Kotaku
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learning is fun
National Gaming Day at Your Local Library
November 15th is National Gaming Day at your local library (apparently); they're billing it as " the largest, simultaneous national video game tournament ever held! Kids will be able to compete against players at other libraries and see their scores in real-time online while playing at their local library." What's pretty cute is the justification for holding such an event — the FAQ is a thing of beauty, including questions like "aren't video games just a passing fad?": More » -
education
Games and Literacy: The NYT Take
Last week, we mentioned a LiveScience article checking out the educational uses of WoW; in my never-ending attempt to catch up from a weekend off, there's another article (this one from the New York Times) on the links between gaming and literacy in kids. It's a decently balanced piece, from the skeptics to the supporters, and it tackles a selection of current issues and future possibilities for the medium: More » -
learning is fun
Can Guitar Hero Make Children Smarter?
Can video games make children smarter? This is the question the American Library Association is looking into, conducting tests in various library systems throughout the country to see if getting children into the library helps promote literacy or just results in having a bunch of kids in the library playing video games. Tucson's News-4 posted a special report today on how the project is going at the Pima County Quincy Douglas branch, where children can come and somehow gain literacy by playing Guitar Hero and "Karaoke".
I'm not all that clear on how Guitar Hero is going to promote literacy. When you think about it, the very concept of Guitar Hero is about dumbing-down an activity so every one can do it, which would make it the literary equivalent of a McDonald's picture menu, but it sure does give News-4's reporter an excellent chance to stand on camera with a guitar controller. Hit the jump for the video report, condemned there due to its auto-starting nature. More »
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education
'Is Our Children Reading?' - A Defense of Video Games
Reader Chris W. pointed us to a nice little piece in The Guardian on the questions of video games and literacy, with author Steven Poole coming to the defense of that medium we're all so fond of. It's nothing new for those of us who game, but it never hurts to have another (reasonable, rational) voice in the chorus. Poole points out there are plenty of games out there that require as much reading as the average children's novel (if not more), and while the quality of writing may be variable, it's not as if every paperback on the shelves is fantastically written. More » -
the blame game
England's Reading Problems Tied To Gaming
You know you're in trouble when you're below the United States on the International Reading Literacy Study league table. England has plummeted from the number three spot in 2001 all the way down to nineteenth in 2006. Why the sudden drop? Ask England's Schools Minister Ed Balls, whose name must be a constant source of amusement for school children across the country.
'Most of them have their own TVS and mobiles and 37 per cent are playing computer games for three hours or more a day - more than in most countries in the study.'
Could Mr. Balls be correct? Could playing video games keep children from learning proper reading skills? I for one think we need to curtail this trend immediately, dropping crates full of wordy Japanese RPGs on the country as soon as we can get our forces mobilized. Parents are urged to turn the sound down and the 'Subtitles' option to 'On'. Now would we actually call him Minister Balls, or what?
Video games blamed for reading problems [Metro.co.uk - Thanks Garwai] -
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reading rainbow
MacArthur Foundation Contributes to Gaming Literacy
The MacArthur Foundation has decided to contribute $1.1 million to a new public school in New York for 6-12th graders. The curriculum for the entire school will surround designing video games. The idea is that children have "gaming literacy", or in other words, teaching kids about dynamic systems. More »
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