Group items tagged

Hear MIT GAMBIT Lab experts talk about engagement in practical terms--and get some hands-on experience designing a board or video game. The three-hour workshops are part of the Cambridge Science Festival; this event takes place on April 28 and requires a $5 preregistration. Though I'm sure EMF will be touched on one way or another in all of the workshops, I thought the Serious Games for Social Change workshop might be of particular interest to you all: "In this workshop, best practice examples of serious games for social change will be played, discussed and analyzed. Furthermore ideas and sketches for proto-types will be developed and ways of realizing them will be discussed! The workshop gives the participants hands-on experiences and insights into the potential and limits of video games designed for social change. No pre-experiences are needed!"

DigiGirlz is an event that promotes STEM careers for middle school girls, in which students experimented with Microsoft Kodu and robotics.

A study out of Stanford looked at how videogames, in particular serious games and games for health, can activate circuits in the brain associated with positive motivation. "The study published today provides new insights into how these effects might have occurred, revealing that active participation in gameplay events is key to activating the brain's positive motivation circuits. Seeing and hearing the same information without active participation in gameplay had no impact on activity in positive motivation circuits."

I am posting two articles: 1) Apple's recent announcement (here) and 2) the criticism (above) by Hack Education blogger Audrey Watters This article is about Apple's announcement to "reinvent the textbook" around the iPad. "The message: it's going to be a lot easier in the future for publishers and educators to create a new generation of interactive textbooks."

Learn about the gamification of the university experience at RIT's School of Interactive Games & Media. I learned about this at a MIT talk on Civic Games, which was written up here: http://civic.mit.edu/blog/mstem/event-writeup-civic-games. They only really touched on motivation, autonomy, and rewards, but the transcript is also worth checking out for the names of people, books, and sites mentioned.

I forgot to point out the interesting use of RFID in Just Press Play.

Author Jane McGonigal will be speaking this Tuesday at 7:00pm at the Harvard Book Store (1256 Mass Ave.) If you can't make the program the store manager said that they would post a video of her talk on their website shortly after the talk.

Just an FYI for those interested in tech & learning.

http://www.thersa.org/events/rsaanimate/animate/rsa-animate-drive This RSA animate featuring Daniel Pink focuses on motivation. Although not Pink's thesis, to me it provides the explanation for why bonus pay to teachers (or students) for student achievement, particularly on tests is wrong-headed and damaging to educators and schools as professional environments in the long run. You can't pay people to care but you can organize school environments in which meaningful learning can be achieved. Teachers generally want to succeed and simply need a well-managed opportunity.

Thanks Uche for sharing this talk. I found Dan's insights interesting especially when he said that management is a technology that cannot lead to engagement. It struck me that it was a delicate balance between managing from the outside and developing self-management from inside.

An interesting talk which draws on Bruner's and Hattie's work to uncover what motivates students.

This webinar from the MIT arcade is on April 11th. 4:30

Thank you for sharing. I've signed up.

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

Lecture on engagement and motivation of creative professionals

Students learn how to make educational web games. Globaloria is sponsoring some of the events for the Digital Learning Day (posted below) and are "opening their Globaloria game design classes to parents, friends, educators, administrators, policy makers and media. Visitors will get to experience first-hand the innovative, hands-on "game design studio" that these classes engage in daily. They will see students developing original STEM learning games, collaborating with peers and their teacher, using a digital curriculum, and receiving support through an online learning network."

An industry perspective on gaming and learning

This is a superficial treatment of a significant event in the life of this school. I hope teachers and admins were more thoughtful than is represented here.

I would be interested to see why teens are looking at news online. My skeptical side wonders if teens are going online for news and political information as a result of assignments and homework and if these stats simply reflect their tendency to turn more and more to digital technologies, neglecting print sources.

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)

Professor uses game design principles in college classes.