Gaming & Learning

“I heard quotes like, “this game is awesome even though I don’t know the answers.” But what continued to happen is that student after student kept taking the quiz over and over again. Which obviously exposes them to material again and again.”

Author: Dave McDivitt, 18th April 2008

Full article available here.

Daniel Livingstone wrote a post today regarding an article on game design being taught in Scottish schools. He provides some interesting responses to the curriculum guidelines. Worth a read.

“I spotted this intriguing piece earlier in the week -” ‘Games’ to be taught in Scottish Schools”
The article doesn’t reveal much in the way of details but claims:

Scottish schoolchildren are to be taught the basics of video game design as part of the country’s new national curriculum - dubbed the ‘Curriculum of Excellence’.

According to the Press Association, the move is to designed to ‘create the next generation of young programmers’.

Schools minister Maureen Watt unveiled the scheme … and added that the new lessons will teach children how to use computer software to create animations and feature films.”

See the full article here.

“Ed tech developer eInstruction this week launched its new Content Meets Technology contest, which challenges educators and students to share their “vision of the role of technology in education.” Winners of the competition will receive an interactive classroom makeover.

Those wishing to enter must submit their thoughts on the role of technology in education using no more than 250 characters–that’s characters, not words. Entries will be posted on a Google Map mashup on eInstruction’s Web site.”

Author: Dave Nagel, T.H.E. Journal, April 2008

Full article available here.

Daniel Livingstone discusses Prensky’s Digital Natives and refers to recent figures of game playing. He also refers to an eSchool News article on Project Tomorrow’s Speak Up Survey, which is ‘the largest annual survey addressing the attitudes and opinions of K-12 students, teachers, parents, and school administrators toward the use of technology in education’. Worth a look.

“I’m starting to think that more of Prensky’s ideas about digital natives are becoming reality, albeit not for the generation he originally identified. While often technologically naive, game playing (and social virtual worlds) are perhaps now so commonplace amongst younger age groups (say six to 16) in the UK that the term ‘gamer’ is likely to become somewhat obsolete - or restricted to those who play the ‘hardcore’ games while other induldge in more casual gameplay.”

Author: Daniel Livingstone, Learning Games Blog, 14th April 2008

See full article here.

TECHNOLOGY is changing the way we learn. That is a given as school students — the ubiquitous digital natives — come to class equipped with skills and expectations unparalleled in schools 20 years ago.

To Dale Spender, an educationalist and an expert on the impact of digital technologies on learning, the shift is fundamental: “There has been a switch from passive to active learners,” she says, “and active learners need a different range of support staff.”

Author: Kirsten Lees, The Australian, 5th April 2008

Full article available here.

Free educational tool launched to support debate on any topic

Futurelab has launched Power League, a free online resource for schools which supports pupils of all ages to explore, debate and discuss any topic in a fun and easy way. Power League, available at www.powerleague.org.uk, enables the user to rank and display group opinions on any issue across the entire curriculum.

Author: FutureLab, 9th April 2008

Full article available here.

I believe technologies that engage and motivate students by offering opportunities for self-direction, inquiry, discovery, and creativity are the best way to meet the needs of all students. One of the most significant things I’ve heard said about 1:1 laptop programs is that when you walk into the classroom, you can’t tell who the Special Ed students are or who the GATE students are… because everyone is fully engaged and working at their own level.

Some technologies that might be readily available to most teachers and which might help provide this sort of individualized engagement include commercial off the shelf videogames with educational value (such as the Sims series, the Tycoon series, or the “Age of…” series of games), read/write web tools (such as blogs, wikis, and podcasts), and multimedia creation programs (for editing images, audio, and video). These things are nearly free and ubiquitous and ought to be used creatively in support of the base program.

Author: Mark Wagner, Educational Technology and Life Blog, 7th April 2008

Full article available here.

Homeschooling Innovations and Networks
The continued growth of the number of home­schooling families has led to a proliferation of resources and networks that facilitate homeschool­ing. Twenty-five years ago, a family that wanted to homeschool would likely have had limited curricu­lum and instructional options. Today, the options are nearly boundless. A Google search on “home schooling” produces more than 13 million hits.[21] This demonstrates the wide range of instruction options and homeschooling networks that parents can access when they choose to homeschool their children.

Parents can find and purchase curriculum mate­rials through online exchanges and other net­works.[22] Hundreds of Web sites, blogs, and books are devoted to supporting parents who home­school. In some cases, parents can access free or low-cost instructional products to teach their chil­dren. Other options include online learning services such as K12.com, which offers professionally devel­oped courses online for relatively low monthly fees.[23] Across the United States, a growing number of for-profit tutoring providers are in operation, such as Kumon and Sylvan Learning Centers, which offer parents opportunities to provide supplemen­tary instruction to their children.

Author: Dan Lips and Evan Feinberg, The Heritage Foundation, 3rd April 2008

Full article available here.

Channel 4 has announced sponsorshop of the Dare to Be Digital summer game development competition. Announced here.

As part of their sponsorship (which apparently is for a significant sum of money to support the competition), a brief to develop games with an educational or serious ‘twist’ has also been provided.

Author: Daniel Livingstone, Learning Games Blog, 4th April 2008

Full article available here.

Looking for ways to encourage student interest in science? These authoritative sites arm teachers not only with free multimedia, projects, and other deep resources, but also lesson plans and standards-aligned, curriculum-focused materials that will help you make the most of these educational and entertaining tools.

1. MIT OpenCourseWare: Free Education for All
MIT’s OpenCourseWare for Secondary Education (OCW SE), also known as Highlights for High School, is the first attempt on MIT’s part to bring OCW to secondary education and the first step in a broader plan for secondary education that has been in development since 2006.

Author: Dave Nagel, T.H.E. Journal, 5th April 2008

Full article available here.