Quest to Learn: NYC’s game-based school

New York City’s Quest to Learn, created in collaboration with New Visions for Public Schools, is a proposed 6-12th grade school based on game-inspired teaching. Mission critical at Quest to Learn is a translation of the underlying form of games into a powerful pedagogical model for its 6-12th graders. Games work as rule-based learning systems, [...]

CANVAS: a virtual world for pupil artwork

Learning and Teaching Scotland’s educational games initiative Consolarium has announced CANVAS, a virtual world allowing local authorities to display pupils’ art. Based on the OpenSim application and created by Aberdeen-based company Second Places, CANVAS (Children’s Art at the National Virtual Arena of Scotland) has the appearance of Second Life while being hosted on LTS servers, [...]

Nintendo DS Classroom unveiled for Japan

Today Nintendo and Sharp System Products unveiled DS Classroom, allowing DS consoles to be linked to a central computer and used with specialised educational software. Known as “Nintendo DS Kyoushitsu” in its native Japanese, the new system pairs up the DS with a PC. Teachers make use of software on the PC to interact via [...]

PSP Go to result in cheaper PSPs for schools?

Rumours of Sony’s PSP Go console appear to have been confirmed. The hardware features slide-out controls and digital-only distribution (i.e. no UMD slot) and is apparently far lighter than previous PSP iterations. Unlike Nintendo’s new DSi console, there appear to be no new features that would benefit classroom use directly. However, the rumoured Autumn release [...]

Co-op games to promote speaking and learning skills

With Jim Rose’s review of the UK primary curriculum placing particular emphasis on speaking and listening skills, I’ve been thinking about games that promote communication. Of course, most games can be played with contributions from other people and there are plenty of multiplayer competitive games. However, my girlfriend and I have developed an obsession with [...]

Mobile phones in learning

There’s a handy page of links over at Teachnet to websites allowing constructive use of mobile phones in learning contexts. This includes resources to share cameraphone images, including the ability to upload to blogs directly from the phone. There are also links to resources such as TextTheMob, allowing instant display of survey results and messages [...]

Learning and Teaching Scotland videos on iTunes

iTunes U is part of the iTunes store featuring lectures and audiobooks from universities and museums, all available for free. Learning and Teaching Scotland, in typically trailblazing fashion, are leading the charge to add videos aimed at teachers developing and supporting 3-18 education and the new Scottish Primary curriculum, ‘Curriculum for Excellence’. While not games-based, [...]

One Laptop Per Child – India places order for 250,000 units

While India’s education minister previously dismissed the One Laptop Per Child scheme as ‘pedagogically suspect’, it appears that India’s government has placed an order for 250,000 units. The Guardian reports that 1500 schools should begin receiving computers in June, but remains sceptical about OLPC’s ability to fulfil such a large order.

Transforming Schools for the Future

Transforming Schools for the Future is a collection of papers published by Futurelab, forming a commentary of the UK government’s Building Schools for the Future and Primary Capital Programme (investment programmes in secondary and primary school buildings). In his foreword, Lord David Puttnam argues for a forward-thinking approach to designing not just school buildings but [...]

Nintendo DSi ideal for the classroom

Richard Terrell at Critical Gaming Network gives his argument for the Nintendo DSi as an ideal interactive learning tool for the classroom. His commentary on the DSi’s added camera functionality is an interesting read for educators considering upgrading their DS or DS Lite models. On a related note, perhaps the introduction of the DSi may [...]

TES schools awards: e-learning initiatives

The TES has released the shortlist for its second annual Schools Awards for England and Wales, including the category ‘Best e-learning initiative’. Here’s the e-learning shortlist: Elstree School, Berkshire Project: networked first-person shooter game. A bank of 200 KS3 science questions were integrated into the program to create a game called Science Slaughter. Players answer [...]