Teachers Without Borders

ideo Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the Digital Age

Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus: The intent of this work is to describe various ways in which students' ready engagement in, and quick learning when playing, electronic games have been assumed to provide useful guidance to educators. This goal is pursued by means of analysis of the relevant research and the prescriptions for classroom teaching and learning that have emerged it. Close critical examination of these attempts to infer educational practices from electronic gaming yields three general strategies that have been pursued. The focus of this study has been on evaluating the relative value of these three general strategies.

Like many Liberians, Mercy Womeh missed several years of education as a result of the 14-year civil war. She is now 18 and determined to complete her final two years of schooling. To fund her education, she crushes rocks. On a good day, she fills as many as seven buckets with stones, selling them to pay her school fees

Christchurch's earthquake-displaced secondary schools overcame a disruptive year to achieve better academic results than in 2010. Thousands of pupils at a number of the city's schools spent most of last year sharing sites after earthquake damage forced them from their schools. There had been fears pupils' academic results would be tarnished by the upheaval of having less teaching time each day and travelling to another school site, often across town. However, statistics released by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority show the displaced schools accomplished even better National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) results last year than they did in 2010.

Just 44 percent of American teachers say they're satisfied with their jobs, the lowest number in two decades and an 18-point drop since 2008.

Even in a country where 60 percent of the population lives in deep poverty, the boy's self-immolation raised alarm. Kamran, who died Saturday from his burns, has become a symbol of the hopelessness of families crushed by high unemployment, rising prices for staples such as wheat and skyrocketing fuel costs.