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Nothing more powerfully engages students than video games. It's just be very difficult finding ways to exploit this for educational purposes without destroying that affect in the process. My own best idea on the holy grail of a truly addictive game useful for very general and comprehensive educational purposes is an RTS game from an FPS perspective beginning the neolithic times, in a persistent world. A student would begin as a primitive man and gradually work his way toward inventing all the technologies of the modern world in building his civilization. He'd invent each tool by learning the physics and usefulness of it. Then he could add it to the village he founds to expand it. The village and eventual civilization would be, along with its annals, would be a e-portfolio (why the world needs to be persistent, not starting fresh each time the student logs on--he must always be building upon the foundations already established). The student would design the economic system, etc. and his "subjects" would follow the rules he stipulates. He could trade with the villages of others for items he might need to get ahead but cannot produce them himself until he learns the principles behind the technology. The population might be given needs also for entertainment, thus poetry, etc. for a more pacified people. Many ideas can be added within this framework. It's a student's own world in which he can feel safe and for which he should develop more interest as it continue to operation even when he is offline (to increase engagement). And being multiplayer can also provide the social aspect and teamwork for shared goals.... like say, building a trading route and defending it from bandits, investing materials for construction of a dam and irrigation... etc. I have a basic design to build the infrastructure for this. There wouldn't by chance be any grants out there that might apply?

I really like this game idea. Seems like it would be a monster of an undertaking not just for the game engine itself, but more so for the content. Let me know if you get this one off the ground.

I realized while writing this that it would be difficult to for education professionals to understand this concept. I should have known Shirey would get it. After so much experience in software, one starts to see two personality types--those who design software from a philosophical perspective and those who do so from an immediate, practical point of view. The philosophicals enjoy designing and writing new kinds of software. They are also the kind of people who tend to enjoy RTS games. The immediates struggle trying to write software from scratch, except for where they understand some pre-known framework for writing software of the particular class. They are more often relegated to debugging and tweaking software. These people tend to prefer FPS games. Systems administrators tend to fall more into this category, as well. It's a good complement, I think. I design and they maintain. Philosophicals tend not to be such good maintainers. Immediates tend to make good systems administrators, too. What this all suggests to me is that the only way non-philosophicals (the particular type I mean--don't use the term too generally) are unlikely to "get" the concept until the can see and use it. I would love to be proven wrong. I designed a framework that I think would make building it not so difficult or time consuming. But yes, building content is a chore. Therefore, the way I designed the framework is to allow run-time additions and modifications. That is, you can start simple and gradually add content over time. I think this makes sense in any case because as knowledge changes, so should educational content. Educational methods may also evolve. So I think it is very important that the mechanism for adding and editing be as easy to use as possible. This is where you want the input of non-software engineers.....even non-gamers.

"A million dollars a year is a lot of money, yet colleges can hand over that much or more every year to software companies that supply and maintain essential systems for accounting, human resources, and student enrollment. Now, fed up with the fees, some colleges are ditching giant vendors for a small company that promises to support this software at half the price."

What this article fails to mention is that when you can get support only from the vendor, their incentive to provide good service is minimal, because the lock-in (the cost of moving to another platform) makes change-over almost unthinkable.

Some alternatives focus on web content management (Nuxeo), others on collaborative application frameworks (MindTouch).

As Alfresco Software Inc. continues to emerge as the leading provider of open source software enterprise collaboration software, rival open source vendors are stepping up their efforts.

"Front Seat is a civic software company and incubator. Our software connects people to the places we live, the resources we consume, and our communities".

Joel Spolsky, guru of real-world software development, on social software -- in 2004 (pre-Facebook)! It turns out that non-features can be crucial...

"My goal today is to talk about the next level of software design issues, after you've got the UI right: designing the social interface..."

Social Software and Social Networking. Social software includes a broad range of technologies, such as social networking, social collaboration, social media and social validation. Organizations should consider adding a social dimension to a conventional Web site or application and should adopt a social platform sooner, rather than later, because the greatest risk lies in failure to engage and thereby, being left mute in a dialogue where your voice must be heard.

"To some, the White House shift to Drupal from a proprietary software package represented a serious seal of approval for open-source software."

"But I can't help but think the new software represents the triumph of hope over experience. Drupal looks great in theory: It's a powerful way to govern a Web site that is born out of the collective efforts of the community. In practice, it tends to be a bit of a mess."

Noew that the White House has launched its new Drupal-based site, a Slate columnist weighs in on Drupal's negatives.

"In the face of an economic crisis of unprecedented and in many ways still not fully understood dimensions, there is a natural inclination to retrench, to stop considering what the next new thing might be, to slow down on innovation and experimentation. This is a mistake. This is the moment when we must confront the core assumptions of our educational enterprises, and to ask hard questions about why we do what we do, and how we can change in order to survive and perhaps even thrive. This symposium, which is part of the Future of Everything project hosted by Academic Commons (http://academiccommons.org/futureofeverything/), brings us together to consider the possible futures of a host of interconnected topics: the book, the library, our system of scholarly communication, classroom technology, software distribution, the lecture, the seminar, existing and future business models,and ultimately, the college and the university. You'll have a chance to hear from leading practitioners who are creating the next generation tools, resources, spaces, and policies, and to engage in on-line dialogue before, during, and after the event. The work of the symposium will be used to inform the publication of an on-line reader that we hope will be broadly useful for all engaged in re-imagining future services, facilities, and policies on campus. Date: May 19, 2009 Place: Norwood, MA"

Kimberly said of this: The focus on activity deals directly with the learning process - one that pushes students to take a more active role - while assessment supplies faculty members with the feedback necessary to diagnose and correct learning problems. Technology allows such active learning processes to be expanded to large courses and, as learning software and databases become better, to use faculty time more effectively. Relates to clickers and skylight learning activities/assessments, in the large class context, as well as the elusive LMS.

Browsealoud makes using the Internet easier for people who have: * Low literacy and reading skills * English as a second language * Dyslexia * Mild visual impairments Browsealoud is _not_ a replacement for a screen reader, but is convenient for some classes of users. As critical learning functions move increasingly online, we will need to know about this kind of affordance.

This article endeavours to denote and promote pedagogical experimentations concerning a Free/Open technology called a "Wiki". An intensely simple, accessible and collaborative hypertext tool Wiki software challenges and complexifies traditional notions of - as well as access to - authorship, editing, and publishing. Usurping official authorizing practices in the public domain poses fundamental - if not radical - questions for both academic theory and pedagogical practice. The particular pedagogical challenge is one of control: wikis work most effectively when students can assert meaningful autonomy over the process. This involves not just adjusting the technical configuration and delivery; it involves challenging the social norms and practices of the course as well (Lamb, 2004). Enacting such horizontal knowledge assemblages in higher education practices could evoke a return towards and an instance upon the making of impossible public goods" (Ciffolilli, 2003).

Maybe going out on a limb but if I had to choose one thing that best embodied the Web 2.0 approach and spirit it would be the collaborative potential of wikis.

hmm...

This just reminds me that finding a way to make addictive games also educational is a holy grail of software design.

"A University of Toronto professor who got students to grade their peers' work has seen the practice blocked by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. The union that represents teaching assistants and sessional instructors at the university filed a grievance against the university when it discovered that psychology professor Steve Joordens was using specially designed software to have students grade and comment on one another's written work."

"In the industrial model of student mass production, the teacher is the broadcaster. A broadcast is by definition the transmission of information from transmitter to receiver in a one-way, linear fashion. The teacher is the transmitter and student is a receptor in the learning process. The formula goes like this: "I'm a professor and I have knowledge. You're a student, you're an empty vessel and you don't. Get ready, here it comes. Your goal is to take this data into your short-term memory and through practice and repetition build deeper cognitive structures so you can recall it to me when I test you."... The definition of a lecture has become the process in which the notes of the teacher go to the notes of the student without going through the brains of either. "

the concept behind Google Wave is to "unify" communication on the web. It's a hybrid of email, web chat, IM, and project management software. It features the ability to replay conversations because it records the entire sequence of communication, character by character. Because of this, discussions are also live in Google Wave: you will see your friends type character-by-character. The features don't stop there, either. Google Wave also supports the ability to drag attachments from your desktop into Google Wave. It loads that file and sends it immediately to anyone in the conversation. It's also embeddable, so you can embed Google Wave conversations on any blog.

The relevance and importance of visual design. I've long suggested that all service design (including software) begin with a walk through of what the customer/user comes to and sees in succession.

A good explanation of how services are best designed with aesthetics as the means to functionality. I always remember from the military that building an effective fighting position required "walking the perimeter"--having one guy in the fighting position taking notes while another approaches systematically from every possible direction. Most importantly, what will the enemy (or customer) see step by step and what steps will he/she take in turn. Always center on the customer's experience (this is rarely done).

This matrix is a common representation of Web 2.0 assessment on the web. It attempts to connect web 2.0 tools with assessment. You've heard of e-learning 2.0, well here are some Web 2.0 technologies applied to assessment. The table seeks to show how teachers can use social software for assessment purposes.

""We don't claim we do everything," said Chris Capossela, a senior vice president at Microsoft. "If we do 50 percent of the functions that these other companies do, but they're the ones customers really want, that's fine. The magic is that end users actually like to use the software." This strategy seems to have worked even during the recession. "