Group items tagged

advice on how to spread great ideas

An interesting article about how to create a great educational game.  

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.

A video talking about how Minecraft is exceptionally great for education because of its versatility and adaptability to many subjects and concepts.

On a study break, I rediscovered this quite addictive, simple game that I think captures the ideas of flow quite nicely. I think the simple design, exponential scoring, soothing music, great art, and realistic physics make it quite immersive (for better or for worse!)

The music, the challenge of hitting the bells, the fact that the bells actually add some 'harmony' to the music, the high score at the end of the game. Simply brilliant. Thanks for sharing it!

Great Game from Muzzy Lane--the folks who'll be speaking next week

This a great (and local) group doing exciting work with Game Mechanics and Science Inquiry. Check it out!

I agree that some students may be more musically inclined but will integrating music into all aspects of the curriculum, as the article suggests, really help students learn?

Thanks for sharing Sandra. I think it depends on how well the teacher designs the activity. It also depends on how the music is used. For example, music in a game is really important, but it's in the background. So the player doesn't really pay attention to it, until it's turned off. I think music can really help us learn, but it depends on the context in which it's used.

Thanks for this link, Matthew, and for the comment on it, Sandra! I think that music is a great avenue for learning. From personal experience, I seem to study better and with more focus and future recollection when music is playing in the background. It would be great to see if music truly does have a connection with the acquisition and recollection of knowledge.

Great demonstration of engaging graduate/undergraduates in course materials at MIT

Thanks for sharing this interesting article Uche. I think that while the major benefit of online courses is scale and reach, its downside is that it doesn't cater to individual student's ZPD. Still, the article ended nicely with an emphasis on the lecturer carrying out the online course. Great teaching X technology > teaching X great technology.

FYI. Great speakers and program last year. Although not education focused, ways to apply to teaching/learning and many education related workshops.

The focus appears to be how people learn online, and not just getting content up. MIT is obviously a great partner, and a natural one for Harvard, especially in a venture like this.

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!

A basic How-To for creating engaging presentations. Nancy Duarte applies the aspects of great storytelling to giving a presentation.

I came across this great question posted in Quora. One of the responders, Anne Halsall listed structured narratives, diverse hand- drawn animation, more difficult puzzles (less hints), and a single-player experience as hallmarks of 90s adventures games. The highlights of these adventure games are a stark contrast to the conditions, at least according to Gee, that make video games useful learning tools (e.g.,open-ended, immediate feedback, opportunities for socialization). This lead me to wonder, are the trends in contemporary game design driving engagement theory, or is the research driving game design?

A very short clip about a "great model" in the game industry (microtransactions) that allows EA to take advantage of a player's engagement.

Will great professors start defecting to interactive media, where they could become media stars? I wonder how truly interactive or engaging this type of delivery is.

This is a great tool for doing mock-ups of engaging user interfaces. The free version is more than adequate. We use it in a course on graphical user interface design at my university.

Jerry, Thanks for sharing this resource. Coincidentally, my partner and I used this tool for generating a wireframe for a project in another course just two days back. I was not able to find a 'free' version on the website. There is a 7 day evaluation desktop version and a subscription based web version. I have a PC laptop. Is the free version available for Mac?

A grandmother's post about why she thinks Runescape is great for kids. A rare older person's perception.