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Although this study is just correlative, it still poses some interesting questions about video games and academic achievement.

teaching academic content with games

Some questions-driven tips on dissecting an academic article.

This article lists some free online resources 8th gradel students can use to learn about college and careers

Includes practical tips; even though the blog post is written mainly from undergrad perspective, I think many of the tips apply to grads as well. Hope the tips help keep us "engaged" in our readings. :-)

This article describes Virginia State Univ Business School new partnership with GoingOn Network to increase engagement at the school. Do you believe they will accomplish their goal?

Does this teach academic skills?

I saw connections between this and Betty's Brain, though SimSchool is intended for actual teachers, rather than motivating students by placing them in the role of teacher. The "How does simSchool work..." and Academic sections were particularly interesting to me. For the teachers in the course, would you find this simulation motivating?

Digital tools are helping students with learning and sensory disabilities gain academic confidence and motivation.

The Obama administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of President Bush's signature education law, No Child Left Behind, and will call for broad changes in how schools are judged to be succeeding or failing, as well as for the elimination of the law's 2014 deadline for bringing every American child to academic proficiency. Educators who have been briefed by administration officials said the proposals for changes in the main law governing the federal role in public schools would eliminate or rework many of the provisions that teachers' unions, associations of principals, school boards and other groups have found most objectionable. Yet the administration is not planning to abandon the law's commitments to closing the achievement gap between minority and white students and to encouraging teacher quality.

Study finds they spend less time on academics with video-game systems at home

Grockit is a social networking site with an academic emphasis

Two ways to read about Wharton professor Jonah Berger's take on how game mechanics can be engineered to promote social currency. Do you agree with Berger's perspective? Here's the link to the academic paper: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1836457

"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."

Computer-led math learning at Virginia Tech.

Interesting article and very ambitious to address an academic need, but I wonder if the instruction/test environment addresses UDL principles to appeal to a variety of learners or if the multiple choice tests target a narrow definition of math success. I added a blog post above that highlights some of technology's short comings as a platform.

Great point. My feeling is that a lot of higher ed institutions use technology as a way to cut costs, so not much attention is paid to accommodating diverse learners. If I may think back to my own undergrad experience, the prevalent assumption is that you're old enough to seek out additional support on your own when you're stuck or want to learn more. I definitely think though that more attention should be paid to applying UDL principles to educational software (yes, even for adults), so that learning can move beyond passing multiple-choice tests!

Interesting NYTimes article - an elementary school organizes regular field trips to provide students with basic experiences that many low-income kids don't get to have (i.e. an auto repair shop so they get a chance to experience sitting in a car) and connects these to academic work.

Great article! It seems like there is a growing movement to bring "play" back into childhood learning.

Many adults have little idea of how children use technology in their everyday lives. Out of fear that it will be used to engage with non academic content, we want to keep schools the same good old way - very different from the rest of their lives.Addressing both school culture and issues of inequity would be important in enabling students to learn with tools they are most familiar with.

An article about what we can learn from the Finish education reform - we need to raise the standards for entry into the teaching profession, and future teachers should have intensive professional and academic preparation. Finnish teachers are driven by a sense of intrinsic motivation, not by the hope of a bonus or the fear of being fired. Intrinsic motivation is also what they seek to instill in their students.