original work that makes a substantial
research contribution or innovation in relation to the conference topic
area. Accepted papers will be included in the main Conference Proceedings
volume.
Technical papers can be either short (6 pages) or long (12 pages), depending
on the magnitude of the contribution made or on how much space the authors
need to explain their work clearly.

+ Workshop Proposals (max 6 pages)
Submissions are invited for workshop proposals on topics relating to the
conference them. Workshop proposals should describe and motivate the aims of
the workshop and should include an outline of activities planned by the
organizers running up to, during and after the workshop. Accepted
submissions will be included in the adjunct conference proceedings.

+ Posters (max 4 pages)
Submissions in this category should present recent late breaking and
preliminary results or present on-going work. They will be presented in a
poster form during the conference and accepted submissions will be included
in the adjunct conference proceedings.

+ Demonstrations (max 4 pages)
The demonstration programme will present examples of prototypes and systems
of applications that conference attendees can experience during the event.
Authors can submit demonstration papers directly to the demonstrations
category. Submissions should describe clearly the nature of the
demonstration and motivate it.
Authors of accepted submissions in all categories will also be encouraged to
bring demonstrations along and to make a rich and lively demonstration
programme. In these cases, no separate abstract submission is required.

SUBMISSION DEADLINES
- Technical Papers: April 18, 2008
- Workshop Proposals: April 18, 2008
- Posters: June 16, 2008
- Demonstrations: June 16, 2008

Games in Ed - and a great video podcast

Games in Education - a technology video podcast from the Orange County Department of Education: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6117726917684965691

A 22 minute video featuring comments from Henry Jenkins, James Gee, and Clark Aldrich. This is not only a great summary of some of the prevalent concepts and theories related to use of games within education - but also an interesting example of a using a variety of readily accessible technologies (phone, video capture, video conferencing, etc) to create a compelling video program.

More on Digital Natives

I stumbled upon this link while looking for a few new/good links to add to my link list: "The impact of digital games in education" by Begoña Gros http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_7/xyzgros/index.html

I particularly liked the section on design - as that is something I struggle with daily as I'm working on the Virtual Congress project: "Specialists all agree on the requisites for good design: To have played a great deal; to be aware of the good and bad designs on the market; and, — above all — to think like a player at all times."

Gros highlights the following questions from Prensky (2001):

1. Is the product fun enough that someone who is not in its target audience would want to use it?
2. Do people using it think of themselves as "players" rather than "students"?
3. Is the experience addictive? Do users want to play again and again?
4. Are the users’ skills in the subject matter and learning content of the game — be it knowledge, process, procedure, ability, etc. — significantly improving at a rapid rate and getting better the longer he or she plays?
5. Does the game encourage reflection about what has been learned?

digital natives

I stumbled across this video link today and wanted to share it because I think it does a great job of highlighting some of the problems with (or potential pitfalls) of our current educational system in America. "A Vision of k-12 Students Today: " http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8

Earlier this week I also watched a special produced by Frontline about Digital Natives: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/kidsonline/#. It painted a rather bleak picture of the impact that technology is having on today's youth - and did little more than allude to the potential positive impact that technology could have if used properly within an educational context.

Its no mystery that students can find education boring or outdated when educators fail to make proper use of the technologies that today's youth have grown up with - and are fully immersed in when they are outside of school. It boggles my mind however, that more than two decades after educators began crusading for more technology inclusion and more meaningful use of technology in schools that we still haven't seen the major educational revolution that was promised (at least prophesized) - most classrooms that I visit today still look like the ones that I was educated in twenty or thirty years ago - and probably look a great deal like the ones my parents were educated in fifty and sixty years ago. It further infuriates me when I hear that some schools won't allow students to bring computers or pda's to school with them - or that homework assignments (especially those that are creative in nature) can't be done with the aid of a computer. I understand the arguments that have been made for these policies (fear theft and vandalism, concern about the digital divide, etc.) - but I also see countless learning opportunities that are lost each time a student is prevented from using appropriate technology in an appropriate fashion to enable further learning.

Ready, Set, Scratch!

I've posted some information about an upcoming conference related to this innovative web program... http://scratch.mit.edu/ Both the conference and the website look like they have a lot of possibilities.

------------------------------

SCRATCH@MIT conference
July 24-26, 2008
-------------------------------

Please join us for Scratch@MIT, the first conference focused on the
ideas, applications, and joys of Scratch.

With Scratch (http://scratch.mit.edu), people can create their own
interactive stories, games, and animations -- and share their creations
on the Web. In the process, they learn to think creatively, analyze
systematically, and work collaboratively.

Since the launch of Scratch in May 2007, more than 1 million people have
visited the Scratch community website. A new Scratch project is uploaded
to the website every three minutes. Scratch has been called "the YouTube
of interactive media."

The Scratch@MIT conference will provide an opportunity for educators,
researchers, developers, and other members of the worldwide Scratch
community to gather together to share experiences and discuss future
possibilities for Scratch.

The conference will take place on the MIT campus on July 24-26, 2008.
Proposals for presentations, panel discussions, and workshops are due
February 15, 2008.

For more information, see http://scratch.mit.edu/conference

We hope to see you at MIT in July!

Mitch Resnick and the rest of the Lifelong Kindergarten group
http://scratch.mit.edu
http://llk.media.mit.edu

Virtual Field Trips Return

My friend Nancy shared the following info with me:

"Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing and Ball State University have entered into a three-year exclusive partnership to provide students in schools nationwide with the opportunity to interact with S&S authors and illustrators via live, interactive web broadcasts called "Electronic Author Visits" (EAV). The EAVs employ BSU's MyVisit virtual classroom's Electronic Field Trips program, which allow for live video, discussion forums, and downloadable teacher information and in-class activities. Under the deal, S&S plans to host three EAVs per year, with author Andrew Clements (Frindle and No Talking) kicking off the program on March 18. Also signing on to participate in EAV are D.J. MacHale (the Pendragon series) and Margaret Peterson Haddix (Shadow Children). Booksource has signed on as the sponsoring book supplier."

It sounds remarkably like the Turner Adventure Learning virtual field trips that we worked on in the mid-90s - though I suspect that the lower costs of video/audio conferencing due to more prevalent, classroom-based technology might enable them to be more profitable/successful than TAL ultimately was.

Thinking Big!

http:www.bigthink.com

An interesting online public debate/discussion about a wide range of topics (that all participants can contribute to). I signed up as jenbINblmgtn...need more time to play around with it before posting more there but I like the fact they have gotten input and comments from several notable experts and leaders. Definitely worth looking into further.

From a Chronicle for Higher Ed article: Thanks to YouTube, Professors Are Finding New Audiences:
"One Web site that opened this week, Big Think, hopes to be "a YouTube for ideas." The site offers interviews with academics, authors, politicians, and other thinkers. Most of the subjects are filmed in front of a plain white background, and the interviews are chopped into bite-sized pieces of just a few minutes each. The short clips could have been served up as text quotes, but Victoria R. M. Brown, co-founder of Big Think, says video is more engaging. "People like to learn and be informed of things by looking and watching and learning," she says."

Move over toys! Tech gadgets top tot's must-have lists

from eSchool News: High-tech gadgets top kids' holiday lists

According to this article, requests for iPhones and advanced gaming systems were edging out more traditional types of holiday gifts for children.

"The competition reflects the toy industry’s, and educators’, ongoing struggle against “age compression,” the phenomenon of young children reaching for items used by older kids or even adults. These days, children are grabbing for more adult experiences at ever-younger ages, making it ever harder for traditional toys—and, by extension, traditional classroom techniques—to capture kids’ imagination."

This certainly rings true with what I've seen recently - e.g. my nice spending hours clicking away on what she fondly refers to as "My own computer" a hand-me-down PC that her parents put in her play area, or my fiance's nieces who seemed to be spending a disproportionately large chunk of time playing with two toy laptop computers with very basic math and language games (as compared to more traditional games, puzzles and dolls).

I'd recently heard about the popularity of webkinz (Chris' nieces each had multiples) and had bought my niece a shining star (similar to webkinz) for her birthday. ...now I'm trying out the new Barbiegirls.com site (at least trying to try it...but it is temporarily full - so I guess that's a sign of its popularity and/or the fact that lots of girls that just got the BarbieGirls toys (that double as a doll and mp3 player) for Christmas are still home on break from school ;)

Girls like words - boys prefer video

Quoted From eSchool News: Report: Girls blog, boys post video

Thu, Dec 20, 2007

Full report at C|Net News: Girls blog, boys post video

"Just like with diaries, teen girls tend to blog more than their male counterparts, but boys post more video, a new study find

About 35 percent of all online teen girls blog, compared with only 20 percent of boys, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project "Teens and Social Media."

"Girls continue to dominate most elements of content creations," the study finds.

About 54 percent of the girls online post photos compared with 40 percent for boys, but boys are nearly twice as likely as girls to have posted video online (19 percent vs. 10 percent).

Overall, 28 percent of online teens have their own blog, up from 19 percent in 2004, while 27 percent of the teens maintain their own Web page."

New twists use of video in science

From eSchool News: Video sites make science more accessible

According to the article: "Fans of the niche sites say they help the lay public—and students—understand the scientific process, allow researchers to duplicate one another’s results, and might help discourage fraud."

Included among the sites are: SciVee - kind of like a YouTube for scientists and students and fans of science, funded by NSF. Also included:
The Journal of Visualized Experiments, Lab Action, DNATube, and one commenter suggested the addition of WGBH's Teacher Domain.

Positive initial reviews for OLPC project in Peru

From eSchool News: Laptop project enlivens Peruvian hamlet

Distribution of the first sets of XO laptops (part of what was formerly, but still popularly known as the $100 laptop despite the $100+ price tag) has been underway in Peru, and researchers and reporters are finding positive results thus far. Obviously it is far too early to tell what the end result will be - but children and their parents seem to be putting the computers to good use, and there seems to be an indication that they will have some power to improve the educational system in this educationally challenged country.

My favorite quote in the article comes from Oscar Becerra, Peru's head of educational technology: “If we make education pertinent, something the student enjoys, then it won’t matter if the classroom’s walls are straw or the students are sitting on fruit boxes.”