Tag: educational

Integrating Computer Games

Creating game-based learning environments or experiences using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games is becoming an increasingly tenable, valuable, and popular instructional method. COTS games are computer or video games created for entertainment purposes. A few popular examples are SimCity, Age of Empires, ZooTycoon, and Railroad Tycoon.

My good friend Dennis Charsky invited me to co-author Integrating Commercial off-the-Shelf Video Games into School Curriculum. Ten suggestions to help educators effectively integrate COTS games are shared in this research article. Below is an overview along with a few notes from this publication.

10 Things To Do When Integrating a Commercial off-the-Shelf Video Gam

View more presentations from Clif Mims.

Suggested Reading for 02/25/2010

The Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change. – Pew Research Center

Phished through Twitter – Dr. Leigh Zeitz

The Thin Red Line… – Jenny Luca

Gifted Teacher Wins First STELLAR Award – Huntington News

The Facebook Imperative – TechCrunch

Encadré (Jardim Botânico, Rio de Janeiro)

NCTIES Conference

I’m looking forward to being part of the North Carolina Technology in Education Society’s 2010 Conference in Raleigh, NC on March 3-5, 2010. I’m excited about being one of the featured speakers and having opportunities to work with and learn from classroom teachers, media specialists, administrators, and more. On Wednesday (03/03/2010) I’ll be sharing a pre-conference workshop on Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media. Thursday and Friday mornings I’ll be leading interactive demonstrations and discussions about Web 2.0 tools and personal learning networks (PLNs) in the classroom.

I’m looking forward to meeting many of my friends from my blog, Twitter, Plurk, etc. in Raleigh!

Did You Know 4.0

I’ve been developing workshops for the BILD Institute for the past couple of months and I’ve discovered/rediscovered many quality resources about educational reform, instructional design, technology integration, and innovation as well as many new web tools and services. I hope to share much of this with you here on this blog (You can also go ahead and access it on the BILD Institute site.). The first resource I’d like to share is this recently updated version of the Did You Know/Shift Happens video (See previous versions here, here and here.). “This is another official update to the original Shift Happens video. This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology, and was developed in partnership with The Economist.” (Source)

Wordles of Every Inaugaration Speech [Video and Gallery]

Governing Dynamo has developed a gallery of all 56 American presidential inaugural addresses that includes full transcripts, Wordles (word cloud visualizations) and video footage. The video below can be a useful way to navigate through the gallery. Click on the glowing green dots in the video to learn more about an inaugural address.