A Conversation with Don Fraser on Helping Kids Succeed

Don Fraser is an specialist on student retention. Here he is being interviewed on his favorite subject.

Resource of the Week: "WatchKnow"

The co-founder of Wikipedia creates a service for rating educational videos.

Google Tool for Developing Applications

The next stage in bringing coding to the masses may have been achieved.

Article: Beyond Blowing Up Enemies: The Future of Games for Learning

Edutopia has a article promoting Games for Learning entitled "Beyond Blowing Up Enemies: The Future of Games for Learning"

Research on Serious Games and Simulations

From PlayGen, a list of research on the effectiveness of serious games and simulations.

The Overdue Blog Post about PowerPoint

Given that the purpose of this blog is to disseminate information about technology and techniques for learning, it would seem a glaring oversight that I heretofore have said nothing about the most commonly-used presentation tool, PowerPoint. However the ubiquity of PowerPoint made mentioning it seem less important than newer, less famous technologies.

Nevertheless, the devil must be given his due. PowerPoint was recently in the news. A New York Times article, "We Have Met the Enemy and He Is PowerPoint" details the phenomenon of PowerPoint burnout in a military culture that overuses and misuses slide-ware. This article brings to mind Seth Godin's meditation on the uses and misuse of PowerPoint. Also, the tech-sensible Farhad Manjoo over at Slate points out that PowerPoint isn't evil if you learn how to use it.

Video Profile of the Week: Will Wright

One way of testing whether or not a person is knowledgeable about Games for Learning is to drop the name of Will Wright and see if they recognize it. Wright, the legendary designer of The Sims is one of the giants of the field. Here he presents a keynote address at GameTech 2010. Here is another presentation by Wright on game design. 

Finally, here is an interview Wright gave to the Chronicle of Higher Education entitled "5 Teaching Tips for Professors—From Video Games."

The Next Stage of Virtual World Based Learning: MESH

The ever brilliant Clark Aldrich weighs in on the next stage of Virtual Worlds in Learning.

The MESH would be structured similarly to a massively multi-player online role playing game such as World of Warcraft. But rather than killing dragons or aliens, teams would fluidly form to bid on and, if selected, attempt to solve real-world problems. Assuming they were successful, they would get a) points towards a "degree," and b) an increasingly detailed assessment of natural strengths (such as leadership or project management), industry preferences, and weaknesses to be worked on.

"What Makes a Great Teacher?"

A must read article from January 2010 edition of The Atlantic Monthly.