It started with the Wii, but now Wii has to move over for Sony's Move and Microsoft's Kinect for motion-controlled – and, in Kinect's case, voice-controlled – gaming. As BNET.com puts it, "Kinect is truly a revolution [because it requires no controller at all] and Move ... is an evolution of the Wii." [Both are being unveiled this week at E3, the US's largest gaming trade show/conference.] Move … [Read more...] about Videogames getting a lot more physical
videogames
WoW: The guild effect for teachers
There are lots of good reasons why an assistant superintendent of schools would start a guild in World of Warcraft (WoW) – all laid out in a fascinating profile of the Cognitive Dissonance Guild and its educator members in The Journal this month. But the reason why Catherine Parsons, assistant superintendent for curriculum, instruction, and pupil personnel services for Pine Plains Central School … [Read more...] about WoW: The guild effect for teachers
From ‘chalk ‘n’ talk’ to learning by doing
You know how middle and secondary school (probably in most countries) divide students' days into subjects? Well, there's a new public school in New York City that divides the schoolday into four 90-minute blocks devoted to the study of “domains,” The Economist reports. They're called things like "Codeworlds (a combination of mathematics and English), Being, Space and Place (English and social … [Read more...] about From ‘chalk ‘n’ talk’ to learning by doing
Social sites, videogames can up IQs: UK researchers
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, according to The … [Read more...] about Social sites, videogames can up IQs: UK researchers
Videogames’ mental-health benefits researched
The Washington Post leads its article with the story about a longtime depression patient who plays videogames for relief when she can't sleep. She liked the game Bejeweled so much that she called its makers, PopCap Games. They were surprised about the benefits she cited and decided to fund some research, being done at the psychophysiology lab and biofeedback clinic at East Carolina University in … [Read more...] about Videogames’ mental-health benefits researched