What?! A little videogame play a day is actually good for children? That's what an Oxford University researcher found in a study of 5,000 UK 10-to-15-year-olds that looked into both the positive and negative impacts of videogaming. "Young people who spent less than an hour a day engaged in video games were better adjusted than those who did not play at all," the BBC reports, citing the study … [Read more...] about A bit of videogaming is good for kids: Study
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Breadth of videogames’ benefits to kids may surprise
It being summertime here in the global North, there may be a little extra videogame play going on in households with kids. So it may be helpful for parents to know about a mother lode of the latest wisdom on videogames' effects on kids' learning, social development and futures. It's MindShift's "Guide to Games & Learning," and here are a few nuggets: Gaming fuels motivation "We want our … [Read more...] about Breadth of videogames’ benefits to kids may surprise
Digital summer camp Part 2: Of managing a child’s Minecraft time
"I'm sad that my son is so busy with homework and other stuff lately that he hasn't had time to even play Minecraft! I think it's a better use of his time than homework." That's a comment from a mom and educator in San Jose, Calif., posted under an article by educator Kevin Jarrett in Edutopia last fall: "Too much is never enough: managing a child's time playing Minecraft." Because he ran an … [Read more...] about Digital summer camp Part 2: Of managing a child’s Minecraft time
For digital summer camp, kid-source a game (or play this one!)
One year ago this month, its 3rd-through-6th grader designers launched the fifth and final iteration of Escape to Morrow, an open source digital game they designed in Minecraft for Minecraft players. The five iterations – including writing and rewriting backstories, creating maps, finding mods (Minecraft modifications out on the Web) and producing the trailer – took a year of work in summer camp, … [Read more...] about For digital summer camp, kid-source a game (or play this one!)
FB & Oculus VR: The potential of a virtual-reality platform
For years we've heard about the potential of virtual reality, but even when the virtual world Second Life was a hot tech-news story, it hardly felt like a second life to most people. I wrote about it a number of times because of the amazing work some very cutting-edge educators and their students were doing in Teen Second Life, when it existed. Then it faded into the background, and those teachers … [Read more...] about FB & Oculus VR: The potential of a virtual-reality platform