Group items tagged

This is a blog about a mother's concern for her 6-year-old child's iPad addiction. I saw a similar experience when I visited my 3-year-old and 1-year-old nieces over break. They constantly asked for their mother's iPad and iPhone. It was shocking to see how they could navigate, select songs/videos, and yes, download apps! Moreover, they would spend hours playing with them. It's simply amazing to see how quickly a child can learn a particular piece of technology if they are engaged and motivated to use it.

A serious and life-saving application of Kinect

That's so cool! I love how it aids in rehabilitation, but it also gives senior citizens a chance to play games that they physically can't really do anymore.

At the Learning and the Brain Conference last week, Dr. Gee listed 10 (research-validated) reasons why video games are good for learning.

This article breaks down Angry Birds to distill lessons for educators, talking about engagement, mastery, keeping users in the zone of proximal development, and of course, gamification.

The paper suggests a multi-dimensional approach to analysing digital games. The good or bad criticism should be replaced by thinking about the games' effects in terms of (1) the amount of play, (2) the content of play, (3) the game context, (4) the game structure, and (5) the mechanics of game play. Considerations should be put into each of these 5 dimensions when a game is being designed.

Potential Risks of Videogame Addiction

games help build relationship between girls and parents

Using badges and progress metrics to encourage student learning.

Can testing -- a challenging task, yet generally considered by test-takers to be a "waste of time" in the short-term -- be a form of engaged learning? What is motivating about tests?

There's been a lot of buzz about whether video games are habit-forming, and whether parents are exaggerating when they say their teenagers are "addicted" to game playing. Now new research on children who are heavy gamers suggests parents may have something else to worry about: depression.

I was introduced to pro-social gaming last semester, and I found it to be quite an interesting topic. I think it can be done!

Interesting article on the "Maker Movement" in STEM education. Really liked this last sentence, "It is our natural inclination to create as we learn and to learn as we create that is at the heart of this movement."

Optimal limits for focus and engagement.

augmented reality in kindergarten

Jane McGonigal argues that playing games can have a positive real world impact. Colbert says kids will now say, "Just five more minutes, mom... I've almost cured cancer!"

The Vatican embraces the use of digital media and social networks to promote dialogue among different communities, but cautions against "excessive exposure to the virtual world".

technology use in schools threatens to outrun infrastructure capacity

Not directly related to engagement, but could have some implications for education at some point.