"The underground Railroad was a much more complex issue that it's been made out. When you push a person to a point where they have nothing to lose, that's when you create a formidable enemy. Ultimately, human beings are going to be free."

The story of Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad that was responsible for liberating so many slaves during a darker time in our country's history is often over-simplified, in order to present a more appealing version of the story. Such simplified tales provide both children and adults with a clear hero and a clear goal, making it easier to understand without going into some of the more disturbing details on the length that slaves would go to take back their lives. As Newby-Alexander puts it, "When you ask people to describe the Underground Railroad, they think of Harriet Tubman on foot, with a gun. Most slaves didn't escape that way."

In fact, many slaves never escape at all, losing their lives in the cramped holes of smoked-out ships, or simply captured, punished, and returned to their "owners". This is the sort of realism that the professor seeks to elicit in her video game. The player will be forced to make decisions - which path to take; who to trust - and not every decision will be the right one. The player, in the role on an escaped slave, can potentially be captured or even killed, but Newby-Alexander assures, "Even wrong choices in the game will lead to learning." In fact, while the game is aimed at middle and high school students, the plan is to make it challenging enough that success isn't always a foregone conclusion. "I don't want to dumb-down the game." If only more developers felt this way, right?

In order to facilitate the project, the professor was recently awarded a grant of $100,000 from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create the interactive video game. She will pull on her own knowledge gained through extensive research of the Underground Railroad in the Norfolk, Virginia area in order to help assure the game's authenticity. She's working with a local playwright Terrence Afer-Anderson to write the script and develop characters, and next year will work on programming with the aid of various other professors and historians. The plan is to launch the PC game locally by the year 2011.

I'd expect the subject of an Underground Railroad to drum up the usual criticisms and arguments. Video games are not the medium to respectfully depict tragic or profound events. A video game version of the slaves' struggles to be free would trivialize sad struggles. Still, I believe that if handled with the respect it deserves, the video game could shed new light on the truth behind one of America's darker eras.

Source: The Virginian-Pilot July 5th 2009 Edition

“I am shocked and overjoyed to be the first G.I.R.L. Scholarship recipient,” said Brasil. “I’m really looking forward to my internship with SOE, and getting some hands-on experience at such a well-known company. It’s such a great opportunity.”

Shocked, Julia? You need to believe in yourself. Dreams really do come true; you're living proof.

SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS $10,000 SCHOLARSHIP FOR WINNER OF FIRST-EVER G.I.R.L. GAME DESIGN COMPETITION
G.I.R.L. Scholarship Program Helps Boost Female Educational Opportunity
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - July 8, 2008 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC today announced that Julia Brasil of San Francisco has won the 2008 G.I.R.L. Game Design Competition. The competition was the first of its kind and was promoted in conjunction with The Art Institutes system of schools, to encourage students toward career paths in the creative and applied arts, ultimately resulting in the development of games that are more interesting for women to play.

Brasil, a student in the Game Art & Design program, was awarded a $10,000 tuition scholarship toward her education at The Art Institute of California – San Francisco and a paid internship of up to 10 weeks at the Sony Online Entertainment studios of her choice in Austin, Denver, San Diego or Seattle.

“I am shocked and overjoyed to be the first G.I.R.L. Scholarship recipient,” said Brasil. “I’m really looking forward to my internship with SOE, and getting some hands-on experience at such a well-known company. It’s such a great opportunity.”

Brasil was one of nearly 100 applicants vying for the winning title of the 2008 SOE G.I.R.L. Game Design Competition. In order to become the winner, Brasil had to submit an in-game design, original concept art and two essays.

“We believe our groundbreaking G.I.R.L. scholarship can give Julia the foundation she needs to pursue a successful career in the video games business. SOE is thrilled to jumpstart the first step in pursuing her goals,” said Torrie Dorrell, Senior Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing, Sony Online Entertainment. “We anticipate G.I.R.L. continuing to evolve and snowball, creating even more opportunities for women to get behind these games.”

Due to the popularity of the initiative, SOE will make official G.I.R.L — Gamers In Real Life — T-shirts available for purchase sometime this summer. For more information about G.I.R.L., go to girl.soe.com.

Don't be fooled by the title. While the back of the box makes allusions to right-brained creative thinkers and the more logic left-brained folks, those two distinctions never really come into play in LBRB. Instead you'll find yourself whacking moles, moving a dot through a maze, tapping the screen to reveal pictures, tracing lines - you know, action games. No real thinking involved. Basically you try things a few time with your dominant hand and then the screen flips, allowing you to complete the same task with the other, comparing your scores and delivering a handy (again!) synopsis of your performance.

After playing the game for hours upon hours, I don't find myself any better at using my left hand, no matter what the game scores say. While some of the games are decidedly harder with my off hand (the maze in particular), most of them are easily conquered with either hand. Tapping the screen repeatedly to unveil a picture? Come on now. An interesting tendency of mine I noticed while playing the game was to actually move the DS with my right hand in order to properly position my left hand to type. This made me realize that my left hand, while getting some of the most important jobs a hand can have, will always be my right hand's little bitch.

Aside fro the standard mode, the game features a R VS L mode where you can race a ghost of your dominant hand's performance through the mini-games, as well as single-card download play, allowing you to share the games with your friends who were perhaps wise enough to read this before going out and picking the title up.

As stated previous, Left Brain Right Brain has a very interesting concept that I would love to explore in more depth - perhaps on the Wii where it wouldn't be as easy to pull off the old dominant hand assist trick - but the depth I crave just isn't here.

"We're honored to have our characters take what sometimes may seem like dry topics and help make them come alive for students," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "The collaboration provides an opportunity for children to learn 21st century science using 21st century tools with characters they're familiar with."

I went ahead and downloaded the lesson plan that involved building a two-stage rocket, and while the PDF did indeed include a Pokemon-themed header and sidebar, I found no mention whatsoever of pocket monsters in the text. Perhaps you are meant to wave the printouts around to draw the children's eyes towards you. *shrugs*

This isn't the Pokemans first foray into learning, mind you. You can find interactive math, science, language arts and life skills lessons online at www.PokemonLearningLeague.com.

SCHOOL LESSON PLANS USE THEMES FROM LATEST POKEMON VIDEO GAMES TO TEACH SCIENCE

Free Lesson Plans Allow Students to 'Master the Science ... Master the Game'

REDMOND, Wash., Nov. 7, 2007 A new in-school program uses basic characters and themes from Nintendo's popular Pokemon Diamond and Pokemon Pearl video games for Nintendo DS to teach elementary and middle school students about science. Nintendo of America, Inc., The National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) and Nortel LearniT, have teamed up to make it fun for students to learn the sciences using imagery they already know and love.

Now through December, a variety of printable lesson plans and classroom activities developed by NIA are available to students and teachers at www.masterthescience.org. For instance, a lesson plan might teach elementary school students how to tell time using a sundial, or middle school students about how the universe is expanding. An activity component is also built in, where teacher and student questions can be submitted and answered by science experts.

"We are thrilled to offer educators a resource program that utilizes popular characters to enhance the learning experience for students in fields of study that will only grow more crucial as we move forward in the 21st century," says Robert Lindberg, NIA's President and Executive Director.

"We're honored to have our characters take what sometimes may seem like dry topics and help make them come alive for students," says George Harrison, Nintendo of America's senior vice president of marketing and corporate communications. "The collaboration provides an opportunity for children to learn 21st century science using 21st century tools with characters they're familiar with."

"We know through our Nortel LearniT initiatives that technology integration in the classroom makes learning both exciting and engaging," says Greg Farmer, VP, Nortel Government and Community Relations. "As an organization that believes technology can enable opportunity, we are proud to be associated with this project."

Pokemon is no stranger to in-school education. Teachers and students can also visit Pokemon Learning League (www.PokemonLearningLeague.com) to access its award-winning interactive online lessons in Math, Science, Language Arts and Life Skills.

For more information about the "Master the Science ... Master the Game" in-school program, visit the Web site at www.masterthescience.org.

The major downfall of our ability to track objects is speed. Because once these dots hit the on-screen speed of 0.15 metres per second, subjects were only able to track one dot at a time. I wish that I could put such a speed into real world context, but if you are interested in experiencing the phenomenon for yourself, hit this link to test yourself. It's...humbling at high speeds.

Brain can juggle eight balls at once [newscientist]

We do everything that's traditionally done...But as soon as we've done a little bit and they know it, we can turn around and make it a game and have fun.

Game system lowers learning curve at Cumberland [journal&courier]
[image]

The (game?) will be released October 18th with new content coming as soon as November. We're not certain that the DS screen is easy enough on the eyes for extended reading sessions, but we do fully realize that the DS can be held like a book—like a freakin' smartypants book! So we're sure it's a great idea.

The DS turned into an e-Book reader [siliconera]

PlaySmart

Commencing Oct. 1, 2007, PlaySmart rolls into schools all over Los Angeles County. Billed as a unique educational program from STAR Inc., PlaySmart uses existing and popular games as a means of teaching school age children skills such as problem solving, technological familiarity, objective thinking, literacy and other right and left brain exercises.

PlaySmart employs games such as Dance Dance Revolution™, Pokémon™ TCG and various other video games to enhance instruction in physical education, literacy, group dynamics, team building and positive gamesmanship.

STAR Inc., a 501 (c )(3), charitable non-profit organization's mission is to offer extended educational, recreational and enrichment programs to students; support and enhance school curriculum; improve student achievement; and expand the cultural base of young people through innovative, quality programs offered by highly qualified instructors.

Students at South Shore High School in New York have been passing up normal after school activities for video games...though not to play them. For the past year they've been meeting after school in order to develop meaningful video games with messages attached. It's all part of a program that melds game development with social awareness, and with the help of Global Kids and local developer Gamelab their first game has just been released online. Called "Ayiti: The Cost of Life," it puts the player in control of a family of five poor Haitians in what can best be described as a family management sim.

As you can imagine, the game is dreadfully depressing. You deal with bad weather, low income, hunger, etc. as you desperately try to keep the family alive. It's not fun, but I suppose that was the point. It shows a level of social awareness you certainly wouldn't expect in a group of American high school students. I think the program a brilliant way to mix gaming and learning with extremely positive results. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go borrow a Zoloft. Michael Fahey

Update: I originally mistook this for a school in North Carolina, when it is indeed in New York. I say thee whoops.

Ayiti: The Cost of Life
Creating games, learning lessons [News 14 Carolina]