Group items tagged

Engagement is a buzz word but who descriptive is it?

"Intel won't actually manufacturer the product, but it will offer the design license for free to any company interested in making it." Maybe the first open source hardware example I've seen. Will be interesting to see what, if any, effect this has on the ed tech tablet market.

Within five years, Yale-designed robots may be helping teach children. A Yale-led team of researchers from across the country received a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation on April 3 to pursue the creation of "socially assistive robots" to help young children learn basic skills and in some cases overcome cognitive disabilities.

"Quest supports a dynamic curriculum that uses the underlying design principles of games to create academically challenging, immersive, game-like learning experiences for students. Games and other forms of digital media also model the complexity and promise of "systems." Understanding and accounting for this complexity is a fundamental literacy of the 21st century."

A conference devoted to play (relevant to creative professionals in industries targeted at children). The key note speaker is Jesse Schell of Schell games. There's a link to a set of cards titled " The art of game design" that you can find using the search term "Schell"

I met this woman this morning and her story made me think of a project based curriculum design. She created her own major in college around issues of equity in communities around the world. She combined that with an interest in ecological sustainability and she proceeded into a career with the question: How are all of these things related and how can we approach social issues with systemic interventions? Her work in New Bedford is as promising as initiatives like Geoffrey Canada's.

For those looking to develop educational content that can be accessed on any platform, HTML 5 offers promise.

The Nature Conservancy and Discovery Education today launched Nature Works Everywhere, a partnership designed to help students learn the science behind how nature helps our everyday existence and the importance of environmental conservation.

A video game that uses biofeedback to help players practice and better control their reactions to stress. It's an interesting combination of entertainment and serious biofeedback training, presenting a very creative approach to designing engaging conditions for learning that allow for relevant skill transfer.

This is an interesting example of a video game targeting mental health. The designers created a 3D fantasy world with different realms in which players learn mental behavioral techniques used to combat depression. The game was found to be effective in reducing symptoms of anxiety and depression in teens with mild to moderate depression.

Such a great idea. In rural areas, the lack of mental health practitioners is a serious problem so we reserve referrals for children who are in dire circumstances. Children with moderate or mild depression almost never get services. This game has great potential!

That's such an excellent point Allison!

Game on!

Definition of "digital games" probably too broad... but three video case studies of teachers using "games" referenced in article worth watching: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA3C69D48D4FFE87E

Agreed about the definition. However, "Almost all the teachers surveyed who said they used games reported that they used ones specifically designed for education, and the games most often corresponded with literacy and reading (50%) and math (35%).", which is encouraging. Kurt Squire is correct in that the data may include a good number of 'trivial games', but that is probably to be expected since the biggest barriers seems to be cost (50% respondents) and technology (46%).

My thoughts on reading on this article was that if we designed interesting educational games that required physical movement (using Kinect, Move, VR etc), we can tackle engagement and exercise in one stroke.

The nonprofit group called TED, known for streaming 18-minute video lectures about big ideas, today opened a new YouTube channel designed for teachers and professors, with videos that are even shorter. The new channel, called TED-Ed, was announced a year ago, but its leaders are only now unveiling the project's first videos.

Where should ATT place its bets? Is engagement the key to stemming dropouts? Can VI be used to design richly affective environments that promote social efficacy (a spoon full of sugar) while succeeding at skill development and knowledge transfer (the medicine)?

Caspian Learning built an immersive 3D serious game for Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity in the UK to increase operator engagement in training to use medical hoists.

...and, here is the link to Alrich's website.