HGSET545

A very interesting profile of a candidate for a Superintendent position.

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 ?

I'm not sure how I feel about the commercial aspect of this... it feels a bit like a marketing tool for Guitar Hero. But, I do think that it sounds like they're doing interesting things with the surrounding curriculum. When I was in grade school I remember participating in a special unit on the Oregon Trail where we did related activities in every subject: managing our money and supplies in math class, learning about atmospheric conditions/obstacles in science class, and negotiating through historically-situated group decisions in social studies. I found this particular unit so much more engaging than everyday coursework, as I was able to both employ my imagination and see real-world application for skills that I was building. The Microsoft program stuck me as a 21st century adaptation of this (albeit grounded in a commercial product), where students were building various skill sets across subjects that were all tied together by a common narrative.

For the data analysts among us... This article mentions the Stanford University online course where every mouse click of 20,000 students is tracked in real time. "If 5,000 people had the same wrong answer, it's obvious a concept is not getting through, and you have a clear path that shows where students went wrong."

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.

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.

Looking at the future of voice recognition technology.

Here is a succinct treatment of cognitive flow and its relevance for game design.

This longer gamasutra article talks about Macro Flow and Micro Flow, complete with Csikszentmihalyi's flow diagrams. "Macro flow is the constant rise in difficulty to compete with the player's increasing skill level, maintaining the balance between boredom and anxiety. Macro flow refers to the entire gameplay experience from the beginning of the game until the end, and having a good macro flow will likely result in constant interest and intrinsic motivation on the part of the player throughout the course of the game." "Micro flow is short intense periods of flow that happen frequently, as well as the constant adaptation of the game's challenges to the player's increase in skill level. It is perpetuated by repeated successes in rapid succession, which provides positive emotional and tangible feedback encouraging the player to continue in the micro flow; this is known as a virtuous cycle."

Thanks for posting, Stephanie. I wonder if these instances of "micro flow' interfere with a gamer's chances of experiencing macro flow. I'm imagining instances of micro flow to be like interesting pit stops along a road trip, while macro flow would be equivalent to the exhilaration of cruising down an open road without any interruption. Not sure if that's the right way to think about it though...

Is computational thinking a fundamental skill that should be added to every student's analytical ability?

As I read this article, I thought about how many friends I have that are in non-technical professions, but who have been asked to take on technical tasks as part of their roles (managing databases, building organization websites, etc.) They've all been able to figure out how to do these things, but have found it very challenging to do so on their own and without any prior experience/contextual knowledge. So while I'm not sure that it's an absolute necessity, I do think that an increasingly broad range of vocations expect some level of technological fluency that could be built upon a computational thinking foundation. (There was a nice quote from a librarian in a NY Times article posted by Tom Keffer that illustrates this as well - the librarian says that all librarians rely upon software now, and that it's up to them to become technically empowered if there is something IT-related that their library needs.)

Clark Aldrich's "The Complete Guide to Simulations and Serious Games" is a good complement to Prensky's books on the subject. We require both in our "eLearning Games" course at UB. The instructor of that course directed my to these two resources.

...and, here is the link to Alrich's website.

Australia has been aggressively pursuing technology in education for a decade. I taught in Armidale, a large country town with a major university. It serves as an ideal location to work out the bugs because it is large enough to gather good research but small and contained enough to minimize complications.

yet another resource for games and learning

Another Game for Learning- Plantville.

EIM (Excellence In Motivation) announces the addition of two new modules to its recognition and incentive suite of solutions. EIM's Learn 'N' Earn and Interactive Incentive Games will be unveiled to the public at the World at Work Total Rewards Conference in Orlando, FL, May 21-23, 2012.

This is a really new way to incentivize or gamify some mundane processes in corporations. I can see this having an impact. .

Imagine this...

Johnny Mnuemonic is right around the corner! :-) Seriously, I would have a hard time with electronic equipment that close to my head all the time. The warmth from my cell phone bothers me so this product would have to compensate for discomfort with warmth and close viewing. Regardless, it's coming anyway. Interesting how they don't show how it makes work easier, just free time.

I did not give my opinion initially, but the bottom line is: I would go nuts! John Stewart had a great take-off on this based on what "dogs" actually see!

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

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..

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

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.