I found this linked from the e-learning centre’s website. It’s not a bad tutorial, and may be useful for some of our projects too, if you’re having trouble thinking of a catchy title. It’s a tutorial on how to create a simple, powerful and effective slogan for your product (or assignment!). It has a nice [...]

Both impressive and a little eerie, Veeperization is a new “emotive interface” technology. You start with any 2-D image of yourself, load it into the program, and then drag and drop “data points” onto key movement areas of facial expression, like the corners of the eyes, mouth and eyebrows. The 2-D image is mapped onto [...]

I borrowed a book from The Child’s Primary School library (that’s where I work) called Curious Customs: the Stories Behind 296 Popular American Rituals. One of our iconic and curious customs is BINGO! The book states BINGO is a lottery: you buy a card (ticket) with the anticipation of winning some dough from the nun [...]

Like Darleen, I LOVE Flash games. I suck at playing them, but I love looking at them and dreamin… one day I’ll be able to design like that… GlobZ is full of amazing, yet simple design. I’m learning a lot of navigational possibilities through the game design: GlobZ uses a lot of keyboard maneuvering, while [...]

Okay, the Orisinal site is the coolest! My friend sent this to me a while back and I had long since forgotten it in my endless menu of favorites. All of the games on this site were created with Flash. My favorite game is Bubble Bees. The idea is so simple: you have to catch [...]

Here’s an interesting (and timely) site by Greg Costikyan, a game developer, about what components are included in a good computer game. He talks about decision-making, goals, opposition, managing resources, game tokens, and information. There’s a lot of interesting information here. More still to ponder on issues like role-playing, socializing, simulation and narrative tension. Check [...]

<img TechTV very rarely has an educational slant in there reporting. Yet, in this spot TechTV features some of the work of Ed and Stephanie Vinces, teachers and co-owners of Pacifica Computer Pros in Pacifica, California. Ed and Stephanie Vinces use videogames, e.g. Medieval Times, in their classrooms to teach history. Makes me almost want [...]

Did you know that the Monopoly game in its original incarnation was designed, in part, to “teach the virtues of the Single-Tax Movement”? The company that now distributes the game (perhaps not surprisingly) rejected it in its original form. But the game did find a niche at economics departments at places such as Princeton University. [...]

Edutainment: How To Teach Language With Fun and Games is a teaching manual chock-full of fast-paced, high-energy learning games for ESL and EFL instructors. The site offers a sample of free games which seem wonderful, and the publishers claim they save the best ones for those who buy the book! My favorite game involves listening [...]

Cartoon Network has a companion website and in it are some fun games that revolve around different animated characters. I particularly liked Cerebral Challenge as it tests your memory skills. Remember that frustrating memory game you played as a child? As you click onto different crates, different cartoon characters pop out and you have to [...]

Exploratorium, the online museum of science, art, and human perception, is currently hosting a Memory Exhibition , in which patrons can play four games designed to improve memory skills. The game instructions are succinct, feedback is provided, and a brief explanation of the principle behind each game is given, along with ideas for real-life application. [...]

Did you know that the average population of the world’s 100 largest cities was 200,000 in 1800 and over 5 million in 1990? If not, you might want to visit the United Nations Publications’ CyberSchoolBus Cities of Today, Cities of Tomorrow interdisciplinary curriculum. The curriculum, designed for grades 5-7 and 8-11, was developed after the [...]

“The site that swims with learning fun”, Gamequarium is a site offering free game resources for teachers of grades pre-K to 6+. Free games in the areas of Language Arts, Math, and Music, are just a few of the examples available for download. Links to other sites for teachers are available. Examples of games created [...]

Changeontherun.com is a website offering e-games designed for corporate learning environments. Product delivery, manufacturing, and distribution are some areas that have associated e-games available through this company. One game is specifically designed for CEOs. Their description of this game is provided below: “Change on the Run: The CEO e-Game has been built for all those [...]

While searching for modeling information for my e-game I came across the “boids” homepage. Boids creator Craig Reynolds discovered that they spontaneously display perfect flocking behavior when programmed with three simple rules: Separation: Don’t get too close to any object, including other boids; Alignment: Try to match the speed and direction of nearby boids; Cohesion: [...]

Fe Kids is a website designed exclusively for kids. One of the most interesting parts of Fe Kids is Game Plus, the games section. Games Plus has eight different games and kids can play them online. The games are fun and easy to play. Kids will really love it!

Fun Island is an educational games site I came upon recently. There’s a game on that site called Exact Change which would be a challenging and stimulating game for kids who are just learning about counting and using money. Although the graphics and audio are sort of cheesy, this game is still presented well.

The Reconstructors is a web game developed by Rice University with funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. As a Reconstructor, you take on the role of scientist, historian, geographer, and detective.Your mission is to rediscover lost medicinal knowledge. As you collect clues to solve the mystery, you travel to different regions of the [...]

Are you interested in team or organizational learning? If so, you’ll want to read this short (3-page) article that describes an intriguing practice learning field (action learning) in which participants explore the principles of effective teamwork. The author, Richard Kimball, PhD, also discusses the theory and intent behind the exercise. In a nutshell, the Electric [...]

Here’s an example of RPG’s for normal people, or at least that’s what its developers hope for. “Explore a 3D online world lived in and built by its participants – a new medium for creative self-expression, social interaction, and fun, where you can be or do almost anything. You can fly. You can discover. You [...]

Yum! Well, good nutrition is still a big problem for kids. Lunchbuddy is a site for kids focused on fun activities about school lunches and teaching them how to make healthy food choices. There’s a great table comparison of “Past school lunches” and what it’s like now. For instance: (in the past) “Mystery’ foods were [...]

MyPhysicsLab – Physics Simulations “Click on one of the physics simulations below… you’ll see them animating in real time, and be able to interact with them by dragging objects or changing parameters like gravity.” Very good use of interactivity to get across some pretty complex concepts!

LuxorMedia has an online demonstration of their Virtual Mission Preparation interactive exercises for military personnel. The exercises are intended as a review of courseware and cover everything from conduct as a prisoner of way to Bosnian ethnic groups. There are a variety of interesting games, including dragging keys to unlock doors, a version of the [...]

Visual ThesarusThis is a cool site that turns your heavy Websters Thesarus from a useful tool into a great door stop . Type in a word and you get a whole word map of similiar words and their own branches. The best part is that its animated and turns language into architecture

Rich. Great minds think alike. Who’s in for a virtual party? Sims Online Here are some excerpts… “black leather pants”, “blew $2,000… on an espresso machine… and a pool”, ” 24/7 party”, “DJs and go-go dancers”, and “pizzas”. I must play this game. Virtually party on. “

On Sunday, National Public Radio’s On the Media had a story about a computer game know to over a million players as The Sims. Touted as the #1 PC game, The Sims is a simulation game about a world that sounds very close to our own. An objective of the game is to acquire material [...]

THE GAMES CAMP FOR GIRLS G.A.M.E.S. stands for Girls’ Adventures in Math, Engineering, and Science. The camp is held during the summer at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for gifted and interested sixth to eighth grade girls. The camp provides an opportunity to explore math, science, and engineering through the use of projects and [...]

AERA Symposium on Complex Causality and Conceptual Change is a web site set up to encourage dialog as followup to two years worth of sessions at AERA, the flagship conference for educational researchers. Lots of good background info here, especially for the groups using StarLogo.

My group found this page today while doing some research on the concept of e-learning. The simulation has a decent lesson page that makes it…dare I say it?…fun to learn about the idea of blood types. Then to practice your new found knowledge, you can take part in the emergency room rescue, helping to determine [...]

Research-Based Games Enhance Children’s Learning This 1998 article published in the “American Psychological Association Monitor” presents educational computer games that used research on what makes children motivated. They have focused their studies on school-age girls and their math skills. They discussed a game that leads children on a scavenger hunt through San Francisco landmarks, during [...]

Thursday, November 21st is the next IGDA meeting. It starts at 6:30. They offer free pizza and soda. The atmosphere is casual. Most people are in jeans and t-shirts. I think it’s one of the coolest industry meetings. http://www.igda.org/Chapters/sandiego/sd_nov_mtg.htm

The trion model of higher brain function (Gordon Shaw, UC Irvine, M.I.N.D. Institute) sheds insight into how the brain reasons spatial-temporally. Spatial-temporal reasoning involves the ability to maintain a mental image and perform a temporal sequence of spatial operations on that image. This ability is crucial in such activities as music, chess and mathematics. A [...]

Ever wonder if your hobby makes you an oddity? Stamp collectors, swirly straw collectors, professional curlers (the sport–think Winter Olympics), etc. have nothing to ever feel nerdy about… EVER!Welcome to the World RPS Scoiety, the place where professional, and novice, Rock Paper Scissors players unite, discuss strategies, and register for the World Championships. Seriously. What [...]

I knew I was one step ahead of all of my friends with young children when I plopped my newborn son in his bouncy seat right in front of Barney and Dragon Tales and ordered him to stay there and watch. Because the cover story of last week’s Newsweek magazine was “Why TV is Good [...]

AKA Acclaim game developer has introduced a new game titled “BMX XXX.” What’s the catch? Topless women on bikes. Digital Game Developer recently interviewed the game developer regarding their decision to include the controversial content. The game also includes violence and sex. How is this for motivation?

For all you parents out there who want to give your kids a head start on learning and mastering their reading, writing, and ‘rithmetic skills, Executive Parent offers a number of award winning games available for purchase. These games include multiple subjects for multiple age levels up to eighth grade.

Yes, you read correctly. Not Playstation, but Painstation. Now I’ve seen it all. Here’s a classic story where S&M meets the gaming industry. Some folks in Germany have developed this interesting (and slightly sadistic) new game, based on the classic Pong. The game incorporates negative feedback (ie. Pain) into a game scenario. This is an [...]

The news this past weekend was spotlighting this new game America’s Army designed by the army and available for download for young people to play in the hopes of initiating new recruits. The media was concerned about the violence in the 3-D game but the Army argues that there is no real violence and that [...]

Yavsoft.com offers “non-violent educational games for the entire family.” The site offers free trial versions of what are touted as “addictive computer games with a friendly interface and attractive graphics.” Games listed on the home page for the site range from an animated jigsaw puzzle game to a humorous pirate game. The focus seems to [...]

According to Macworld UK, the world’s largest multiplayer game will be arriving for Macs next February. This is good news for those of us who use Windows as seldom as possible. “With OS X and Apple’s desktop systems there will be an incredible gaming environment that will take full advantage of EverQuest’s huge and seamless [...]

How good are you in solving puzzles? The Puzzle Solvers at Cryptic Manor was developed by the National Security Agency to share the fun and excitement of solving challenging problems. Explore the rooms of the Cryptic Manor to find hidden links to puzzles that involve codes. Codey the owl, will be your guide in this [...]

One of the participants in a session I attended at NASAGA was Dr. Clue, otherwise known as David Blum. He’s created a company that designs Team Building Treasure Hunts “Ok, admit it. Ever since you were a kid, you’ve always loved treasure hunts. And now, as “an adult,” you’re charged with hunting up a fresh, [...]

Now that you’re all expert game designers, here’s some news you can use: About Board Games and Abstract Games magazine are sponsoring the 3rd Annual Game Design Competition, this year with the theme of Simultaneous Movement. The goal is simple: design a great two-player game with simultaneous movement using pieces most people are likely to [...]

Wired News reports on the British and Dutch enthusiasts being tried for espionage in Greece in Plane Spotters: Hobbyist or Spy? Their crime? They were caught copying down the tailfin numbers of jets at a Greek airport. Were they going to pass their info on to Turks or terrorists? No… it’s just a hobby like [...]

The biggest story during this year’s mid-term elections may have been the record low voter turnout. The group with the lowest of the low, tends to be those most recently eligible to vote. NPR’s Morning Edition program ran a story on election day about high school students learning about voting and citizenship. The issue for [...]

As Al mentioned, some students don’t enjoy dissecting a frog. Fortunately now students can dissect a virtual frog. Froguts is a virtual online frog dissection tutorial. It is a great tutorial and is available online for free!

As Al mentioned, some students don’t enjoy dissecting a frog. Fortunately now students can dissect a virtual frog. Froguts is a virtual online frog dissection tutorial. It is a great tutorial and is available online for free!

My Iowa mom, of all people, sent me a cool link to sodaconstructor, an online modeling site that enables you to create wireframe-type models that move. You can build your own or modify models that others have created. I added some big feet to one of the models and watched them flop around the screen. [...]

My Iowa mom, of all people, sent me a cool link to sodaconstructor, an online modeling site that enables you to create wireframe-type models that move. You can build your own or modify models that others have created. I added some big feet to one of the models and watched them flop around the screen. [...]

Students who detest the funky smell of formaldehyde and are a bit squimish about dissecting a frog may opt to dissect a virtual one instead. In a recent article out of The Southern Illinoisan, biology teacher, Renee Goodson of Frankfort high school said, “Dissection Works CD-ROM which features simulations of worms, frogs, fish, and pigs [...]