Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

The Secret to Effective e-Learning Games. Designing Effective e-Learning Games Take a look at these 5 essential elements found in effective e-Learning games

How can games unlock a rich world of learning? This is the big question at the heart of the growing games and learning movement that’s gaining momentum in education.

The MindShift Guide to Games and Learning explains key ideas in game-based learning, pedagogy, implementation, and assessment. The guide make sense of the available research and provide suggestions for practical use. The post series will evolve into a downloadable guide, and can be used as a touchstone for thoughtful consideration of best practices for teachers and parents.

Web-based games can prove to be a treasure trove of learning opportunities, and there are a variety of content-areas, age ranges, and skill levels to choose from. The true pay dirt for browser-based learning games can be found on large online digital game hubs. Here are 10 game hubs players that teachers can use to as one tool in their arsenal.

I currently run workshops on creating non-digital games for libraries, with the focus on developing information literacy skills. Currently, most attendees are college / university library staff, developing the information literacy of higher education students. I'd love to expand this to be able to run free workshops for public libraries on how they can create games themselves and in conjunction with their users to teach digital, information, and political literacies in their local populations. As I'm UK based, I'd run them across the UK, but also in Northern Europe (in English) for local library services as funding allows. I'd also leave a set of materials with each service to run their own workshops.

Game designers have mastered certain tricks that make games so addictive that people can’t stop playing them. Here are the top five secrets that game designers know, and some tips on how you can use these same game dynamics to make learning in your classroom as addictive as gaming.

Two very disparate sources shared insights this week on the role of video games, and by extension, technology more broadly, in 21st century learning. James Paul Gee, a venerable yet cutting-edge education researcher and social critic, spoke about the topic to the Digital Media and Learning center of the MacArthur Foundation, and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center , the research center on children, learning and media founded by the founder of Sesame Workshop, came out with a big “market map and investment analysis” of “games for a digital age,” meaning, games in K-12.