Playtime Online 23: SimCityEDU Office Hours

Playtime Online 23: SimCityEDU Office Hours featuring me as guest panelist! :)

Gaming for Social Good | Edutopia

Can video games make the world a better place? Read why in my latest Edutopia blog post, Gaming for Social Good:http://edut.to/14k19a4 ‪
Gaming for Social Good | Edutopia

Beyond Badges: Why Gamify?

 

Check out my latest piece for Edutopia (The George Lucas Educational Foundation), Beyond Badges: Why Gamify?: 

• http://www.edutopia.org/blog/beyond-badges-why-gamify-matthew-farber

HotChalk Interview: "Teacher Makes Classes Seem More Like Video Games"

I was recently interview about "gamification" and game-based learning. Here's the link to the article that appeared on HotChalk's "Inspired Teachers" page:
 
http://lessonplanspage.com/teacher-makes-classes-seem-more-like-video-games/

Blogging for Edutopia

I am excited to now be blogging for Edutopia!  Check out my first post: Gamifying Student Engagement:

• http://www.edutopia.org/blog/gamifying-student-engagement-matthew-farber

IOSSBR Spring Conference

Below is a picture from today's International Organization of Social Sciences and Behavior Research (IOSSBR) Spring Conference (http://www.iossbr.com/atlantic_city_april_11-12) in which I attended and co-presented "Gaming and K-12 Curriculum Integration."  The conference was at Trump Plaza, in Atlantic City.  We're on page 20 in the program, page 21 of the PDF.  

Video Game Design in the Social Studies Classroom

This week, my 6th grade social studies students conducted research about medieval European topics, then they each remixed, "modded" (modified), or created brand new flash-based video games.  They also wrote a reflective essay that explains how their game relates to their researched findings.  I used a completely constructivist teaching style, only giving students a short overview, then links to a YouTube tutorial and a PDF step-by-step.  No actual coding is required; programming commands are put together by matching color-coded interlocking bricks, although practical knowledge of math (angles, degrees, x, y plane) is inherent in game design.  Video game design is not only engaging, and part of STEM (http://stemchallenge.org/students/scratch/), but it also challenges learners to consider how to teach to the topic they are tasked to study.

This video link fully explains Scratch's potential as a learning tool: http://vimeo.com/60294183#.  Scratch is a free download from MIT Media Labs: http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Scratch_1.4_Download

Below are links to some of my student's examples (click each picture to play):

My Interview in Streaming Media Magazine

I was recently interviewed by Streaming Media magazine about video in the classroom.  My interview is in the February/March 2013 issue.  Here's the link to the article, The State of Education Video http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/The-State-of-Education-Video-2013-87980.aspx

Look For Me In NJEA Magazine

I wrote a reflection about the class-created iPad book my students authored and submitted it to NJEA Review magazine.   My article appears in the February issue, which will be mailed this week to all NJEA members.  The article, titled Have Your Students Write an Ebook, appears on p. 18. Here's the link to the PDF version (the article begins on p. 20 in the PDF): http://www.njea.org/njea-media/pdf/Review_Feb2013.pdf?1359575589401.