On a bright sunny morning after a February snowstorm, kids and their parents were lined up outside the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in Manhattan. But they weren’t there solely to see the many museum treasures. They were there to attend a workshop to make video games that they will enter into the National […]
Monthly Archives: February 2013
Learn to Play and Play to Learn: The Secret to Games That Teach
February 25, 2013
This article originally appeared in Mass Digi’s State of Play blog on Boston.com on February 21, 2013. Albert Einstein once said that play is the highest form of research, yet many students seem to experience less play as they grow older. That’s true even as videogames are earning more respect as learning tools; and as […]
Improving Our Aim: A Psychotherapist’s Take On Video Games & Violence
February 20, 2013
A little while back I was playing Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare with one of my patients, we’ll call him Alex*. Twenty minutes into our game, I was clearly losing badly and dying a lot. Although I am a gamer-affirmative therapist, first-person shooters have never been a favorite of mine. In fact it was only […]
Connecting Disability with “Connected Learning”
February 14, 2013
Last month, the Digital Media and Learning Research Hub, made possible by grants from the MacArthur Foundation, published a research report on the findings of the Connected Learning Research Network, a group led by scholars such as Mimi Ito, Sonia Livingstone, S. Craig Watkins, and Katie Salen. The Connected Learning Research Network, according to the […]
Upgrading Afterschool: Common Sense Shifts in Expanded Learning for a Digital Age
February 8, 2013
The Cooney Center’s Executive Director Michael H. Levine and Rafi Santo (Indiana University) have co-authored a chapter called “Upgrading Afterschool: Common Sense Shifts in Expanded Learning for a Digital Age” in the new book from the Expanding Learning & Afterschool Project. The compendium presents bold and persuasive evidence—as well as examples of effective practices, programs […]
Build It and They Will Learn: How the Design of a School Impacts Learning
February 7, 2013
A school is more than just a building. It’s an ecosystem, as delicate and as in need of balance as the ecosystems of the natural world. They way that a school is designed dictates the success of its mission to educate children and prepare them to become active and engaged citizens. To this end, teachers, […]
The Top 5 Best Things About Being a JGCC Research Fellow
February 1, 2013
Editor’s Note: Want to join the Joan Ganz Cooney Center team? Apply to be the 2016-2017 Cooney Center Fellow! We are accepting fellowship applications now through April 4, 2016. This Fall, I became the newest Cooney Center alum. After completing my year-long stint as the 2011-2012 Cooney Center Research Fellow, I am now a post-doctoral fellow at the Annenberg […]
Tech Toy Magic at Toy Fair
February 21, 2013
This post was originally published on 360kid’s blog and appears here with permission. For more than a decade I’ve been going to the annual NY Toy Fair, and I go primarily for one reason. To check out the latest technology toys. I’ve seen some amazing toys over the years, as well as hundreds, maybe thousands […]