Health Games = Healthy Kids = Healthy Learning

I grew up in the 70's learning from Seseme Street and The Electric Company.

However, today's kids want more than passive viewing, they are hungry for Active Doing!

Fear not, Grover and Cookie Monster have e-volved and are still providing FREE, interactive education content for today's digital learner.

The focus is on a healthy diet which has been directly linked to improved academic achievement.

To visit, see, and PLAY ~ Click HERE.

Play to Learn

In two weeks, Carnegie Mellon University will be hosting the 2nd Annual Game Education Summit.

I love gaming...
I love education...
I love da' Burgh...

Hope to see you there!

For more information, click here.

Escape the Middle School Math Maze

Enter the Learning Labyrinth! Yet another ~FREE~ standards-based resource for teaching math. MIT's Education Arcade in conjunction of FableVision has created a game based tool to build pre-algebra skills.

Lure of the Labyrinth is a digital game for middle-school pre-algebra students. It includes a wealth of intriguing math-based puzzles wrapped into an exciting narrative game in which students work to find their lost pet - and save the world from monsters! Linked to both national and state mathematics standards, the game gives students a chance to actually think like mathematicians.

To learn more by visiting the Labyrinth homepage, click here.

Eco-Challenge

A shot in the arm...for Science Education

The Federation of American Scientists have provided a much needed shot in the arm for high school biology teachers with the release of "Immune Attack"; a supplemental learning tool designed to excite students about the subject of immunology.

This 3D educational video game puts the student in charge of navigating a microscopic robot through the human body on a mission to detect infection and activate the appropriate immunity defenses.

Like so many other educational products, you can download Immune Attack for FREE!

For more information,or to download ~click here.

No Habla?

River City Project
Quest Atlantis
Tabula Digital
The Metaverse

If you're not familiar with these names, it may be due to a language barrier.

Our kids speak digital...
Our kids speak online...
Our kids speak gaming...

Do you?

I've heard people say the #1 reason for divorce is a failure to communicate...

Our students are divorcing public education at an alarming rate.

Better learn to speak their language or hire a good attorney!

To review a recent article on gaming in education, click here.

Learn to play ~ Play to learn

Do not train children to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.
-- Plato

Below is a comprehensive list of edugaming conferences for the remainder of 2008.

I'll be in Pittsburgh this Fall...Hope to see you there!

GAMEON-Asia
May 2008. Shiga, Japan.
http://www.eurosis.org/cms/index.php?q=node/71

The Philosophy of Computer Games
8-10 May 2008. Potsdam, Germany.
http://emw.fh-potsdam.de/users/gamephilosophy/

Play Conference
23-24 May 2008. Edinburgh, UK.
http://forum.llc.ed.ac.uk/play/

Canadian Game Studies Association Conference
31 May 2008. Vancouver, Canada.
http://contagion.edu.yorku.ca:16080/cgsa/events.php

Under the Mask: Perspectives on the Gamer Conference
7 Jun 2008. Bedford, UK.
http://www.bedfordshire.ac.uk/research/rimad/underthemask

Edutainment
25-27 Jun 2008. Nanjing, China.
http://edutainment2008.eegame.cn/

Future and Reality Gaming (F.R.O.G)
17-19 Oct 2008. Vienna, Austria.
http://www.bupp.at/frog

Sandbox
4-7 Aug 2008. Los Angeles, CA, USA.
http://sandbox.siggraph.org/

GAMEON-NA
13-15 Aug 2008. Montreal, Canada.
http://www.eurosis.org/cms/index.php?q=node/556

Digital Interactive Arts and Media (DIMEA)
10-12 Sep 2008. Athens, Greece.
http://www.dimea2008.org/

Women in Games
10-12 Sep 2008. Warwick, UK.
http://www.womeningames.com/

Facial and Bodily Expressions for Control and Adaptation of Games (ECAG'08)
16 Sep 2008. Amsterdam, Netherlands
http://hmi.ewi.utwente.nl/conference/ECAG08

International Conference on Entertainment Computing
25-27 Sep 2008. Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
http://www.etc.cmu.edu/icec2008/

Mindtrek
8-9 Oct 2008. Tampere, Finland.
http://www.mindtrek.org/

Meaningful Play
9-11 Oct 2008. East Lansing, MI, USA.
http://meaningfulplay.msu.edu/

Artificial Intelligence and Interactive Digital Entertainment (AIIDE)
22-24 Oct 2008. Stanford, CA, USA.
http://www.aiide.org/

Game Connect Asia Pacific (GCAP08)
Nov 2008. Queensland, Australia
http://www.gameconnectap.com/

FuturePlay
3-5 Nov 2008. Toronto, Canada.
http://www.futureplay.org/

IEEE International Conference on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy
Enhanced Learning
17-19 Nov 2008. Banff, Canada.
http://www.ask4research.info/digitel/2008/

Living in Game Worlds
1-2 Dec 2008. Atlanta, GA, USA.
http://gameworlds.gatech.edu/

Interactive Entertainment (IE2008)
3-5 Dec 2008. Brisbane, Australia.
http://ieconference.org/ie2008/

OZCHI: Australasian Computer-Human Interaction Conference
8-12 Dec 2008. Cairns, Australia.
http://www.ozchi.org/mediawiki/index.php/OZCHI_2008

Feelings...nothing more than feelings...

When was the last time you asked your class what they would like to learn or how they feel about the way they are being taught? Maybe never? Wouldn't want the inmates to be running the asylum now would we...

Well Project Tomorrow did ask in the 2007 national "Speak-up" survey and here is what they found:

Students like playing games! Digital games to be exact. This should not come as a revelation to anyone living in a community with electricity. Yet the report found only 10% of educators nationwide have incorporated any type of gaming in the classroom.

If we are serious about building student centered classrooms, the foundation must be laid on the wants and needs of the student.

To read more about this topic, click here.

Bully Ban

The Canadien Teacher's Federation is calling for a ban on Bully...the newly released game that is...

Bully is a sandbox game set in a school environment. The game focuses on Bullworth's newest student, Jimmy Hopkins. As he advances through his academic career at Bullworth Academy, he may interact with the school's students and teachers, as well as people from the neighboring towns, many of whom will give him errands to complete. (Click on article title for full description from Wikipedia)

He is greeted by Gary Smith, a scheming, unstable sociopath and Pete Kowalski, a shy student who has yet to make any friends. Jimmy has to navigate his way through the five cliques at the school — the Bullies, Nerds, Preppies, Greasers and Jocks — as well as the Townie kids, the school faculty and all the other adult townsfolk. Unlike other games from Rockstar no two characters in Bully are the same, and every character has a name.

Jimmy Hopkins has a multitude of weapons available, although they tend to run along the lines of things a school boy might actually attain, such as slingshots, bags of marbles, stink bombs, and later in the game, a bottle rocket launcher and a spud gun.

Without a doubt, bullying(the act of intimidating and harassing)is a horrible cancer on our public school system. However, kids today have far worse examples to emulate than a cartoonish video game including friends, family, coaches, and most damning of all ~ Their Teachers.

For an ongoing discussion facilitated by the gaming community,click here

For information on the position taken by the CTF,click here

Game Design

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