SimCityEDU | Scientific investigation in Second Life and Open Sim ISSE : An Interactive Source Separation Editor How To Gamify Your Classroom In my last post, Following the Oregon Trail: Why Gaming Prevails in Education, I discussed the rationale for including games in pedagogy. Games are engaging, promote retention, and provide students with a fail-safe environment in which to learn and grow, to name a few benefits. It is becoming common knowledge that games are an effective instructional tool. For those wanting to incorporate games or gamification into their classrooms, there are project and design components to consider. Game DesignersProgrammersGraphic ArtistsSound EngineersCopy EditorsProject ManagersTesters Game production can be particularly intimidating for educators who are already juggling lesson planning, grading, classroom management, professional development and all the other important responsibilities of teaching. Luckily, there is a vast toolbox at your disposal; just a quick Google search of “educational games” produces over 180 million hits! Level 1: Begin at the End Level 2: Don’t Forget About the Brain
Gehan Kamachi - Digital city and virtual worlds 360 Degree Aerial Panorama | 3D Virtual Tours Around the World | Photos of the Most Interesting Places on the Earth | AirPano.com What's wrong with educational games (and how we can fix them) I’ve been designing, building, playing and promoting educational games (both digital and non-digital) all my working life. Starting out as a TEFL teacher, games were a huge component of my classes: from number games with little kids to complex role plays with adults. As I began to work more with digital media I started to design games for web and mobile: everything from location-based drawing games to a million-selling multi-level world for kids to learn English. And yet, for all my tub-thumping about how great games are as a tool for learning, I’ve found myself let down time and time again by the quality of most educational games. Too many educational games are no better than traditional teaching methods We make educational games for the wrong reasons Too many games start from the desire to build something cool, to be in an educational technology startup, or from some vaguely conceived idea about fixing a broken educational system with tech. We aren’t ambitious enough We work alone
Khan Academy LA VIE EST UN JEU • L’école dont vous êtes le héros DE NOTRE HORS-SÉRIE - Créer des jeux vidéo, gérer un réseau social ou monter des podcasts, tels sont les cours donnés aux élèves de Quest to Learn, un collège new-yorkais considéré comme précurseur par certains spécialistes de l’éducation. Un matin de l’hiver dernier à New York, à l’intérieur d’une école publique tout ce qu’il y a de plus classique, dans une salle ordinaire, Al Doyle, professeur de collège, donne un cours un peu différent des cours habituels. A 54 ans, cet enseignant est un vétéran de l’éducation, avec trente-deux années passées à faire cours un peu partout dans Manhattan, où il enseignait à l’origine le graphisme et l’infographie. Dans cette école, baptisée Quest to Learn [Soif d’apprendre], il donne un cours, Sports for the Mind [Sports pour l’esprit], que tous les élèves suivent trois fois par semaine. La leçon du jour porte sur le mouvement de l’ennemi, en l’occurrence une ignoble troupe de robots hérissés de piquants errant dans un jeu vidéo.
200 Free Kids Educational Resources: Lessons, Apps, Books, Websites... This collection provides a list of free educational resources for K‑12 students (kindergarten through high school students) and their parents and teachers. This page is being updated and cleaned up during the COVID-19 crisis. Please tell us if we’re missing something valuable. Below you will find free video lessons/tutorials; free mobile apps; free audiobooks, ebooks and textbooks; quality YouTube channels; free foreign language lessons; test prep materials; and free web resources in academic subjects like literature, history, science and computing. Home Schooling Resources During COVID-19 Amazing Educational Resources: A spreadsheet of 300+ education companies offering free subscriptions due to school closings. Free Audio Books, eBooks and Textbooks Free Audio Books: Our collection of 450 free audio books includes many children’s classics. Foreign Languages Video Lessons/Tutorials Art & Visual Culture (Web Resources)
Quest to Learn, ou les leçons du jeu appliquées à l'éducation Des projets ambitieux en éducation, il y en a eu des tonnes. Des réformes puissantes qui « allaient révolutionner les méthodes d'apprentissage ». En réalité, bien peu d'entre elles ont été appliquées assez longtemps pour porter leurs fruits. Parce que le projet coûte plus cher que prévu, que la technique n'est pas à la hauteur ou simplement parce que le milieu éducatif n'est pas prêt à modifier ses pratiques en profondeur. En 2009-2010, quand le monde a entendu parler de ce projet d'école new-yorkaise qui basait les apprentissages sur l'usage massif du jeu vidéo, cela a soulevé beaucoup d'enthousiasme, mais aussi beaucoup de questions. Il semble que oui. Accompagner plus, transmettre moins Contrairement à ce que l'on pouvait imaginer, les élèves qui fréquentent Q2L ne sont pas des mutants. Mais les deux univers diffèrent sur un point capital : la perception de l'erreur. Quest to learn encourage aussi la créativité de ses élèves. Le prix du rêve Références : Burke, Whitney. Corbett, Sara.
Newsmaker: James Gee on Why the Power of Games to Teach Remains Unrealized Gee: “We need to begin to get teams of people — game designers, content people, assessment people, learning people — who can get on the same page.” For more than a decade, James Paul Gee has been writing about the potential power of games and game mechanics to change the way we learn, to create new “deep” learners. But in this newsmaker interview Gee says most of the possibilities of games remain unfulfilled as the American education system continues to focus on tests and fact retention. He worries that even as learning games become more prevalent, they are in danger of being changed by the schools they seek to sell to rather than changing the school itself. “The textbook was the worst educational invention ever made because it was a one size fits all type thing and we don’t want to do the same things with games. Listen to the full interview: The following is an edited version of the full conversation: Has much changed in the last decade? James Paul Gee: No, no.
World of Warcraft: An Educational Tool | Sociological Imagination: Situating Oneself in Both Time and Place This is my second post in the blog series that will examine different facets of World of Warcraft, particularly my experience with the game and the role of addiction in our personal and professional lives. My last post focused on addiction from a psychological perspective, and today I will be discussing World of Warcraft from an educational perspective. A study conducted at North Carolina State University showed that playing World of Warcraft can actually increase cognitive function in older adults. Because of the addictive properties of the game, World of Warcraft can break down human inhibition in a unique way that creates cognitive and attention biases that increase their functionality, measured by test scores. Further cognitive studies of World of Warcraft have shown that the game is a very unique learning environment that is very difficult to duplicate. Independently of learning strategies and effective teamwork, World of Warcraft promotes innovative thinking.
World of Warcraft Finds Its Way Into Class World of Warcraft Students’ passions can be a powerful driver for deeper and more creative learning. With this knowledge, some educators are using popular commercial games like World of Warcraft (WoW) to create curriculum around the game. And they say they’re seeing success, especially with learners who have had trouble in traditional classrooms. World of Warcraft is a Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplay (MMOR) game, where players take on the identity of characters in a narrative-rich plot, working together to overcome challenges. “In my estimation, a well-designed video game is pure, scaffolded, constructivist learning at its best,” said Peggy Sheehy, one of the designers of WoW in Schools, an elective English Language Arts curriculum built around the game. “Game designers get that failure is anticipated and celebrated. Sheehy designs “quests” with particular learning objectives in mind that the students or — “heroes” as they’re called in class — must complete. Related