Group items tagged

A must see. DIY = kids + creativity + kids online community. This blog post explains a little about history and goals... "We're a community of kids who make."

"Gaming will probably progress to the point where the player's mind will control and communicate with the gaming station. Perhaps transmitters will communicate back and generate gaming experiences in the player's mind without requiring a screen."

community service game developed for college students

A new program will allow students to help their teachers better integrate technology in the classroom. As mentioned in the article, this will help students develop technology and critical thinking skills along with communication and service learning.

An interesting lecture this Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 6:15 p.m! Malkin Penthouse, 4th floor, Littauer Building, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Eric Gordon explores whether Community PlanIt-a web-based social network developed by Gordon's Engagement Game Lab-help improve public schools in Boston. - Eric Gordon, Associate Professor, Department of Visual and Media Arts, Emerson College and Lead Designer, Community PlanIt - Commentary by Nigel Jacob, Co-Director, Office of New Urban Mechanics, City of Boston

yet another resource for games and learning

Twitter as a means of professional community

Migration of TypeFrag's North American voice infrastructure to Internap's colocation and IP services provides superior communications for gamers

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".

a new device that lets schools communicate with students in 20 seconds without relying on multiple networks

gaming as a basis for interpersonal communication

relates to our tweeting as part of the blended learning community

An attempt to crowdsource Harvard alums to contribute to the community of a new MOOC.

Reducing the size of MOOC communities to foster collaborative  work and learning.

In light of this week's reading around equity, I question the impact apps such as these will have on low-SES communities. Also, this app may have the unintended consequence of creating an additional requirement for the teacher and as a result more pressure.

This is a webinar chat that I sat in on today (A few questions I posed are featured in the Q&A at the end.) With the new SimCity release, they have also partnered with a company called GlassLab that has designed a teacher resource hub and also modified game that enables teachers to easily use the game in classrooms. There will be specific inquiry based challenges that allow students to interact in the game environment to investigate community issues (ranging from water shortages, power outages, labor disputes, earthquakes, budget concerns, etc.) and work with citizens and government to solve the issues. There is also an exciting multiplayer format where neighboring cities are controlled by other students and they must work together to solve problems. Glass Lab is partnering with EA Games, Gates Foundation, and ETS to build the teacher hub where educators can design and share best practices, lesson plans, etc. In addition, they will be doing a long term study to measure educational outcomes. It appears as though they are using this game as a pilot opportunity to build the framework for larger commercial game integration into the classroom.

Looking at the future of voice recognition technology.

This article discusses play in virtual worlds (focusing on World of Warcraft) with an emphasis both on the learning that takes place and the engagement. You'll have to log in with your Harvard ID to get the article, FYI. "Our observation showed that players are motivated by the game's scope, rules, and scenario to create and participate in virtual communities, and share their knowledge with others, while newcomers are encouraged to engage in collective actions, and develop their skill base. We also found that although current MMORPGs have not been designed as instructional tools, they provide an excellent fantasy environment for intrinsically motivating learning, where players can experience the elements of challenge, curiosity, and control [30]." "People engage in pervasive games that use the best of two worlds, the virtual and the physical, in order to offer to its players the sense of maximum enjoyment."

Jeremy Bailenson from the Virtual Human Interaction Lab (Stanford) talks at the Berkman Center about how the use of avatars fundamentally alters communication styles both in virtual and real world settings. (Includes video and slides)