HGSET545

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.

"The Modern Parent's Guide to Kids and Video Games" is a recent publication from "Play It Safe" which highlights the benefits of playing video game, including educational benefits.

Article on college students using "serious" video games as part of their instruction.

"Intel won't actually manufacturer the product, but it will offer the design license for free to any company interested in making it." Maybe the first open source hardware example I've seen. Will be interesting to see what, if any, effect this has on the ed tech tablet market.

The cover of the NYTimes magazine section: "The Hyperaddictive, Time-Sucking, Relationahip-Busting, Mind-Crushing, Power and Allure of Silly Digital Games." How about a flood of letters about serious games in response?

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

Investigating how our hyper-consumption of media affects attention and engagement.

The author talks about society's addiction to "stupid" mini-games (e.g. Angry Birds), which have minimal learning objectives but help us compartmentalize our lives.

Engagement is a buzz word but who descriptive is it?

Prof. Gardner is just back from India and meeting with a contingent of HGSE students from India for debrief tomorrow morning. Perhaps i'll get to ask him his take on aspects of this article.

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.

Here's an interesting question about Open source resources that I think is tethered to engagement, motivation, and flow.

This is a link to a forum discussion page where concerned Singaporean parents discuss whether or not to give monetary rewards to their children for A grades. It also features an article which interviews Prof Richard Ryan (or Ryan & Deci). Interesting to see parents grapple with this and try to come to terms with research evidence..

Ms Lindquist, a free web-based intelligent tutoring system on algebra.

GIVING a child a computer does not seem to turn him or her into a future Bill Gates-indeed it does not accomplish anything in particular. That is the conclusion from Peru, site of the largest single programme involving One Laptop per Child, an American charity with backers from the computer industry and which is active in more than 30 developing countries around the world.

There's readings on this topic from Prof.Dede's course last fall. You can find it on the syllabus

Although the idea of an iPad for every student may struggle to come to fruition for a few years, Augmented Reality textbooks are paving the way for a smooth transition. Japanese publishing company Tokyo Shoseki is producing textbooks that support AR apps on smartphones, bringing characters to life for students to listen to.