NetFamilyNews.orgIn “Reading, Writing & Videogames,” parent and New York Times features editor Pamela Paul seems to be arguing that digital games are just that – games – they should just be fun. They don’t need to be educational, and they don’t really belong in classrooms. The first part of her argument makes perfect sense – [...]
This was good to see: What looked like a truly anti-social media company, game developer Square Enix, saw irresponsibility for what it was and quickly reversed a stupid marketing decision. I’d like to take it as a sign that – in this very social media environment where users are co-producers with the providers of their [...]
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s tribute to Sean Smith – dad, online gamer, and Benghazi-based State Department computer expert – was “nothing compared to the memorials that were offered up by many of the 400,000 paying subscribers” of the space fantasy game EVE Online,” Tri-CityHerald.com reports. It said the memorials “flooded social media and gaming [...]
I met Malinda at an educators’ conference several years ago and, over dinner, so enjoyed hearing the story you’re about to read. I later got to meet and dine with both Malinda and her son Dillon and wish you could enjoy that too. Recently I asked her if she’d be willing to tell of this [...]
Of online game designer/researcher Jane McGonigal’s dream: using games to solve real-world problems (and, I’d add, to teach citizenship and social activism and to reverse the disconnect between learning and school
90% of US 9-to-12-year-olds play online games, and Facebook (where some of that gaming happens) is the favorite Web site among boys 8-11 and girls 9-12.
Well, it depends on the social-networking service, actually. Psychologist Tracy Alloway at the University of Stirling in Scotland “told the British Research Association that Facebook brings about educational benefits because it requires users to exercise their working memory – their ability, in other words, to store and manipulate information,” the Education Week blog reports and, [...]
Online games and virtual worlds – more than social networking or any technology before it – could be where computer-security ed really hits home with users. Why? Because online games and worlds like World of Warcraft and Second Life have whole economies in which users buy and sell virtual goods “to the tune of $1 [...]
Remember the board game “Risk”? Real-time strategy (RTS) videogames – played from a top-down perspective – are its descendents. Now, with the just-released “Halo Wars,” Microsoft has folded RTS into its popular Halo series, USATODAY reports. This is good news for parents in two ways. Not only is strategy more the focus than shooting, it’s [...]
The National Institute on Media & the Family (NIMF) released its 13th-annual videogame report card this week , and the “grades” are better, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports. “In the past, the report has criticized video-gamemakers and given grades – often low – on how their products affect children. But this year, the grades are [...]
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