What should a video game design development course curriculum accomplish?

EdSurge had put together a great guide, Teaching Kids to Code, that provides 14 posts that look at coding from a variety of perspectives and a table that lists 40 tools for learning online programming. The table is divided into sections which include learning coding with:

* apps

* hardware

* visual blocks

* formal coding language

Many of the suggested tools are free.

There are many who suggest that all students should learn to code. If you are interested in helping students learn to code or would like to learn about a variety of resources check out this post.

Ver useful, thanks! 

An interesting infographic

This is another excellent looking infographic

Check it out...

To innovate, scientists and engineers find inspiration in the arts

Some disciplines have evolved to their own death. Engineering has evolved logically, but not necessarily culturally,” Silver of Intel and Makey Makey, who was trained as an electrical engineer, told me at PopTech. “Creativity isn’t part of that any more. So we look to where it is; we’re desperate for it. We look to art. And it’s wonderful, because it’s there.”

Smithsonian always has great insights, and in this case, Infographics.

Smithsonian always has great insights, and in this case, Infographics.

A great infographic that looks as the value of a STEM education...for more on the value of educating students in science, technology, engineering and math click through to the post. You may also download the infographic as a pdf. 

All students...

Great infographic about Why STEM matters.. Source:edutopia

If you are looking for some great websites and ideas to help you integrate art into your curriculum this post may provide everything you need. The information is split into the following categories:

* Math

* Geometry

* Science

* Computer Science

* Movies Across the Curriculum

* Writing and Grammar

* Reading

* Social Studies

Each suggestion includes additional information and in many cases provides links to specific website. Have fun exploring the wide range of options!

Creativity needs to be integrated into all education - not just the arts.

Enjoying with Art..

Check out this video that discusses why you might use Minecraft to teach physics to history. Gamification anyone?

This post focuses on work published by Tony Wagner back in 2010 but the information is still relevant. Wagner interviewed CEOs of 100 major businesses and was able to come up with seven essential skills students should have for the 21st century (and yes, we are in this century). The skills are listed below and more information may be found in this post, which lists the skill and then discusses how to prepare students to meet this skill.

* Critical Thinking and Problem Solving

* Collaboration Across Networks and Leading by Influence

* Agility and Adaptability

* Initiative and Entrepreneurship

* Effective Oral and Written Communication

* Accessing and Analyzing Information

* Curiosity and Imagination

As technology is becoming powerful and life changing how can we prepare students for the 21st century survival. The seven survival skills purposefully apply in a classroom. This links with Using Mathematical Higher order thinking - Critical Thinking and problem solving prepares students to see problems from different angles and formulate their own solutions. Collaboration encourages students to take on different roles. Agility and Adaptability – be willing to adapt to the changes around them.Initative and Entrepreneurship - always try. Effective Oral and written communication - how to speak confidently and clearly. Accessing and Analyzing Information-

learn the difference between factual information and factual-sounding opinions. Curiosity and Imagination - teach them how to apply them creatively and purposefully. Technology has become an essential and important tool for education, helping teachers with their work and most importantly supporting the students. This also links with brief design technology and the digital technologies strand of the National Technologies Curriculum as students are taught how to use the technologies available to them.

Check this out, please! Very interesting for Teachers and Students...

There is a lot to be said for teaching the whole student by making sure these skills are developed and encouraged as an equally important part of 21st century learning.

´Destaca que la construcción de habilidades sociales y emocionales asegura mayores resultados académicos y personales

Are you interested in designing e-learning and video based games for children and youth in India that impact social emotional learning. Get in touch with us at Dreamcatchers so that we can work together.

The following article outlines the gains from social emotional learning and the use of video games as is being discovered in the West.

What if we taught our students that failure is mandatory, a part of our lives, that we can learn from our failures and move forward? This post states "We understand that failure is crucially instructive and necessary on the road to success and learning." We might ask ourselves (as teachers) if we embrace failure or if we are fearful of the possible outcomes. 

The post provides some foundational material, such as a graphic that looks at a "cycle of experiment and experience" as well as suggesting four strategies:

* Remove the fear of failure

* Create skunkworks

* Promote success

* Align IT and curriculum

And last but not least, that our schools should be cultures of innovation. Additional material is provided on each of the four strategies in the post.

If you have wanted to learn how to use Popcorn Maker check out this video tutorial. Learn how to use the drag and drop, insert text, images, Google maps and more. Final projects may be shared (that does require that you create a log-in) and embedded in web pages. Braun's final comment is "“For school and public librarians, teachers, and parents who work with kids and teens, there are a lot of possibilities." 

Interessant: Videos mit Sprechblasen, Infos oder Twitterfeeds anreichern.

Jackie Gerstein continues to explore the shift from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 to Web 3.0 , taking it "one step further" by looking at Pedagogy (related to children's learning), Andragogy (related to adults learning) and Heutagogy (related to self-directed learning). The graphic above shows how she defines these three areas in more detail. 

She notes that this shift is moving us from a teacher directed classroom which education driven by essentialism or instructivism (Education 1.0) to a constructivist approach, "where the principles of active, experiential, authentic, relevant, socially-networked learning experiences are built into the class or course structure" (Education 2.0) to a more heutalogical approach (Education 3.0).

The discussion then looks at how to choose a teaching orientation (and it need not always be the same) and then applies these concepts to mobile learning. 

Many resources are included in this post such as a table describing Education 1.0, Education 2.0 and Education 3.0; a Google Drive Presentation on PBL in a High School Science Class that uses mobile technologies; a SlideShare that looks at Education 3.0 and the Pedagogy of Mobile Learning (presenting the concepts discussed in the post); and many links to additional resources.

One more step towards a better education... good job!!

How I'd love to use these ideas. However, we're so behind the times vis-a-vis technology at my school.

This post provides the infographic that shows 18 myths about education. It also includes short explanations about research on each of the 18 myths (located under the infographic).

The editor also noted that some of these topics are "contentious." If you choose to respond to any of them here or on the original post please use civil language.

for all those who claim to know all about education..

Learn more:

- http://gustmees.wordpress.com/2013/01/23/is-your-professional-development-up-to-date/

Learn more:

- http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=Digital-Footprint

- http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=eCitizen

Learn more:

- http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=Digital-Footprint

- http://www.scoop.it/t/21st-century-learning-and-teaching/?tag=eCitizen

This is sizzlin'! When we are first born, our physical handprint and footprint become part of our birth record. As we grow and learn, our digital footprint defines our lives: who we are, what we stand for, when we meet and greet others, where we have been, why we think as we do and how we inspire/motivate others, whether positively or negatively.

What are you leaving behind? Are you prepared to be Googled...by your parents, grandparents, friends, future employers?

Can games increase a child's learning and development? It appears that answer is yes. Below are six benefits and additional information is available in the post.

* Increases A Child’s Memory Capacity

* Computer & Simulation Fluency

* Helps With Fast Strategic Thinking & Problem-Solving

* Develops Hand-Eye Coordination

* Beneficial Specifically For Children With Attention Disorders

* Helps Children With Particular Skills (e.g. map reading)

When you ask a middle school student what computers are good for they often reply "playing games." SimCity is going to be releasing a SimCity EDU version in the fall of this year. This new version "grew out of research conducted by the MacArthur foundation on how gaming can mirror formative assessments [PDF] – measuring understanding regularly along the learning path, rather than occasionally or at the end of a unit, as is most common. Their research found that games gather data about the player as he or she makes choices within the game, affecting the outcome. In games, players “level-up,” moving on to higher levels when they’ve mastered the necessary skills; similarly teachers scaffold lessons to deepen understanding as a student grasps the easier concepts."

The post also notes that there are those who question if assessment belongs in games. That is a topic that will continued to be debated.

This post looks not only at the four Cs but also at four elements that Dr. Carol Tomlinson uses when discussing differentation:

* Process

* Environment

* Content

* Product

Wolpert-Gawron states "I think about these two lists in a way to ensure that I am hitting as many learners as possible -- with the wall up of rigor necessary to help prepare them for what we can predict they might need for their future."

The post goes on to discuss how she uses TED Talks as a way to teach argumentative writing (as required in the Common Core). A quick overview of her projects includes students watching TED Talks, brainstorming advocacy isssues, researching (in small groups), creating a Problem Statement, developing background information, guiding questions and more.

This is one teachers take on how to create a deeper learning environment in her classroom, and provides many ideas that you may want to adapt to your classroom.

Snapshot of a Deeper Learning Classroom: Aligning TED Talks to the Four Cs via @BethDichter http://sco.lt/...

A ces qualités nécessaires, j'ajouterai la maturité, la générosité et la duplicité.

A very interesting approch indeed, one could use it for language teaching as well 

Very interesting summary of social media in schools. What sort of tools does your school utilise?

Great infographic. 

I think that this is such a great visual for my generation. It is so representative of how we rely, and use technology to demonstrate common core values in the classroom. This is great but it also could be our achilles heel, we need to apeal to all types of learners and visual is just one, there are so many more type that must be catered to so that we can be affective.

Once again Michael Gorman has put together a great list of Web 2.0 tools that you might want to use in your classroom. In this post he provided information on 15 tools, and each tool has a variety of resources, ranging from tutorials to blog postings that discuss the tool to ways you might use the tool in your classroom and much more. A few of the tools mentioned include:

* Glogster

* Voki

* Storybird

* Answer Garden

Check the post to learn more about these plus 11 additional tools!