wb: Thought this a very useful (+short!) discussion of the new learning that is emerging thanks to computers. Filled with tons of great links to online resources and teaching game examples I hadn't heard of before.

11 minute TED talk by the company making cool virtual labs in Unity. notes that students are bored by classic classroom teaching, and most of the current "innovations" in online teaching involve putting that same boring approach online. backs it up with some research. Points out that when you make an entertaining virtual lab with a story, students forget to check facebook for hours. Final takeaway is that the tech is here, and the next leap forward in education will come when teachers adopt it.

Engineering students at Penn State have developed an immersive virtual reality system and explain the benefits of an an immersive, tactile classroom experience for distance education students.

I thought this was a funny and insightful explanation into why smart academics find it impossible to write directly or clearly. It's kinda long (ironically?) but eventually starts listing a few good (specific) insights. Thought yall might enjoy from a "how can we improve communication and content" perspective.

Thought this was a nice easy read regarding a topic that comes up each year. We all know educational games should tackle more than memorization and that multiple choice questions offer a puerile level of analysis, but seems like we keep falling back into these two traps. Looking forward to tackling new projects that treat learning as the ally instead of the goal, and encourage exploration more than stepping through checklists. Just sharing because I enjoy chewing this stuff over all the time.

I deeply respect this industry pioneer, Michael Abrash, and his talk on the current state of wearable computing really turned my head around. Thought i'd throw a link up here, just in case any of you are curious about this emerging field. (basically, just click the PDF in the first paragraph, which attempts to go through and explain everything in "simpler" terms. The short of it is that we now have the tech to deliver on the promise of VR goggles from the late 80s. And after that, within about 5 years, the world will be changed by Augmented Reality (AR) - when your cell phone can seemlessly detect and enhance everything you look at). (the tech isn't quite there for AR yet, but google released Glass to try and get ahead of the game).

I just thought this cool. Not clear how valuable the game actually is (not a lot of deets). but I love the idea of re-purposing the classic game of Clue into scenarios based on real terrorist plots, with a goal of identifying and mitigating the cognitive and anchoring bias inherent in us all. ... I also love that they came up with MACBETH as an acronym. :)

This article offers broad predictions (and demands) for the future of education (sorry). Butttttt : I enjoyed several of the specific examples they tossed out (of how different schools are rethinking education). ... and they mentioned at least one higher ed example, so i don't feel too bad for foisting it on yall.

An article about the emerging idea that independent game developers would fit well with the edu-games market. I think it's interesting to see a summary of the current edu-games rockstars, and to think about the future of working with 3rd parties. (honestly not sure if it's a growing market or a bad idea. While we drool over polished edu-games and simulations for some classes, it also seems like teachers ALWAYS want some customization for thier course. which most 3rd party developers aren't setup to deliver. sooo. maybe the real takeaway is that schools will all end up having an edu-games department! i hope... :)

This is a heady rant about motivating your user. (7 min). While some of the big words might be off putting, the simple game examples should be inviting. ? It serves as advice on making someone feel glad they performed a task you setup for them. The speaker is talking about video games, and behavioral engineering, but I think it relates to motivating online students. _________________________ tl;dr? the core takeaway is: points ain't rewards. Just because you gave someone points, doesn't mean they received them as a reward. Points only work as rewards when they are a "token" of whatever currency the player values. I think this is fascinating to keep in mind when trying to motivate students. (you might think of grades and degrees as tokens in different currencies) + I'm curious to learn how much the field of "instructional design" leverages behavioral engineering.