Week 10 - Gaming, kids and education

Overview

Gaming intro. Let's begin with some overview information. First, we turn to MediaWise for a quick overview of gaming and kids. You will need to go to the link below and download the guide called "MediaWise Guide to Online Gaming." You can also download a guide to video game addiction.

• MediaWise Guide to Online Gaming

Gaming defined. A good place to begin is with Wikipedia. They also provide a substantial list of game links if you are interested:

• Wikipedia's definition of video gaming in education

If you would like to read an academic, yet very accessible overview about what educational gaming is by those who think deeply about this topic, I recommend the following, from Penn State:

• What is a Game? - Educational Gaming

Incidentally, Penn State maintains a very informative web resource about educational gaming that I recommend you visit, called The Educational Gaming Commons.

Gaming ratings. Like movies, games are rated. According to the PBS site about this topic, "The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) ratings are designed to provide information about video and computer game content so parents can make informed purchasing decisions." Go to the link below to read about the details of video game ratings:

• The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) video game rating explanation
  

The issues
Gaming and kids inspires strong feelings. Here are a few sources that cast it in a positive light:

• Professor James Paul Gee shows the world the importance of video games. Professor Gee writes a good deal on this topic. This article appears on the website "The Game Zone," thus we can assume a positive bias toward gaming.
  
• Scientists recommend educational gaming. Download the PDF file and scan it. This is accessible through the site maintained by Joystiq, a pro-gaming site. Yet the report does contain a good deal of input from scientists.
  

Here is the other side, viewing gaming with concern and/or skepticism:

• Parents Growing Fear of Video Games, from the Redherring blog.
• David Perry (maker of Earthworm Jim, MDK, Messiah, and game adaptations of films such as Terminator) – a Ted Talk. This is most interesting, because David seems to be very positive about gaming, but presents a video art/philosophy piece in the middle of it that is very articulate about video game addiction.
• ParentsTV, a public advocacy group concerned about the role of video games and other media in the lives of children. Their bias is clearly a concern with gaming's downside.
  

And in case you would like to hear another game maker talk about his art:

• William Wright (maker of Spore) – a Ted Talk.

Games online
Finding good, free games online turned out to be harder than I thought. Most of the games I found were very low level, or were simulations. But I pass on these links to you for your edification:

• Teacher Vision: Online Language Arts Games
• Educational Freeware - free educational games
• Eduplace - free educational simulations
• Shambles.net - lots of games, simulations
• TechTrekers- lots of simulations
  

In addition, the Wikipedia article about educational gaming provides a list of links to information about some of the more popular educational games:

• Wikipedia's definition and list of video games

One of the most interesting site I found was the Games of Social Change website, that offers a number of free online games to learn about issues concerning social justice and the environment:

• Games for Social Change
  

The Games for Change organization sponsors a conference and a contest every year.

Future of gaming?
David Perry says it will be away from single player games and toward more social, multi-player, web-based games:

• Dice Summit: Why game entrepreneur David Perry isn't making anymore single-player games (venturebeat.com)

Week 9 - Kids and the risks and opportunities of social media

(Week 9, beginning Sunday March 8th)

This week was going to be about gaming, but I am finding so much about it that I am still sifting through it.

Instead we are going to change gears this week and address what we were going to address next week, namely "Kids and the risks and opportunities of social media." Described below are a few items I would like you to read to prepare you to join in our Google Groups conversation, as well as develop your blog entry at the end of the week.

Kids and social media. The National Institute of Media and the Family has recently published two new reports that do a reasonable job of explaining the risks and rewards of kids and social networking. Go to the Guides section of their website, and download the top two guides that you see:

• Guide to Social Networking: Risks
• Guide to Social Networking: Rewards

They are brief, and easy to scan and refer to later.

Teachers and blogs. This US News and World Report article offers an interesting perspective of the risks and rewards of teachers using blogs:

• Blogging from the Classroom, Teachers Seek Influence, Risk Trouble

Why we fear social media. This brief article was written from a corporate perspective, but adequately describes some of our inherent fears of social media:

• Fear kills social media, from The Buzz Bin by Livingston Communications

Should kids blog? I thought you might enjoy reading a blog that discussed the question, "“Should children be required to blog in grammar school?”

• “Should children be required to blog in grammar school?”
  

Social websites and kids' brains. Here is a fascinating discussion about the impact of social media on kids' brains. I quote from the website: "Susan Greenfield, neuroscientist and head of the Royal Institution, has warned that young people's brains may be fundamentally altered by internet use. Dr Aric Sigman has claimed that sites such as Facebook and Bebo could harm people's health. He joins Jeremy Paxman and Ben Goldacre, author of Bad Science and the Guardian column of the same name, to discuss Baroness Greenfield's claims." View it at:

• Social websites- Good for Kids' Brains?
  

Read these, ponder, then dive into the Google Groups conversation.

Jason

Wiki Resources

Ashley

Wetpaint – An easy to use, ad-free wiki. The site can be open to the public to edit, or can be set so that only people you invite can edit the site.

PBwiki - PBwiki lets you monitor changes to your wiki by email and RSS. You also have the ability to reverse any changes instantly.

Chenelle

YMCI Wiki . WOW! This wiki really got me thinking about resources I can provide next year’s students. I like the way students can simply click on the subject they need help with and then from there choose their specific class and teacher. I would like to create something similar to this with scanned homework assignments and resource guides. For example along my sidebar I could have Math: Unit 1, 2, etc.

Wikiteacher. I am really excited about this site. While it is not a true wiki, at least not from what I can tell, it is a vast resource of lesson plans and DEMONSTRATION VIDEOS. These are GREAT! I am going to share this resource with my entire staff. It was a great find.

Cindy

Wikispaces for Educators. Start a wiki in 30 seconds.

Educational wikis (examples of many). There are many examples from all grade levels. It is a great site to check out the wiki possibilities for your classroom.

PBwiki. Set up a wiki.

PBwiki2.0 for Education. This video demo for PBwiki2.0 for Education addresses some of the
questions I had about controlling access and editing.

Wikiversity--a community devoted to collaborative learning from pre-school to university

Second Life Education Wiki. This is a collection of information about Second Life for educators kindergarten through university level. I found it while looking at Wikiversity.

For Teachers New to Wikis
This site gives some basic informationa as well as some links for wiki beginners.

COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Act). This is the website for COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Act) on the wikkis in education website. It explains the act and how to comply.

Wikipatterns.com. This lists several “patterns and anti-patterns” that either help or hinder the use of wikis. It was far too technical for me, but those who are hosting wikis may find it useful. For instance, one of the anti-patterns was “thread mess.”

Wiki Ettiquette. This is a short article with good tips for beginning users.

Dallas

Edutech Wiki. Looks worth exploring.

Dave

Wikipedia. It is an online encyclopedia that allows the users to edit content. Even though many people criticize Wikipedia, I find it useful for student-based research. I do have students confirm there findings with other sources, just like they should for any other resources.

Blog "10 Best Practices For Using Wikis in Education." It provided some good tips for using Wikis for interactive classroom use. A couple of tips that stuck out were; 1) Post conventions and rules, 2) Create an atmosphere of trust, and 3) Include common goals.

The Connected Classroom. This site contained a good amount of information about using Wikis in educational settings. There was also a video similar to the "Shift Happens" videos, which reinforced the reasons for making the shift to a more technology driven educational experience.

Lindsey

Moodle's wiki.

Jason

Gary Miller's Wiki.

Jenn

WetPaint Wiki.

Marilyn

Wikispaces.

Naomi

Wetpaint Wikis. “Wetpaint Wikis in Education, a place where educators come together to share tips about using wikis to enhance the learning experience.” Wetpaint Wiki is free and best of all is ad free. They have several types of Wikis that one can create for: the classroom,
higher ed, globally, PTO, teacher and group. Signing up was easy, information requested was basic, and automatically it asked me if I wanted to invite any other individuals to join the Wiki. This can always be done later, and if you have addresses in your e-mail the ability to import them is there. Also when I went to create a classroom Wiki, they listed all other classroom Wikis that have given permission to be shared. It’s like the mother lode on ways to use Wikis in the classroom.

Wikis in education.

Second Life Education Wiki: Discusses how to get started with Second Life and may cover some of the questions educators may have about how to use Second Life in their classrooms. Just thought I’d add it today, possibly as a resource when we begin discussing Second Life in the near future.

Sarah

Pbwiki. Pbwiki is the only educational wiki that I have used, and I truthfully do not use it as much. I don’t use it much for a variety of reasons: lack of email address for younger students, parental concern for names or other information being posted on the World Wide Web, and also because I find blogging or other collaborative software or projects to be more effective.

Trevor

For Teachers New to Wikis.

Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning. About peer editing. Since my goals can be accomplished by both Wikis and Google Docs, one of my high school classes will be suing Google Docs (specifically it's peer-editing features) to write collaborative research reports. We will however include the Wiki-essence and Wiki-process in our instruction over how to use peer-editing Web 2.0 tools.