Navta Associates

Carnegie Mellon University Professor Jesse Schell’s inspiring talk at DICE 2010. Well worth the 28 mins!

MovingLearningGamesForward, by Eric Klopfer, Scot Osterweil, and Katie Salen With contributions by Jason Haas, Jennifer Groff and Dan Roy, is one of the most useful reports about games in education that I’ve read in a long time.  This is an Education Arcade paper, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The report intelligently answers questions regarding the use of video games in education, and provides numerous resources for continued investigation. “Educational games” are placed in rich context, including historical background and recommendations for implementation in the “classroom”. Very much a must-read for anyone even vaguely interested in this timely debate.

The Game Education Summit is the only conference where the video game industry and academics from around the world can come together to have meaningful conversations about the future of game development.

The Game Education Summit has a steady focus on the various stages of development of game education programs as well as the latest research in game studies. The aim of the conference is to bring together people from various academic institutions along with video game industry professionals who are interested in finding solutions to the critical shortage of skilled professionals entering the video game industry.

There is a new game development engine, Dinoworms, which provides a toolbox that anyone can use to create games. There are a few other similar tools available, and I haven’t spent a lot of time investigating this one yet. Upon first glance, and poking through the online demos, it looks worthwhile. This product was designed specifically for the education market, to help teachers create educational games to inspire and foster learning in their students.

from WikiPedia

I’ve got a new mind-challenge–the New York Times just added another puzzle along with the crossword. It’s called KenKen, and today’s paper contains an article about the puzzle, as well as the first two KenKens.

Invention of the KenKen is credited to the Japanese educator Tetsuya Miyamoto, who believes in the “art of teaching without teaching”. What a great idea–to use games and puzzles for education!

To continue some ideas from my last entry about having fun with Little Big Planet, I’ve realized that I’ve enjoyed my foray into PS3 gaming, but am definitely not hooked (yet).

In fact, I’m much more hooked on Wurdle, an app on my iPhone. Maybe because it’s more accessible, can be played for short bursts of time, and has words in it. Some of us truly enjoy word games and puzzles, and nothing can quite compete.

I discovered Bananagrams during the holidays, and we put a 2000-piece jigsaw puzzle on the dining room table. Sounds old-fashioned, I know, but I just couldn’t stay away. I’m an avid crossword-puzzle solver, and living in Pittsburgh I’m in heaven because the Post-Gazette and NYT publish different versions of the NYT crossword puzzle, so I have TWO of the best crosswords on the planet to solve per day.

There are puzzle-solving elements of Little Big Planet, and those parts are enjoyable, but still haven’t managed to make an addict out of me.

This is potentially one of my new areas for study–the relationship (or lack thereof) among word games, puzzles, and video games. Any fellow puzzle-solvers out there who can shed some light on this?

p.s.–here is a great video about the family who invented, marketed, and owns Bananagrams

This is such a fun and different video game. I love the macabre feel–creating it in black and white was a stroke of pure genius. This is one of the best independent games that I’ve stumbled across. I first saw it online, then at the Wired NextFest in Grant Park in Chicago (fall 2008). Enjoy!

from the Games for Change site

It’s inspiring to see how many games and gamelets have been created, and show up on the Games for Change site. Most have very specific, limited purpose, but nothing wrong with that! You will find a wide variety of purpose, game quality, and overall experience. Try a few. It’s fun. And maybe educational.