Hip Hop Handheld Game

This Milwaukee article is about a school using Hip Hop Tycoon, one of the augmented reality handheld games being developed here at UW. I'm inspired! The writer notes that the game effectively set the stage for invested learning to happen. Brings to mind the phrase "take some time to save some time."

gmail notifier

FYI for those with macs - a pretty cool email notifier can be downloaded at: http://toolbar.google.com/gmail-helper/notifier_mac.html

Conferences, Conferences - Part 2

AERA in Chicago was a whirlwind in the windy city. It was a great and I learned a lot. I'm going to list off some highlights and then answer my questions from an earlier post.

• "The Silent Epidemic" refers to the third of high school students that regularly drop out. Students in this bottom third become attracted to school because of video games (such as Civilization 3 as an after school program used for history class)
• No Child Left Behind may be trying to improve a problematic, antiquated entity (schooling based on industrial, factory principles). Someone said it is like raising the deck chairs on the Titanic 5 inches.
• Becoming global citizens is a value I heard more than any other.
  
• Students work hard on beating games when they are almost impossible to beat.
  
• I've heard it repeated that reflecting on the right answers is more worthwhile than reflecting on the wrong answers.
• Metaphors shape the way people act.
• Language shapes (people's perceptions of) reality
• Aristotle said the state should conduct education if the parents don't. (So Aristotle was for home-schooling?)
  
• Many people are thinking that we learn well through introduction to professional practices.
• Students using "cheats" to beat a game may be a good example of good learning.
  

Some short answers to my earlier questions:

• How are video/computer games being used in education today? Games used in classrooms today are largely what Kurt Squire calls "chocolate covered broccoli" (like spaceship math, or something). Serious games may be really integrated in education contexts in around 5 years (judging by federal grant spending, and projects in the works).
  
  
• What, besides embodying effective pedagogical techniques, are virtues of commercial video games? One example is that games, especially MMOG's afford (instantaneous) collaborative teamwork on a worldwide scale. That's a skill valued in today's global economy.
  
  
• What to people learn from making amateur movies, and from watching amateur movies (youtube movies, class assignment movies, home movies). I didn't find this out, but I did find out that a professionally produced 1/2 video (Read Between the Lions) costs thousands of dollars, teaching about 7 words per episode.
  
  
• What is Brett Shelton & Co. at Utah State doing with games for instruction? They are beginning a very cool sounding game production for firefighters in Utah. Shelton & Co. are collaborating with UVSC to make a game that teaches firefighters how to make judgments and command decisions. Think Star Trek's Kobiyashi Maru for firefighters. This is great, since games reputably excel at encouraging comlex, higher level thinking.
  
  
• What are the theoretical leanings of other universities, and how does that compare with UW-Madison (known for Critical Theory)? All i learned about this is that at UW-Madison I hear a lot about the importance of situated learning (the social context in which a learner learns). One seminar on games was led by cognitivists (that was my general impression...cognitivists view the brain as a computer which processes information), and they seemed to stress individual problem-solving as a virtue of video games. At the end of the session, the discussant, who works for the Department of Defense, suggested they consider collaborative aspects of games for education. This made an impression on me - a federal government employee recommending the virtue of collaboration possible through games. This is a "teacher" who teaches content on which lives depend, and games/simulations are an important part of that.
  
  
• How can I beat Christopher at Fantasy Baseball? I went to a Cubs/Reds game, and learned that highly rated players can lose a game in one inning.

Free Trial of LOTR Online Game

BTW, there's a free trial of the new Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows on Angmar for nine more days before the official release. To the shadows of Mount Doom, past the leaves of Lothlorien!

Conferences, Conferences: A very journalish entry

It's baptism by fire these two weeks. Last week I attended a two-day Apple Education conference here in Madison (Steve Jobs didn't show up:(... and no free iPhones - sob), and next week I'm going to Chicago for AERA (American Educational Research Association). The Apple conference, a relatively small, localized deal, probably had about 100 people participating. AERA will be in the thousands.

One thing I've learned in graduate school is that good questions are often better than good answers. So here's are questions I'd like answered while at AERA:

• How are video/computer games being used in education today?
• What, besides embodying effective pedagogical techniques, are virtues of commercial video games?
• What to people learn from making amateur movies, and from watching amateur movies (youtube movies, class assignment movies, home movies).
• What is Brett Shelton & Co. at Utah State doing with games for instruction?
• What are the theoretical leanings of other universities, and how does that compare with UW-Madison (known for Critical Theory)?
• How can I beat Christopher at Fantasy Baseball?
  

Hopefully this list will help me get the most out of my time in the windy city!