HGSET545

Using lotteries and other devices to motivate people to do things they might otherwise find unattractive.

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 idea: engaging parents to help motivate their kids in school. It includes several of sources of "intrinsic motivation": curiosity, challenge, context, and motivation. I would be interested in seeing a more independent assessment on how successful this system is.

This is an MFA thesis that proposes a practical methodology for implementing Csikzentmihalyi's theory in the design of videogames.

A serious and life-saving application of Kinect

That's so cool! I love how it aids in rehabilitation, but it also gives senior citizens a chance to play games that they physically can't really do anymore.

This picture made me much more interested in the phases of the moon.

Some researchers are looking at how video games open up new wiring in the brain. "Infancy is filled with the best of times: critical windows of weeks and months when the growing brain fine-tunes things like language skills and vision. And it's wise to take advantage of them, for when the windows slam shut, those skills don't develop. Or so scientists used to think." Also, "Playing a video game called Medal of Honor helped some people recover lost visual abilities." But some researchers are not confident we know enough or raise ethical questions about further interventions.

This article offers a useful guide for synthesizing some of the ideas from T545 to classrooms.

I can't argue with this article. Good points.

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.

Written with Alan Gershenfeld, Founder and President of E-Line Media The White House recently announced two major initiatives in learning and technology -- these "digital seed capital" efforts are "down-payments" to jumpstart innovation and break a two decade long cycle of snail-like reform.

While this article mostly discusses digital textbooks, there is a section devoted to "The Engagement Challenge" and how quality video games can make education more relevant to children.

This article reminds me that not everyone is convinced that video games and other educational technologies belong in the classroom.

Good article on the issue of divided attention as a consequence of technology-enhanced multitasking in the classroom.

Got ideas?!

An interesting article on game play in the classroom...students take on the role of a video game character and act the part during game performances!

If you look at it as 'play' instead of 'game' I think it opens a whole range of possibilities. Which is not surprising. As young children, we learned through play, often elaborate role-play.

Hi Jackie - this just reminded me to post a link below re: the CUNY (City University of New York) group that reflects on and develops all types of games in teaching. http://games.commons.gc.cuny.edu/

"Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, estimated that Mr. Cook's prediction would come true in 2017, but others contend tablets will be on top sooner than that. For example, in a blog post on Friday, Horace Dediu, an analyst with Asymco in Finland, made a detailed argument that tablet sales would pass traditional PC sales in the fall of 2013.

Developers of electronic textbooks and educational games would do well to focus on the tablet platform, which is predicted to become dominant in the next 2 to 3 years. This means that we would need to be fully prepared to leverage the affordances of the tablet technology in delivering our products. .

Emotion-sensing computer software that responds to students' cognitive and emotional states, including frustration and boredom. This tool seems to address all the issues we've been talking about in T545! Could this be the tool that replaces teachers?!

An interesting article with examples of schools that are "closing the loop"--successfully connecting students, teachers, and technologists to advance the use of technology within the classroom). Also contains a nice visual.

Here is more on self-efficacy theory, particularly how it was applied in the author's game "Air Medic Sky 1."

Nice post, Stepahnie. I have already borrowed a couple of ideas from this for my project, such as some training modules within the game to provide mastery experiences.

A decent resource on educational games for math

Google started YouTube for Schools in December. Now schools can choose the videos they want, "scrubbed of all comments and linked only to other related educational videos."