Learning Games Network

Please Comment on Our Proposal

Andy — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 16:27:41 +0000

If you're already a fan of our Facebook page, then you know that tomorrow, Monday, is the final day to comment on our proposal for the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Competition.

Our goal is to expand a game design curriculum we're using with teachers and students this spring to reach more students and teachers with a wider array of online resources to support the design of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) games next year. We would appreciate your feedback on the proposal:

I Made That: Enabling and Reinforcing STEM Learning through Creative Game Design and Production

The competition invites public comment before Monday, 22 February at 10:00 a.m. EST/7:00 a.m. PST. To log a comment, you must complete a very simple registration at the site. Our hope is that it will only take you a few minutes today or early Monday. Thank you!

Stay updated on games and learning — subscribe by email or RSS and find us on Facebook.

Teacher PLC Starts Tomorrow!

Andy — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:19:25 +0000

Tomorrow, Saturday, Feb 13, our Teacher Professional Learning Community events begin over at Elluminate's LearnCentral:

Noon-1:00pm EST: Choosing and Using Video Games in the Classroom: Pros and Cons
1:00-2:00pm EST: Designing eGames, Session 1

We're looking forward to meeting all who have signed up to join us!

Stay updated on games and learning — subscribe by email or RSS and find us on Facebook.

This Wednesday: Science of the Winter Olympics Webinar

Andy — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 11:51:25 +0000

As part of our Learning Games webinar series over at Elluminate's LearnCentral, we invite you to join us this Wednesday for Olympics Science: Online Resources for the Classroom from NBC Learn:

Description: On February 12th, the torch will light over Vancouver for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Join the Learning Games Network's Alex Chisholm and special guest Norman Cohen, producer at NBC Learn, to bring the science of the Winter Olympics home to your classroom.

NBC Learn has collaborated with the National Science Foundation to create this series of video resources and lesson plans demonstrating the links between the laws of physics and the principles of chemistry, and downhill skiing, bobsledding, and other sports.

Join us to learn more about how NBC Learn can inspire students by approaching the science of sports from a new perspective. Part of the Learning Games series on LearnCentral.

Links:
NBC Learn: http://nbclearn.com/olympics
Lesson Plans: http://lessonopoly.org/svef/?q=node/9086

We hope you'll join us this Wednesday, Feb 10, at 7:30pm EST!

Previously:
Teacher Professional Learning Community Info Session
Drawing Lesson Plans from Gaming, Case Study: Caduceus

Stay updated on games and learning — subscribe by email or RSS and find us on Facebook.

Proposal Deadline Extended for GLS 6.0

Andy — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 19:51:06 +0000

Back in November, we mentioned the upcoming Games+Learning+Society Conference (GLS 6.0), June 9-11, 2010, in Madison, Wisconsin. The deadline for submissions has been moved to February 15, 2010, so if you haven't submitted your proposal for a talk yet, now is the time!

If you haven't heard, this year's conference themes are:

Formal & informal science literacy
Media production & identity
Game design & learning

Conference highlights include:

Keynotes by leaders in both academics and industry;
Interactive workshops on game research and game design;
Both individual and symposia presentation sessions;
“Chat n’ frags” and hands-on gameplay in the arcade;
An evening poster session over cocktails & hors d'oeuvres;
An evening machinima festival in the playhouse theatre;
Fireside chats that enable thorough, cozy conversations among VIP speakers and attendees; and
GLS's signature Thursday night dinner and marquee presentation.

Confirmed Speakers include: Henry Jenkins, James Paul Gee, Drew Davidson, Alan Collins, David Wiley, Kurt Squire, Reed Stevens, and Rich Lemarchand.

And, as a sponsor of the GLS Conference, LGN will be sending folks, too. Hope to see you there!

Stay updated on games and learning — subscribe by email or RSS and find us on Facebook.

STEM Learning through Creative Game Design

Andy — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 23:26:14 +0000

This past week marked the beginning of the public commenting phase of the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Competition. Today, the foundation's Spotlight blog encouraged its readers to join the conversation by reviewing and commenting on entries:

Navigate, explore and share your thoughts. Do you think the idea is a good one? Do you have any suggestions on how to make it better? Interested in collaborating? The applicants will have a chance to incorporate your input during the resubmission period.

We encourage you, too!

Why? Well, you probably won't be surprised to learn that we've thrown our hat into the ring with an entry, I Made That: Enabling and Reinforcing STEM Learning through Creative Game Design and Production. With HOME Inc. as a collaborator, we entered our proposal in the competition's 21st Century Learning Lab Designers category.

Please consider this announcement as your official invitation to visit our project's very brief, 300-word description. We're curious to hear what you think. Do you have any ideas that could make it better? Definitely leave them as comments on our proposal's page.

Public commenting is open until Feb 22, but remember, we won't be able to revise our proposal after Feb 15, the final submission date. We're looking forward to reading your reactions!

Stay updated on games and learning — subscribe by email or RSS and find us on Facebook.

Apply to the Student Design Corps Today

Andy — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 22:48:08 +0000

Special thanks to everyone who joined us at LearnCentral last night to discuss plans for our upcoming Teacher Professional Learning Community! It was great to see so many academic subjects and grade levels represented.

If you weren't able to participate in the info session, you can also read more about the PLC right here as well as get in touch with us about your interests in gaming as an educator. We should have the session's recording up very soon.

To follow up on one of the big topics from the evening, we want to highlight our Design Corps program, which is currently accepting applications from students again.

So, if you work with students (13 years and older) who have a strong interest in designing and creating their own computer games, definitely learn more about our plans for the Design Corps, which kicked off in the fall. This spring, the program is entering a new phase focusing on student design teams. We've opened this up to new participants — interested students can apply right here by Friday, January 22, 2010.

What does it take to apply between now and next Friday?

Teachers can suggest students by emailing us brief recommendations at design.corps [at] learninggamesnetwork.org. (If you're a student, ask a teacher to recommend you.)
For applicants under 18, we need a parent or guardian to let us know that he or she approves of their participation in the program. They should send a brief email affirming this to, you guessed it, design.corps [at] learninggamesnetwork.org.
All applicants must tell us a little bit about their interests using the form on this page.

Voilà, you're done! For this new group of students joining the Design Corps, we'll have our first event on Jan 23, 2010. Remember, our events are online, so participants will need reliable access to an internet connection.

Questions? Please send them to design.corps [at] learninggamesnetwork.org.

Stay updated on games and learning — subscribe by email or RSS and find us on Facebook.

Teacher PLC Info Session Tomorrow, Jan 13

Andy — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 22:02:46 +0000

As mentioned last week, tomorrow evening we're hosting an online information session for our Teacher Professional Learning Community.

Who will be there? Like-minded educators who are using digital games with their students, and who might even be interested in creating games, too. We'll be discussing our plans for the spring (8 online sessions spread across Feb-May) and looking for feedback from folks.

If you'd like to join the conversation Wednesday, 8pm EST / 5pm PST, here are all the login details. We'll be conducting the session using Elluminate through LearnCentral. Hope to see you there!

Stay updated on games and learning — subscribe by email or RSS and find us on Facebook.

2010: More Games in More Classrooms?

Andy — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:58:55 +0000

Happy New Year! Made any resolutions yet?

If yours involve bringing more games into your classroom this year, then you've come to the right place.

Last November we announced that our Teacher Professional Learning Community would launch in the new year. So, with 2010 here, we're on the lookout for more teachers interested in exploring the possibilities of using learning games as educational tools, and/or in developing games of their own for educational purposes. Are you one of them?

If you answered with a resounding "Yes," then you'll want to know about the next installment of our Learning Games webinar series on Wednesday, January 13, at 8pm EST / 5pm PST at LearnCentral. (If you're still a "Maybe," don't worry... you're welcome, too.)

We hope you'll join us for next week's online discussion with teachers already interested in building the PLC to help us chart the best course for this community, provide insight and feedback on what we have planned for the spring, and find out more about what the program has in store.

RSVP on Facebook | RSVP on LearnCentral

Our current vision for the community involves opportunities for teachers to share past experiences and insights on games they may have already brought into the classroom; brainstorming sessions to propose games that might meet or supplement existing gaps or niches in curricula; testing opportunities to try out and offer feedback on learning games currently being developed but not yet released; and workshops and webinars — potentially with continuing development credits — on designing and developing games of their own, presented by luminaries within the field of game design and production. We also envision linking our Teacher PLC with our existing Student Design Corps to offer added opportunities for teachers and students to explore this evolving field.

We invite you to join us, explore the possibilities, and help map the future of this exciting community!

Stay updated on games and learning — subscribe by email or RSS and find us on Facebook.

Games as Inspiration

Andy — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 13:06:07 +0000

From yesterday's New York Times:

Still, the revamped high school courses, educators say, should entice more young people into computer science careers as well.

At South East High School, Mario Calleros, an 18-year-old senior, may be one of them. He took the new course last year, after his interest was piqued by his experience playing computer games. “I really wanted to know how they worked,” he said.

Mr. Calleros picked up a sense of game technology by making his own, an action game with a knights-in-armor motif. Last summer, he won an internship at the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing at the University of California, Los Angeles. In the summer program, Mr. Calleros and a partner built a smartphone application, linking pictures, text descriptions and GPS location data to explain the history, architecture and amenities of individual buildings on the U.C.L.A. campus as users walk by.

Mr. Calleros is applying to college and plans to major in computer science. His teacher, Mr. Landa, pointing to the new high school curriculum, said: “It’s small and we’re just under way, but I think we’re going in the right direction here.”

(Emphasis added.)

Your school might not have a program like those mentioned in the Times, but that doesn't mean games can't serve as inspiration for your students. In January, we'll have a new intake of Design Corps members. If you have students (13+) interested in creating digital games, or you just want to learn more about our Design Corps program, email us: design.corps at learninggamesnetwork.org.

Happy holidays!

Stay updated on games and learning — subscribe by email or RSS and find us on Facebook.

NASA MMO "Mini Demo" Release in January

Andy — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 23:07:07 +0000

Just the other day, we highlighted the White House announcement regarding Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education. As you'd expect, NASA has a long history of promoting science education, going back to the agency's creation in 1958.

In early 2008, NASA Learning Technologies (LT) received some attention for its idea of collaborating with commercial game developers to create a space-themed Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game using the agency's vast subject matter expertise. But why create an MMO?

From NASA's RFP workshop (pdf), we find the aims of the game, now titled Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond:

Include powerful physics capabilities that support compelling learning opportunities and virtual career exploration.
Present real NASA engineering and science missions in a medium that is comfortable and familiar to the majority of students in the United States today.
Provide opportunities for students to investigate STEM career paths.
Contribute to the development of the critical skills and capabilities needed to build a pipeline of qualified scientific and technical employees required to fulfill the United States Space Exploration Plan.

What does this sound like? Yes, an epistemic game. You can watch NASA's Dr. Daniel Laughlin share his thoughts on the intent of the project back in Feb 2008:

If you can't see the video, click here.

You can read more recent info about the game's development here. However, the exciting news is that Moonbase Alpha, a "mini demo game" preceding the full Astronaut: Moon, Mars and Beyond, will soon be available as a free download on Steam, Massively.com reports. According to Reuters last week, the release date will be Jan 18, 2010.