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Dr. Yong Zhao is an internationally known scholar, author, and speaker. His works focus on the implications of globalization and technology on education. He has designed schools that cultivate global competence, developed computer games for language learning, and founded research and develop institutions to explore innovative education models. He has published over 100 articles and 20 books, including Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization and World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Student

I was even more intrigued when he made reference to the work of Bernard Suits that claims there are three constituent parts that make up games: To play a game is to attempt to achieve a specific state of affairs [prelusory goal], using only means permitted by rules [lusory means], where the rules prohibit use of more efficient in favour of less efficient means [constitutive rules], and where the rules are accepted just because they make possible such activity [lusory attitude].

Nearly 1 in 5 gamers play social network games and 1 in 10 massively  multiplayer games. Growing social and online play is driving interest in online content. One in five gamers say they would either be "motivated" or "very motivated" to sign up to a faster broadband  service for game downloads and online play.

Very useful wiki for people looking at introducing gaming into their classroom or school. Loads of examples of games that could be integrated into the curriculum. I am about to loose some time checking some of these out.

As games, particularly virtual worlds, become increasingly popular and as they begin to approximate large scale social systems in size and nature, they have also become spaces where play and learning have merged in fundamental ways. More important is the idea that the kind of learning that happens in the spaces of these massively multiplayer online games is fundamentally different than what we have come to consider as standard pedagogical practice. The distinction the authors make is that traditional paradigms of instruction have addressed learning as "learning about," while these new forms of learning deal with knowledge through the dynamic of "learning to be." It is the authors' contention that the experiences offered within virtual worlds provide a fundamentally different way of thinking about

Interesting puzzle based game in which students progress towards an ultimate goal. More of a long-term game that could be used over an extended period of time.  Aimed at middle school. Needs password and login. Is free to obtain.     

gtreat Ning to be involved with for those interested in gaming and ed

Hey man thanks for this. I have neglected this ning for a while and returning to it is like a breath of fresh air.

report on the DEECD project NFPS was involved with in 2011

Interesting article on games that have won awards in 2011. Perhaps some ideas for curriculum usage! 

Interesting article about how to use minecraft in an educational setting. 

This site has fantastic virtual worlds for the kids to explore. In particular, check out "Big Little Bang".

For years, almost no-one wanted to talk about education policy. Suddenly everyone is. Of course, just because you can invoke the name of "Gonski" doesn't mean you've read the Sydney businessman's talismanic report on schools funding reform, much less understood it. Schools funding is a complex topic. There's an alphabet soup of abstract acronyms (SES, AGSRC) and a spaghetti diagram of administrative structures. Funding for a particular school could include money from parents, from a major church, from a state or territory, and from Canberra. The formula is set with a bewildering array of equations, fed by the demographic chance of Census data.

Woo Hoo! At last we can now control page level permissions in Google sites. This could be a game changer for schools who have been using Google Ed Apps. 

Great collection of maths sites check out the drag and drop