SXSW came and went, and in the weeks surrounding this mother of all conferences, Austin was abuzz with events that forebode what's to come in the future of education. The weekend prior to SXSW an event called STEAM3 set off. STEM is better known an...
I like to think that I learned to code as a kid. Well, really I didn't, but if you wanted your family’s Commodore 64 or Atari to do anything, you actually had to use some sort of commands and know basic programming language. This was back when Bill Gates was in his 30s, when Wham churned out holiday hits and we teased our hair until it defied gravity. I remember getting all giddy when I learned how to change the font color from fuchsia to lime green in Pascal – or was it Basic?
Gamification is a popular buzzword among futurists these days. But it’s far more than a fad. Gamification is pretty much the process of allowing learning and innovation to piggyback on people’s natural predilection for seeking enjoyment through play and skill mastery. Win-win in other words.
Earlier this year I attended two different events that prove games are moving way past the socially deviant designs that could thrive only in the dim, dirty bedrooms of anti-social adolescent boys. First, I was invited to attend the launch of PBS KIDS's and CPB’s (Center for Public Broadcasting) “It All Adds Up” program. PBS, known to provide high-quality programming for children, has carried out a study revealing that young children are not receiving adequate support for learning early math skills. This deficit is particularly significant in lower-income families. Since math skills at kindergarten entry is an even stronger predictor of school achievement than reading skills, entertainment that fosters this ability early on could improve educational outcome later in life.
Crowdsourcing is the new outsourcing when it comes to corporate savings. Outsourcing is a way of paying cheaply for services in low cost countries. Crowdsourcing is getting additional savings by engaging vast sources of amateurs and experts anywhere to do it for free - services...
Faster feedback cycles, clear goals and rules of play, a compelling narrative, and tasks that are challenging - these are some of the reasons forecasters in the gaming industry believe half of all innovation organizations will use gaming processes by 2015. IT consultant company Gartner believe a gamified...
Virtual reality, or immersive video games, are quickly becoming the "who-cares-which-reality" reality. Following what seems to be a new book trend about the beneficial social effect of gaming, authors Jeremy Bailenson and Jim Blasocovich's Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of...
