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Filament Games is a game production studio that exclusively creates learning games. Our core competency is producing games that combine best practices in commercial game development with key concepts from the learning sciences. Accordingly, our senior staff is comprised of individuals who are equal parts game and instructional designers; a "dual literacy" that allows us to engineer authentic gameplay mechanics (rules and interactions that directly correlate with specific learning objectives). Filament Games was founded in 2005 by education technology expert Dan White, game designer Dan Norton, and software engineer Alex Stone. In the time since, Filament has developed over 30 educational games for clients ranging from National Geographic's JASON Science to Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's iCivics Inc.

An interesting discussion of game-based learning and the false attempts to 'make games' for education.

"There are lots of different skills that go into game development. This course is about key technical concepts in game development, and has been developed for people of many different backgrounds and skills. Some programming experience would be nice but is not required. We start by looking at the central role of game design and common development processes used in the industry. You will see how game software can be broken into parts that work together, and in particular the idea of game engines. We'll explore the relationship between game design, balance and player experience. Lastly we'll look at enhancing player experience though the use of AI techniques."

Duckie Deck is a nice educational games site. Each of the games is ad-free and is designed to help children learn something new or practice a skill. You'll find games for learning about potty training, kitchen appliances, and brushing your teeth. You'll also find games for practicing counting and games for learning the alphabet. Duckie Deck offers 125 games in all.

The site has an educational games site designed to help students learn about subjects in the areas of Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economics. In all there are twenty-nine interactive games for students to play. Each of the science-related games and the economics game is based upon the research of Nobel Prize winners. The literature and peace games are based upon concepts central to the work of Nobel Prize winners in those fields.

Classtools is a tool for educators to make their own educational games, which can be shared via email or embedded in a web page. There are 15 easy-to-use templates, which make game creation easy. There's also a selection of premade games, which teachers may use with their students

Gaming is growing each day, with students and educators embracing its potential. Here are 8 examples of gaming's classroom success.

Gaming is growing each day, with students and educators embracing its potential. Here are 8 examples of gaming's classroom success.

"Games for Change (G4C) is a non-profit which seeks to harness the extraordinary power of video games to address the most pressing issues of our day, including poverty, education, human rights, global conflict and climate change. G4C acts as a voice for the transformative power of games, bringing together organizations and individuals from the nonprofit sector, government, journalism, academia, industry and the arts, to grow the sector and provide a platform for the exchange of ideas and resources. Through this work, Games for Change promotes new kinds of games that engage contemporary social issues in meaningful ways to foster a more just, equitable and tolerant society.

Blog entry with a list of some great educational game sites. Found on @edu_tweets.

"With its open-ended nature and robust creation tools, Minecraft has been used to create some amazing things. And as one teacher learned, those very same elements that make the game so compelling also make it a great educational tool.

A fun game to try out, don't let the graphics distract or confuse you. This is easy to use, bigger and much more complicated than it first looks. Good learning potential.

"VIDEO games have become one of the most notable features of our culture, yet the industry receives relatively scant attention in mainstream media. This is not only curious, it is unfortunate; because many parents and carers and educators remain unnecessarily wary of this crucible of creativity. The reach of these games is expanding with the take-up of smartphones and tablet computers. A recent study by the head of media communications and technology at Bond University, Jeffrey Brand, found that about 95 per cent of Australian children under 15 play video games."

"Minecraft is much more than just a game. Used carefully it can also be a powerful educational tool. It allows young people to create and explore places that are completely inaccessible by other means. Within the blocky world, they can roam around historical sites, delve into the geology beneath their feet or fly through the chambers of a heart, and much more besides. The rich resources of these virtual worlds, coupled with the educational version of the game, allow teachers to immerse young people in a comfortable but exciting learning environment. "

An infographic from Online Colleges on video games in education

It's been a week since I snagged a Google+ invite, and while it's fun to hit the reset button on my personal social media life, what I'm really interested in is how the service is going to impact teaching and learning. There's a good chance that Google+ is going to become a powerful communication and collaboration tool in the classroom. In fact, it could end up being a serious education game changer.

Another PEW report, this time into gamification "Tech stakeholders and analysts generally believe the use of game mechanics, feedback loops, and rewards will become more embedded in daily life by 2020, but they are split about how widely the trend will extend. Some say the move to implement more game elements in networked communications will be mostly positive, aiding education, health, business, and training. Some warn it can take the form of invisible, insidious behavioral manipulation. "The development of 'Serious Games' applied productively to a wide scope of human activities will accelerate simply because playing is more fun than working," observed Mike Liebhold, senior researcher and distinguished fellow at The Institute for the Future."

EdGames contains downloadable games, game templates and utilities that can be used to enhance any lessons. Powerpoint, Excel and Word templates provided.

"In order to make it on this list, games had to: * be accessible to English Language Learners. * provide exceptionally engaging content, * not provide access to other non-educational games on their site, though there is one on this list that doesn't quite meet this particular criteria. * be seen by me during the second part of 2015. So they might have been around prior to this time, but I'm still counting them in this year's list."

"Spacewalk is a new multiplayer game in which players explore the International Space Station. The game is a free-form game. Spacewalk players take on the roles of astronauts in the International Space Station."

Doctor Who is teaming up with a Dalek and trying to save the universe and teaching children some early computer programming skills at the same time in a game due to launched on the broadcaster's CBBC website. The Doctor and the Dalek includes voice narration from current Doctor Peter Capaldi, and a new story by Phil Ford, who has written for the TV show.It is a free web game is aimed at 6-12 year-olds, and involves freeing a battered Dalek from a ship of Cybermen, then building it back up to full strength through puzzles based on the programming elements of the new English computing curriculum. At the moment the game is only playable on computers, but the development team is working on future updates that will will try to make it work on tablets too by early 2015.

"Minecraft is more than just a game and used carefully it can also be a powerful educational tool. It allows young people to create and explore places that are completely inaccessible by other means. Within the blocky world, they can roam around historical sites, delve into the geology beneath their feet or fly through the chambers of a heart, and much more besides. The rich resources of these virtual worlds, coupled with the educational version of the game, allow teachers to immerse young people in a comfortable but exciting learning environment. Minecraft has the ability to bring just about any conceivable structure to the classroom, and beyond.