Educational Computer Games, Sandra Day O'Connor, & liberal arts (David Kirkpatrick, FORTUNE)

From David Kirkpatrick, FORTUNE

Though many adults imagine the frightening Grand Theft Auto when they think of video games, kids appear to be subtler thinkers on the subject. Not only do many of them intuitively realize that games can embody any values and be on any subject, many want to make games themselves.

That was my big takeaway from the fourth annual Games For Change conference held in New York. I moderated a session there on Youth-Created Games for Change, something I confess I knew next to nothing about before this week.

Educators around the country are recognizing that it isn't intrinsically bad that kids want to spend so much time staring at a screen playing video games. Instead of demonizing them for doing so, they're redirecting the kids' attention to more beneficial things on the screen - creating games that help kids learn. The conference highlighted a dizzying array of games on environmental, political, scientific, human rights and other topics. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor gave the event's closing keynote, in which she described a computer game she is helping create to teach students about the court system.

But some educators are going a step further, teaching kids to make the games themselves. It turns out to be perhaps the ultimate form of liberal arts. In order to create a computer game you have to think about the content. You have to write a script. The programming involves logic, math and science. And to understand how you distribute a game you have to get into issues of marketing, sociology, and Internet culture. Panelist Rafael Fajardo, a professor at the University of Denver, says that his program, which teaches teachers how to teach kids to make games, is working to "change the culture of education." The National Science Foundation has contributed funding. more>>

Humanities Research: Directories of Online Tools

From the Chronicle of Higher Educations' Wired Campus Blog:

A new wiki provides a directory of online tools for humanities scholars. The site, which uses software that lets anyone edit or add to the material, covers more than 20 categories, including blogging tools, specialized search engines for scholars, and software programs that can record what is on a user’s screen.

The site, called Digital Research Tools, or DiRT, is run by Lisa Spiro, director of the Digital Media Center at Rice University.

The Center for History and New Media at George Mason University runs a similar collection of resources called Exploring and Collecting History Online, or ECHO—Jeffrey R. Young

OLPC in Business Week

Here is a major magazine feature about the ups & downs of the One Laptop Per Child program.

Center for Media & Educational Technologies: New Name, Same Services

We have a couple of re-organizations underway here at the University of Oregon Libraries:

The Center for Media and Educational Technologies (CMET) brings together expertise in classroom technology and video production (from Media Services) with interactive media and web development (from CET:Interactive Media). We are actively recruiting a new director to lead the new department.

Other services formerly associated with the Center for Educational Technologies (consulting and training for instructors, Workshops on Demand, and Blackboard support) are now provided by Scholarly Communications and Instructional Support,

Let me know you have any questions or are interested in learning more about the Director's position.