An insightful and engaging speaker. Covers a lot of relevant ground. Refers to Jeremy Bailenson, whose archived talk at the Berkman center is a good companion piece. Lanier: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9eFZpdSeRU Bailenson: http://tinyurl.com/altye53

also mentions the sandbox summit and learning styles of young people

Formerly known as the Engage conference, includes a section on family gaming. Should be interesting to follow up on the conference abstract.

A conference devoted to play (relevant to creative professionals in industries targeted at children). The key note speaker is Jesse Schell of Schell games. There's a link to a set of cards titled " The art of game design" that you can find using the search term "Schell"

If you haven't come across lure of the labyrinth, do visit the site. An example of intrinsic integration of learning content with game mechanics.

A conference on Play and mobile learning at MIT on April 17 and 18. Lots of interesting speakers. The price is expensive at 695 but perhaps one could ask for a student discount.

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

A set of cards that help design better games

It's nice to know that there is actually a "museum of play".

This optimistic article covers a range of topics related to mobile learning and quotes Prof.Dede as well.

I was intrigued by this rather strange name for a game and looked up the web site. There is also a short video on youtube.

This ~3min video is a description of how a school integrates the use of games (eg. guitar hero) into their curriculum. It utilizes this game as a starting point for multiple explorations in music. I am very unsure of the value of incorporating the game. Any thoughts ?

This article talks about how studios making MMOs for children are providing free usage but capitalizing on its engagement potential to take advantage of children's purchasing power.

The book is available for a free download. The author is the post of the article below. I have not read the book.

An article from the popular press that I think is worth reading. It mentions the increasing importance of virtual worlds and simulations, a topic we will be covering next week !

Is the content intrinsically integrated ? How do they use rewards ? Do share your thoughts if you watch this webinar.

Kony 2012 is an online campaign created by "invisible children" to call for a stop to the atrocities by the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. That so many children were engaged in this activity, wherein they used technology to create and spread a socially good message is worth reading about.....

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.

On trialling these games from Pearson ( download demo available for -math and english) it is obvious that there is no integration of learning content with game play mechanics...... do share your thoughts if you should trial it.