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Monthly Archives: February 2013

A Day at the Museum: The National STEM Video Game Challenge Launches with a Series of Workshops That Teach Kids to Make Video Games

by Christa Avampato
February 26, 2013

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 … 







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Learn to Play and Play to Learn: The Secret to Games That Teach

by Michael Suen and Adam Mandeville
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 … 







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Tech Toy Magic at Toy Fair

by Scott Traylor
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 … 







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Improving Our Aim: A Psychotherapist’s Take On Video Games & Violence

by Mike Langlois
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.  … 







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Connecting Disability with “Connected Learning”

by Meryl Alper
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 … 







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Expanding Minds and Opportunities

Upgrading Afterschool: Common Sense Shifts in Expanded Learning for a Digital Age

by Allison Mishkin
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 … 







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East Harlem School

Build It and They Will Learn: How the Design of a School Impacts Learning

by Christa Avampato
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 … 







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Sarah Vaala and Murray

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 … 







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