21st Century Scholar

A few weeks ago, I realized that my house seemed awfully quiet for a post-school afternoon and wondered what my almost 6-year-old son and almost 9-year-old daughter were up to. They knew they had a few things to take care of—such as finding a home for pajamas that had been hastily strewn across the bedroom [...]

In late December, Collegeology game designers Elizabeth Swensen, Sean Bouchard and I traveled to Texas  to conduct a case study at a Houston area high school. Our goal was to playtest the card game (Application Crunch) and soon-to-be launched online game (Mission: Admission) with a group of predominately African American, low-income students. We arrived right [...]

The strength of the Collegeology project I mention in my 21st Century Scholar posts is intimately tied to our collaboration with Tracy Fullerton, Director of the USC Game Innovation Lab, and her game design team. Jeff Watson’s blog below describes a fascinating project that illustrates just why Tracy and her students are at the forefront of game design. –Zoe Corwin Just over [...]

Games represent a promising frontier in the effort to build more compelling learning experiences for students. The belief that gaming experiences offer young people a unique and culturally relevant way to develop important 21st century skills and competencies is gaining currency. Over the next year I will be working with a team of graduate students, [...]

As evidence grows for games as learning systems, I study their civic potential. Until recently, it was hard to imagine videogames seeking to change the real world. Yet this is increasingly common, with some games for social change reaching millions on issues from genocide to immigration reform (e.g., Darfur is Dying). As a new civic [...]

Games unite people in a multitude of ways—some obvious, others seemingly unique to the medium. They provoke a range of emotions and allow us to construct stories about those experiences. We can witness all sorts of machinima on youtube, but the sharing I refer to is more personal and direct. Specifically, games for me, both [...]

The statistics can be staggering. In New York City, one out of every three students will miss a month or more of school. In Milwaukee 74% of students will miss five days or more of school a year. Educators know the simple truth, if you don’t go to school, you don’t graduate. If you don’t [...]

When I first starting working on the Collegeology game project, I was new to the world of games. I wasn’t exactly a skeptic—but I had a very superficial understanding of the power of games to engage, educate, and provoke action. I’m guessing a few of our 21st Century Scholars might be in the same boat [...]

by Bill Tierney and Gigi Ragusa Technology is changing the world, especially for the youngest amongst us.  Teenagers have lived with the Web, Facebook and YouTube most of their lives.  Email is about as old-fashioned as the typewriter and the manner in which the young interact with one another has changed as much in the [...]

CHEPA research associate, Zoe Corwin, asked five scholars working in educational technology and games, “What innovations are captivating your attention at present?” The fifth (and final) answer follows in a five part blog series posting this week on 21st Century Scholar. About the author: Benjamin Stokes co-founded Games for Change, the branch of the Serious Games [...]