President Barack Obama announced the overarching directive that the gaming plans are part of at a White House press conference that furthers the Administration's commitment to its STEM program, an initiative for focusing on science, technology engineering and math education. The new push is dubbed "Educate to Innovate."

Among the participating private-backed initiatives that are part of the program, according to a run-down in the New York Times, is a two-year focus on science on Sesame Street, a commercial-free science programming commitment by the Discovery Channel, a new website backed by Time Warner Cable, as well as a variety of video game initiatives.

"Our industry's lifeblood is the energy and innovation of new, emerging developers," Michael Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association, the industry's lobbying group, said in a press release today. "To create the next generation's epic titles and incredibly immersive storylines, we need America's youth to have strategic and analytic thinking skills along with complex problem solving abilities. It is my hope that it will produce games that will have a lasting impact on the STEM skills our nation's students so desperately need."

The Sony LittleBigPlanet initiative, Game Changers, is part of a $2 million 2010 Digital Media and Learning Competition funded by the MacArthur foundation. It involves Sony donating 1000 PlayStation 3s and copies of LittleBigPlanet to libraries and community organizations. Participants will strive to create levels that involve science, technology, engineering and math.

A second program, called the Stem National Video Game Competition, was also announced. It is a three-pronged $300,000 contest encouraging entrants to create the best browser video games that teach the STEM disciplines for a trio of age ranges: 4-8, 8-12 and 12-16. This competition is intended to reach "historically underserved populations including girls and minority students," according to an ESA press release. Specifics for this contest will be announced in early 2010, with winners showcased at E3 in June.

The gaming initiatives announced today are backed by the Information Technology Industry Council, an advocacy group. Microsoft and the Games4Change group are also both involved in these plans, according to the ESA release.

More details about both contests will be announced in the next few weeks, according to the ESA.

"It a fully featured studio that runs on a pocket-sized device," says an instructor at the school. "They're able to learn music theory in a different format. It's the same information; just a different way of presenting it".

According to a piece on CBS - which spends a great deal of time dealing with how many budget cuts the school is facing - East Side students are just thrilled, one saying "This is music. You're making your own music and it's really fun", with another, Isiah Martinez, adding "I learned that you can make beats on the PSP".

Education as advertising? It's worked before, and by golly Rockstar, it's working again.

Instruments In 1 NYC Music Program Replaced By PSP [CBS]

The 40-plus strong of San Antonio's Alamo Cosplay Troop are a regular act at the city's Forest Hills library, which buttresses its geek cred with anime, manga, and yes, gaming - safe and prosocial, usually rhythm games, but games nonetheless. The library is focusing on the ends, not the means - namely, stoke youngsters' imaginations and get them to enjoy being in a place of creativity and learning. If that means dressing up like Ash Ketchum, fine. Writes the San Antonio Express-News:

If this sounds like an odd program for a library to put on, that's because it is. But the program wasn't effective when it focused solely on reading novels, [teen librarian Sylvia] Pachecano said.

"If you say to a teen, ‘Hey, let's go to the library and read a book,' they're not going to want to come," Pachecano said. "But if you say to them, ‘Hey, let's go to the library and play video games,' they'll come. So the gaming and the arts and crafts gets them in here, and then when they're here they realize they have something they need to do, like a report or some homework."

Pachecano also said that many underprivileged young teens are dropped off at the library to spend whole days during the summer and the program gives them something to focus on while they're there.

Library Program Engages Teens in Costume Role-Play [San Antonio Express-News (and image) via TheBBPS

Art and design website Tokyo Zokei University has launched a special site to promote its Open Campus event for high school students. The page has a Mother (Earthbound in the West) vibe to it. Very cool.

Zokei University alumni include luminaries like Oscar-nominated director and current Zokei instructor Koji Yamamura (Mt. Head, Franz Kafka's A Country Doctor), mechanical designer Kunio Okawara (Gundam, Votoms, Gaogaigar), manga creator and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Evangelion, Nadia - Secret of Blue Water, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time), Sunrise president and producer Kenji Uchida (Zeta Gundam, The Big O, Code Geass), among others.

University's Open Campus Site Includes K-On! Cameos [ANN via Japanator]

Unable to concentrate on school because she was up late at night, she dropped out to focus on her gaming and join Swedish team Pink Zinic full-time. She's also working as a model "for a friend".

This seems to be a nascent trend of late with a 16-year-old in Raleigh, N.C., whose parents have let him drop out of school so that he can focus on a professional gaming career via Guitar Hero.

We do wish the both of them the best of luck — wherever their roads take them.

17 year-old Zinic.inzane: "I quit school for CS" [SK Gaming Thanks, Lawrence!]

Games are no stranger to schools, of course. Think back to the 80s when at least 30 minutes of every school day was given over to drowning your wagon in Oregon Trail in the name of History class, or letting your SimCity fall to ruin through crime and tornadoes on behalf of Social Studies. From the first school-sanctioned games like these to the full-blown edutainment of today, it's safe to say educators are aware of the learning potential in video games.

But taking a step further and actually developing a curriculum around the Nintendo DS takes innovation – and money. After all, there's only so far math drills can really take you whether you're on a PC or DS and money for education systems still doesn't grow on trees.

Leading the charge toward a Nintenducation in the UK is Scotland. Their Centre for Games and Learning (aka The Consolarium) is an extension of the Scottish Government Schools Directorate that presents teachers and education administrators with ideas for implementing all kinds of gaming consoles into schools.

Derek Robertson, National Adviser for Emerging Technologies and Learning and administrator of the Consolarium, says that the use of the DS in schools is now commonplace, compared to when he first introduced the consoles to schools in 2006. "Initially I purchased 30 [Nintendo DS consoles] and carried out my first Dr. Kawashima [aka Brain Age] trial. The extended trial saw us handing out over 450 consoles to support our project."

The Consolarium encourages schools to the use the DS for more than just math drills and brain training puzzles. "We suggest that schools follow [the Brain Age] methodology although they are free to trial other approaches," said Robertson. "Our main approach is not to prescribe a series of lesson plans but to suggest how the game, be it Nintendogs or Hotel Dusk, can be used as the contextual hub about which learning in a variety of curricular links can grow from."

Translation: students get to play Hotel Dusk. In class.

This application of the DS to schools marks a paradigm shift in the relationship between games and education. In the old days (by which I mean the 80s and early 90s), Oregon Trail and SimCity were phased out in favor of more learning-specific software like Math Blaster. There's nothing wrong with dressing up multiplication tables in interactive software, of course. But it did limit learning opportunities to whatever the game was programmed to do and it put teachers in a hands-off role.

With games like Nintendogs, teachers get to be creative, designing lesson plans around what happens in the game. For example, teachers in two Scottish schools used the virtual pet sim back in 2008 as a way to tempt kids into reading up on the first dog in space. Students also wrote stories about their Nintendog and competed with their classmates in the in-game competitions for real life prizes from the teacher. This year, another Scottish teacher has used the Nintendogs initiative to launch an art project where students tried to use what they saw in the game to influence the dogs that they drew or painted in real life.

Although the success of these programs is hard to measure (aside from teacher, parent and student testimony), something clearly seems to be working for Nintenducation. Robertson said Scottish schools are starting to shell out for their own consoles because they've seen results from the Consolarium's initiative. One school even received a donation offer within the last two months for 2500 DS consoles.

Meanwhile, in England, the Consolarium's ideas are starting to catch on. Dawn Hollybone is a teacher at Oakdale Junior School in London where students aged 7-11 are getting their hands on both Brain Age and Professor Layton to further their education.

"We use the consoles for 20 minutes a day," she said. "Each year group has a session timetable per day and then I ask that they use it at least three times a week. The use of these is planned into each individual lesson, [so if it's] part of a maths session, then it may be used as a mental starter to warm up… or as part of a Literacy lesson, the class may use the reading aloud programme or syllable counter."

Additionally, Hollybone also uses PictoChat as a way to bulk up writing exercises by having students write to one another and collaborate on projects.

"In this way they are not merely 'just' playing the games they are used as a way into a lesson or as a plenary," Hollybone said.

It all looks incredibly awesome (or maybe we're blinded by jealousy); but there are some concerns that critics have raised over DS usage in schools. There's the obvious "games don't teach kids" arguments we're used to hearing from the Oregon Trail days; but there's also a valid concern about the cost of putting a DS in the hands of every school child. Not all school systems are as small Scotland's or Japan's – and here in the US, the cost of public education through taxes barely covers school lunches, never mind a $100+ console plus $30 games.

"I suppose costs are a barrier but if that's all we have to worry about, then great," said Robertson. He said he's more concerned about getting the message out to critics of the methodology itself that games are good learning tools, not some subversive pop culture enemy. "There is still a worry over the media's general propensity to perpetuate the moral panic argument or for the impact to be lost in an intellectual debate, but I feel as though we have managed to change attitudes… and are helping to change attitudes beyond our [borders]."

Japan seems to have their back at least — in Kyoto Prefecture (Nintendo's home base), Nintenducation is still going strong in Yawata City after being introduced about three years ago. Last month in neighboring Osaka Prefecture, there were reports that the Osaka Board of Education approved a measure that would allow 10 middle and elementary schools in the area to incorporate the DS into the classroom experience.

So what can we expect for the US schools? Nintendo couldn't be reached for comment on this feature, but we did get in touch a middle school history teach and a DS-fluent parent to get their take.

Caitlin Ferguson is a 9th Grade Geography teacher at Port of Los Angeles High School in California. She herself doesn't own a DS, but having seen it in the hands of some of her friends, she's vaguely aware of its educational potential. But in a school system where High School students already have regular access to computers, she thinks a Nintendo DS might be overkill.

"They're lackadaisical as it is," she said. "If they're getting the work done… I could see using it as an enrichment tool, rather than a curriculum tool." An example of that would be letting students play Brain Age only after they'd completed their regular math assignment – instead of before.

Ferguson did acknowledge that teachers could take Nintenducation a step further if the school passed out DS consoles to students. For example, she suggested that a Life Skills class could assign students an exercise where they compare Cooking Mama recipes with real-life cooking recipes and pick out all the differences.

Ultimately, though, Ferguson's concern about putting the DS in schools is that it will be a barrier between teacher and student. "There's so much interaction [that happens] between teacher and student," she said. "It can't be replaced by a DS. Neither can the work."

Ferguson's concerns about the line between work and play are echoed by parent Julia Temple. Her son is in 3rd grade at St. Paul's Episcopal School in California and for the money she pays, she doesn't want him playing games instead of traditional learning.

"I wouldn't be happy if they gave [students] DSs at school," Temple said. "I could see that maybe it would engage children… it could make for a positive experience." But to her, the DS is a toy used for having fun, not for learning; she thinks the time a student spends gaming would be better spent with a book.

Temple said she was alright with students learning on computers, though, because she sees them as a part of everyday life that students have to learn eventually. "The DS is very limited," she said. "You can do more on a computer."

But, like the critics, Temple's biggest concern is cost: "Ultimately, I don't think they should have DSs in school because we have so many other things we could be spending money on."

We may not see Nintenducation in the US anytime soon because of the economy. But if Japan and the United Kingdom show consistent promise with their DS programs, it may be only a matter of money and not of principle that keeps the consoles out of school. Like they say, knowledge is power - and like Nintendo used to tell us back in the 80s: "Now you're playing with power."

Librande plans to guide students through Spore Galactic Adventures' Adventure Creator and tech them how to make game concepts come to life.

"Maxis and EA are huge proponents of college game design programs and nurturing rising talent," said Lucy Bradshaw, VP and General Manager at Maxis. "The robust creative capabilities of the Adventure Creator in Spore Galactic Adventures, empowers future game developers with a different way to experiment with game design. I can't wait to see what the students create."

The tour kicked off late last week at the Georgia Institute of Technology. It will head to the University of Southern California later this week and then Carnegie Mellon University on May 1.

"The games industry continues to grow with the rise of online gaming, casual gaming and the exciting challenges of new markets," said Cindy Nicola, VP, Global Talent Acquisition. "EA is passionate about attracting and hiring the brightest graduates as they are our next generation of leaders. Our university partnerships and the talent they produce are key components of our overall talent strategy and we are deeply committed to continuing to hire interns and new graduates across EA."

Spore, Will Wright's far-reaching game about life, the universe and everything, is a journey, not just from microscope to universe, but of discovery and imagination.

It's also the clearest example of how, in creating his games, Wright taps so deeply into the principals of his grade-school education which was based on a pedagogy built on child development first formulated more than 100 years ago in Rome.

Because of this, Wright's greatest achievement isn't delivering the universe as toy in Spore, the digital dollhouses of the Sims or even the planned towns of Sim City.

It's his ability to touch a gamer's imagination and inspire their intellect. To create not just games, but places and spaces of exploration

Interesting Playthings
The secret of good teaching is to regard the child's intelligence as a fertile field in which seeds may be sown, to grow under the heat of flaming imagination. Our aim therefore is not merely to make the child understand, and still less to force him to memorize, but so to touch his imagination as to enthuse him to his inner most core. — Maria Montessori

In Montessori schools, the emphasis is on instilling a desire to learn in children, not in lecturing them.

"In western education we take theories, we deconstruct them, we categorize them and then we teach them in classrooms," Wright says. "You are going to a school, going to a master, learning theory before you could go practice it."

"Before that system, it was about practice, it was more of a failure based learning. I think that's almost a more natural approach. It seems that Montessori is going with the grain in that naturalistic sense. It was later we moved to this narrative method, sitting back, listening-to-a-lecture model ."

The pedagogy was developed by Maria Montessori while working with intellectually and developmentally disabled children as part of her post-graduate research. By removing the idea that children were adults in tiny bodies that had to learn through lecture and memorization, and instead focusing on sparking a thirst for knowledge, Montessori found children could direct their own learning.

"Her aim was to arouse in the children a spontaneous response to the materials and I see that in (Will Wright's) games," said Virginia McHugh Goodwin, executive director of the Association Montessori International, USA. "Creativity is a component to his work and that is also key to Montessori's work, because she sets the tone for creativity, the way she has her educational methods set up.

"To be creative you have to have the freedom to explore and to master the specific techniques and that leads to unleashing the human spirit so that the process of creating can come from within."

Montessori's first school opened in 1907 in Rome and her methodologies have since spread around the world. Including to places like Atlanta, Georgia, where Wright attended such a school until sixth grade.

Another important element of Montessori education is the use of self-correcting toys. These Montessori toys allow children to play without realizing they are learning.

"The structure of Montessori toy is that the kid will discover things while playing with a toy," Wright said. "Having the kid discover these principals is so much more powerful than a teacher coming up and saying we're going to learn about this.

"The way we approached Spore was a lot like that. What are the components I want a gamer to discover when playing with this?"

And that's not an unusual approach for Wright. None of his games are really games, he says.

"I build more interesting toys than interesting games," he said. "I always thought of Spore as a toy universe. I think there is an interesting distinction between toy and game. I think a toy is more open ended.

"The game is a subset of the experiences you can have with the toy."

And toys and play, Wright says, go hand-in-hand.

"Play is a toy version of problem solving that we're going to encounter later in life," he said. "Getting people to be playful around serious subjects is the most effective ways to develop an intuition to that.

"It gives us ways to kind of map things intuitively."

An Elegant Tool
"Free the child's potential, and you will transform him into the world" — Maria Montessori

Wright's first experience with Montessori was brief and intense, attending an elementary school in Atlanta until the sixth grade. The school introduced him to the idea of self-directed education through creative inspiration.

"I bring it up every now and the," he said of his Montessori education. "It gives people a grounding of where I am coming from. "

Goodwin says that many Montessori graduates tend to be more interesting in exploring things, in asking a lot of questions.

"They're critical thinkers, problem solvers, because they've had the ability to do that from a very early age," she said.

For Wright, Montessori helped him realize that when he was personally involved or interested in something he learned about it much more efficiently.

"When I was starting to research SimCity I started reading about urban dynamics," he said. "It became more of an obsession, because I was able to play with my guinea pig simulation, instead of trying to learn facts and figures.

"When Sim games started moving forward we wanted to draw that out."

He did that by creating games that were a form of autodidactic toy, that taught by inspiring people to become interested in a subject.

"It's about getting a player creatively engaged," he said. "Computers can get students very motivated to be interested in things."

But Wright contends that Montessori isn't as direct an influence on him as some might think. He doesn't, he says, come up with his idea for games from Montessori.

"I pick themes, things I've been fascinated with, then it's ‘How can I convey this to a lot of people?'," he said. "Montessori seems like a very clean, natural way to make these subjects approachable."

Instead, Montessori's influence is more subtle.

"I don't think it's something you work into a game, I think it's inherit in the structure itself," he said. "It's in the design premise.

"It's an elegant tool. It's not the end state goal. It just happens to be the best tool for the job."

Loops of Super Mario Bros.
Never help a child with a task at which he feels he can succeed. – Maria Montessori

As with the Montessori Method, in Wright's games failing is almost as important as winning.

"Montessori knew that children needed freedom to make mistakes, to develop skills that are unique to his or her personality," said Goodwin. "The freedom allows for the development of the creative thinking and the problem solving skills. To be able to look at things from a different perspective.

"Montessori allows for success and failure. She felt that people learned from mistakes. Mistakes are not looked down upon or frowned upon, they are part of the process."

For Wright, that was one of the hardest things to come to grips with as a game designer.

"One of the counter intuitive things I needed to learn as a designer was that players enjoy failures more than success," he said. "As long as it's diverse, they like to explore the failure space of a game."

All games are made up of what Wright calls interaction loops, events that have both a success and failure side to them.

"In Super Mario Brothers, once you succeed at knowing how to make him move you go on to the next step. Now you go up and hit a creature and you fail a different way."

Wright's games have always had a diverse and interesting mix of what Wright terms the failure space.

"It's the failure that's fun," he said.

But what you won't find in Spore is any form of direct competition with other gamers, another tenant found in Montessori teachings.

"Montessori does not encourage competition in the traditional sense," Goodwin said. "The idea with Montessori is that children strive to do the best that they can do."

Instead, in both Spore and Montessori, the emphasis is on collaboration.

"Children learn to collaborate and work with one another and then each child is motivated to reach his or her potential so they can contribute to the project in a collaborative way, their best skills," Goodwin said. "So there is competition, but it is done in a very nice way. And I don't see Wright with a lot of competition in his games."

Imagination Amplifier
We especially need imagination in science. It is not all mathematics, nor all logic, but it is somewhat beauty and poetry. – Maria Montessori

Because Wright isn't trying to lecture gamers or teach them the nuance of physics, evolution, of astronomy or biology, the science of Spore wasn't designed to be "dead on accurate".

"If you step way back and look at Spore as a whole it's meant to show a grand arch, the story of life," her said. "The Sims is like the story of life on Earth, Spore is life with a capital L."

"I wanted people to have a sense of the vast scope that their life is inside of. There's a journey in Spore from microscopic to galactic. There aren't too many experiences in games, books or movies that gives you that distant perspective."

And along with that perspective, the different stages of Spore allow a gamer plenty of aesthetic and strategic creativity, all geared at getting players not to learn but to express their creativity.

"A lot of people have a very low opinion of their own creativity," he said. "When you give them a tool to make things that they didn't think they could make it can be very powerful, especially when five or six people comment on it."

Goodwin says Spore "amplifies the imagination."

"When I look at Spore, that's what it seemed to say to me," she said. "That it really uses the imagination.

"Another thing I think I saw with (Wright), is that he is really, really into that idea of discovery and exploration. That is one of the key tenants of Montessori's work. The materials that she designed allow the child to discover"

They are, she said, manipulative materials that go from something concrete to the abstract.

After the game's launch, Wright and his team started to see people step outside the limitations of Spore and continue to create.

"People were creating narratives of who their people are and how they evolve," he said. "It was really about ownership at some level."

Manchild
The greatest sign of success for a teacher... is to be able to say, "The children are now working as if I did not exist. — Maria Montessori

The more than four hundred pages of Maria Montessori's book, The Montessori Method, is packed with lessons that seem at times written as much for game development as they are for education.

It often talks of creating a system of rules that don't inhibit, but enhance the experience.

Wright laughs in surprise when I tell him that after reading the book it seems to me that many games treat gamers as children, puppets that are lead through games by a strict set of rules, rules that often harm the experience.

He seems to be agreeing with me when he says that Spore was created to be very player focused.

"Where Montessori is very child centered," he says, "we are very gamer centered."

But modern games aren't as condescending in their design. They expect more now from players.

"If you look at them ten years ago they were more linear," he said. "But now the Sims, Grand Theft Auto, Roller Coaster Tycoon, even the Wii games or music games, they leave a lot more room for creative expression of the player."

And it's that desire to free that expression that seems to keep driving Wright back to Montessori's methods.

"I'm not trying to evangelize Montessori," he said. "I want people to feel creative and involved and feel like they've doing something constructive. Montessori is a great tool for that purpose."

The program isn't using the game to teach music, it's just meant to engage student in the arts, to get them interested in music. Which, I think, is a fantastic idea. Sure, Guitar Hero and Rock Band would do the same thing, but including instruments they are both more expensive.

The program is, in part, a reaction to the D.C. School Chancellor's new policy to make sure every school has a music teacher on staff. The Wii music program will eventually be in 50 cities throughout the country.

Maybe Harmonix or Activision will take a page from Nintendo and test out a program that would introduce younger children to music through their games. I know that's why Tristan is studying classical guitar now.

Nintendo Wii Debuts in D.C. School [Fox DC]

Good thing, then, that the American Library Association is prepared with an answer for me and librarians nationwide.

This past November, nearly 600 libraries checked out more than 14,000 games on National Gaming Day. But why?

Adding games to the growing list of content that libraries check out helps establish the neighborhood library as a third place, a community gathering spot between home and work or school. That third place, according to the Librarian's Guide to Gaming, encourages play, socialization and cultural enrichment.

More interesting, though, is the association's take on the importance of gaming and play.

"Board games, card games, and videogames are, in essence, information, and the human act of telling stories, presented in new formats that involve the player. Games may fulfill a library's mission to provide cultural, recreational, and entertaining materials; to provide academic curriculum support; or to provide resources and support their industry or profession."

I would argue that gaming also helps children and teenagers prepare for life's challenges in a non-threatening way, allowing them to confront problems in a setting that allows for failure, and teaches through it.

The site is a fantastic jumping off point for lots of fascinating discussion, including a look at the connection between literacy and gaming, the cathartic effect of gaming, the health aspects of gaming and the importance and nature of fun play.

Jim Rettig, president of the association, sums up the values of gaming in libraries best:

"Games of every type play an important role in developing fundamental competencies for life. They require players to learn and follow complex sets of rules, make strategic and tactical decisions, and, increasingly, collaborate with teammates and others: all things they will have to do in college and in the workforce."

I'm convinced, hopefully this more formal roll-out of gaming through libraries will help to convince others as well.

The Librarian's Guide to Gaming [ALA, via Joystiq]

The 30 scholarships represent a doubling of the foundations scholarship offerings over their first two years of operation, granting qualified applicants $3,000 towards their continued game development education. The scholarships are available to minority and female students who are either attending high school or studying development-related subjects at accredited four-year anniversaries.

"A growing number of students know that computer and video games are the premier entertainment medium for expressing their impressive creativity and innovative thinking," said Michael Gallagher, president and CEO of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), which represents U.S. computer and game publishers. "We are excited to provide these scholarships to help future game industry employees make the dreams that they have for themselves and our industry a reality."

To apply online for the scholarship, visit the ESA Foundation website and fill out the application before May 15th, 2009. Remember, you can only qualify if you are not a white male, unless of course you possess C. Thomas Howell-level dedication.

Obama's comments during last night's address closely echo comments he made during his presidential campaign, in which he urged parents to actually be parents, rather then letting outside elements such as video games and television raise their children.

In the end, there is no program or policy that can substitute for a mother or father who will attend those parent/teacher conferences, or help with homework after dinner, or turn off the TV, put away the video games, and read to their child. I speak to you not just as a president, but as a father when I say that responsibility for our children's education must begin at home.

Once again, the President's words do not condemn gaming or television, but rather parents that use the activities to keep their children occupied, rather than spending time with them. Not sure what this whole reading thing is about though. Are parents supposed to bring a laptop with them when they tuck their children in?

In First Major Address to Congress, Obama Once Again Links Video Games to Academic Underachievement [Game Politics]

The U.S. publisher of Harry Potter books is under attack by a children's advocacy group for marketing toys, lip gloss and video games to children through their in-school book clubs.

Scholastic earned nearly $337 million last year from their book clubs, which the company estimates three-quarters of all U.S. elementary school teachers and 2.2 million children participate in each year.

Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood launched a protest Monday accusing Scholastic of exploiting its access to school by marketing non-books to kids. The group says that a third of the items Scholastic sells are either not-books or book packs that include non-books.

"The opportunity to sell directly to children in schools is a privilege, not a right," said CCFC's director, Dr. Susan Linn. "Schools grant Scholastic unique commercial access to children because of its reputation as an educational publisher. But Scholastic is abusing that privilege by flooding classrooms across the country with ads for toys, trinkets, and electronic media with little or no educational value."

"It's bad enough that so many of the books sold in Scholastic book clubs are de-facto promotions for media properties like High School Musical and SpongeBob SquarePants," said Dr. Linn. "But there's no justification for marketing an M&M videogame or lip gloss in elementary schools. Teachers should not be enlisted as sales agents for commercialized merchandise that actually compete with books for children's attention and their families' limited resources."

This isn't the first time that the Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood has taken on video game sales or advertising. The group was also behind the push to remove ads for GTA from buses and other forms of transportation, a drive to get the Wii version of Manhunt an adults only rating and once called LEGO Batman oppressive and destructive to children.

As usual, the Campaign folks are being alarmists. Only 14 percent of the items sold by Scholastic are not books and that includes things like pencils, erasers and notebooks. The other 19 percent were books bundled with other items, some meaningful, some not so much. However I do think that Scholastic needs to refocus both their book and non-book selections with an eye toward getting kids to read.

GamePro was on hand for the first class, recording a three and a half minute chunk of the class, which started out with the instructor quoting from Chinese Tradition about the complexity of variation.

Starcraft 101: The Art of War

A research team at Britain's Durham University have adapted the engine to create a fire drill simulator. Recreating the university campus, it's aimed at familiarising staff with the best way to escape the building in case of an emergency.

Which it's mostly successful at! Mostly. See, for staff who don't play video games, it works as intended. They take it seriously, they avoid the fire, they make their way towards the exit in a calm and orderly fashion.

But people who play games? They run. They run straight into the fire. Because it's a "game". Oops.

Video game helps with fire drill [BBC]

Suggested prerequisites includes a working knowledge of StarCraft strategy and suggested reading includes The Art of War by Sun Tzu and Crazy as Me by Lim Yo Hwan.

While the course isn't listed on the UC Berkeley website, I was able to get the university's Haas School of Business to verify that the course is real. The course is being taught by a student at the school as part of the Democratic Education in Cal initiative and students can receive college credit for taking it. Other DeCal classes include There Be Dragons, The Ethics of Star Trek and Beginner's Scrabble: Strategy, Knowledge, and Fun.

Game Theory in StarCraft, will meet once a week for two hours with probably the second best Lab meeting once a week from noon to five.

Course Description:
UC Berkeley students with an interest in real-time strategy games and the competitive gaming landscape are encouraged to participate in this class.
This course will go in-depth in the theory of how war is conducted within the confines of the game Starcraft. There will be lecture on various aspects of the game, from the viewpoint of pure theory to the more computational aspects of how exactly battles are conducted. Calculus and Differential Equations are highly recommended for full understanding of the course. Furthermore, the class will take the theoretical into the practical world by analyzing games and replays to reinforce decision-making skills and advanced Starcraft theory.
Class will start with lecture and usually include a special discussion topic having to do with the day’s lecture to inspire new and original thought. At the end of lecture, there may be time to analyze student-submitted replays to illustrate a point or to improve analysis. Homework will be assigned at the end of each class and is due at the beginning of each lecture.

Course Learning Objectives and Goals:
What may look like complex topics are just ways we want you to think more deeply about the game to derive a greater satisfaction from playing. Furthermore, this understanding should have applications in real life, to further synthesize new information from limited inferences. The primary goal is for students to learn, enjoy the art of competitive StarCraft, and have fun. Overall, students will be applying critical thinking, quick decision-making, and game theory skills throughout the sessions. Students will also learn what to look for in a replay or game to learn most effectively.

(Tentative) Course Outline:
Week 1: Orientation / Competitive Gaming Industry Overview / StarCraft Boom in Korea
Week 2: Units, Strength, Weakness, Attributes, Stats
Week 3: Fighting Micro and Unit Use
Week 4: Army Movement and Positioning
Week 5: Expo and Macro
Week 6: Building Placement and Base Layout
Week 7: Scouting and Counters
Week 8: Harass
Week 9: Overloading the Enemy, Multi-plays
Week 10: Economic Basis, Micro vs Macro
Week 11: Timing and Evaluation of Resources
Week 12: Deception
Week 13: Mindset and Series Play
Week 14: Tournament

My favorite is the final project: There will be a final project where students will present and explain their contribution to the Starcraft Community. This may take the form of an essay detailing new theory or calculations, or an in-depth analysis of a significant game. Whichever final project is chosen will be displayed or published on a public forum for peer criticism.

Unfortunately there are only 60 seats available for the course and Berkeley students get preference.

Welcome to Starcraft Decal '09

A story in the Post-Star of Glens Falls, N.Y. reports about the mushrooming uses of video games in local schools there. What began as a physical education effort to help children with special needs has expanded to a reward for good behavior, excellent grades or classroom performance, encourage kids to take physical fitness habits into their home, and now as an activity more engaging than spending winter days cooped up in a gym.

There's money behind it too, which confirms educators are approaching it as a serious resource. One school got $1,649 for a Dance Dance Revolution Group Fitness Bundle for the Wii. The same program has been rolled out at another high school and will be expanded there next semester. Wiis also are being used in other elementary schools.

"They're using it with great success as a motivator during winter months and on a day like today, when you can't go out. There are a lot of ways to burn calories while you're inside," said David Ashdown, an official with the educational services board serving Glens Falls and other schools in five counties. "What you're getting is student engagement and trying to harness what we call the 'wow factor.' You're trying to reach every student and creating opportunities to make students successful."

State officials also seem receptive to video games' value to education.

"I spent some time talking to the state Education Department and I think the issue is everyone wants to engage students in the classroom," Ashdown said. "That's the kind of magic in a bottle any administrator wants to capture."

Getting Schooled on Wii [Post-Star, Glens Falls, N.Y.]

The Isabelle Clingerman tells the local news there that while her 9-year-old, who owns more than 40 Nintendo games, can play the games to his hearts content, her 5-year-old has panic attacks and experiences hand pains after just 30 minutes of gaming.

And this is when it gets interesting. Clingerman says she is returning her son's "Nintendo" back to the store:

"I can't recommend this game to any parent," she said. "It's not a substitute for reading a book or doing an outdoor activity with your child."

Carlsbad Mom Says Nintendo Video Game Made Son Sick [CBS 8]

Booze Cruise allows users to enter their weight and a number of drinks, then attempt to drive home using keyboard keys on their computer driving games. Reaction times are delayed and screen vision blurred, while they drive trying to avoid pedestrians, vehicles and other obstacles.

"What we're trying to show them is it's not possible to think yourself sober. Some people believe that if you just focus, you can drive really well," said Jim Parker, the University of Calgary professor of both computer science and fine arts who led the development of the game.

The game, which the army will start using in the next month or so, was initially developed in 2007, but the army provided funds to improve it.

Despite the Army's interest, Mothers Against Drunk Driving Canada (how do you drive a country sober or drunk?) decry the game, saying it will just teach people how to better drive while impaired.

"We've spent decades telling people not to drink and drive, and this simulator, one of the skills it teaches is to drink so much, and then drive," said Andrew Murie, chief executive officer of MADD Canada.

Way to remain obstinately uneducated MADD.

The collaboration will have music teachers in 51 cities using Wii Music to help children with rhythm, temp and song structure.

“The goal of Wii Music is to inspire people of all ages to enjoy music,” said Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of Sales & Marketing. “By partnering with educators and bringing Wii Music into their classrooms, we hope to give students a memorable, hands-on experience that helps them discover their own creative voice.”

Instead of trying to use Wii music to actually teach musical concepts, the main thrust appears to be getting children more interested in music. Something that I think Rock Band and Guitar Hero could also lend a hand in. Just ask my son and the thousands like him who have taken up real guitar lessons because of their game play.

But this is a great first step.

“Wii Music has brought a renewed excitement to music class for students from first grade to fifth, myself and even some of the classroom teachers,” said Helen A. Krofchick, a music teacher at Doby’s Mill Elementary School in Lugoff, S.C. “I love how many music standards can be covered in such a short time. Students also have to use language skills, spatial awareness and hand-eye coordination. We have a school very supportive of the arts and Wii Music has empowered our program even more. Any system that is educational and can add a love of music to children’s lives should be in every classroom.”

Other organization working with Nintendo on this program include San Francisco’s Blue Bear School of Music and New York’s Opus 118 Harlem School of Music.

“The joy of playing music is something that should be experienced by everyone, regardless of age, talent-level or experience,” said Joe Lamond, President & CEO of NAMM, the National Association of Music Merchants. “Research shows that more than 82 percent of people who don’t currently play a musical instrument wish they did. Wii Music can help address this by providing a positive introduction for millions of people who might not otherwise be inclined to try.”

This sounds like Nintendo has taken up the idea of getting Wii into schools to heart. Nintendo told me that they didn provide a "limited amount" of consoles to help get the program off the ground, though it doesn't sound like they plan on donating to schools across the country.

They did also work with The National Association for Music Education to create a master lesson plan.

It's good to see that my pet peeve is getting some attention.