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A forthcoming online class led by Maria Droujkova, creator of NaturalMath, exploring the role of online communities facilitating math game creation and development by students and teachers. (2/3/12, 1PM EST)

From the abstract: "this study investigated how the perspectives of the non-computer science educators changed after learning game-programming and how it could be fitted into the K-12 curriculum. Fourteen non-computer science educators and/or administrators in the K - 16 educational systems who made up a cohort at Sam Houston State University, Master of Education/Instructional Technology Program participated in this study. The participants were required to learn two free Web 2.0 game-programming applications and reflect on an article related to reviving interest in math and science as part of their program. Qualitative data consisted of online reflections, and peer-review processes through Facebook. A quantitative component was added to the analysis. The findings indicated that: (a) the perspectives of the participants changed from negative to positive as they reflected on their own game-programming learning experiences; (b) participants came to understand how game programming could build up students' logical concepts and critical thinking skills improving performances in math, science, and other subjects; and (c) due to the benefits of logical concepts and critical thinking skills game programming could have immense benefits if built into the K-12 curriculum."

From the abstract: "As educators struggle to motivate the learners in their classroom, games provide a great opportunity to enrich the education curriculum. The use of games for this purpose is the primary goal of the growing s erious g ames field. ParabolaX is a s erious g ame designed to teach principles of quadratic functions [1] . ParabolaX was developed with two gameplay versions: full and basic. The basic version eliminated many game features. Leaners played ParabolaX during a single classroom session and took surveys before and after they played. Lea r ner scores on quadratic problems before playing were not significantly different than scores after playing ParabolaX , t (65) = - 0.486, p = 0.629 . Lea r ners that played the full version that included all game like features did not show significantly different engagement indicators than those who played the basic version. Learner engagement did not d iffer based on gender or prior experience playing digital games. 76.1% of learners playing the full version agreed that ParabolaX helped them understand quadratic functions compared to only 50% of those who played the basic version."

Includes GameUp, free online games for curriculum

Video games are hard, and that's official Super Mario, Donkey Kong and other classic games belong to class of hard mathematical puzzles, and could be used to solve real-world problems IF YOU have ever struggled to complete classic Nintendo games, don't feel bad?- they are officially difficult.

SOUTH FREEPORT, Maine - Ben Sawyer helped train the next generation of university leaders, worked to school Cisco employees in binary math and is hoping to help at-risk youths avoid the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases. For him, it's all a game - a serious game. Sawyer is the co-founder of Digitalmill Inc., a game design consulting firm that is focused on the "serious games" space."

More Than $100,000 Awarded to Students and Educators by The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and E-Line Media WASHINGTON, May 22, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The winners of the National STEM Video Game Challenge, a competition to motivate interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) by learning, playing and making video games, were announced today at The Atlantic's Technologies in Education Forum in Washington, DC.

In the next twelve months more schools will be setting homework assignments for their students to play computer games. This will be because schools, expecting more of their students, will be looking for ways to support them to develop a deep level of understanding in, say, science, maths, or in being effective creators and consumers of the digital world (how to code, mash-up websites, design apps and so on).

A discussion with Drew Davidson, author of Well Played, on "the participatory future of content creation" and game design will be archived here.