The 79 ideas come from an ongoing collaboration between educators, youth, and designers.

You can join in at the blog or Facebook page.

No argument here!

Sylvia

Via Learning Games Network -

If you work with students (13 years and older) who have a strong interest in designing and creating their own computer games, definitely learn more about our plans for the Design Corps, which kicked off in the fall. This spring, the program is entering a new phase focusing on student design teams. We’ve opened this up to new participants — interested students can apply right here by Friday, January 22, 2010.

What does it take to apply between now and next Friday?

1. Teachers can suggest students by emailing us brief recommendations at design.corps [at] learninggamesnetwork.org. (If you’re a student, ask a teacher to recommend you.)
2. For applicants under 18, we need a parent or guardian to let us know that he or she approves of their participation in the program. They should send a brief email affirming this to, you guessed it, design.corps [at] learninggamesnetwork.org.
3. All applicants must tell us a little bit about their interests using the form on this page.

Voilà, you’re done! For this new group of students joining the Design Corps, we’ll have our first event on Jan 23, 2010. Remember, our events are online, so participants will need reliable access to an internet connection.

Sylvia

Design in the real world is often a process of deliberate tinkering. Sometimes the goal may be clear, with timelines, budgets, and constraints. Or the goal may be less clear, as you struggle to come up with something “better” even though no one quite knows what that means. Sometimes you work for days or weeks, making small incremental steps, sometimes things come in a flash of brilliance.

Yet in school, there is often a rigid “design process” with stages that imply a linear progression from start to finish. Whether teaching writing, video production, the “scientific method”, or programming, it often seems most efficient to provide students with step-by-step assistance, tools, and tricks to organize their thoughts and get to a finished product.

However, this well-intentioned support may in fact have the effect of stifling creativity and forcing students into creating products that simply mirror the cookbook they have been given. In fact, some students, having been well-trained to follow directions, will simply march through the steps with little thought at all. On the other hand, students need some kind of support and structure, right?

So how do you combine the benefits of tinkering (creative chaos, brainstorming, time to reflect) with getting something done. I believe the answer lies in looking at the design process in the creative world – such as graphic artists and designers.

Presentation Zen is a website devoted to simplicity in design and a recent article provides some great direction for classroom projects: Presentation Zen: 10 Tips on how to think like a designer.

Here are the tips from the article:

(1) Embrace constraints. (2) Practice restraint. (3) Adopt the beginner’s mind. (4) Check your ego at the door. (5) Focus on the experience of the design. (6) Become a master storyteller. (7) Think communication not decoration. (8) Obsess about ideas not tools. (9) Clarify your intention. (10) Sharpen your vision & curiosity and learn from the lessons around you. (11) Learn all the “rules” and know when and why to break them.

I hope you read this article; it provides much food for thought.

Sylvia

Moving Learning Games Forward looks at games, learning and education with a long lens. It provides a detailed historical analysis of how computer games first were used in schools and proceeds through the heyday of educational software in the 1980s to the present move to web-based games. I was very pleased to see how much of this mirrors my presentation on Games in Education for the K12online conference, but of course, my 20 minute presentation barely skims the surface where they dive deeply. I’ll be adding this to my Games in Education resource wiki for sure!

The paper goes on to lay out some ideas for how learning games should be designed, and has great references and sources for additional reading. This is a must-read for educators seriously interested in games in education.

The second paper, Using the Technology of Today in the Classroom Today, is slightly narrower in focus. It is written for classroom teachers interested in bringing games and simulations into the classroom, with practical suggestions and case studies to help with planning and implementation.

Sylvia