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This is a brief summary of the Games for a Digital Age report released by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center (Sesame Workshop related) on the challenges facing Digital Educational Games market. I recommend linking through to the full report. I am curious to know what the class thinks of the recommendations the report makes. One thing they emphasize is situating games as supplementary material - do you think this is a good thing/bad thing?

Scroll down on this page to download the final report and case studies from a study that "examined the use of social software in the UK further and higher education sectors to collect evidence of the effective use of social software in enhancing student learning and engagement" (p. 9 of final report). For anyone considering boosting engagement through social media, this is a gold mine.

Hi Stephanie - Thanks for this! I just wrote in my mid-semester assignment that I need to find research about engagement through crowd-sourcing and social media in education! I've downloaded the report and can tell that with sentences like, "The results highlight the different pedagogical roles of social software: communication, nurturing creativity and innovation, and collaborative learning," you've definitely found great resources. ~ Leslie

BBC's School Report Project Allows Students to learn communication skills through group collaboration, performance and use of technology. Students with different skill levels report being engaged.

PEW report regarding Latino/Hispanic use of internet, cell phones and etc.

The 2012 Digital Learning Report Card, funded by Jeb Bush's Digital Learning Now organization, was profiled in this week's EdSurge e-newsletter. The Digital Learning Report Card grades significant policy decisions (on a state-by-state basis) which "are advancing student-centric reforms, reducing barriers to blended learning, and encouraging the use of technology to offer a more personalized college- and career-ready education."

Thanks for sharing this Malik. I was wondering about accessibility in the middle of the report. Then when I came to wearable technology and the list of products available, I realized that there's so much more we could do for students who have special physical needs.

Gamification is one of their high impact technologies

New report from the Connected Learning Research Network (funded by MacArthur) on a new model. Much of what we've seen before, but it purports to actually address issues of inequity, which is something I don't see talked about very much in these kinds of reports other than to share interactions between effects and variables like race & SES if found. Also interesting: includes Clusters of 21st Century Cognitive Competencies, a mashup of workplace readiness skills, 21st Century Skills, and Habits of Mind. (Is that enough buzzword for ya?)

report documenting measurement of STEM interest

Brookings report on games and learning

It's interesting that so many products have a teacher focused data output model but if the software isn't making recommendations, the student must wait for the teacher to analyze the data to make changes. I wonder when software will empower students to make their own curricular choices based on their data. I don't believe I've seen this.

The second part of Project Tomorrow's Speak Up 2011 report (based on a national survey of teachers, librarians and administrators), was just released. This part focuses on how "today's educators are personalizing the learning process for students," and how they are personalizing the classroom experience with online, socially-networked media and digital content.

important annual report on emerging educational technologies in higher education

The horizon report annually lists top emerging technologies

Pew Internet report on teens' usage of cellphones

Jane McGonigal argues that playing games can have a positive real world impact. Colbert says kids will now say, "Just five more minutes, mom... I've almost cured cancer!"

This is about a report by HGSE's John Richards that we will need later in the semester

Although print books win out (in survey) when reading to children... I just met a 5th grader who described reading more because of her Kindle.

Makers and users of mobile apps for children, take note!

The actual report itself is excellent, "Mobile Apps for Kids: Current Privacy Disclosures Are Disappointing." [The link is embedded in the article.] Improvement in this area is critical. When apps came on the market, they were like "valet parking"... where a user could get directly to a software without roaming the web. This was an attractive feature (and avoided unwanted advertising, a plus for parents.). Now, not only are apps collecting data that we are unaware of (PRIVACY!), but many are engaged in advertising, some that we are aware of and some that we are not (click through to a website, etc.) "Staff found that about 7% of the 400 app store promotion pages indicated that the app contained advertising. As above, this number is likely to understate the number of apps containing advertising because app stores do not appear to require developers to disclose in-app advertising on their promotion pages, and because advertising is a common way to monetize apps." Free? Not so much.

Interesting promises here. My current school uses Podium which is not ugly but totally useless if you want a tool for classroom teaching.