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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."

A motivation typology for why people play Massively Multiuser Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs)

sign up with (favorite color) (favorite animal) + choose an available number. Then choose a type of game to play: Maths 101, Maths Mix, Algebra, Spelling, or Times Tables. From within those categories, select a difficulty level. Then a competitor (a real person) will select to be your opponent... and you RACE to see who wins! Get badges and level up as you go.

Biology: play Foldit and help scientists solve major challenges while you solve puzzles

Introducing the Earworms Musical Brain Trainer Learn a new Language in Second Life, your Ipod, your iPhone or PC for the new year! 200+ essential words and phrases anchored into your long-term memory with great music. The 70 minute Earworms SLCD's will play the tracks inworld - can be downloaded as mp3 files to your desktop, Ipod or Iphone and comes with full documentation on PDF files for you to print and read at your leisure. Come and sample Earworms for yourself inworld - visit us at and TP up to The Earworms Loft Earworms mbt puts the words and phrases you need not just on the tip of your tongue, but also transports them deep into your long-term memory. Simply by listening to these specially composed melodies with their rhythmic repetitions a few times, the sound patterns are indelibly burned into your auditory cortex. You will have successfully learned the phrase and have the correct accent ringing in your ears. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing: While jogging, in the car, in the bath, doing the ironing…you can be learning a new language at the same time! earworms mbt© Rapid Languages is the first language course to get your toe tapping. You know the phenomena of those catchy tunes or earworms that you just can't get out of your head? Voulezvous coucher avec moi, ce soir? Well, earworms mbt© has put this phenomena to positive use. Gone are the days of learning pressure and frustration at not being able to remember, the experience of many on conventional language courses. In combination with music, the phrases you need are automatically anchored deep into your memory, ready for instant recall.

this discussion by MIT's Henry Jenkins is a fabulous overview of the role Social Media played in the 2008 Presidential Campaign (and, by extrapolation) and how these technologies are shaping cultural and personal time. Very good!

Study proves conclusively that violent video games makes more aggressive kids

a SLurl-like tool that enables you to enter the island name and coordinates of your land. Five minutes later, Peek360 sends to your email address a URL that, when entered into a browser, plays an interactive movie of your land just as it actually looks in SL!

good for virtual safaris!

With the WildLab iPhone application and associated inquiry-based curriculum, students learn the basics of scientific fieldwork, while using other STEM-related skills. Through observations, questions, and analysis, students come to know the important role they can play in gathering data about birds and their habitat, using mobile technology as a scientific tool. Most importantly, they experience the thrill of scientific discovery!

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

Snake oil? a GREAT visual graphic representing a meta-analysis of which supplements are affective for adults with a reasonably healthy diet. This is a great visual presentation of scientific evidence.

teachers as "defenders of the book" are some of the last citizens to use digital media

teachers as "defenders of the book" are some of the last citizens to use digital media