MindShift

By Andrew Miller The online educational video game site iCivics, created in 2009 by former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor that features civics curriculum, has partnered with EverFi, an ed-tech company focused on K-12 and higher ed. And through the partnership comes a new initiative Commons – Digital Town Square, offered free to all … Continue reading →

Flickr:Blakespot By Jennie Rose An estimated 135 million people play video games, spending three billion hours a week glued to a screen. But that’s not necessarily bad news. In fact, playing video games may be part of an evolutionary leap forward, according to Howard Rheingold, educator and author of the book Net Smart: How to … Continue reading →

The Infinite Thinking Machine is back after a summer hiatus. This episode focusing on gamification features a great rundown of learning games and programs, including Minecraft, Gamestar Mechanic, NYC Haunts, and Gamedesk, a game company that recently opened a game-based learning school within a school in Los Angeles. Continue reading →

Perhaps the best way to think about games in education is not to automatically call everything that looks like fun a “learning game.” Lumping all digital game approaches together makes no more sense than a toddler’s inclination to call every four-legged animal a “doggie.” Game interest is definitely on the upswing in K-12 and higher … Continue reading →

By Suzie Boss The following suggestions for turning K-12 classrooms into innovation spaces come from Bringing Innovation to School: Empowering Students to Thrive in a Changing World, published in July by Solution Tree. How can we prepare today’s students to become tomorrow’s innovators? It’s an urgent challenge, repeated by President Obama, corporate CEOs, and global … Continue reading →

As the gaming in education continues to grow, one of the foremost experts in the field, Constance Steinkuehler, makes the case for why it’s important to pay attention to what works in gaming and how it could be applied to learning. At the recent Aspen Ideas Festival, Steinkuehler, who’s now a Senior Policy Analyst at … Continue reading →