Tag Archives: games

Today we are thrilled to release a new report, T is for Transmedia: Learning through Transmedia Play. This report, which we have co-authored along with Erin Reilly, and which begins with an introduction by Henry Jenkins, is the product of a year-long collaboration between the Cooney Center and the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California. Transmedia is an idea that has evolved over the past decade to describe the complex relationships that exist between media texts, media…

Today we are living in a world where our lives are being shaped in fundamental ways by the products of science and their application in technology. For millions of youth, videogames are a big part of some of their earliest and up-close encounters with advanced technologies that incorporate computer simulations, visualization, communication, and digital art among other things. Playing videogames is gaining increased recognition as a valuable educational activity both within formal (in-school), and informal (out-of-school) settings. Research studies have…

I’m old enough (or young enough, based on whom you ask) to have fond memories of experimenting with both SimCity 2000 and SimCity 3000, the first two sequels to Will Wright’s popular SimCity game. The ability to design and wreak havoc on my own community offered mixed feelings of power and helplessness that, as a 9-year-old, I would have had few opportunities to experiment with beyond the computer. My mother, an urban planner, would use my city’s pitfalls as a…

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 STEM Video Game Challenge. The excitement was palpable as the kids funneled into a room outfitted with laptops. “Do you have an idea for a…

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 recently that I started playing them at home and with patients at all.  The game ended with me having died 25 times to his 2. …

The nation’s largest independent game festival comes to New York to celebrate the importance of indie games in the artistic community and invites artists, designers, and players to a weekend of panels, discussions, and game-design workshops. Co-hosted by the Museum of the Moving Image, IndieCade East will feature a weekend-long game jam for aspiring designers, industry panels, and an evening of game-play for visitors. Learn more.

January 10, 2013 marked the kick-off for Phase II of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center’s Games and Learning Publishing Council. Funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Council aims to expand the role of games and gaming in the educational lives of children by providing new research and analysis of the field of games-based learning. In its first year, the Council has expanded research and set forth a rigorous agenda for future work. Representing the diversity within the…

One of the most exciting things about receiving a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the opportunites the foundation provides to connect and collaborate with other organizations.  Last week, Michael Levine and I had the chance to attend the Gates Foundation’s annual convening of organizations working on Teacher Effectiveness.  The groups who attended and presented at this meeting, including The Center for Teaching Quality, VIVA Teachers, Educators 4 Excellence, Purpose, Student Achievement Partners, The Hope Street Group…

The annual Kids@Play Summit for industry professionals in related fields will meet at the Consumer Electronics Show this January at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The summit will include three exhibit days as well as a conference on January 9, 2013, which features several experts in the field of digital media for children and topics such as the transformation of play, interactive media use, learning, and communication in a digital age. Speakers include the keynote speaker, Nolan Bushnell (Founder of…

Congratulations to Dan Caldwell, one of our 2011 National STEM Challenge Video Game winners. His app, Body Adventure with Captain Brainy-Pants! is now available in the iTunes App Store. The app includes six games that explore the systems of the human body and features original music composed by Dan himself   Body Adventure with Captain Brain-Pants is now available for iPad, Android, Kindle, and Nook. Watch the trailer below, and check out the game in the App Store.