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Byron Review: Safer Children in a Digital World (full report)

Byron Review: Safer Children in a Digital World (full report)

teaching numbers to children - used in Second Life in 3D visualization

possible Metric collaboration opportunity

millee: Mobile and Immersive Learning for Literacy in Emerging Economies - project to help children in developing countries learn literacies

John Seely Brown: "Even when children are high achievers and facile with new technology, many seem gradually to lose their sense of wonder and curiosity, notes John Seely Brown. Traditional educational methods may be smothering their innate drive to explore the world. Brown and like-minded colleagues are developing the underpinnings for a new 21st century pedagogy that broadens rather than narrows horizons. John Seely Brown, former chief scientist at Xerox, has morphed in recent years into the "Chief of Confusion," seeking "the right questions" in a range of fields, including education. He finds unusual sources for his questions: basketball and opera coaches, surfing and video game champions. He's gathered insights from unorthodox venues, and from more traditional classrooms, to paint quite a different picture of what learning might look like. The typical college lecture class frequently gathers many students together in a large room to be 'fed' knowledge, believes Brown. But studies show that "learning itself is socially constructed," and is most effective when students interact with and teach each other in manageable groups. Brown wants to open up "niche learning experiences" that draw on classic course material, but deepen it to be maximally enriching. In basketball and opera master classes, and in architecture labs, he has seen how individuals become acculturated in a "community of practice," learning to "be" rather than simply to "do." Whether performing, creating, or experimenting, students are critiqued, respond, offer their own criticism, and glean rich wisdom from a cyclical group experience. Brown says something "mysterious" may be taking place: "In deeply collective engagement in processes...you start to marinate in a problem space." Through communities of practice, students' minds "begin to gel up," even in the face of abstraction and unfamiliarity, and "all of a sudden, (the subject) starts to make se

Video games are no longer just a form of entertainment for children and young adults alone, and the old stereotypes of a gamer no longer apply. The ESA's "2010 Essential Facts About the Computer and Video Game Industry" show that 67 percent of American households play computer and video games. The research also reveals other interesting demographic facts about today's gamers and the games they play, including: * The average gamer is 34 years old and has been playing for 12 years. * Forty percent of all players are women and women over 18 years of age are one of the industry's fastest growing demographics. Today, adult women represent a greater portion of the game-playing population (33 percent) than boys age 17 or younger (20 percent). * Twenty-six percent of game players are over the age of 50, an increase from nine percent in 1999. This figure is sure to rise in coming years with nursing homes and senior centers across the nation now incorporating video games into their activities. * Sixty-seven percent of homes in America own either a console and/or PC used to run entertainment software. * Fifty-eight percent of online game players are male and 42 percent are female. Forty-two percent of heads of households report they play games on wireless devices such as a cell phone or PDA, up from 20% in 2002. * Ninety-three percent of the time parents are present at the time games are purchased or rented. Seventy-six percent of parents believe that the parental controls available in all new video game consoles are useful. In addition, 64 percent of parents believe games are a positive part of their children's lives."