Learning Simulation & Serious Game Profile: Family Of Heroes According to Clark Aldrich, a passionate advocate for the potential for learning simulations and serious games, a learning simulation is “an experience designed to rigorously help users develop competence and conviction. A learning simulation is a combination of modeling elements, entertainment (or game) elements, and instructional (or pedagogical) elements. These can range from pure media (which do not involve any other humans), to experiences that use coaches, teammates, competitors, and communities.” TeachThought will have much more on simulations later this week–including an interview with Aldrich on simulations and what makes them tick. The goal is for this database to eventually become a fully searchable online tool. The first example, Family of Heroes, appears below. Profile: Family of Heroes
Oxford University Press Plans to Gamify Classic Books | For the Win Maybe your younger days were consumed by the fantasy worlds from your favorite books. With each new story, you looked forward to bonding with the characters, embarking on a new journey, and, with any luck, living happily ever after. Or perhaps reading when you were younger was a torturous affair that could only be done if the right bribe or incentive were in place. Whatever the case may be, the recent partnership between Oxford University Press and mobile and social web game developer SecretBuilders is an exciting one. Oxford University Press announced that the partnership supports the “50 Great Reads Before 15” initiative, which transforms classics like Macbeth and Alice in Wonderland into engaging and interactive experiences. So for those kids who always anticipate their next reading adventure, they will be able connect in a deeper way to some of their favorite characters.
A List of The Best Free Digital Storytelling Tools for Teachers 1- ZimmerTwins It is all about creative storytelling. ZimmerTwins is a web2.0 tool that allows students to give vent to their imaginative powers and exercise their storytelling skills from early stages to advances ones. 2- Digital Story Telling in The Classroom This section provides resources and materials for teachers to use with their students in storytelling. 3- Story Bird This is an awesome website that allows students and teachers to create short art inspired stories to read, share or print out. 4- Someries Someries is a fantastic storytelling site . 5- PicLits This is another awesome website where students can choose a picture and start drawing or writing a text on it to create a story. 6- Generator This is a creative studio space where students explore the moving image and create their own digital stories to share with others. 7- Capzles This is where you and your students can create rich multimedia stories with videos, photos, music, blogs and documents.
Learn to Play: Minecraft in the classroom • Articles • PC Imagine being eight years old today. You pack your bag, hop on a bus, act like your crush has cooties and go through lessons on history, English, maths, science, and... Minecraft? That's the reality for about 200,000 kids today who have Minecraft in their schools as part of the curriculum. Educational software is nothing new, but most "edutainment" (I reckon there's no dirtier word in the gaming vernacular) games were traditional curriculum wearing the guise of a video game as convincingly as Superman posing as a journalist by wearing glasses. These days that's changed. 'I think playing Minecraft kind of taps into the same part of the brain as playing with Legos and I don't think anybody disputes the educational value of Legos.' - Joel Levin It all started when then 35 year old New York-based computer teacher Joel Levin began playing the Minecraft alpha in the summer of 2010. But before all that he showed it to a second-grade class of seven and eight year olds.
schooX - The Academy for Self Learners - Online Courses and Certificates 4 Awesome New Blooms Taxonomy Posters I have been recently engaged in expanding Blooms Taxonomy section here in Educational Technology and Mobile Learning to include new resources published for the first time. Blooms Taxonomy for The iPad and Blooms Taxonomy for The Web are the most recent additions in this regard. I am also working on Blooms Taxonomy for Android. Some of you send me emails asking why I don't cover Android in my posts as I do with iPad ( or iOS devices ). The answer is simple , I am more used to working on and handling iPad than Android operated devices. I do love Android and I will probably give it more space in this blog this year. I am not going to talk about Blooms Taxonomy because I know all of my readers are already familiar with what it is all about and for those who are new here please refer to Blooms Taxonomy section mentioned above to learn more.
The 5 Decisive Components of Outstanding Learning Games The 5 Decisive Components of Outstanding Learning Games It's a common phrase to say "learn by playing." Different communication theories confirm this. Games make us produce dopamine, a brain chemical that increases learning and stimulates our state of attention. eLearning experts believe that games and playing need to be part of a course for adults to learn effectively. As a result, learning games are a necessary part of great eLearning these days. Without them, your courseware wouldn’t be so engaging... Since the ultimate goal is to get your learners to complete the course and actually learn the content in it, games are a great way to achieve this. Here are the five most critical components of outstanding Learning Games: Goals and objectives: Games definitely help reinforce learning objectives through playing. Some games turn out to be just boring ordinary games instead of proper ones with good content. Rules and/or Instructions: Interaction: Outcomes and Feedback
Scholar's Quest