Tidbits of Interest

80% of kids under 5 use the Internet

2011-03-16T07:26:00.000-07:00

Good news for content developers targeting sites at preschool-aged users:

http://joanganzcooneycenter.org/Reports-28.html

http://mashable.com/2011/03/14/children-internet-stats/

Ride the Wave!

2011-02-04T08:19:00.000-08:00

Wired article that talks about a forthcoming wave of new apps for kids:

http://www.wired.com/geekdad/2011/01/2011-the-second-wave-of-childrens-mobile-apps-is-coming/

NYT Review of: Journey to the Stars

2009-07-28T07:47:00.000-07:00

Catch a Booming, Blazing Star

2009-07-28T07:40:00.001-07:00

Digital games: Playing for learning and health

Shared via AddThis

Context

2009-07-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

Pearls before Breakfast -

By Gene Weingarten

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 8, 2007; Page W10

A friend shared this article with me today and I found it all the more appropriate having just come from a VSA conference session where, among other things, the concept of "value" (as in how much people value their museum and musical performance experiences) was discussed. The notion of context did creep up, though in the form of motivation (i.e., voluntary or desired attendance/participation in programming vs. being made to participate for reasons other than intrinsic interest) more so than location/venue.

I didn't assume the outcome of the experiment in the Post article would be much different than it turned out to be, but appreciate the author's effort to keep us wondering as he weaves his way through a story that is as much about the musician and the lives and times of a random sampling of DC commuters and subway station employees as it is about the psychological underpinnings of the experiment .

I googled and found a few examples of some of the recordings of the songs that violin virtuoso, Bell, played and enjoyed familiarizing myself with them and sampling their beauty as I read through the article. I don't know a ton about music, I don't even know if I'd consider myself a fan of music (I haven't used my ipod in nearly 2 years!). I feel guilty when I think how much my parents invested in years of piano lessons that left me able to memorize pieces of varying length and complexity but never truly able to read or play music competently. I'd much rather imagine myself to be one of the few who recognized his genius or the mere beauty of the music he was creating but I suspect I would have been in the majority on that day in January two years ago - one of the thousand-plus who quickly passed by, avoiding eye contact with Bell, and feeling frustration over being made to feel guilty for not being willing to fish out my wallet. I don't think I know enough about music to have been truly able to appreciate the quality of the performance being given in that unlikely environment - and, given the inabilty to fully appreciate what I was hearing, I wouldn't even realize what I was tuning out.

In the session I just attended we pondered the notion that people value something more when it isn't free (e.g., examples of being able to get rid of more concert tickets when they are sold at $10 off face value than when they are given away totally free of charge). It didn't seem right to me, because I'm always looking for (and enjoying) free entertainment - but I understood it a little better after reading this article in the post. Accoustics aside, the music he was performing for sold out concert halls full of people paying upwards of $100 for a seat was no different than the music he was freely sharing with commuters at L'Enfant plaza on that particular morning - but the former example creates a more appropriate context for valuing the experience.

The story provides a vivid example of why context and motivation matter. It reminded me of the saying: "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink." Certainly there must also be at least an ounce of truth to that statement when we think about "free choice learning." Often the choice to engage in informal learning experiences is not the choice of everyone in attendance (i.e., the children that get drug along by overzealous parents, the students that get loaded onto a bus and thrown into the experience with little more than a brief introduction to help provide context for their experience - if that). Even if faced with the most beautiful or wonderful works of art, music, or the most fabulous exhibits, do visitors actually manage to find meaning and value if they aren't in the right mindset, or don't have the right level of understanding, to look for it?

Photos from the walking tour at the Visitor Studies Association Conference

2009-07-22T10:37:00.000-07:00

St. Louis Missouri - July 21-25th

Had a great time giving a workshop on museum website evaluation yesterday with Monnette. This morning I went on a walking tour around downtown St. Louis and snapped a few photos along the way with my phone (a G1 that has become my favorite research tool in recent weeks - after learning that I could also do pretty decent digital recordings as well).

Photo Highlights at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jennifer.borse/SaintLouis#

Pen-Enabled Technology Conference - Call for papers

2009-05-07T12:52:00.000-07:00

Good conference - I attended back in 2006 and found it to be engaging and enlightening. Unfortunately I haven't had much opportunity to do research on pen enabled technology since then, but its definitely worth checking out if that's something that's an area of interest.

"Submissions (papers, posters, and vidoes) to WIPTE 2009 are being accepted until June 15th, 2009. Information is available on the WIPTE web site at www.wipte.org WIPTE 2009 will be held at Virginia Tech on October 12th and 13th 2009. Accepted papers will appear in a Monograph to be published by Purdue University Press"

to kindle or not to kindle

2009-05-06T09:41:00.000-07:00

On a recent flight home from Philadelphia I saw a Kindle for the first time in real life. It was sleek and futuristic looking - and oh so tempting...

The thought of being able to replace rooms full of crammed bookshelves with one device the size of a small notebook was alluring...the notion of being able to have any book that I desired, almost instantly, was mesmerizing.

But then, during a somewhat prolonged taxi and takeoff process (ah, the joys of rush hour on a rainy day at the airport), one of its glaring flaws struck me: even though it doesn't use power to display text, it does require power to turn pages, so unless you are a really slow reader - it would almost definitely qualify as an electronic device that must be turned off during takeoff and landing. Those are the times I most crave something to read...before return flights I'm often scrambling through newsstands to find new reading material (since I finished reading the complimentary airline magazines on my departing flight). All the easily-downloadable content in the world can't save you from the boredom of sitting on a runway for 30 minutes if you can't turn on your kindle.

Undoubtedly, its a true conservationists' dream: no trees killed to bring everyone and endless supply of reading content!...but where reading is concerned, some of my favorite ways to recycle are tearing articles to share with friends or passing along a book for someone else to read (often along with scribbled notes, rhetorical questions, and other wacky Jenisms in the margins).

And as far as I can tell, you can't rent content, i.e., there don't seem to be any discounts for buying and deleting as soon as you're done. If you buy a real-life book you can at least share it, re-sell it or donate it when you are done.

And apparently, there's no color - great for books and the New York Times; not so great for comic books and fashion or decorating magazines.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly for me, books and magazines can take a lot of abuse - being rolled up and stuffed into purses and suitcases, having entire bottles of wine or water spilled on them...being tossed, dropped or bumped. As tough as a kindle might be, I don't know that it could stand up to my chronic clutziness.

None-the-less, I caught myself thinking that it might be a nice new toy to have.

Article: Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis?

2009-02-25T08:19:00.000-08:00

ScienceDaily (2009-01-29) -- As technology has played a bigger role in our lives, our skills in critical thinking and analysis have declined, while our visual skills have improved, according to psychological research.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090128092341.htm#

Some of the interesting assertions made in the article:

"Reading for pleasure, which has declined among young people in recent decades, enhances thinking and engages the imagination in a way that visual media such as video games and television do not, Greenfield said."

Also

"No one medium is good for everything," Greenfield said. "If we want to develop a variety of skills, we need a balanced media diet. Each medium has costs and benefits in terms of what skills each develops."

Her research found that:
"multi-tasking 'prevents people from getting a deeper understanding of information.'"

Cite:
University of California - Los Angeles (2009, January 29). Is Technology Producing A Decline In Critical Thinking And Analysis?. ScienceDaily. Retrieved February 25, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2009/01/090128092341.htm#

new games-in-ed resources

2008-09-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-06-06T09:20:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-29T08:34:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-29T08:30:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-29T08:10:00.001-07:00

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

2008-04-29T08:01:00.001-07:00

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...

2008-04-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-14T06:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-04-08T06:51:00.000-07:00

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?

2008-04-02T05:11:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-04-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-14T08:27:00.000-07:00

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

2008-03-10T13:10:00.001-07:00

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

2008-03-04T11:55:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-29T10:37:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-02-08T07:43:00.000-08:00

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

2008-02-07T09:15:00.001-08:00

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

2008-02-07T08:58:00.001-08:00

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):

Is the product fun enough that someone who is not in its target audience would want to use it?
Do people using it think of themselves as "players" rather than "students"?
Is the experience addictive? Do users want to play again and again?
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?
Does the game encourage reflection about what has been learned?

digital natives

2008-02-07T07:37:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-23T06:07:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-14T09:48:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-01-09T06:06:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-02T13:02:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-02T12:55:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-02T12:29:00.000-08:00

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

2008-01-02T10:46:00.000-08:00

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.”

IDC 2008

2007-11-21T12:55:00.000-08:00

The 7th annual Interaction Design and Children Conferences is being held June 11th -13th 2008 in Chicago. Submission info is available at: http://idc08.northwestern.edu/cfp.php

I'd count this among my favorite conferences because of its international perspective on interactive design rather than one that is US-centric. As such, it tends to attract an eclectic group of designers that are pushing technological boundaries.

I'm hoping to be able to attend this year since it is so close to home.

Life in a virtual world

2007-11-16T08:31:00.000-08:00

From CNet: What kids learn in virtual worlds

A brief article that highlights some of the research that is currently being done on youths' use of virtual worlds. Specifically, it highlights the social and commercial nature of the sites that are most popular today, as well as identifying some of the concerns and hopes. There seems to be no doubt that virtual worlds are informal learning spaces - its just a matter of _what_ kids are learning in them.

wanted: 21st Century skills for 21st Century workforce

2007-10-31T08:18:00.000-07:00

from eSchool News:

Voters urge teaching of 21st-century skills: Results of a new poll commissioned by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills shows the vast majority of U.S. voters believe students are ill-equipped to compete in the global learning environment, and that schools must incorporate 21st-century skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, communication and self-direction, and computer and technology skills into the curriculum. But the upcoming presidential election, researchers say, presents a perfect opportunity to charter a new path to success for America's students ... http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=7434

...But can we convince legislators that real, usable skills are more important than memorized facts and test scores?

Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale...

2007-09-27T07:53:00.001-07:00

Gilligan, eat your heart out! NOAA has created a virtual island within Second Life that is full of learning opportunities: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/outreach/sl/

According to the NOAA site: "On NOAA's island, one can soar through a hurricane on the wing of a research aircraft, rise gently through the atmosphere atop a weather balloon, or search for a hidden underwater cave on a side trip from a NOAA submarine."

Visit the island: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Meteora/177/161/27/

This just in - people are deceptive in cyberspace!

2007-08-21T09:11:00.000-07:00

Okay, so its not really breaking news. More anonymous forms of communication tend to foster more truthful and more untruthful communication than standard modes of communication wherein all parties doing the communication are known to one another. None-the-less, this new study goes a long way toward quantifying and explaining some of these commonly-held assumptions:

Deception in cyberspace: A comparison of text-only vs. avatar-supported medium
By Holtjona Galanxhi and Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Star Schools Session

2007-07-13T11:34:00.000-07:00

Brian Lekander provides a brief overview of the Star Schools program and an introduction to today's presentation.

Tim Best: Matrix Learning Project in Ohio
Middle school Achievement through Technology-Rich Interventions (x represents the unknown). Tim compares traditional SES to the primative medical practice of applying leaches - if someone is sick you apply leaches, if they get sicker you apply more...and often people die. So I guess drill and practice is like the educational technology equivalent of a leach. Research shows that middle class kids have extrinsic motivators, are empowered, and find that content is relavent to them (more or lesss) but kids in lower socio-economic groups often lack these core requirements to be successful in math. They are creating a "stealth-math" product to tackle this challenge. Traditionally the continuum in schools runs from coverage/mastery of basic skills before fun stuff can be done - but this project seeks to provide engaging and fun contexts for learning content rather than leaving the fun stuff til the content is mastered. They will be providing 106 hours of programming (during the summer months) and their product will include a robust learning management and assessment tool that will facilitate things for the faciliators (recognize the fact that this is not the primary profession for most of them).

Scott Wilson - University of Oklahoma - the K20 Center, an interdisciplinary research center. Specifically they are studying the effects of Lesson Study - a Japanese profesional development methodology). Started out trying to program for handhelds - now working with UMCP (Ultra-mobile personal computers), there was also a shift from applets to Massively Multiplayer Onlie Games, and a change in game engines. They will have one control group (lesson study only), treatment groups with games and lesson study groups, and a comparisson group with neither (about 1000 students in each group). Why create engine? Wanted to have a unique toolset e.g. interactive map, charts/graphs/spreadsheets for organization and analysis of data, etc. Teachers were invovled in the development of the game and the elaborate backstory that underlies game-play. Undergraduate students at the University of Oaklahoma are assisting in the development as well. Scott played a clip that explains the back-story and has video images four students watching the clip super-imposed and then provided a quick demonstration of the game itself.

Javier - PREL/JUMP Project (again - see notes from today's first post for more info). Developing for Nintendo DS platform - a vocabulary game for 4th graders. The trailer looked fantastic - very engaging and definitely age-appropriate. It has branching dialog in comic book format in which words are presented in compelling ways.

Tracy Lau MPT - Learning Games to Go (in partnership with MIT - Scot Osterweil), the program is directed by Gail Long. Game: Labyrinth, will be focused on improving math and literacy in pre-algebra. Goal: creating stuff that will actually get used. COTS titles aren't being used/can't always be used in schools...and stuff being created for schools is often "deadly dull" so creating something that brings the best of both of commercial and educational games is truly a challenging design problem. Teachers are often interested in games but "have a healthy skepticism...therefore barrier to entry is rather high." Solution: games that teachers can ease into, that tackle major content/curriculum standards, technologically easy to use (flash-based, therefore no installation required - don't just want a trickle-down model - i.e. products designed for the best schools that have the best technologies that will eventually trickle down to the poorer schools and students), and activities that don't demand a lot of in-class time...that can be played independently by students - but are also easy for teachers to use in-class. You can make people "play" without them having any fun - their goal is to make games that people can play and have fun. The game also encourages students to think about their problem solving strategies and write about it - they can share with their colleagues but their colleagues will have slightly different challenges so info about how to think about or solve the problem is more effective than "pick the red door." Scot feels that the evaluation/research component is slowing things a bit, but feels there is great benefit to being able to finally have research that shows the effectiveness of games in education.

GameLog - Fostering Reflective Gameplaying for Learning

2007-07-13T09:04:00.000-07:00

Jose Zagal - Starts by explaining that this session is not about learning from games or by creating games - but learning about games. How can students use what they already know about games to help them? Can this teach us anything about learning in general?

How many of these games have you played?

Difficulties students have in learning about games: Can't express ideas about games/gameplay, dwell on superficial features ("cool" or "sucks") and lack the language to understand or describe their experiences or observations. In fairness, there isn't much background or resources that prepare or help students to talk or write about games - most game reviews, the closest thing to a related-resource are really only designed to communicate information to potential players about whether or not they are likely to like a particular game (kind of like the difference between a movie review and an academic reflection on a film).

His product, GameLog, helps people learn about games and game playing. Its a free, online blog with many game-friendly features. It allows you to maintain multiple parallel blogs about different games and enables/facilitates blogging about game-play. Why Blogging? - Writing to learn - writing can be a powerful tool for learning - helps learners integrate learning.

We were then given an opportunity to play a game and write a gamelog blog entry. I played two of the games:
Double Wires: http://www.freewebarcade.com/game/double-wires/
UpBeat: http://www.miniclip.com/swfcontent/freegames/upbeat.swf

My review of the former: My initial response was that it looked like “line rider” so I thought it would be relatively fun/easy. I couldn’t get very far – not even off the first ledge. There wasn’t much feedback – nothing that told me what I was doing right or wrong, my co-player suggested some more visual information about whether or not the web had attached. I got bored with it rather quickly because I couldn’t figure out how to improve my performance.

His students/research subjects came to feel more appreciative of video games - and found that it deepened and broadened their understanding of games and many found it to be empowering to write about their experiences playing the game - e.g. things that didn't make sense. It also helped students to realize that different people have different experiences playing games and what he calls "non-obvious insights."

The analysis of their entries revealed that there were six styles of entry: overview, narrative, comparative analysis, plan/hypothesis, experiment, insight/analysis. Most students used many of these styles over time. The overview was typically the first thing that they wrote (like game review - "contextualizing game for the uniformed reader"). Narrative style was common - students explained what happened (what they did and what resulted). Down the road there was more planning and hypothesizing (state what they plan to do and what they expect to happen) and experiment denotes an entry where they explain actual in-game experimentation. Comparative analyses were efforts to compare something specific in the game to something else. Finally, insight/analysis entries were entries about specific insights that came to the player during the gameplay experience.

Students perceived blog writing to be less formal - therefore the overall writing quality in the blogs was farily low, but the informality was liberating for the students. A teacher in the group commented that she had found, to the contrary, that her students were far more careful in their writing when it was going to be posted online and viewable by their peers as compared to private, non-posted journaling.

He provided an example from a game called Facade, which sounded like it was worth checking out a little later.

Lessons Learned about Educational Game Design

2007-07-13T08:49:00.000-07:00

Four groups were partnered to present during this 90 minute session.

Using Videogames as a Strategy for Teaching Complex Topics, Robert Brown UNCG. I could have sworn the presenter's name was Bruce but I could be wrong, and he had a female colleague co-presenting with him who's name I failed to catch. The presentation focused on a game that had been designed to teach introductory Economic principals to Undergraduate students at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro. The course, "Principles of Microeconomics" was designed as a complete replacement for the introductory econ course - its is delivered completely online and runs 24/7. All assessments are in-game, most can be repeated but the final assessment (a Jeopardy-like game) can only be played once. Grades are based entirely on game performance and progression through a series of levels and tasks and performance on quizzes. The adventure game about a group of aliens that crash land on a futuristic, post-apocalyptic earth presents economic concepts such as the law of dimishing returns and supply and demand through game-related scenarios. There are also humorous mocumentaries (e.g. parodies of Martha Stewart) and short twitch games that also help to present or reinforce concepts as well as ensure continued engagement. The class has run for 3 seemsters and 300 students have completed it - results show that those students do as well, if not a little better, than students in traditional classrooms (determined in part through similar sets of quiz/test questions in the game-based and traditional classes)

Serious Games by Serious Instructional Designers, Jamie Henderson and valerie Hainley
These designers asked the question that has been asked by many that have come before them, can/should instructional designers design games? Their clients, mainly military, bring many constraints, e.g. flash-based only games - nothing that has to be installed on the machines. They found that it was unsettling, at first, as instructional designers to create a program that would foster failure first and then learning through that failure as part of the game-play experience, but respected the fact that it was a powerful learning experience for players to see what happens when they do something wrong. The game that they designed for the Army was based on a course on Tactical Questioning and was designed to teach questioning skills to soldiers that were going to be deployed in the Middle East. They found, upon reflection, that the definitions of instructional and games are fairly close - in both instances things are being done that lead someone to (hopefully) accomplish goals.

Educational Game Design: Confidential, Meagan Rothschiled and Javier Elizondo
This is a Star Schools Grant Project being developed at PREL (Pacific Resources for Education and Learning). Their inital belief was that traditional game design wasn't that different than educational design. In their presentation they recounted many of the challenges they faced along the way to developing their newest game, including culture clashes between very formal corporate cultures and more informal game-design cultures, designers and producers, etc. They also explained some of the constraints of the grant itself, i.e., that the game be delivered on mobile devices and usable in SES settings. They found the evaluation experience to be challenging as well, and suggested the importance of keeping sights on the end-game player that you are designing for - rather than designing for the evaluator. One of the presenters shared a comment made by Will Wright at the Star Schools kick-off meeting - when asked if they could be successful at creating educational games he said "no" - education is about rules, sequences, etc. and games are not. I suspect that it will be interesting to see who is right in the end. Their game seeks to focus on delivering vocabulary content to 4th grade struggling readers.

Games &Schools: A Marriage Made in Heaven or Hell? Angela McFarlane - Presenting on behalf of Futurelab a non-profit group in the UK, McFarlane presented on the Teaching with Games program that they are working on. This program is sponsored by EA, and is a study of Commercial, off-the-shelf software use in classrooms. Specifically they looked at The Sims, Knights of Honor, and RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 and asked general questions about game-use in education. McFarlane pointed out the challenges of getting games on computers in schools - a technical problem that should not be underestimated. None-the-less, they found that 31% of teachers had used COTS in lessons, 59% said they would like to do so in the future, many felt students could gain actual content knowledge as well as higher-order thinking skills through game-play. There were, however concerns over sterotypes and the need for them to be addressed proactively in-class (e.g. Euro and American-centric slants in WWII games) and anti-social behavior. 49% of respondents laced access to appropriate equiment to support game play. Lack of examples and evidence were noted by teachers as being obstacles to implementation, other obstacles included: licensing concerns, time necessary to prep for game us (can't flip through a game like a book), and gaming literacy. They found that gaming literacy couldn't be assumed - not everyone plays games and not everyone that plays them plays well. Even in cases where students reported proficiency at gaming - they were often unable to play well and needed much intial instruction and support. They also found that good teachers did the best job at incorporating games into instruction - more so than younger teachers or more tech-savvy teacher. Another project, Newtoons, allows students to play puzzles that explore Newtonian Physics, and then create and share new puzzles with their peers via cell phones. Their research for this project looks at the effects/outcomes of: Make,Play, Share, Edit or Play, Create, Edit philosophies of gameplay and game design. Do students learn from the games? Do they learn from collaborative experiences related to their gameplay? Do they learn from the experience of creating games? etc. McFarlane concluded by stating that "learning is a process of creation, not a process of consumption" and she reinforced the need for schools to devote more resources to providing tools to create rather than merely products that provide pre-packaged content.

Augmented Learning with Handheld Gaming Technologies

2007-07-12T13:36:00.000-07:00

Eric Klopfer, Eric Rosenbaum, Judy Perry of MIT: Education.mit.org
(Official Presentation Blurb)

-creating higly engaged, motivated students.
-create immersive environments (and take advantage of the original immersive environment, i.e., our real world).
-teach 21st Century Learning Skills
-capitalize on pre-existing mobile gaming hardware - e.g. Game Boy, DS, cell phones/smartphones, handhelds etc. The hardware they use is readily available (COTS), facilitates interactivity/socialization...

Examples of Games:

Participatory Simulations (peer to peer) - The Virus Game. Players all have palm pilots, you "meet" people by going up and letting your palm communicate via infrared - goal is to meet as many people as possible before getting sick (then figure out how you got sick). Its customizable - features can be changed to enable variation in game-play. Teaches kids how to keep learning - learning skills will continue to be important even if specific science we are learning becomes out-dated.

Palmagotchi - Builds on lessons learned from pilots and usage of Participatory Sims. Inspired by Tomagotchi, Palmagotchis are games/simulations on handheld computers that are played over several days between and within classes. Initial content was based on Darwin's observation of finches on the Galapagos Islands. Transported to PocketPC platform (wider capabilities - myWorld platform). Goal: try to keep your virtual birds alive by taking care of them. They are investigating: personal investment in play/characters, patterns of play (short spurts vs. longer interactions), and in-class reflection to develop and reinforce learning. The goal of gameplay is taking care of birds that have good traits and mate accordingly - game pay during the pilot lasted for one-week. Client-Server Architecture enables accumulation of data and ability for advanced analysis. The program was tested in a serious of pilot tests - students' pre- and post-game-play responses to the question "Is evolution predictable?" were compared and they found that game-play did enhance students' comprehension of evolution concepts. Students also got very attached to their birds. They liked it and felt that it was truly a game. Outcomes are truly open-ended - "its not A, B, C; its A, B, ?" - unique and unscripted outcomes motivated students (teachers just need to be prepped/comfortable to handle a variety of outcomes in a variety of ways).

AR Games - Gameplay is triggered by actual locations in the physical world
Website: education.mit.edu/ar

Example of Indoor Game: Outbreak!
Location-based, in more compressed timescale. Based on a series of models - virus/disease spread is modeled at a very detailed level. There is a limited amount of protective gear and medicine. Players can interact with other players and Non-Player Characters (NPCs). 30 minutes of real time is equal to 1 week in game-time. There are multiple roles that players can play (with different capabilities). Game was evaluated through surveys, interviews, gameplay and diagrams of disease systems.

Themes in the research:
-How do students prioritize personal involvement relative to goals of the games?
(found that students found the importance of keeping themselves and their colleagues alive take on more importance after playing)
-Style of gameplay - students naturally spread out rather than staying together.
-What they learned - diagraming exercise revealed more complex causality and a more sophisticated model.

Example of Outdoor Game: POSIT
Looks at changes in public opinions over time - POSIT: Public Opinions of Science using Information Technologies - it is a collaboration between MIT and local museums. ex: Discussion Game - tracking players' opinons over time - Susan Yoon (University of Pennsylvania). Central question in the game: Should MIT build a BSL-4 lab? Players win based on the strength of evidence that is collected (using an opinion slider similar to that used in the Discussion Game, and by asking questions/challenging other players or NPCs - NPC opinions can change over time based on the model for information dissemination/public opinion). Results: personal opinion survey - a few large and several small changes, were more against it at the end than at the beginning. Dialog was also analyzed. Students' ability to argue effectively developed over time. Location matters - one student's opinion was swayed while standing on the site where the proposed, hypothetical building was set to be built and realizing how many people were walking around near-by.

Science learning games for Informal Science Education

2007-07-12T11:36:00.000-07:00

Presented by Walt Scacchi of the Institute for Software Research at teh University of California - Irvine.

Scacchi's game-related work has focused on networked games that facilitate social learning opportunties (more so than on games played by individuals) and opportunities for doing real science.

Science Learning Games: (1950-2005+)
In the 1950's there were research articles and source codes for computer games - game design helped to spur on advancements in computer science.
In the 70's there were non-game science learning programs (e.g. Plato and Sophie)
+Science-inspired games - e.g., science fiction - fun to play but learning outcomes related to science objectives are unclear.

Examples:
-Disney Dino
-Zoo Tycoon - Dinosaurs (fictional world where humans and dinos co-exist)
-Nanosaurs - Dinosaurs with Jetpacks do combat with one another
-LucasArts Droidworks - Teaches engineering design skills e.g. tradeoffs and iterative design
-Kinetic City - NSF keystone science learning games - produced by American Association for the Advancement of Science - 2million+ grant - for 5th and 6th graders with several mini-games e.g. Body System Identification. Requires iterative play - reset if incorrect.
-Genius - Task Force Biologie - German game, not available in English
-Industry -Player - about how commodity markets work - investment science. Developed in UK for teens
-GTR Racing Simulation - control and configure the mechanical design of the car to determine in-game performance - teaches graduate level mechanical engineering more or less.
-NASCAR Racing 2007 (by EA) provides telemetry data from a cars test run on the track.

"Graduate level engineering concepts, undergraduates don't know how to do it...but kids do."

Intro to DinoQuest at Discovery Science Center - in Santa Ana, California. Science Centers are increasingly becoming a prefered source of hands-on science instruction in California and the rest of the US. Scacchi briefly discussed the challenges for Science Centers and other museums to cover operating expenses.

This leads in to the portion of the presentation prepared by Joe Adams (who was offsite working on a dino dig in Montana)...wherein the business end of things are discussed: e.g. the importance of capturing the visitor's interest within 15 seconds, the challenges of securing funding. The DinoQuest exhibit is dino-themed but focused on Life Science...dinos are surragotes for humans in this exhibit - they capture children's interest and help them to learn life science concepts that they are expected to learn.

The HighSchool graduation rate in Santa Ana is 50% or less despite the fact that it is in the 5th most affluent county in the US. More than half the local potential workforce has not graduated - and that is problematic in world of work that is requiring more and more skilled workers.

(Photo of Argentinosauras that visitors can walkthrough and interact with and see demonstrations of bodily functions in addition to seeing the anatomy.)

The exhibit:
-IR Transmitters (shaped like a wand), developed by Creative Kingdoms - the same folks that developed the wands for the Harry Potter theme park (it was cheaper to go with the wand looking devices rather than recreating one of their own - an economic decision), allow visitors to interact with items throughout the exhibit and complete tasks.
-Kiosk stations are tied into science collaboratories (a current push to foster emerging scientific experience with hands-on involvement rather than mere exposure experiences)
-opportunities for social role playing - familes and gropus complete the tasks together.
-rewards - earn research points

The Online Game:
http://dqonline.org/game/login.php
Use: "demo" and "demo" for user name and password.

Game design considerations:
-Had to put things in the game solely for the purpose of adults - kids knew what was going on, but adults didn't, e.g. interstitial explanations of what's going on.
-Budgetary limitations force players to make decisions about where to search, therefore fostering learning via strategy and preventing an exhaustive search
-Multiple different sciences are touched upon in a series of different games.
-Different game genres are used - including very short mini-games designed for young learners
-Rewards (items accumlated) for missions that are accomplished

Evaluation:
Player Centered: Scores and missions completed identify progress and provide feedback in context
Exhibit Centered: ability to test content comprehension by player quiz upon completing mission
Different stakeholders have different goals - business goals (its successful if it is bringing more people in), educational goals (its successful if people are learning)...

The exhibit has helped to double the science center revenue and increased memberships by 75%, in part because it is very visible from the 5 freeway. New goal/idea: Massively Multiplayer Online Science Learning Games! Link together networks of science centers - via a cyberinfrastructure.

Future:
-Build on the past, but develop for the future: e.g. The Incredible (nanotech) Machines (based on the game: "The Incredible Machine")
-Game-based Science - Games as scientific investigation/exploration instruments, e.g. Plasma fusion simulation exploration game

Teaching Evaluation - through games

2007-07-12T09:01:00.000-07:00

Presented by a team of developers at UW-Madison: Rich Halverson, Moses Wolfenstein, & Dan Norton.

Concept: create a tool that can help school leaders run schools better. The problem with this is that there's way too much that could be done, so they narrowed their focus a bit to teacher evaluation.

Four stages/phases of the game:
1) Observation (done)
2) Argument Construction (just now under development) - reporting back on what was observed
3) Expert Analysis - kind of like John Madden play-by-play reporting
4) Conference

The game/tool is being created with Transana - www.transana.org.

They piloted the program with a group of students in a UW class on Supervising Teaching and Learning and found that the observation application worked fairly well as a tool. Administrators have requested being able to use it - thought it would be valuable to sit down with their teachers and walk through things together.

The interface is very basic - a classroom map on the right, with class&teacher data/lesson background buttons above. a large video window in the upper left, anda set of commenting tools beneath it. there are four buttons that can be customized by the person doing the evaluation. They found that when these buttons were predefined it constrained the evaluation strategies and styles of the person playing the "game." The tool allows the "player" to pause - in the game mode, they envision removing the ability to pause time - as a reflection of the players greater evaluation skills.

We then got a chance to try our hand with the observation tool.

One of the presenters came by to see how we were doing. We wandered slightly off-topic and he shared an annecdote from another project (using DSs for classroom vocabulary instruction) he was working on where an evaluator refused to see student discussion as a positive thing - a lively discussion about evaluation strategies and PT3 video programs then ensued among the folks at my table.

Teens tell it like it is...

2007-07-12T07:00:00.000-07:00

Three teens present in Madison (Angela, Jonathan, both Global Kids leaders, and Lane a 13 year old from NY who had gotten involved through Second Life) and one logged in remotely via Skype (audio) and in Second Life join Barry Joseph, the director of the online leadership program for Global Kids, in presenting this teen panel.

After a brief introduction, Barry showed a video that introduced information about the Global Kids program and highlighted many of the program participants talking about their experiences. The group was then invited to play a card game/mingler that helped to introduce various things that Global Kids has done.

Jonathan, one of the teen panelists described his experience in the Playing for Keeps program - designing a game about life in Hati last year and a game called "Consent," developed in Second Life that explores the problems of experimentation on prisoners.

Angela then described a digital media project that she worked on that tackled the problem of obesity, using Dance Dance Revolution among different things and showed a brief video. Shen then showed a video, entitled "A Child's War." Created in Second Life, this short film was a great example of machinima with elaborate scenes acted out by avatars (at least that's how I'm assuming it was created), told the story of a boy from Uganda forced to fight as a rebel. Angela served as the interviewer in this movie and explained how Second Life enabled them to make a film that they otherwise would not have been able to make. She described the use of SL as an educational tool as "fun as well as complex." She explained a situation where their movie was tampered with after they first put it up on SL, and Barry explained that the permissions were subsequently changed to protect the students' work.

Next, Lane was invited to help with a demo of Teen Second Life. Barry explained that there are nearly 1000 teens that now own some form of property in SL. Other property is owned by Linden Labs and organizations such as Global Kids. Barry explained how he had come to meet Lane in SL - because Lane (and his avatar "Cheesepuff") had created a form of in-world graffiti that protested the involvement of adults in the teen grid. Lane explained that this was in response to having heard that some kids had gotten kicked off the adult grid. The interaction that resulted between Lane and Barry, sparked additional public conversations about the role of adults in the teen grid that continue to this day. In April, shortly after the one year anniversary of Teen SL, a debate was held in-world. This ultimately led to a proposal to more clearly delinate adult-owned lands in Teen SL. When Linden actually modified the grid accordingly. Lane was quite pleased about the fact that he had contributed to changing SL - he commented that he was suprised that he had as much "power or voice" as he did - how much power a group of teens had when they got together to protest.

(the modified look of the Teen Grid displayed)

Then Barry turned back to SL, joining Brooke Barmy, a well-known in-world furniture designer. Brooke described his involve in the Global Kids camp in SL. The camp adressed global issues (such as child sex trafficking) and leadership, but also allowed time for traditional camp activities such as in-world campfires. A brief video on YouTube explained more. The participants ultimately created a maze that mirrors the exprience of being drawn into the world of child sex trafficking). This maze was incredibly helpful not only in raising awareness about the image, but also in helping to raise funds to help combat the problem in-world.

Barry asked Brooke, why did you create a maze (a game) to raise awareness? Brooke's response: "in world, people don't just want to come and sit and hear someone speak. The maze, on the otherhand, is a physical activity that people can try their hand at." Barry then asked Brooke about the promotional strategies. Brooke explained that Linden put messages up on the welcome screen about the maze and a special teach-in event, and several in-world products were also created to promote awareness.

Q&A

What barriers do you see to doing something like this in your regular school experience?
J: the school officials would never agree to it - they are more concentrated on academics...they would see it as not good enough. Games are seen as a waste of time - they destroy your brain, or so they fear. In a very professional and adult manner he then cited a study done by a Harvard professor who did a study that showed students who played games went on to do better in school than peers in a control group that did not play games.

Once schools see what students learn, how can they deny the value of it?
B: its not always enough

I'm a teacher, one of the challenges I see is that everything takes time. How long did it take you to do this project and build this game?
A: it took us the whole school year. To make "A Child's War" it took 2-3 months and we didn't finish during the school year.
J: the computers were too slow at our school. We couldn't develop the games ourselves, we just came up with the idea and did the design. Barry explained the Digitial Refinery (headed by a home-schooled 15 year-old who started the first for-profit in-world development company) helped to actually make the game in-world.

Have you ever thought about taking this to libraries instead of schools? Would you go to this program if it was in a library?
J: a good idea
L: If you do libraries you get a much wider spectrum of teens, if you target one school at a time you aren't going to make much progress.
A: I go to a musuem, so why not a library.
B: GK was the second adult-owned island in teen SL - the first was owned by librarians.

Strictly virtual vs real-world? Benefits to doing it in person/in the real world?
J: shouldn't be strictly virtual - good to meet people. Instructors help you out - I didn't know much about it before, plus got to meet and socialize.
L: benefits to online - get lots more people involved, don't have to drive anywhere. But I also agree, if you don't meet in person you don't get the social element - good to have a balance.
A: Both, it is helpful to have somebody there to lead you but doing it in SL at the same time.

How important is your identity in SL:
J: I believe that the avatar enables kids to create an image that is more creative and lets you do things that you can't do in real life.

Resources:
The Program: http://Globalkids.org
The Blog: http://www.holymeatballs.org/

PS: it is _really_ hard to take notes in real time - but it was sure fun to give it a try.

Greetings from GLS

2007-07-12T06:41:00.000-07:00

Sitting here in a beautiful spot overlooking lake Monona and listening to James Paul Gee deliver the opening Keynote address at the Games+Learning+Society. Its similar to past presentations I've heard him give, but interesting and thought-provoking none-the-less.

Golden nuggets thus far: He discussed the supposed education/learning gap that exists between rich and poor students - noting insightfully, that the poor tend to get bad grades for knowing nothing, but more disturbingly, the rich tend to get good grades for knowing nothing, i.e., they lack the ability to apply the things they've supposedly learned in any meaningful way.

He then went on to discuss the way that learning happens in games, pointing out along the way that dirty capitalists often trust our children and their capacity to learn and master information more than our schools. The gamer motto, according to Gee: "Fail early, fail often." Learning in gaming comes from failure and transgression and this flys in the face of the way things are done in most schools.

Some additional comments:
Playing games involves/evolves into building them. Gaming is about design.
Newbies and masters often play in the same space.
Race/gender and other factors that tend to define us in the "real world" can be used strategicially by players when, and if, they choose to divulge that information - they are not defined by who they are
There are many different routes to participation and status (not like middle school where there's only a few routes to status and stiff hierarchy thus results)

Now on to the next session!

Addicted to Games?

2007-06-25T07:50:00.000-07:00

Addiction experts say video games not an addiction

From Yahoo News - experts are arguing over whether or not video game addiction should be considered an affliction on par with alcoholism or drug addiction. Video gaming produces very real physiological responses within players that could understandably become addictive much in the same way that a drug addict continues to seek highs from illegal substances...but does classifying game addiction open up a can of worms for classifying other media addictions as illnesses worthy of insurance support for treatment (e.g. television or internet addiction)? Are some people more wired to become addicted to games the same way there are people predisposed to become alcoholics or drug addicts? Is is the result of a generally addictive personality or are those who become addicted to games somehow different from those who become addicted to physical substances? Only time and research will tell.

Pen-Based Computing Breakthroughs

2007-06-20T07:53:00.000-07:00

From the New York Times: Take Note: Computing Takes Up Pen, Again

"An ambitious new type of pen-based computer system could bridge the gap between paper and the digital world."

"The Livescribe pen is a more advanced version of the LeapFrog Fly Pentop Computer, which itself has some impressive abilities, even if it is intended for children. Fly users can draw a calculator on paper and make it work by tapping the keys with the pen; a speaker in the pen plays back the results. Users can also draw a piano keyboard on a piece of paper and play a tune on it."

Conference: Call for Papers

2007-06-20T07:37:00.001-07:00

First Call for Papers

3^rd International Conference on

“Interactive Mobile and Computer aided Learning”

IMCL2008

Princess Sumaya University for Technology

Amman, Jordan,

16–80 April 2008

www.imcl-conference.org

The conference aims to promote the development of eLearning and mLearning in the Middle East, provides a forum for education and knowledge transfer and encourages the implementation of mobile applications in teaching and learning. The conference is organized by Princess Sumaya University for Technology in collaboration with Carinthia University of Applied Sciences, Austria and Royal Institute of Technology, KTH, Sweden.

Topics of Interest

• Design and development of course content;

• M-learning emerging hardware and software;

• M-learning applications;

• Mobile technology support for educator and student;

• Mobile Web and video Conferencing;

• M-learning objects and development tools;

• Service providers for mobile networks;

• M-learning standards;

• Life-long m-learning;

• Impact of m-learning on social change;

• Future trends in m-learning;

• Web and Computer-based learning;

• Tools for interactive learning and teaching;

• Platforms and authoring tools;

• New learning models and applications;

• Applications of the Semantic Web;

• Adaptive learning environments;

• Methods of content adoption;

• Project-based learning;

• Virtual campus and e-learning;

• Remote and virtual laboratories;

• Remote measurement technologies;

• Concepts for remote engineering;

• Multimedia and virtual environments;

• Cost-effectiveness;

• Real world experiences;

• Pilot projects, products and applications.

Passing of a Science Icon

2007-06-14T13:16:00.000-07:00

Many folks have been chiming in with kind words for the late Don Herbert, known to many as "Mr. Wizard."

Marty Kaplan wrote: "in Don Herbert's New York Times obituary it says that during the 1960s and '70s, "about half the applicants to Rockefeller University in New York, where students work toward doctorates in science and medicine, cited Mr. Wizard when asked how they first became interested in science." A National Science Foundation official quoted in his Los Angeles Times obituary said in 1989 that "Don has been personally responsible for more people going into the sciences than any other single person in this country."

The impact of one person (and of the media in general) cannot be underestimated, and Mr. Wizard was a perfect example of that.

Evaluating Ed Tech - Preliminary Results

2007-06-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

From eSchool News: Ed tech is raising student achievement
Results of $15 million in evaluation grants due soon

"The nine states that have received $15 million in "Evaluating State Educational Technology Projects" grants from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) over the last three years are expected to submit their final reports from these studies to ED officials this fall--and an early look at their results suggests that technology is having a positive impact on student engagement and achievement."

Responding to criticisms of ed tech

2007-06-14T13:05:00.000-07:00

From the k-12 computing blueprint:

Reacting to the New York Times
Read how bloggers, journalists, researchers and one-to-one educators are responding to a controversial article in the New York Times reporting on districts that have scrapped their laptop programs.

One-to-One Profiles from Technology & Learning
Read about laptop districts in the following states:
• California
Despite financial hurdles, one Fresno-area school district is partnering with parents to get laptops into students' hands.
• Alaska
In the remote Alaskan interior, students are reaping the benefits of laptop computing.
• Texas
Learn about Irving ISD's one-to-one program, which supports technology integration through extensive online resources, especially at the high school level.

New Act Helps US Schools with Enhancing Education Through Technology

2007-05-25T08:54:00.000-07:00

From eSchool News: New bill would revamp ed-tech funding - 'ATTAIN Act' seeks to target funds more effectively for schools in need

A newly introduced bill seeks Achivement Through Technology and Innovation (ATTAIN) and hopes to do so, in part, by Enhancing Educational Through Technology (EETT). The legislation would increase the size of grants (in the form of state block grants - half competive and half based on formulas, geared, in part, toward funding schools with the greatest need). Professional development for teachers would also be a focus of the funding and students' attainment of technology literacy (by 8th grade) would be assessed.

According to the quotes from lawmakers and proponents of the bill - there are a high-hopes for long-term pay-offs:

"When schools are properly equipped to meet the technology needs of students, and when they have properly trained teachers, students are engaged, eager to learn, and are ultimately better prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century," Lucille Roybal-Allard (D) California

"One of the most effective ways we can sharpen America's competitive edge is by investing in technology in the classroom...This bill will further the technological prowess of our nation's schools and students and ultimately will increase our economic prosperity and capacity for innovation." Ruben Hinojosa (D) Texas

Learning from Leaders - The Game-Innovation cycle

2007-05-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

Apple Computer co-creator, Steve Wozniak, speaks about the games he played, his involvement with the electronic gaming industry in the early days, and the influnce that his work in game design had on subsequent thoughts and ideas related to other inventions including the personal computer.

From Gamasutra: Woz Was Here - Steve Wozniak On His Gaming Past

"Drawing past the Dots"

2007-05-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

From TechLEARNING e-Newsletter (May 22nd):
"We've been reading about some wonderful examples of teachers implementing new tools in their classrooms - using blogs, wikis, podcasts, and video - to make a difference in how and what students learn. Yet, as always, the number of examples is pretty small. The vast majority of educators aren't there yet. In this week's collection of blogs, we have two entries that point out some of the problems. Steve Dembo in When Students Have to Take their Learning Underground shows us an example of students who were engaged in learning being barred from doing so by the school. And David Jakes in 9 Dots talks about educators' comfort zone actually getting smaller when it should be getting bigger."

The first article "When Students Have to Take their Learning Underground" highlighted some of the challenges of balancing the use of new social networking and online publishing resources with the growing number of privacy concerns. Parents worried about student's use of sites that allowed them to post their photos on maps or use social networking sites like MySpace, but students countered that they were advanced enough in their understanding of the Internet to avoid online predators or do things that jeopardized their safety. As is usually the case, both sides' concerns were probably warranted to some extent.

The second article, "9 Dots," suggests that few educators are reaching out to new technologies to provide engaging and innovative learning opportunities for today's uber-wired students. The article pokes fun at a group of educators who laughed in response to a question about whether or not they taught MySpace. "It’s time to teach kids how to contribute content the right way, but that’s outside of the reality of what we're supposed to teach, isn't it?"

This article doubles as a call-to-arms for educators to scramble to the frontlines and start using technology to truly create 21st Century learning environments and experiences.

"The gap widens, the disconnect between reality and what happens in our schools continues to grow. Meanwhile, politicians ask potential voters to post videos to YouTube about what they can do to change America. And we miss the moment by not having every kid studying history or civics rise to meet that challenge. Mainstream media recognizes that the the voice of the citizen journalist is a valid voice, and appropriately asks everyone, anyone, with the tools and capability, and with the desire to participate, to contribute news content. And we miss the moment again by banning those very tools from our hallways and classrooms. Progressive companies like Google enable their engineers to to spend 20% of their workweek on ideas and projects not related to their job description (via Graham Wegner). Instead of pondering and pursuing what could be, what should be, American teachers grade worksheets and prepare students for high-stakes tests."

The Golden Age of Entrepreneurship

2007-05-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

Has technology helped to create the "Golden Age of Entrepreneurship" for today's youth?

From CNet: Teenager today, tech exec tomorrow

The successes of several young entrepreneurs are highlighted in this short article. It provides a nice balance to all the media accounts of how lazy and undriven today's youth are - and does a good job of quickly pointing out that today's youth have all the tools needed to start successful businesses in today's high tech world - and they know how to use those tools a lot better than most adults.

"A handful of enterprising teens have a message for parents and the media: the Net is not all MySpace or Facebook horror stories."

Innovative ways to find and use video for instructional purposes

2007-05-23T14:19:00.000-07:00

This past year I worked on study of teachers' use of video for instructional purposes and we found many teachers in the study using video in very conventional ways - teachers were still inclined to show entire programs (sometimes up to two hour feature-length movies) even when a short clip would suffice to address the intended learning objectives. As part of our study we provided a DVD set for the program we were studying along with a complete index that provided descriptions of each program segment and how to jump right to those segments. There were also several teachers in the study who had access to streaming video services that offered shorter clips as well as full length programs. Access to, and use of these digital resources seemed to support teachers using video in new ways (e.g. a short clip-based approach rather than screening an entire program). It therefore stands to reason that teachers could capitalize on a site like YouTube that offers a wide variety of video programming.

The following article comes to many of the same conclusions about good and poor uses of video for instructional purposes - and specifically talks about using YouTube to provide unique and quality learning experiences.

From Education World/Brenda's Blog: Using YouTube in the Classroom

"Herding a class of students down to the computer lab to watch a few catchy videos has no more learning benefit than turning a class of students onto the Internet for a half hour of random surfing. The power of YouTube only is activated when the teacher has a clear idea of how a specific video clip can be used to introduce a concept or theme, instigate a discussion, or serve as a writing prompt."

Video Game helps ADHD children with attentional skills

2007-05-23T13:35:00.000-07:00

From the Chiago Tribune: Giving a child a better mind Published May 22, 2007

"A home-based computer program is helping children with attention deficits sharpen their working memory, thereby improving problem-solving skills and academic performance...Cogmed Working Memory Training, developed by Swedish brain researcher Dr. Torkel Klingberg, features video game software on an engaging robot interface. The research-validated program has been successful in Europe, and now is being offered in the United States."

The program trains children 30-45 minutes a day, five days a week for five weeks. Parents or personal coaches provide encouragement and help to implement a reward system. "The computer exercises involve recalling number and letter patterns. For example, on the robot's chest may be a grid of 25 red lights. The lights blink in a certain order. The child has to replicate the order, with the number of lights blinking increasing over time."

The findings are impressive - though the exact meaning of "significant improvement" is not defined in this article: "More than 1,400 children and adults have completed the training in Europe, with 80 percent achieving significant improvement in attention, impulse control, problem-solving skills and academic performance."

Proving that educational technology works...or at least trying to

2007-05-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

A great collection of resources and articles that suggest the power of technology to positively influence learning:

From eSchool News: eSchools Work! - Discovering the positive power of educational technology

Delivering an authentic 21st century learning experience

2007-05-22T10:13:00.000-07:00

From the Boston Globe: Contest helps boost math, science skills

As part of "GlobalChallenge, a Vermont-based contest aimed at improving American high school students' math and science skills...58 teams of American students coupled with students from China, India and Japan tackled technological solutions to global warming. They chatted online, divided jobs based on skill, consulted with advisers, and in the final grueling weeks, wrote a professional business plan."

Students learned the challenges associated with collaborating across distances - but also seemed to benefit from opportunities to work collectively to generate creative solutions to scientific and mathematics problems.

Scientists on-board with game-based instruction

2007-05-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

<>From the NSTA: Video Gaming in Schools-Can students use video games to learn math and science?

"Yes" according to the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) (based on a one-year study of whether video games might improve education in the nation’s schools). Among the reasons given rae the appeal of repeatable and student-paced lessons, compelling visual elements, engaging/complex plot structures. According to the report these elements help to "engage the player in strategic thinking, multitasking, and problem-solving. These skills are not only desired by U.S. employers, but are crucial in a global workforce."

Further supporting their claim, the NAS gives the following real-world example: "in a study consisting of 12 surgeons and 21 surgical residents, Dr. James Rosser, Jr., and colleagues at the Beth Israel Medical Center in New York correlated video game skill with laparoscopic surgery skill as assessed during a simulated surgery skills course. 'Surgeons who had played video games in the past for more than three hours per week made 37% fewer errors during the assessment, were 27% faster, and scored 42% better overall than surgeons who never played video games,' the study’s authors said. Research has also shown that playing video games can improve eye-hand coordination and visual attention."

The following links are also included in the NSTA article:

More Video Games, Fewer Books at Schools?
Reuters

Federation of American Scientists Supports “Edu-Gaming” in Schools
NSTA Reports

Study: Video Game Skills May Help Surgeons
Science Daily

Action-Packed Video Games a Site for Sore Eyes
Scientific American

Opinion: Why Moms Give in to Video Games
Christian Science Monitor

What you can't live without...

2007-05-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

From Techlearning: Here is an offer you can't refuse

In a techlearning blog post by Cheryl Oakes, re: technologies that people (in this specific instance, education doctoral students) can't live without:

"All of the doctoral students mentioned that they could not live without blogs, podcasts, wikis, chat, and that these technologies opened the doors to conversations with others teaching similar topics, in their own fields, somewhere outside of their buildings.I asked them what they struggled with while learning all about these new tools. All mentioned the following as adversities: never enough time to do it all, kids noticing and asking for more, a steep learning curve, maintaining a level of confidence while all this new learning takes place. But the following advantages really pushed the educators to continue, librarians who have been helpful, talking to other teachers outside of their buildings, the biggest advantage was that by taking a look at the outside world and finally by focusing on what kids need to be productive citizens in the 21st Century makes all the learning worthwhile."

Evaluation reform on the horizon for federally funded Math and Science programs?

2007-05-16T14:36:00.000-07:00

When I saw this article I couldn't help but wonder what it might mean in terms of programatic reform - esp. where evaluation was concerned. Being an evaluator (past, present, and hopefully future) of several NSF grants I was particularly interested...

From Education Week:Few Federal Math and Science Programs Deemed Effective

"The report does not single out weak programs that should be carved out of the federal budget. The goal was to study how such programs are being evaluated and to recommend a better process"
...
"Federal programs place too little emphasis, the report says, on outcomes, or measurable results, from math and science spending. Improved test scores in math and science under the No Child Left Behind Act is a clearer method for judging results, it argues.

The council recommends that agencies establish a way of conducting “rigorous, independent” evaluations of programs, and make funding for them contingent on those reviews."

Webconferencing

2007-05-16T14:31:00.000-07:00

Sure these links will come in handy...

I'm a big fan of Videoconferencing/Video Chat (iChat and Skype, to a more limited extent) but there is lots of functionality made possible by the Internet beyond merely talking...

From Technology and Learning's "IT Guy": Webconferencing

Text Clip - just in case the link goes away:

"The most well-known system is WebEx, which has been around a number of years. It uses phone conferencing for the audio. A newer system is Adobe Acrobat Connect Professional, which features voice and video built in. An education-specific system is Elluminate, which has a free system for hosting up to four people at a time called vRoom. (Their goal is to get you hooked so you'll buy the full system!) They have voice included.

The main drawback of most of these systems is that they are very costly. I have been using a service called GoToMeeting which is the most affordable I've seen yet. I actually did a presentation last year when a family emergency prevented me from traveling to the conference. I sat in my office and shared my PowerPoint remotely through GoToMeeting, using Skype to narrate the slides. It was easy, and I received many positive comments from the participants!"

a persuasive argument for hands-on learning

2007-05-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

Milton Chen shares an example from Roger Nichols about trying to learn to play basketball with a textbook - it is quite humorous to imagine children trying to learn to play a new sport merely by reading, but it is also quite sad to think that many hands-on opportunities are going the way of the dodo in today's schools due to budget cuts and safety/liability concerns related to off-site travel.

From Edutopia: A Modest Curriculum Proposal

Evaluating Second Life as and Educational Environment

2007-05-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

In a post made on 5/14/07 at: http://clarkaldrich.blogspot.com the author talks about some of the shortcomings of Second Life from an educational point of view (especially with regards to educational simulations). Admittedly, I'm probalby not as "up" on the concepts and terms related to educational simulation...but the critiques seem pretty straight forward. Later comments suggest that it was his goal to seek out information from those with differing opinions so that he could come to better understand the strengths of Second Life as an educational environment.

It seems that the absence of AI or those with designated instructional or mentoring/supportive roles are among the highlighed problems along with a need for more refined/functional tasks and activities - but these things seem easy enough to fix (albeit - they'll never likely be part of the environment itself, but rather something that specific players bring to the environment if they so desire). The beauty of Second Life, in my opinion is the fact that it provides an opportunity for people to come together from remote locations and interact in much the same way they'd be able to interact in the real world - with a virtual-(physical) presence, with words or voice, and with an ability to act/behave in specific ways (even if they aren't infinte, we've already seen Second Life residents demonstrate their ability to act in creative ways).

Lights, Camera, Action!

2007-05-03T09:32:00.000-07:00

This is a great example of a school that is doing extraordinary things with ordinary tools and a wonderful reminder that 21st century learning isn't all about the gizmos and gadgets, but rather, its about problem solving, creativity, and innovation - i.e., learning styles and strategies more so than specific learning tools.

From eSchool News: 21st-century school represents 'the will to change'
How one district turned an ordinary building into an extraordinary opportunity for students

New ARG - World Without Oil

2007-05-03T09:08:00.000-07:00

I got a note that said this game had launched earlier this week and took a quick peek but still haven't had time to look around in more detail. I attended a GDC presentation given by Jane McGonigal, one of the game's creators and an ARG scholar. She announced that the WWO game would be forth-coming and also talked about her work on the I Love Bees ARG for Halo 2 ...and it turns out that she was a former Conference Associate.

Anyway - it was picked as today's cool site of the day, here's the blurb:

"Everyone knows that 'some day' the world may face an oil shortage.
What if that day was sooner than you thought? How would your life
change? Well, 'some day' is now. You are invited to enter a month-long
alternate reality game at: www.worldwithoutoil.org where an oil shock
is going on. Go to worldwithoutoil.org each day to see the latest
developments in the crisis. Take a moment to seriously imagine how
these developments impact you and then tell us. You can send e-mail,
link to your blog post, or call our 800-number and leave a message.
Tell your story by uploading video and photos of the crisis. Each
story is a bit of evidence that this issue is real. Become a Netizen
Hero. Play it � before you live it."

Dialing dilemmas

2007-05-02T16:48:00.000-07:00

Educators in FL are looking for ways to block cell phone usage in schools but that made me wonder if there might be more potential educational applications of cell phone usage that are going untapped. If students can use cell phones to cheat, they could certainly use them to collaborate. If they can use them to capture and post video they could certainly use them to enhance their reporting or data gathering efforts. It seems sad to me that some schools might be squashing something merely because its easier to get rid of rather than studying and harnessing it for more productive purposes.

From the Lakeland FL Ledger: Student Cell Phones Ring in Debate in FL

Dance Dance Education

2007-05-02T16:29:00.000-07:00

It makes complete sense that schools would turn to Dance Dance Revolution to spice up their PE programs. Many groups and organizations have already touted its ability to promote fitness and weight loss - and most students would readily agree that it is fun. That's a win, win for schools and kids.

From the NY Times: P.E. Classes Turn to Video Game That Works Legs

(post scripts: More than 10 years ago a good friend of mine was trying to think up games that promoted physical movement and subsequently physical fitness, I suspect that he'd be very proud of having that idea long before DDR took off...but probably also bummed that he didn't beat them to the punch. ...In another post script, students in another friend's grad class recently designed two games - both for the wii platform I believe - that promoted various forms of health and physical fitness. Having played a fair amount of wii now, and always being amazed at how realistic and active the games are, I suspect schools might soon be looking to expand their video game offerings to promote fitness.)

Its a small world afterall

2007-05-02T16:23:00.000-07:00

New technology makes it quite possible for Chinese language tutors to work with students around the world from the comfort of the homes in China - for a relatively low cost (and the satisfaction of a stress-free/commute-less work-place):

From Infoworld: Skype your way to learning Chinese: VOIP technology brings tutors and students face to face, even halfway around the world

This kind of makes me want to take Chinese lessons. (So I can better understand episodes of Firefly, of course).

Making Education Hip (and Hop)

2007-04-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

An augmented reality game being developed by a group at the University of Wisconsin (Local Games Lab) invites students to conduct research centered around the task of creating a hip hop store at a local mall. Using a theme to organize the research and data analysis tasks, especially one that so many student are familiar with and enthralled by, seems to be just the spoonful of sugar needed to help the medicine go down.

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal: Rapped attention
Hip-hop game puts students' math, business skills to the test

Anytime and literally anywhere

2007-04-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

There's a push to provide internet connectivity to students on school buses. I'd seen a presentation at a tablet pc conference last year about groups of educators creating mobile hot spots for students to use in their vans on long field trips and many cities have recently looked at this type of service as a way to entice commuters so it only makes sense that educators consider this a viable way to enhance students' ability to learn beyond the walls of the school. Like this article suggests - there are particular advantages to students in rural areas who often have extremely long bus rides:

From eSchoool News: Emerging Trend - Bus-based Connectivity

The world as hightech gameboard?

2007-04-09T13:47:00.000-07:00

From CNet: HP has gaming Handheld in the works
Hmm...a new technology to bridge gameplay between the virtual and physical world. Catchy name: mscape, short for mediascapes (even though it seems to be in use by some other groups as well), but will it catch on? Is gaming a guilty pleasure best enjoyed on an oversized sofa in the comfort of one's home or are new generations of gamers willing to hit the pavement in search of the next great gaming adventure?

Related articles on Mscape: from Joystique: Hands-on HP's mscape and an HP blurb about a demo at the 3GSM conference in Barcelona.

Smart Stuff

2007-04-09T13:15:00.000-07:00

I'd be the first to admit that I'm biased in terms of believing the educational benefit of SMART Boards as an educational tool. I had my first experience using a SMARTBoard more than a decade ago and I immediately appreciated the fact that a simple teaching tool had been transformed into a powerful resource - capable of making the learning experience more interactive, more transportable/transferable and more transparent for learners.

From eSchool News: Study Links Interactive Whiteboards to Improved Student Performance
The link to the report in the article above is broken. Here is the correct link: http://insight.eun.org/shared/data/pdf/impact_study.pdf.

More on what was said above - esp. since the article seems to focus more on engagement and motivational benefits associated with usage (at least from the brief bit that I've had time to read). Clearly the two aforementioned items (i.e. engagement and motivation) are byproducts of most interactive learning experiences. Another obvious advantage of interactive whiteboards is the ability to simplify content retention, sharing and future modification through content-storage features (thus saving time and effort which can in turn be focused on other more meaningful educational endeavors - and allowing further reflection and discussion that might otherwise be challenging or impossible for logistical reasons). Finally, in terms of transparency - by enabling students to see everything that is going on and potentially replay entire processes at a later point in time, specific procedures as well as more general lifelong learning processes can be more effectively modeled in instructional settings. Being able to see process in addition to outcome/output makes for a powerful learning experience. In sum - it comes as no surprise that they found evidence to support the benefit of using interactive whiteboard technology as an instructional tool - and I suspect that future studies will identify additional benefits.

Right on Target

2007-04-09T12:59:00.000-07:00

The only thing that I'd remotely disagree with (and only as a technicality) is that we needed to be doing all these things 10 to 20 years ago rather than starting now, but later is better than never. Much of the United States has been way too inwardly focused for the past decade(s) - and it seems that the most inwardly focused/domestically-centric sections of our population/economy are the ones that are most ripe for feeling the pinches ultimately caused by growing globalization. History drills in the point that "once great"- doesn't ensure "always great" - the world keeps changing and citizens that want to stay competitive keep adapting. Survival in this era is guaranteed only to the fittest (globally speaking).

From the ASCD: Becoming Citizens of the World

laptops in class: learning tool or distracting toy?

2007-04-09T12:44:00.000-07:00

From the Washington Post: Laptop vs. Learning.

The author points out the distracting potential of laptops used by students to take notes. There's interesting opportunity for more elaborate study here I suspect. ...are there different outcomes in students' level of engagement or academic success if they take traditional notes via pen and paper vs. the more transcript-like style of notes most common among their laptop-using peers? What about students using pen-enabled technology devices such as tablet pcs - perhaps they'd have the best of both worlds - the ability to jot with a pen, but have the option to type longer sections of text when necessary - and call up/manipulate notes more easily during follow-up study sessions.

fond memories...and flops

2007-04-06T10:39:00.000-07:00

Thought this was a rather interesting article because it brought back some good and funny memories of technology fads gone by (who could forget the pets.com sock puppet, the Apple Newton...and from the comments section: Y2K bug), but also because it did a good job reflecting on and dissecting the reasons for why these technologies failed to live up to the hype around them. In many cases it came down to poor design, but for each ill-concieved or poorly developed product there was an equal number that suffered from poor timing or inadequate marketing.

Without further ado - here's to the 21 biggest technology flops! From Computerworld: Don't Believe the Hype: The 21 Biggest Technology Flops

Eggstraordinary Use of GPS

2007-04-03T09:43:00.000-07:00

Teachers used GPS technology to stage a modern version of a more traditional Easter Egg Hunt for their elementary school students in a North Carolina school - putting a high-tech twist on an old tradition. From the News&Observer (North Carolina) : Egg hunt helps teach technology

Not just for kids...

2007-04-02T08:11:00.000-07:00

I saw this article in this weekend's New York Times (reading the Times isn't something that I usually do - and I found it to be a surprisingly messy endeavor - esp. given that I was sitting in the middle seat of a totally packed airplane for most of my reading experience). I trust that the digital version will result in less black smudges on people's computers ;)

From the NYTimes: Video Games Conquer Retirees

I especially liked the part about the Wii Senior Bowling league. With more inclusion of different types of gamers I suspect that there are opportunities for new diversity and innovation in game-making. Gaming fun doesn't have to stop when people hit puberty - and its inspiring to see how games are able to help conquer technology phobias that folks who didn't grow up with computers often have.

One to watch

2007-03-26T19:47:00.000-07:00

Pennsylvania's $250 million dollar "Classrooms for the Future" seems to have a good sense of what it takes to succeed - a good mix of technology, support, training and content resources.

Converge Magazine Article: Classrooms for the Future

Mathletes of the world unite!

2007-03-16T10:18:00.000-07:00

On March 14th (World Mathematics day - 3/14 in honor of pi) students from around the world came together in an attempt to break the previous world record for the number of correct questions answered during a one day period. Nearly 39 million questions were answered during the day-long question-answering blitz on VMathLive with a good chunk of those (some 330,000) coming from a handful of students vying for top honors in the individual level competition.

There's something really cool about kids from all over the world coming together to do something - anything really. But coming together to do something educational is all the more amazing.

The key to happiness...

2007-03-15T19:21:00.000-07:00

A BBC mini-series is set to explore the science of happiness...

The old adage holds that money can't buy you love, and apparently it can't buy you happiness either. So what's the secret recipe? A combination of several factors including strong relationships, belief in something larger and goals. Doesn't seem like rocket science ;)

From the BBC: The Science of Happiness

More on Games in Ed

2007-03-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

SIIA hosted a panel session at FETC and is set to host another at CoSN related to games in education. The proceedings include a great bibliography of recent articles, books and websites related to ed games.

SIIA presentation handout

Location Based Gaming - Reliving the Revolution

2007-03-15T18:38:00.000-07:00

Karen Schrier (MIT Grad, now at Nickelodeon) discussed ways to tap into the potential of location-based gaming for educational purposes. Capitalizing on the ubiquity of cell phone technology among many of today's students, location based gaming can enable engaging new learning opportunites.

From Gamasutra: GDC: Nickelodeon's Schrier Relives The Revolution

...and I can kill you with my mind

2007-03-15T18:22:00.000-07:00

One of the coolest things I saw, without doubt, at this year's GDC was a demonstration of some hardware that enabled mind-controlled gameplay. I was skeptical at first until I got a chance to put on one of Neurosky's sensor-enabled headpieces and give it a whirl. It took a minute to get the knack of it but then I was pushing and lifting in-game objects just by looking at them and...concentrating. Way cool!

There were other groups offering demonstrations of similar technologies but I didn't get a chance to try them out as well. The technology still seems a bit tempermental and clunky - (e.g., one not functioning if the sensors came in any contact with a users' hair and looking and the other looking like a futuristic bike helmet) but the fact that it works leaves a lot of promise in the years to come as some of these minor details get worked out.

Here's Gamasutra's article about Emotiv's similar technology/goal of mind-controlled gaming: GDC: Emotiv Promises Mind Controlled Games

More GDC recaping

2007-03-15T18:11:00.000-07:00

Like I mentioned before I opted to skip the keynote crowds - but I have enjoyed reading through the articles posted by reporters and other bloggers. At Wednesday's Keynote, Phil Harrison, a Sony Executive talked about the evolution of gaminng and some of the new things on the way for Sony's gaming systems. He outlined an evolution from stand-alone games/gamesystems (game 1.0), to connected games/gaming systems (game 2.0) to a new world for gaming where social interaction and content creation opportunities rule. Sony's PS3 upcoming interactive world called Home will capitalize on people's desire to be more social and express their creativity and individuality.

From Gamasutra: GDC: Harrison Keynote Reveals Home, LittleBigPlanet

GDC Recap - Part 1

2007-03-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

I took oodles of notes at this year's GDC and got to see most of the presentations that I was interested in seeing. It was a good year and, as always there seem to be some really neat things that are happening within the gaming industry. As I find time I'm going to go back through the other notes that I took and get more info entered in, but for now I wanted to comment a little on some of the things that I just read or heard about - starting with the Shigeru Miyamoto keynote.

With lines out the South Hall of the Moscone Convention Center, down the street and around the corner, I figured I'd be just fine catching a recap after the fact. I should note that I did get to see Miyamoto speak at last year's GDC - and that might have also factored in to the decision to avoid the crowds and lines this year. Last year focused a lot on Nintendo's console and handheld gaming platforms as well as game design - but, as expected this year, there was a lot of wii talk going on.

During Miyamoto's presentation - apparently given with visuals that had been loaded into his wii Photo Channel, he hinted at the fact that wii was a system/gaming platform that has broken down some barriers for folks that haven't traditionally played games. By getting down to basic and intuitive game-play via real-world movements they have created a system that gamers and non-gamers alike can enjoy - in commenting on some negative reviews, he noted: "Game reviewers out there need to add a new category when scoring games... how fun it is for people who don't play them." (cited from: Gamasutra) Perhaps we just need a whole new game scoring system for non-gamers... Perhaps the whole definition of of "gamer" will begin to evolve...

although its been said many times, many ways...

2007-03-14T11:05:00.000-07:00

It is always good to hear it again!

Speaking before a Senate Committee, Microsoft's Chairman, Bill Gates stated the following: "Despite the best efforts of many committed educators and administrators, our high schools have simply failed to adapt to this change. As any parent knows, however, our children have not [failed to adapt]--they are fully immersed in digital culture. As a result, while most students enter high school wanting to succeed, too many end up bored, unchallenged, and disengaged from the high school curriculum--"digital natives" caught up in an industrial-age learning model." Cited from an article in eSchool news: Bill Gates calls for ed-data center

He also makes reference to the Partnership for 21st Century Learning as one step in the right direction in terms of making our schools better-suited to the unique learning and working environments of the 21st Century.

New Stuff on the Horizon

2007-03-07T14:20:00.000-08:00

New technology announcements from Microsoft are a nice tie-in to some of the themes/trends at this year's GDC -

This eSchool News article: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=6934
Discusses recent initatives by research teams at Microsoft to deliver the next great technologies and applications for education. Among those discussed are a programming game for the xbox that allows children to program a robot named Boku, New location-based push and pull advertising strategies (ads that can be delivered to mobile devices of people wandering through an area as well as content that can be called up by sending a photo of a CD or DVD lable), as well as new information organizing/sharing tools.

Live from the GDC

2007-03-07T14:14:00.000-08:00

Okay - so finding a reliable wireless network has been challenging - but finding the free time to actually post updates has been even more challenging. Needless to say there'll be more to come, but here's a brief snapshot of what I've seen so far at this year's Game Developer's Conference:

At the Serious Games Summit which took place on Monday and Tuesday I listened to presentations from Ichiro Otobe and Tadashi Tsushima of Square Enix (from Japan), a group of researchers/designers with a presentation about approaches to game evaluation/assessment, a few sessions on repurposing or tweaking existing games and game engines to support a wider range of educational content/goals. two sessions on the One Laptop Per Child initiative, a Keynote session on Collaborative Intelligence and Collective Gameplay strategies and psychology, an overview of the past, present and possible future for educational gaming, and a presentation on scaffolding techniques within games given by two of my former colleagues from IU.

Keep it simple

2007-03-02T11:52:00.000-08:00

So I know RSS means "really simple syndication" and I know essentially what an rss feed does, but here's an article I wanted to be sure to have a link back to for sometime when I have more time to read...because it certainly seems like there's a lot more to learn:

From Tech Learning: How to feed yourself information with an RSS feed

A glimpse into the shadows

2007-02-28T07:46:00.000-08:00

From the Escapist: Shadows of the Colossus
A brief article about the history and inner workings of the GDC, and more specifically, the Conference Associates program. I think it does a good job capturing the experience of being a CA, and definitely gets me psyched up to go and see old friends and meet an eager new bunch of volunteers at this year's conference.

a pound of promotion

2007-02-27T14:58:00.000-08:00

Today municipal elections are being held in Chicago and I happen to live in one of the wards with the most heated race for alderman (thankfully I voted early so I didn't have to deal with lines and even more signs and flyers). I've been hanging on to all of the promotional material that I've received in the last few weeks and brought it in to the office to weigh today...it came to a whopping total of 1 pound and 1 ounce.

mac vs. pc

2007-02-27T09:41:00.000-08:00

The mac - pc ads always amuse me, here's a funny little piece (not suitable for all ages) that pokes some fun at it, and the guys that started it all...

http://www.current.tv/network/pods/supernews/PD05440?id=22074700

Educational Value of Video Conferencing

2007-02-26T10:17:00.000-08:00

From eSchool News: Videoconferencing in education segment aired on today's CBS Early Show -
CILC coordinates content providers that appeared on the show

I'm always amazed at how long its taken for video conferencing to take off - but I'm also aware of some of the bigger roadblocks that still haven't been tackled. Back when I worked at the Center for Excellence in Education at Indiana University we had a set of video phones which were used to demonstrate the potential of point-to-point, casual video conferencing. The phones always got "oohs" and "ahhs" from our guests because they seemed so futuristic...that was more than 10 years ago! We also had a plethora of other video conferencing technology that we demonstrated which was more or less the same type of stuff that is still available to educators today: various types of computer-based conferencing technology and programs as well as some of the higher end audio/video systems delivered by TV via highspeed Internet connections.

In the beginning its all about technology...the whiz and bang! However, being able to do something and actually doing something productive with the technology often end up being very different things. I've worked on a few videoconferencing projects that have given me some insight.

First, my experience helping to develop content for Turner Adventure Learning's early virtual field trips. The field trips were very engaging experiences (high end productions in exciting locations like Kenya or Los Alamos National Laboratory, concurrently multi-cast to schools around the US, bundled with a rich set of resources and lesson guides to aid students and teachers before, during, and after the multi-day experiences) but logistically challenging for schools to coordinate and often under-utilized by educators. For many of the participating schools it proved to be just as difficult to arrange day-long videoconferencing programs as it was to arrange local field trips offsite (what with a new set of legal issues and budget cuts). I couldn't find any active info about the program (just dead links and references from webpages created in the mid 90's) but my understanding was that the model was not profitable and the program was subsequently abandoned.

If its hard to create a financially viable model for delivering quality video conferencing to many consumers at the same time, its somewhat understandable that one-to-one videoconferencing hasn't flourished yet either. I worked on another project, funded by the US Department of Education, to link teachers in three school districts via distance learning technologies (Internet and high-end video conferencing equipment) to create instructional units and provide collaborative experiences for students. Sadly the video equipment was rarely utilized during the program, and often only used to facilitate administrative meetings rather than meaningful educational experiences. Only a few sites and a few teacher-participants at those sites found ways to use the equipment in a more meaningful fashion - often with the help of outside agencies such as the Chicago Consortium for Higher Education (that served as a clearinghouse/contact site to connect educational content providers with educators). The equipment wasn't utilized more often, in part, because so few of the participants had had meaningful personal experiences with videoconferencing to serve as a foundation on which to create/explore potential experiences that could be equally meaningful for their students, access to ready-made conference experiences or experienced providers, nor the time to create extensive plans and possibly resources on their own - plus come up with a "plan B" in case the technology malfunctioned.

Organizations like the CILC, referenced in the linked article, do a fantastic job of providing quality videoconferencing programming. Their successful examples of the educational potential for videoconferencing give me hope for the future use of educational video, but also highlight the importance of organizations that can facilitate the process of identifying providers and organizing quality programming.

a mind like a steel trap...

2007-02-26T06:55:00.000-08:00

Scientific American: A Digital Life [ INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ]
New systems may allow people to record everything they see and hear--and even things they cannot sense--and to store all these data in a personal digital archive

The article linked above mentions many of the logistic and legal issues associated with essentially recording every aspect of someones life. It immediately struck me that there would be some incredible implications for the field of education at point where this type of digital memory enhancement becomes ubiquitous (when/if?). If all memories can be digitally stored and recalled via sophisticated search tools we might finally see real evolution within education - e.g. veering away from reliance on antiquated pedagogical strategies such as rote memorization and greater focus on advanced thought processing and problem solving strategies. More value might, in turn, be placed on students' ability to think (and think creatively) than on how much info they can manage to cram into their minds for a short period of time - only to be forgotten before the end of the semester rolls around if not immediately after each test.

Speaking of steel traps, my 4 year old niece doesn't forget anything! She brings up things that we did together months ago like it was yesterday (like references to one of the Burger King XBox games that I'd let her dad play with around Thanksgiving of this past year) or the "icky caterpillar" nickname that we gave her little brother while playing a game this past summer. She also remembered the exact video we'd watched the last time I'd babysat for her (only about a month ago, but she's probably watched at least 100 videos since then). With all the things she's learning, seeing, hearing and doing every day it amazes me how well she is able to recall them all and sort them into categories of who they are associated with. I won't go as far to say my niece has a mind like steel trap - because maybe that's just the way 4 year olds are supposed to be, but I'm literally amazed every time I get to hang out with that kid!

Program Eval Info

2007-02-23T15:21:00.000-08:00

This resource link was shared through a listserv that I'm on for folks interested in wireless/pen-enabled technology.

It was created by SRI for HP and, as of this point in time, is still in draft form (but there's a link to a feedback survey to assist them in making subsequent revisions):
http://ctl.sri.com/projects/displayProject.jsp?Nick=hpguide