The Honorable Sandra Day O'Connor's...Video Game?

More and more, educators and game designers are seeing the benefits of using the games middle schoolers love as teaching tools. Students have fun and can mix different skills and subjects in a way that feels more true to life and sometimes masks the immense amount of learning and work going on. Claudia Parsons reports for Reuters at MSNBC.com on the involvement of former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor with a project that will soon release free online games for middle schoolers.

Surprised? Probably as surprised as O'Connor to find herself addressing a digital gaming conference, Games For Change. But her involvement in the Our Courts project stemmed from her concern over public views of and growing hostility toward the judiciary system. From "vitriolic attacks by some members of Congress, some members of state legislatures and various private interest groups," to Senators vetting Supreme Court nominees on their possible decisions in court cases, to special interest involvement in state judicial elections, O'Connor has seen a deteriorating atmosphere for "fair and impartial judgments from the judges who are serving." The only way to preserve an independent judiciary and blunt the growing hostility is to better educate the public about all three branches of government, their roles and relationships to each other.

The first part of the Our Courts project will be an interactive online civics program for grades 7-9. It's meant to stand alone or be part of a curriculum or unit of study. The game will feature scenarios that reflect real-life legal issues and encourage students to debate and come to a decision on matters like First Amendment rights or freedom of the press. Some initial materials will be available in September at OurCourts.org. The second part of the project will be a game that engages students in their spare time and aims to "get them thinking about government and civic engagement rather than playing shoot-'em-up video games." Both components should be fully operational by September 2009. And free.

O'Connor saw the educational potential of technology while watching her grandchildren engage with it. But, she said, "I don't play videogames. Sorry."

SOURCE: "Retired justice O'Connor unveils video game" 06/04/08
photo courtesy of dipfan, used under this Creative Commons license

The Impending Gale, Coming Soon to a Middle School Near You (Hopefully)

Middle schoolers love video and computer games. And at North Hills Junior High School in Pennsylvania, they're like the spoonful of sugar that helps the learning go down. Daveen Rae Kurutz reports in The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review on a new educational game being tested at North Hills Junior High that mixes algebra, earth science, geography and Spanish.

The Impeding Gale is an online game that is similar in design and play to World of Warcraft. In the game, students are disaster relief volunteers engaged in an adventure. The game, created by Eric Hardman of the National Network of Digital Schools, has the same chat components as other online games, but this past semester, teachers have turned that off so students focus on the adventure and the academics in the game.

Students love the chance to play for a purpose and avoid the boredom of reading textbooks and filling out worksheets:

"A lot of times I get bored just reading a textbook or doing worksheets, but this makes us more apt to pay attention even if it isn't a subject we're really interested in....It's fun, but educational, not like some of the games out there like Guitar Hero where you aren't learning. I'd do this in any class."

"You get so tired of reading out of a textbook it makes you fall asleep....This definitely makes you remember things differently. I feel like I'm catching on better."

The Impending Gale is a pilot project, the National Network of Digital Schools' first foray into the traditional classroom and its first project to focus more on academics than linking teens socially. Only the North Hills district of Allegheny county is participating so far. Hopefully, after this successful semester, The Impeding Gale will be more widely available. We can also hope that NNDS and others will create and test more games like this that combine subjects in a fun virtual learning environment for our middle schoolers.

SOURCE: "Video game supplies adventure for North Hills students" 05/27/08
photo courtesy of ground zero, used under this Creative Commons license

Immune Attack!

More and more educational games pop up each month, some more fluff than substance. Meris Stansbury at eSchool News reports on a new game from the Federation of American Scientists (FAS) that meets the high standards you want for your students. And it's free.

Immune Attack was created by immunologists, teachers and "learning scientists from institutions such as Brown University, the University of Southern California, and Escape Hatch Entertainment." Henry Kelly, president of FAS, said of the game's focus on the immune system, "We felt the subject lent itself perfectly to an attempt to use game technology to convey sophisticated knowledge while retaining interest in the phenomena." The game was tested in schools before its release.

Immune Attack uses three-dimensional simulations whose images were created by medical illustrators for scientific accuracy. The game also has features like conferencing and auto-tutoring to appeal to and help students at all levels and to promote individualized learning. It also has an assessment tool so you can see how much your students have absorbed. Immune Attack is meant to supplement rather than replace a lesson in the class and to be used in conjunction with other materials and lessons. At the FAS website, you can download the game and also find a teacher's guide with tips on using the game with your students.

Immune Attack is aimed at high school biology students to help them better understand the links between classwork and real-world illnesses and treatments. High school teachers are being recruited to evaluate the game, too. Still, it can be a valuable tool in middle school and a great way to draw your game-loving students toward STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) subjects and careers.

SOURCE: "Scientists release educational computer game " 05/22/08
photo courtesy of katmere, used under this Creative Commons license

Connecting through Web 2.0

Web 2.0 has some great tools for education in an increasingly digital and global world, but K-12 teachers have understandable concerns about security for their students and academic usefulness. No one has time to waste these days. Patrica Deubel in THE Journal provides a great round-up of helpful guides to Web 2.0 and a summary of some of the great and mostly free tools available in a format meant to help already-busy teachers at all levels and with all levels of technological expertise and experience.

Deubel points out several online videos and quick start guides that explain terminology, such as what RSS feeds and aggregators are, and provide links for free online web applications for "bookmarking managers, file storage/transfer, productivity, collaboration, and internet/network tools like Web-based e-mail, online fax, online chat, and more." There are lists for open source software and guides for using Web 2.0 tools in your classroom. Some tools that seem most useful for middle school teachers trying to connect students to the world outside the classroom (and also to some homeschoolers looking to connect) include the following:

• For a fee, teachers can sign up for Ed.VoiceThread, a more secure and safe version of VoiceThread. Ed.VoiceThread is private and made "for creating digital stories and documentaries, practicing language skills, exploring geography and culture, solving math problems, collaborating with other students, or simply finding and honing student voices." Student work can be made public to share and make assignments more meaningful. (We know how publishing work can alter student effort and motivation.)
  


• Elgg is free, open-source software for creating social networks that comes with "blogging, networking, community, collecting of news using feeds aggregation and file sharing features." Access controls allow work to be shared and tags make it easier to categorize and search for work. If security is still a concern, Elgg can be installed on a school server and controlled by a system administrator or a teacher.
  


• Ning is also a great, free social networking tool. (Classroom 2.0 is a fabulous Ning group page for teachers wanting more information or feedback on using collaborative technology.)
  


• Think.com is also free and has password-protected online environments for K-12 students and teachers. At Think.com, students can collaborate with others on projects, create Web pages and hold online discussions. Teachers can monitor the spaces they create for student work and collaboration. Think.com is also ad-free and has spam filters.
  


• TIGed from TakingITGlobal has free teacher-controlled online environments for project-based learning and collaboration, safe social networking and galleries, podcasts, blogs and an online magazine for student publishing. Membership at TIGed is free but there are fees to create virtual classrooms and to access activity databases and teacher discussion groups.

At the end of the article, Deubel provides a link to a booklet by Terry Freedman that has advice for using Web 2.0 applications effectively and purposefully in education. There's also a list of links for all the resources mentioned in the article ranging from AltaVista's Babel Fish translator to Engrade (a free online grading package) to Scratch (student art-sharing on the Web) to Whyville (a virtual world for ages 8-16).

SOURCE: "A Taste of Web 2.0" 03/2008
photo courtesy of kevindooley, used under this Creative Commons license

STEAMing Up Middle School Science

The Science and Technology Enrichment for Appalachian Middle-schoolers (STEAM) project has been bringing together graduate students, middle school science teachers and middle school students to improve student learning through games. As reported by Caitlin Bowling in The Post (Athens, OH), the project, begun in 2006, has Ohio University graduate students creating games and interactive digital experiments to help students learn concepts in science, technology and math. Currently, 6 Ohio middle schools and 8 teachers participate in the project.

Graduate students in engineering, computer science and software engineering not only create the games but bring them into the classrooms. Students enjoy the games so much, says Fellow Mark Smearcheck, that they play the games on weekends and compete to beat their friends' scores, all while learning and retaining complex scientific concepts. In "Mind Games: Technology in the Classroom," a video available on the STEAM homepage, the superintendent of the Southern Local Schools District, Cindy Hartman, explains her encounter with a student "who struggles some," and who she had worked with before, playing Star Life: "I looked at him and asked him how he knew all these complicated concepts and he got this big smile on his face and said, Well, I learned them, which seems like a really simple kind of response but it was wonderful."

A side benefit that doesn't escape the attention of the Fellows or teachers is the mentoring aspect of the Fellows' presence in the classroom. Students interact with "real-life" engineers who talk about their field and their projects and interests. They also bring the college experience to students in a district Hartman describes as poor and rural, students who may not have considered college as an option before. The Fellows not only motivate and inspire students but teachers, too. Angela Adams, eighth grade science teacher at Miller Middle School, says in "Mind Games" that before the collaboration, she used her computer solely for word processing and "some Internet." She has since expanded to creating and maintaining her own web site for classes and looks forward to using more technology in her science classroom.

Superintendent Hartman calls this project exactly what it is, "a wonderful collaboration and partnership between public schools and the colleges." At the SMART site, you can find two videos that introduce the project, "Interview with Cindy Hartman" and "Mind Games: Technology in the Classroom" and links to lists of participating Fellows and teachers. Don't miss the software releases page where all the games are--one goal for the project is to have teachers nationwide using the games in their classrooms. The games range from Ground Shakers (plate tectonics) to Fruit Fly Genetics to The Redi Experiment.

SOURCE: "Grad students play ‘virtual scientists’ for middle school students" 02/27/08
photo courtesy of NASA via Ping News, used under this Creative Commons license