Other Causes of School Violence Back to the topic of violence…. I was flipping through my Educator magazine and found a whole section devoted to the violence in schools – what teachers need to watch for, how to react in given situations, children who are doing things to stop it, etc. After doing all of [...]

Who’s Who? Here’s something to take a break and enjoy! If you visit the Grinch web site at http://www.meanone.com you can find out your very own “Who name.” Just click on the Grinch and once you enter the site, go to city hall. They will ask for your name and then tell you what your [...]

eLife and Death My mother receives Newsweek Magazine and it comes with an insert called eLife. In it this week, it has an article about game violence, from children’s point of view. The authors gathered 11 children between the ages of 9-12 and let them play a violent video game called Resident Evil 2 (rated [...]

Screen Shots While out doing my day after Thanksgiving shopping, I ran across a few interactive games that I hadn’t seen before. One game I took some time to look at was designed for the baseball enthusiast. You plug it into the TV and it came equipped with a bat, a ball, and home plate. [...]

Amusement Park Physics I found an interesting instructional web site. I was looking for interesting and educational simulations. This one isn’t really a simulation as much as an instructional tool. But I found that they did a good job of instructing the user on the basics of roller coasters and physics. It was all very [...]

Happy Puppy I was looking for examples of online simulations and I came across this web site: http://www.happypuppy.com. Besides having a very cute name, I found it an interesting example of what’s out there for kids (and adult) gamers. It’s a web site that offers reviews, demos, gaming news, listing of games for all platforms [...]

Funniest Videos or Violent Videos? Marie,I have to agree with you, I think that for something to be violent it has to have intent to harm. Such as the first person shooting games you mentioned. The only objective in those situations is to kill whatever it is you are shooting at. Unlike America’s Funniest Home [...]

Making Money off of Other’s Obsessions This blog is in response to Bernie’s blog about Dangerous Obsessions. I was reading an article in a recent issue of RollingStone, and it was about this kid whose job is to play these video games for people when they don’t have time or they have to work. This [...]

Dangerous Obsession Salon e-zine has a new piece titled Life, Death, and Everquest. It concerns a massively multiplayer game which provides thousands of people with an alternative place and life to live. A typical Everquest player spends 10-20 hours a week in the game, and some fall into an addiction that puts them there for [...]

Girl Corrected I’m not sure where I went wrong in typing the url for the Gender Webquest the first time, but here it is again (and I just checked it so it should work): http://et.sdsu.edu/Apastor/girlgames/index.html. Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

Making Connections Training Teachers I came accross a web site which where you can view an interesting paper presented at the SITE 99 conference. http://edweb.sdsu.edu/plc/cpb/index.htm The paper is called “Using Technology As a Tool in the Classroom: Making Connections Training Teachers” and it was presented by Ruben Espinosa, Professor SDSU Department of Policy Studies in [...]

Visas & Game Appeal WebQuest Dan, there are so many types of visas and so many ways to get them, or be denied eligibility to apply for one… When you are a foreigner you have to live with it… For all who are interested, the Game Appeal Web Quest: Does age really matter is posted [...]

Visas on the Rise Check this out. “Clinton signs law increasing the number of H-1B visas. On October 17, President Clinton signed into law legislation increasing the number of H-1B visas. The new law will increase the number of H-1B temporary visas available for high-tech workers from India and other countries and double the fee [...]

Character Development in Games Hey all, I just read through an interesting article written by François-Dominic Laramée, a freelance game designer, on the art of character development in character-based games. In short, the article briefly describes key elements to consider in developing a character-based game design. The author pulls from creative writing concepts and uses [...]

Electoral Lecture Here’s some much needed levity to get us through this endless election: an instructional BoomToon. This makes me want to set aside some Christmas break time to master Flash!

Girls and Computers WebQuest For all who are interested (i.e. Bernie and Elaine), the url for the Girls and Computers WebQuest is http://et.sdsu.edu/apastor/girlgames/index.html. We hope that you find the site informative and useful! (URL now fixed!)

The First Noelle is the Same as the Last One Since two of my other group members have commented on our WebQuest project, I feel I should too. I found it quite an eye opener as well. I went in a little naive when it comes to computer games. I don’t play them, I knew [...]

Response to Elaine’s Question Elaine asked what I have learned from our violence WebQuest. Surprisingly enough, I think I learned more about myself and my beliefs than anything. For the first time in my life, I have been called ‘conservative.’ That really made me think. I have always thought of my father as conservative and [...]

Random Thoughts Long time, no blog, I know. But here are some random thoughts concerning blogs from the past few weeks. Regarding men and games (and is it the sex appeal?) – in our research on gender issues, we discovered that many believe (based on their studies) that men view computers as a toy, while [...]

If it has a Face… Dave, I would like to read the article, do you have a link or info on it. I agree violence is very subjective. I read an article once that said “funniest home videos” was the most violent show on TV. People are hurt constantly on that show, therefore it is [...]

WebQuest Project… Good Idea! This blog is more or less a reflection on my feelings about the WebQuest projects. My group was required to make a play demonstrating how a town meeting might go if the main issue were violence and video games. I thought this was very useful in making each team member of [...]

Rating Video Games This blog is based on an interesting article that I read about rating video game violence. Ratings of video game violence have developed as an extension of ratings of television violence. Among those organizations that have attempted to rate television violence, the National Coalition on Television Violence (NCTV) has also developed a [...]

This is a test. I’m showing Blogger to some brilliant teachers.

In replying to Elaine about blogger. I have enjoyed blogging. The biggest problem for me is time. I have tried to at least look at the blog site on Friday, Sat, Sun. This way I get my three blogs in when I have at least a few seconds of time. The trouble is that there [...]

funschool.com – Free Interactive kids software Funschool.com offers free, interactive, educational kids software for children from pre-school through sixth grade. Their games and activities can be played by kids individually or with their parents. kids software

Violence and Women in Gaming Smart Computing’s PC Gaming & electronic entertainment Guide contains two very insightful articles. The first deals with violence in computer games. This article deals with rating issues. Making sure that proper ratings are given to the different games. It also explores the fact that games rated for adults are getting [...]

Gulcin, Glad to see that you are interested in investigating the area of Interaction & Interactivity! You have already probably reviewed this literature, but I have provided a brief review of some of the literature in this area…let me know if this supports your work & I will push you more. Interaction Defined Wagner (1994) [...]

Gulcin, Glad to see that you are interested in investigating the area of Interaction & Interactivity! You have already probably reviewed this literature, but I have provided a brief review of some of the literature in this area…let me know if this supports your work & I will push you more. Interaction Defined Wagner (1994) [...]

Blogger Interactivity? Wow! I just took Gulcin’s Interactivity survey. It really made me think about interactivity – how to define it and how to achieve it. I highly recommend it! Over the last few weeks we’ve been using Blogger in 670 as a way to interact with each other. I’m curious as to what folks [...]

Blogger Interactivity? Wow! I just took Gulcin’s Interactivity survey. It really made me think about interactivity – how to define it and how to achieve it. I highly recommend it! Over the last few weeks we’ve been using Blogger in 670 as a way to interact with each other. I’m curious as to what folks [...]

Hi Class, CHAD FREE ZONE+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ There is still time to MAKE YOUR VOTE COUNT……we are still collecting data for our Game Appeal Web Quest… If you have not had a chance to fill out our survey, please take a minute. Thanks for your time! CHAD FREE ZONE+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Controversial Issues Spark Interest and Learning? I want to respond to Sharon’s comment from Monday on 670 as Guidance Counselor. Yes, I can seeon how no one will be happy with the final outcome and why you don’t want to be a politician. But, from an instructional design perspective, your WebQuest seems to have been [...]

Assessment of First-Person Violent Games The following link is one that I found while looking for interesting information on violence in video games. The link is: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/99/23/cyber-smith-table.html. I am more or less putting it up here for those of you who don’t have a clue about the violent games that have been metioned throughout this [...]

Shifting Gamer Demographics Gulcin, I agree. Statistics suggest that 43% of the gamers out there are female (according to Southwest Securities, a financial services company). See a related article on the future of the game industry as reported in GameWeek.com One thing that is definite is that the gaming population demographics is shifting to be [...]

Send in the Clones OK, following up on the CNN story on creating avatars in your own image to do battle in Quake, I’ve had it done and am now ready to boogie. Look out, Eric… the Berniator is here!

Send in the Clones OK, following up on the CNN story on creating avatars in your own image to do battle in Quake, I’ve had it done and am now ready to boogie. Look out, Eric… the Berniator is here!

670 as Guidance Counselor Doing our WebQuest has done one major thing for me… helped me decide that I NEVER want to be a politician. We are finishing our play and now need to decide whether we are going to ban violent video games or not. All I know is that there is absolutely no [...]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrlgamers Girls also like ACTION GAMES…. Here is the website grrlgamer This website reviews the action games for girls.

Friends, Romans, Lend me your Data Hi class, Could you fill out following survey which is about Interactivity? INTERACTIVITY I and my friend, from SUNY-Albany, are interested in the meaning attached to the term “interactivity” as used in mathematics and science education. We are trying yo collect data on how “interactivity” is defined and used [...]

Who wants to be GAME TESTER? I found following website about being game tester. http://www.sfgate.com/hypertek/9701/1.shtml It is pretty inter3sting. It is talking about some guys who do nothing all day but play games, and howmuch they earn. One of these guys says a game tester can make from $7 an hour up to $130,000 per [...]

What Appeals to You? Hi Class, We are working on the aging issues and have developed a revised game appeal survey. If you have time, please give us a hand on data collection & take a minute to fill out our questionnaire. Thanks for your time and consideration! Game Appeal Survey-Aging R/S Bill

Gerontopoly During our early gaming discussions, several people were developing games relating to aging. Here is a published game. Not much information, just an overview. Looks like it covers some similar ground. Gerontopoly

Zen Gaming Are we relaxed when we play video games? My excuse for playing every day is just that. I play mostly solitaire and snood. Maybe relaxation is not the word, maybe it is a refocus, like kicking your TV to untangle the neurons. For deep relaxation, I play Short Circuit. It is a pairing [...]

Zen Gaming Are we relaxed when we play video games? My excuse for playing every day is just that. I play mostly solitaire and snood. Maybe relaxation is not the word, maybe it is a refocus, like kicking your TV to untangle the neurons. For deep relaxation, I play Short Circuit. It is a pairing [...]

Wired Ideas If you are interested in high-tech professionals and the business savvy, and incisive analysis about the people, companies, and ideas that are transforming the way we live, you may want to check out Wired magazine.

What Girls Really Want Computer games for girls is no longer an oxymoron. By G. Beato It talks about the initiative that many companies are interested in girls’ preferences on games, the researches have been done for finding out girls’ preferences on games, the future of girl games and etc. According to Laurel launched, a [...]

Choosing Computer Games for Girls and Boys The Search for Gender Equity in Computer Games, talking about the issues like How to get girls interested in computers? Are “games for girls” the way to go? What does a good educational game look like? I am particularly interested in what characteristics of games that boys like [...]

Math Games If you are interested in reviewing games for kids the following web site does a nice job of breaking down games by age. This focus of this website is primarily math learning games. http://www.terc.edu/mathequity/gw/html/gwhome.html

Equity I’m researching equity in computers / computer games & I came across two interesting web sites that both offer resources: 1. http://www.enc.org/topics/equity/online/#11 The Eisenhower National Clearinghouse gathers resources, curriculum and professional development materials to help educators improve the quality of math and science education offered. They have interesting links not only about equity but [...]

Games for Girls Group Last week we were discussing software for girls and I just came across a website that reviews software for girls. The copyright is from 1998 so its a little old but it’s interesting anyway. Check it out! http://www.best.com/~readit/superkids/search/subject.cgi?terms=Girls