Games and gaming: the average gamer in North America is now a twenty-something whose lifestyle is more mainstream than adolescent. As games and gamers "grow up" ­ and as games continue their diffusion into new demographic categories while they simultaneously continue to push the envelopes of Internet and computer technologies what can we discern of new possibilities for identity play, community building, and so forth?
read more...

Linda Bloom, who participated in our workshop last week, posted her impressions on the Columbia Teaching and Learning network. Thanks, Linda!

6th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children

June 6-8, 2007, Aalborg, Denmark

The increased focus on children’s role in the design and evaluation of interactive technologies has provided several interesting research studies and results. Currently, we are aware of the fact that children have been characterized as not just short adults, but as independent individuals with their own strong opinions, needs, likes, and dislikes, and they should be treated as such. Several studies have focused on children in educational or training settings; this has been natural as children often encounter and use information technology in schools. Thus, children have often participated as future end-users of educational or edutainment technologies.

To address emerging research and development, IDC 2007 will look for papers, demonstrations, posters that may include at least one of the following broad areas:

• Emerging technologies for children (e.g., innovative educational simulations, online games, accessible fabrication devices, mobile communications devices, wireless embedded technologies, sensors and actuators, "smart" materials, authoring/programming tools)
• The impact these technologies can have on children's lives (e.g., in schools, at home, in public spaces)
• New research methods which give children a voice in the design, development, and evaluation processes (e.g., participatory design methods, usability testing, etc.)

Submission deadlines:
Full papers: January 19, 2007
Short papers: March 5, 2007
Poster and demos: March 5, 2007

Stumbled across this through the McArthur foundation site:

Games for Change (G4C) provides support, visibility and shared resources to organizations and individuals using digital games for social change. This is the primary community of practice for those interested in making digital games about the most pressing issues of our day, from poverty to race and the environment. We are the social change/social issues branch of the Serious Games Initiative.

http://digitel2007.cl.ncu.edu.tw/

DATES: March 26-28, 2007
VENUE: National Central University, Jhongli, Taiwan
WEBSITE: http://DIGITEL2007.cl.ncu.edu.tw
EMAIL: DIGITEL2007@cl.ncu.edu.tw

There is a rapidly growing interest in the design of digital games and intelligent toys for learning. Digital games use advanced computing, multimedia and Internet technology while intelligent toys are embedded with chips and sensors utilize wireless, mobile, and ubiquitous computing technologies. The game and toy designs that these technologies make possible integrate individual and social activities in new ways, and thus reframe long-standing questions, ideas, and approaches to learning. This conference will convene experts in digital games and toys from academia and industry to address fundamental questions about these new technologies for learning:

*What kinds of meaningful learning takes place through digital toys and games, and how does the process of deep understanding develop in these contexts?

*What new theories are needed to explain the phenomena of learning through digital game and toy-based play--and what old theories can be extended to this domain?

*How can we characterize the pedagogies of digital game and toy based learning?

*How can these technologies be adopted for formal and informal learning settings?

*Are there possible adverse outcomes and how can they be avoided, minimized, or mitigated?

The IEEE International Workshop on Digital Game and Intelligent Toy Enhanced Learning (DIGITEL2007) provides a forum, with keynotes, paper presentations, posters, and panels, for researchers and practitioners from various disciplines to exchange ideas to lay the foundation for this emerging research area. The proceedings of the workshop will be published by IEEE Computer Society.

A call for papers for a conference in mobile gaming in November in Banff, Alberta.

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=10568
read more...

Here are some links that colleagues have passed on to me about maths games on the web. I haven't checked them all out, but some look interesting.

http://www.what2learn.com/
http://www.mathsnet.net/
http://www.mathsisfun.com/
http://www.mathsonline.co.uk/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/mathsfile/index.shtml
http://cte.jhu.edu/techacademy/web/2000/heal/siteslist.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/games/
http://www.mathsyear2000.org/games/
http://www.school-resources.co.uk/SchoolLinks2

This is the web address:
http://jr.naver.com/
http://kr.kids.yahoo.com/

My friend is a math teacher and recommended this site but haven't looked
at it yet.
http://ipl.si.umich.edu/div/kidspace/

ABC is the Australian site for kids like the UK's cbeebies
http://abc.net.au/children/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/

Mark


read more...

"The Future Play conference focuses on three main themes. The first theme, future game development, addresses academic research and emerging industry trends in the area of game technology and game design. The second theme, future game impacts and applications, includes academic research and emerging industry trends focused on designing games for learning, for gender, for serious purposes, and to impact society. Finally, the third theme, future game talent, is designed to provide a number of industry and academic perspectives on the knowledge, skills, and attitude it takes to excel in the games industry."

http://www.futureplay.org/

Paper Submission Deadline: July 28

Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen mentioned this link in an email to me:

might want to hook up with / consider Learning Lab Denmark (http://edit.lld.dk/consortia/learninggames/en) that is more into the math and games

Anyone want to follow that up?

 

 

GAMES:EDU 06, 14th July 2006, Brighton
International Serious Games Event, 6-5 June, Birmingham