Category Archives: Gaming

The 9th Annual Games for Change Festival is less than two weeks away! We are thrilled that our own Research Consultant Jessica Millstone and BrainPOP’s Senior Director, Educators Experience, Allisyn Levy, will present the findings of the first national survey on teacher attitudes towards games in the classroom. Their presentation will take place on Wednesday, June 20 at 12:10 in the Tishman Auditorium at NYU. Jeff Ramos of Games for Change took this opportunity to ask her a few questions about the research and its…

I’ve been spending a lot of time on a playground lately. However, this playground doesn’t have swings or tetherball or a basketball court; this one—the PLAYground—is a transmedia learning tool being developed at the Annenberg Innovation Lab at USC. The PLAYground is the brainchild of Erin Reilly, Managing Director for the Innovation Lab and someone I’ve gotten to work with closely through the JGCC’s partnership with the Lab. Developing the PLAYground is one element of a larger project on participatory learning,…

Still buzzing from the exciting events of the previous evening, many participants from the STEM Video Game Challenge‘s Celebration of Success attended The Atlantic’s second annual Technologies in Education Forum on May 22 in Washington, D.C.  The Forum continued a lively discussion around the role that games play in STEM learning, with editorial staff from The Atlantic asking probing (often skeptical) questions and speakers generally offering optimistic answers. A panel on “Framing the Role Games Will Play in Future Learning” addressed whether there is a danger that…

The 9th Annual Games for Change Festival will be taking place on June 18 – 20 in New York City. There is less than a month to register, so be sure to get your tickets now to catch the following featured keynote speakers: the legendary Nolan Bushnell, “father of the video game industry” and founder of Atari Corporation, leading games for change evangelist Jane McGonigal (Author of the New York Times best seller Reality Is Broken and Chief Creative Officer for SuperBetter Labs), linguist…

An adventure game where your character moves around by manipulating the attractive and repulsive forces of the atom. A 3D battle against pathogens inside the human body. An early learning game starring a shark that teaches first graders about inequalities. They could be the latest releases from a premiere educational game studio, but these and 14 other incredible games were all made by students between the ages of 10 and 18: the winners of the 2012 National STEM Video Game Challenge Youth Prize. On Monday, May…

Allison Mishkin teaches at a game design camp for middle school students. Here she shares some of the lessons that she’s learned — and tries to impart — to her students during this week-long sessions.   A group of students stumble into a computer lab on a bright spring day, unsure why their parents wanted them out of the house on their vacations. By the end of the day, they would emerge optimistic and excited for the week to come.…

We’re thrilled to release the newest addition to the series of video case studies put out by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, in collaboration with and support from BrainPOP. In this video, Steve Isaacs, a Technology Instructor at William Annin Middle School in Basking Ridge, New Jersey, shares how he integrates video game design and development into his 7th grade curriculum.  Steve’s emphasis on the design process helps students develop essential 21st century skills, while sparking students’ interest and motivation through…

“Radical change” and “storm the Bastille” were the rallying cries of the inspirational opening keynote of the 2nd Annual New School Venture Fund Summit, held on May 2, 2012 in San Francisco, CA.   This invite-only conference attracts big names from the education reform movement, including:  school chancellors from Newark and Washington DC, representatives from the US Department of Education, charter school network leaders, educational technology entrepreneurs and of course the venture capital managers who invest in them. The Joan Ganz Cooney…

Through case studies, roundtables, lectures and demos, the Games for Change Festival (June 18­-20, NYC) highlights models for collaboration on game development and distribution, bridging the gap between commercial and issue driven games. Featured presentations include game designer and author of Reality is Broken, Jane McGonigal, leading researcher, Dr. James Paul Gee, Valve Software, Navid Khonsari (Grand Theft Auto, Alan Wake), and Chris Bell (WAY, Journey). Highlighting the discussions on Games in Cultural Spaces will be representatives from the TATE, Smithsonian, California Academy of Sciences, and more. New features…

Through case studies, roundtables, lectures and demos, the Games for Change Festival (June 18­-20, NYC) highlights models for collaboration on game development and distribution, bridging the gap between commercial and issue driven games. Featured presentations include game designer and author of Reality is Broken, Jane McGonigal, leading researcher, Dr. James Paul Gee, Valve Software, Navid Khonsari (Grand Theft Auto, Alan Wake), and Chris Bell (WAY, Journey). Highlighting the discussions on Games in Cultural Spaces will be representatives from the TATE,…