Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world

Learning by Playing Videogames in the Classroom

This is a great article from the Sara Corbett of the  NY Times that examines the age old question every die hard gamer has known for years.  Check it out.

Nintendo to target the Education Market with its new DS XL

The Nintendo DS / Gameboy is the biggest selling video game console in history and would be a common item in the school bags of many students.  The problem Nintendo has had is convincing teachers and parents the DS could actually be a learning tool and to give them a reason to get them out of their bags.

The Brain Training Academy series launched somewhat of phenomenon in the portable gaming marketplace and all of the sudden mum, dad and Grandma wanted a DS to sharpen their minds, Play Sudoku and various other puzzle games.  The DS instantly gained some credibility with the intellectual market as a result.

Well Nintendo have obviously taken note of this trend and set to capitalise on it further with the Nintendo DS XL.

The DS XL sports a screen double the size of it's predecessor, (Maybe to help Granny  see here Sudoko a little clearer?) it has built in Brain Training Games, Dictionary and a range of other DS Apps that are aimed at  non traditional gaming markets.  It sports a better camera, improved touch and stylus functionality and still offers all of the web browser and Wi-Fi connectivity of the DSi.

It will be available in March 2010 for what I can only assume will be slightly more expensive or the same as the DSi.  

In light of the recent disappointment of the iPad I am sure Nintendo is hopeful this DS maybe can break into the educational market with it's new features.  Watch this space and I look forward to hearing your feedback.

100 Learning Game Resources

From Ahbijit Kadle at Upside Learning.  

When writing the whitepaper about Casual games, I did a fair bit of research and looked at several hundred web links. While doing so, I documented a few of the better ones. I’d been mulling posting these to the blog. So here they are - a Top 100 Learning Game Resource list. If you are already developing learning games, these links will broaden your horizons, as they did mine. If you are contemplating beginning – it might help to look at links that interest you to get some grounding ideas.

This list isn’t categorized in any way, and it’ll stay that way until I figure out a good way to tag and qualify them in some way. Most often such a list brings up debate about the quality of content linked to. In putting this list together, I worked with Tony Karrer and his eLearning Learning site extensively to match links that are popular based on social signals, specifically in the Games and Simulation categories.  Click here for his full article.

Welcome to Edgalaxy's New Educational Gaming Section

As a lifelong gamer I have always understood and appreciated video games are an excellent learning tool for experimentation, immersion and all the while a great deal of fun.  Earlier this year I was part of a Victorian Government funded research project examining the use of vdeogaming in the classroom which simply reinforced what I already knew that if we are selective about what we  play and more importantly ask ourselves why we play games then they are excellent engagement and learning tools.   

So I have created an educational Gaming section to Edgalaxy that aims to share some of the great games available to us (both commercial and free) and will be looking at resources for us to actually create your own video games. There will also be the odd piece of professional reading related to gaming in the classroom.

I will be specifically steering clear of direct educational games such as typing wiz or math's blaster as this is not gaming to me.  Instead I will look at some mainstream games such as Wii Fit, Monkey Island, Civilization that have thousands of learning opportunities that are not so blatant.  I also intend to find a few gems that you may not be aware of too.

Anyhow Ihope you nejoy our new section and stay tuned to this space.  Game on!