A Neurologist Makes the Case for the Video Game Model as a Learning Tool The popularity of video games is not the enemy of education, but rather a model for best teaching strategies. Games insert players at their achievable challenge level and reward player effort and practice with acknowledgement of incremental goal progress, not just final product. The fuel for this process is the pleasure experience related to the release of dopamine. Dopamine Motivation The human brain, much like that of most mammals, has hardwired physiological responses that had survival value at some point in evolutionary progression. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that, when released in higher than usual amounts, goes beyond the synapse and flows to other regions of the brain producing a powerful pleasure response. No Pain, No Gain The survival benefit of the dopamine-reward system is building skills and adaptive responses. Awareness of Incremental Goal Progress Individualized Achievable Challenge Game Entry Point is a Perfect Fit Through Pre-assessment and Feedback
All Fun & Games? Understanding Learner Outcomes Through Educational Games Over the past several years, there has been tremendous interest among educators in the use of digital games as serious learning. Advocates of game-based learning for K-12 students cite the value of digital games to teach and reinforce skills that prepare students for college and career, such as collaboration, problem solving, creativity, and communication. Not as often discussed is our ability to use students' in-game actions as evidence for the assessment of skills and knowledge, including those not easily measured by traditional multiple-choice tests. The Potential of Games as Invisible Assessments Traditional assessment methods often require teachers to interrupt classroom learning and administer tests. In contrast, invisible assessments make use of technology to record information about the ways students interact with learning material in a seamless manner, without interruption. Game or Gamification? A Look Toward the Future
Ian Livingstone applies to create 'gaming' school 9 October 2014Last updated at 10:20 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News Ian Livingstone is known to some as "father" of Tomb Raider Lara Croft British games industry veteran Ian Livingstone has formally applied to launch a free school with lessons built using video gaming. Mr Livingstone told the BBC he wanted to use games-based learning rather than relying on "relentless testing". "I'm passionate about children who have been born into the internet. The school, which could open in 2016, would be based in Hammersmith, west London. The application to the Department for Education, submitted this week, was backed by Mr Livingstone's several trustees including Barnaby Lenon, former headmaster at Harrow, and Marion Gibbs, head teacher at James Allen School for Girls in East Dulwich. Also on the board is David Cramer, who owns international rights for the Rubik's Cube. "The application process is very competitive and all proposals are rigorously assessed before they are approved."
Radical new economic system will emerge from collapse of capitalism | Guardian Sustainable Business At the very moment of its ultimate triumph, capitalism will experience the most exquisite of deaths. This is the belief of political adviser and author Jeremy Rifkin, who argues the current economic system has become so successful at lowering the costs of production that it has created the very conditions for the destruction of the traditional vertically integrated corporation. Rifkin, who has advised the European Commission, the European Parliament and heads of state, including German chancellor Angela Merkel, says: No one in their wildest imagination, including economists and business people, ever imagined the possibility of a technology revolution so extreme in its productivity that it could actually reduce marginal costs to near zero, making products nearly free, abundant and absolutely no longer subject to market forces. With many manufacturing companies surviving only on razor thin margins, they will buckle under competition from small operators with virtually no fixed costs.
Prizewinning Educational Games from the Nobel Foundation Marie Curie, Martin Luther King Jr, Albert Einstein, Sir Alexander Fleming, Mother Teresa; all of these amazing individuals have one thing in common – winning the Nobel Prize. The Nobel Prize is one of the most highly regarded awards given to people working in the fields of literature, medicine, physics, chemistry, peace, and economics. But the Nobel Foundation is more than just an award giving Foundation, and has branched out into creating educational content related to the hard work done by Nobel Prize winners. Not only does their website contain video clips, documentaries, literature and history related to the winners, but it has over 29 interactive educational games for students to learn about key scientific, economic, literature and peace concepts. Peace Prize Games The Nobel Foundation has four compelling Peace Prize games that touch on important political and human rights issues such as nuclear weapons, prisoners of war, conflicts and democracies. Science Games Literature Games
Download a Prototype of Ever, Jane, a Video Game That Takes You Inside the Virtual World of Jane Austen A few days ago, 3 Turn Productions finished raising $109,563 (from 1,600 backers) on Kickstarter to fund the development of “Ever, Jane,” a virtual game that allows people to role-play in Regency Period England. 3 Turn describes the gist of their game as follows: Similar to traditional role playing games, we advance our character through experience, but that is where the similarities end. Ever, Jane is about playing the actual character in the game, building stories. Our quests are derived from player’s actions and stories. And we gossip rather than swords and magic to demolish our enemies and aid our friends.Try to win the sympathy of Lizzie Bennet by telling lies about your rival, as Mr. A description is nice, but a demo is even better. via Metafilter Related Content: As Pride and Prejudice Turns 200, Read Jane Austen’s Manuscripts Online ‘Pride and Prejudice’ Author Jane Austen Will Appear on the £10 Note Long Live Glitch!
innovative-nonprofit-releases-kinesthetic-based-educational-games-geomoto-and-pangean-300158663 Innovative Nonprofit Releases Kinesthetic-based Educational Games GeoMoto and Pangean LOS ANGELES, Oct. 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Staying true to its mission, GameDesk has released two new and novel interactive gaming titles for education for the IOS, Android, and Leap Controller/PC platforms. GeoMoto and Pangean are embodied learning experiences allowing players to learn through direction and movement creating geographic features by pulling, smashing and grinding tectonic plates and moving entire continents. Since its launch in 2011, GameDesk has developed some of the most innovative learning games, platforms, and experiential school curriculum available today, including its flagship social-emotional title, Dojo, and interactive learning platform Educade.org. GeoMoto, which is now currently available in the Apple App and Android Store for $4.99, invites players to navigate a planet devoid of geographic features. For a look at all of our games check out our products page About GameDesk:
Videos Tagged With 'Serious games' Google Tech Talk (more info below) June 3, 2011 Presented by Jan Plass and Bruce Homer. ABSTRACT Digital Games are pervasive, constantly evolving in their complexity and features, and are heralded by many as an agent for education reform. Arguably, digital games are also among the least understood tools in education, particularly in K-12 settings. Proponents have made a strong case for the pote... Tags: Google Tech Talk, Video Games, digital games, educational games, serious games, Google, GoogleTechTalks Researchers Harness Brain Game Data The activities of cognitive training enthusiasts give insight into the effects of lifestyle choices and age on the brain’s performance. FLICKR, HEY PAUL STUDIOSScientists from California’s Lumos Labs, maker of Web-based brain training games, are gathering data from online users to make connections between cognitive performance, lifestyle choices, and aging, according to a paper published last week (June 20) in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. For tasks testing memory and arithmetic skills—each completed by around 127,000 to 162,000 users who took a lifestyle survey—the researchers found that high performance correlated with drinking one or two alcoholic beverages per day and sleeping around 7 hours a night. The researchers also analyzed data from the subset of users who completed individual tasks at least 25 times, in order to measure the relationship between learning ability and age. Around 23,000 to 107,000 users per task qualified as repeat users.
Game Theory, Popular Science On test day for my Behavioral Ecology class at UCLA, I walked into the classroom bearing an impossibly difficult exam. Rather than being neatly arranged in alternate rows with pen or pencil in hand, my students sat in one tight group, with notes and books and laptops open and available. They were poised to share each other's thoughts and to copy the best answers. Who in their right mind would condone and encourage cheating among UCLA juniors and seniors? The students began to talk and write. Nevertheless, I'm a realist. Much of evolution and natural selection can be summarized in three short words: "Life is games." So last quarter I had an intriguing thought while preparing my Game Theory lectures. A week before the test, I told my class that the Game Theory exam would be insanely hard—far harder than any that had established my rep as a hard prof. Gasps filled the room. "None," I replied. They could surf the Web. But did the students themselves realize this?
Solving the World - Serious Games Require Serious Gamers | Curiouser Institute Every day gamers go into fictional spaces to save the world. They go on quests to save the Mario Galaxy, battle evil in Azeroth, and improve their lots in Farmville. Millions of gamers spend in the area of 3 billion hours a week solving the difficult and challenging problems of hundreds of fictional worlds and thousands of quests. Until lately that didn't really have much of an effect on the real world. The ability of games to now reach out into the real world brings up a tantalizing question. Like puzzles? The term "serious gaming" is a useful, but in some ways unfortunate term. Current games are packed with psychologically rich content which is highly reflective and connected to our inner life. This is what makes the games so vitally important to us. So Mario Galaxy is really an internal galaxy and reflective of and participating in the gamer's internal desires, delights, and growth. On the surface you could argue that serious games are the enlightened competition of games.