I love infographs so I was very giddy when I came across this one today! Those lines certainly get confusing, but it makes it's point...almost every game is multi-disciplinary. Each game has the potential to teach us several different things. The facts are really interesting, as well. Enjoy!
My mother and I differ greatly on games and their learning potential. However, one thing we agree on is that games can inspire social change. She always has me on the look-out for games that can teach children about topics that are hard to discuss - like cyberbullying. While this was several years ago, I wanted to bring your attention to Braincells, which uses puzzles and mini-games to teach kids how serious cyberbullying and hacking can be. If you are interested, I recommend checking out this article. Apparently, a high school, Bridgewater-Raynham, used this game to approach their bullying problem with notably success. Know of any more? Send them to me! I'm feeling like a kid in the candy shop! I just discovered that Valve is working with educators to make Portal educational! Holy cow, I've dreamed of this moment ever since I first played Portal. Check out Teaching with Portals! Complete with lesson plans for language arts, physics, and math (chemistry and game design lesson plans coming soon). Students can experience gravity, momentum, and terminal velocity. Lesson plans also include geometry scavenger hunts and building an oscillator. Be sure to take advantage of the Portal puzzle maker! You can watch the Games for Change announcement here. Maybe old news to some, but new to me! I stole this little snippet of information from Gamesutra. The Institute of Play has partnered with Electronic Arts and the Entertainment Software Association to establish the Glass Lab, which is a lab focused exclusively on making serious games for American students. Not only will they be creating new games, but they will be modifying commercial games to bring out their educational potential. Best part? They are going to make them CHEAP (or even free)! I would keep an eye on this one! This is what happens when I don't check Games for Change enough. Apparently last month they announced the winners of the Games for Change competition in June. Here are the winners! I plan on checking them out and playing them sometime this weekend. The categories are 1) games that made the biggest social impact by targeting a social issue (most significant impact), 2) games that brought new ideas into social change games (most innovative game), 3) games that used current events or documentary subject matter and, of course (Knights News award), 4) games that had the best game mechanics (best gameplay). Today I came across this little treasure - Glitch. It looks like a very kid-friendly MMO full of learning material. It really is bizarre-looking but fascinating - sure to inspire any kid's creativity, I'm sure. As my boyfriend said, "I just watched the trailer and have no idea what I watched." Haha! "Glitch is a web-based massively-multiplayer game which takes place inside the minds of eleven peculiarly imaginative Giants. You choose how to grow and shape the world: building and developing, learning new skills, collaborating or competing with everyone else in one enormous, ever-changing, persistent world." MMO's have so much to offer in terms of collaboration, communication, and system-thinking. They tend to be very compelling, however, so be sure to set firm boundaries for game-play. Glitch is still in Beta. I've requested an invitation to play, so here is hoping I get one! When I get to play the game, I will post about it on my blog. |
On this page I will post new research and discoveries in game-based learning. This will include research articles, newspaper articles, blog posts, YouTube videos, and other paraphernalia I come across.
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February 2013
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