ASG ­ Applied Simulations & Games - EdGames

MacArthur Blog Provides Insight Into The Ideas And Questions Shaping The Future Of Digital Media & Learning - details

Learning & The Brain. Molding Minds: How To Shape The Developing Brain For Learning & Achievement

April 28-30, 2007. Cambridge, MA. - details

Watch A Games In Education Video

The Orange County Department of Education created a 20 minute online video about this topic. It explores the use of video games on k - 12 classroom environments and includes comments from Dr. Henry Jenkins from MIT Media Lab, Dr. James Gee from University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of What Video Games Have To Teach Us About Learning And Literacy, and Clark Aldrich author of Simulations: The Future Of Learning and Learning By Doing. See it here.

DICE Summet 2007

10th Interactive Achievement Award Finalists Announced

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences is pleased to announce its finalists for the 10th Interactive Achievement Awards. Recognizing the best games of 2006, more than three hundred of the Academy's creative and technical game makers considered a record number of titles for this year's awards. Eligible Academy members will vote this week with the winners to be announced at the Interactive Achievement Award ceremony on February 8, 2007 at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas as part of the D.I.C.E. Summit conference. A complete listing of this year's finalists may be found in our awards section or downloaded from our press page. Buy your ticket for the 10th annual Interactive Achievement Awards and reserve a room at the Green Valley Ranch Resort using our online form. For further information regarding the 10th Interactive Achievement Award ceremony, please contact Casey Kaut (at casey@interactive.org or 818.876.0826 ex204). For more details visit here.

New Book By James Paul Gee Set For Release March 6.

"Gaming Lives in the Twenty-First Century: Literate Connections" by James Paul Gee will be released on March 6, 2007. Gaming Lives explores the complexly rendered relationship between computer gaming environments and literacy development by focusing on in-depth case studies of computer gamers in the United States at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This volume examines the claim that computer games can provide better literacy and learning environments than U.S. schools. Using the words and observations of individual gamers, this book offers historical and cultural analyses of their literacy development, practices, and values.

Serious Games Initiative

The Serious Games Initiative is focused on uses for games in exploring management and leadership challenges facing the public sector. Part of its overall charter is to help forge productive links between the electronic game industry and projects involving the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy. For details please visit here.

Game Developers Conference Set for March

The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is the official trade event "by developers for developers" of computer, console, mobile, arcade, online games, and location based entertainment. For details please visit here.

Planning Meetings for our Education Games SIG

We are working on ideas for future EdGame SIG meetings. A new Mission Statement and list of possible meetings is below. Please feel free to send your thoughts about our thoughts.

MISSION STATEMENT

The ASG SIG exists to bring representatives together from industry, education, government, and other organizations, in order to advance the field of applied simulations and games by:

* stimulating awareness and dialog about the use of educational games in K-12 schooling, higher education, and adult learning;

* providing a venue for the presentation of the widest possible variety of educational games and trends;

* supporting and encouraging the development of assessment standards by which educational games and their outcomes can be evaluated;

* promoting exploration and experimentation regarding delivery of information and skills through educational games;

* exploring the delivery platforms available for accessing educational games;

* and promoting cooperation and coordination between public and private interests regarding games and techniques that educate and train.

TOPICS

Here are some ideas for meetings in the future:

K-12

-- What role do teachers play in the games-enabled classroom? (Panel or debate.)

-- Can meeting NCLB requirements be child's play? How games might fit into testing and tracking standards. (Presentations and/or forum.)

-- Making the case for games in the classroom. (Presentation of case studies.)

Adult And Experiential Learning

-- Serious games in your pocket: Mobile learning with cell phone games. (Distributed demo... people download to their own phones, share experiences, and come together for a discussion.)

-- Games for good: using games to address drugs, violence, and crime (case studies, demos)

-- Focus on games for health.

Simulation

-- Follow the yellow bit road: Using MMUGs as learning environments. (In person virtual meeting... people come together physically but connect to a MMUG for presentation.)

General

-- Serious games showcase (informal show-and-tell, exhibitor fair type meeting)

-- XBox goals with an Atari 2600 budget: Are games just one more barrier in the digital divide? (Panel or debate.)

-- Viral learning through games: Can games fool people into learning something useful?

More info? 773-276-9320 or email harvey@tillis.com.

Archives

For previous topics, visit the ASG SIG archives.

NEWS

A Field Guide to Educational Simulations

Don't miss Clark Aldrich's overview of different kinds of simulations: "A Field Guide to Educational Simulations." Click on the image in the lower right corner of this page

Play A Game To Feed The World

The United Nations Food Programme, WFP, has unveiled a children's video game with a difference - teaching kids how to get food fast to the site of a humanitarian crisis. Download and play the game.