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Jane McGonigal on the "engagement economy"

real-time voting tools for collaboration and enriching engagement

Playable fictions are interactive stories in which one is positioned as a protagonist who makes game choices that have consequence in the fictional world. Further still, we often find ourselves engaging in struggles and developing understandings that shape player's worldview outside of the game.

A Portal to Media Literacy: a great overview of engagement and the disconnect between higher ed and students

Digital Bloom's: version of the new Bloom's Taxonomy that integrates a host of digital tools depending on the kind of thinking/activity that students engage in.

a course on emerging / new media and it's role in social discourse related to culture and events

Joanna Goode's research on the digital divide - published in New Media and Society - that "high school opportunities around technology really shape students' abilities to engage fully in university academic life"

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

The Education Arcade: MIT's lab to move learning games fwd: authentic, engaging play that teaches

The EcoMUVE project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education is a recently funded project of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES). The goal of EcoMUVE is to develop a Multi-User Virtual Environment (MUVE)-based ecosystems science curriculum for middle school, and to conduct feasibility studies on the practicality, integration, and acceptance of the MUVE-based curriculum for student engagement and learning in classroom settings. MUVEs enable multiple participants to access virtual worlds simultaneously, interacting with other students and with computer-based agents to facilitate collaborative learning activities of various types.

The CLIVE presentation at this year's Sloan-C/MERLOT/Moodle-moot Emerging Technologies conference: The MERLOT Virtual Worlds Taskforce has been collaborating for the last year to develop the Center for Learning in Virtual Environments MERLOT presence in Second Life, Project Wonderland, and other 3D Virtual Worlds. Join members of the taskforce in unveiling the virtual worlds- and web-based-tools and infrastructure for content and virtual worlds education professionals to identify, share, and showcase high quality 3D learning assets. Jonathon Richter Research Associate University of Oregon Session Information Pre-Conference Workshop Pre-Conference Workshop (1/2 day) July 20, 2010 - 9:00am Garden Room

Immersion is the subjective impression that one is participating in a comprehensive, realistic experience. Interactive media now enable various degrees of digital immersion. The more a virtual immersive experience is based on design strategies that combine actional, symbolic, and sensory factors, the greater the participant's suspension of disbelief that she or he is "inside" a digitally enhanced setting. Studies have shown that immersion in a digital environment can enhance education in at least three ways: by allowing multiple perspectives, situated learning, and transfer. Further studies are needed on the capabilities of immersive media for learning, on the instructional designs best suited to each type of immersive medium, and on the learning strengths and preferences these media develop in users.

"7 Scientific Ways to Promote Sharing on Facebook" - an interesting article discussing research on what content works and what doesn't on Facebook and - by extension - other social networks. Keep it Short and Simple is the synopsis. :)