The American Library Association, realising what some of us have known for years, have decreed that games can be a positive force in the teaching of history, and that the medium should be celebrated with a special day commemorating that.

“We have found that by adding board and video game formats to library collections”, ALA President Dr. Camila Alire told Reuters, “we are providing users with tools to build strong literacy practices while sharpening technical and critical thinking skills”.

Before you scoff, remember: history isn’t always about dates and names. If a game can introduce a player to a period in time, let them see social and political forces at work (or give them an understanding of how those forces affect everyday people), that can be just as important as sticking a historical figure in a game, or having the player recreate an actual event.

Academics hope history in video games spurs interest [Reuters]

Sneeze is designed to show how rapidly the flu can spread from person to person when the appropriate preventative measures are not taken.

You are the virus. You’ve already infected one person and can cause them to sneeze – but only once per level. The idea is to maximise your sneeze by hitting other people with your revolting green mucus. Once hit, the virus infects them, causing them to sneeze and continuing the chain reaction of snot. There are ten levels and the goal in each is to infect a certain percentage of the population.

Now, please go and wash your hands.

Sneeze [Miniclip]

The ESA’s study said 54 were added since 2008, a 27% rise in the number of video game-related degree programs in the US. Among states, California quite expectedly offers the most video game-related degrees, at 46 institutions, with the University of California-Irvine recently establishing a centre for games and virtual worlds research. New York, Texas and Florida are the other leading states, in that order.

The utility of these programs extends beyond game creation; the ESA also said a poll found that 70% of “major employers” use some form of interactive software, including games, in employee training. Of those, three-fourths expect to expand their usage of such methods in the next three to five years.

Like any popular and growing field, graduates can certainly expect to find a competitive jobs environment. But the growth and the mainstreaming of programs built specifically for game design show the industry’s deepening acceptance by and impact to big business in America.

More Colleges than Ever Offering Gaming Degrees [CNET]

AFTRS is Australia’s national screen arts and broadcast school. Loads of successful filmmakers are graduates: Alex Proyas, Jane Campion, Andrew Lesnie, to name but three.

Next year, AFTRS is offering a Graduate Certificate in Games & Virtual Worlds, open to writers, artists, animators, directors and programmers. The course “concentrates on the development of original concepts for virtual stories, games, social worlds and innovative gameplay resulting in the creation of a working prototype by the end of the course.”

If that sounds like you, applications are open until November 1. Visit the AFTRS website for more info.

The mission of the centre for Computer Games & Virtual Worlds, according to a university statement, will be to “expand campuswide research activities that draw upon UCI’s strengths spanning the social and technological aspects of games and virtual worlds.” It will likely be the site of national and international research workshops, and will host visiting research scholars on the subject.

The statement also points out that UC-Irvine was one of the first major research universities to establish teaching and research programs for computer game culture and technology. Its Game Culture & Technology Lab has pulled in nearly $US5 million in external funding since its establishment in 2001.

The centre for Computer Games is a part of Irvine’s Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences; it’s led by the school’s associate dean, Magda El Zarki, and senior research scientist Walt Scacchi, of the UCI Institute for Software Research.

“We now realise that scientific and cultural achievements go beyond the current concepts of what games and virtual worlds are good for, or how they may be developed or applied,” Scacchi said. “The centre will support our research in demonstrating the sustained ability to invent and reinvent the future of computer games and virtual worlds.”

The statement adds that: “UCI has a growing number of game-related research projects, including game-based virtual worlds where students ‘play to learn’ via interactive simulations, open community-based development of games and synthetic worlds, and gamelike synthetic worlds where autonomous characters display emotional responses and emergent behaviours.”

UC Irvine establishes centre for Computer Games & Virtual Worlds [UC-Irvine Today, thanks Elizabeth L.]

Established in 1996, the AIE is arguably Australia’s leading educational institution in the fields of game development and digital arts and animation. The AIE open day is held at its Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra campuses between 10am and 4pm Sunday, August 16.

Speaking at the Melbourne campus will be Adam Briggs, art director from Big Ant Studios where he’s currently hard at work on an AFL game for PS3 and 360.

“It’s really important that people wanting a career in games develop their skills through practice and training which is kept current with video game industry needs” said Mr Briggs, who has also worked in the Melbourne studios Transmission Games and Firemint. “While being a lover of games is certainly beneficial, solid artistic and programming knowledge is a requirement to getting employment in the industry and crucial to development of products that are competitive in the current world market.”

Other studios available on the day to chat with include Iron Monkey Studios and Tantalus Media.

AIE National Open Day [AIE]

Libraries around the country, from the Library of Congress, to university and community libraries, are beginning to archive, collect and even check-out video games.

A 2007 study found that of the more than 400 libraries surveyed, a quarter of them said they had PC games available at their location to be checked out and nearly 20 percent said they checked out console games.

But why would a place of learning become a home to gaming?

Scott Nicholson, associate professor and library scientist at Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies and the Library Game Lab of Syracuse, said there are three main goals libraries have for including video games in their collections.

They do so to provide a new service for those who aren’t coming to the library, to help the library grow in its role as a community hub and to provide a service alongside existing library services like book clubs or story time.

Some libraries even have events where people can play the games inside the library, Nicholson added.

“Gaming in the library provides users with a chance to meet other people in their community who are not in their normal school or work life – people far outside their typical demographic boundaries,” he said. “The library has become a place not just for taking materials home, but for engaging with others in the same physical community.

“Communities on the Web typically are from many different areas – communities in the library are people who all live and pay taxes in the same physical space.”

And, Nicholson points out, games have been in libraries since the 1850s in one form or another.

“Video games are simply one current manifestation of an activity that has been in libraries for decades,” he said. “Along with video games, some libraries support many other forms of gaming – board, card, (role-playing games), and big games.”

The inclusion of games and video games aren’t just limited to public, community libraries. Universities and research libraries have also started including them. Even the Library of Congress is in the midst of a video game archiving effort.

Recently the Universty of Colorado at Boulder announced they were considering adding playable video game consoles in their library as part of a commons area, which also houses a café.

CU outreach librarian Deborah Fink told the university paper that the centre could provide a break to students.

“I think education is waking up to the fact that we are whole beings,” she told the Colorado Daily. “We know it’s important to take breaks and to refresh yourself.”

Nicholson says the inclusion of a gaming area is no different than having a coffee shop in a university library.

“The cafe does not support the mission of the library, but draws people in and makes the library a more comfortable space for people to explore information and get to know each other,” he said. “Gaming is a similar activity – if the goal of the library is to be a place for relaxation and socialization, then it fits into that goal.”

The inclusion of video games in libraries isn’t much different than earlier movements to include pieces of art, movies and music as items that could be checked out.

By opening the door to video games, libraries and communities nationwide are reflecting the growing importance of gaming not only as part of today’s popular culture but as a medium that can confront serious issues and spur emotional and intellectual debate.

Well Played is a weekly news and opinion column about the big stories of the week in the gaming industry and its bigger impact on things to come. Feel free to join in the discussion.

The Wall Street Journal reports that DreamBox — along with other web-based learning game sites like SmartyCard, Brightstorm and Grockit — is closing the gap between between a child’s expected math performance and actual math performance. It’s also dragging the outdated edutainment games of yesteryear into the MySpace-oriented generation with it’s big, bright fairies and ominous improper fractions.

The Journal writes:

The online educational industry has been getting a big boost from venture capital firms. Last year, about $US1 billion was invested in learning technology companies, according to Ambient Insight, a market research firm focusing on education and technology. That’s up from $US850.6 million invested in 2007.

Jeez, soon kids won’t even have to go to school anymore. And what gives with the 6-year-old not being assigned homework? If I had to go to school, why couldn’t I have gone to a school like that?

Pursuing an Academic Edge at Home [Wall Street Journal]

The Chronicle of Higher Education sat down recently with Will Wright to talk to him about the value of educational games. Not only did they get some great money quotes, they got some great money business cards!

The interview starts off with Wright showing off his new business cards, which he’s had printed on replicas of foreign money. It then quickly drops into the topic, pulling this gem of a quote from the famed developer:

“If you look at what people are doing with this technology it is, or has been, mostly directed at 12-year-old boys. But it has the potential to do a whole lot more.”

Wright, when asked about educational and serious games, says that he thinks sometimes these games are a bit too focused on the idea, hinting that maybe they’re not so fun.

What they need to do, he says, is be a bit more abstract in how they deal with the idea.

Why should serious and educational game developers listen to Wright? He’s made a career out of making educational games, people just don’t realise it.

Wright says, as he told me, that the real power in gaming isn’t in its ability to educate, but its ability to motivate. Motivate people to educate themselves.

UPDATE: Sorry for the downtime with the video. All fixed now.

Creator of ‘The Sims’ Talks Educational Gaming

The 40-plus strong of San Antonio’s Alamo Cosplay Troop are a regular act at the city’s Forest Hills library, which buttresses its geek cred with anime, manga, and yes, gaming – safe and prosocial, usually rhythm games, but games nonetheless. The library is focusing on the ends, not the means – namely, stoke youngsters’ imaginations and get them to enjoy being in a place of creativity and learning. If that means dressing up like Ash Ketchum, fine. Writes the San Antonio Express-News:

If this sounds like an odd program for a library to put on, that’s because it is. But the program wasn’t effective when it focused solely on reading novels, [teen librarian Sylvia] Pachecano said. “If you say to a teen, ‘Hey, let’s go to the library and read a book,’ they’re not going to want to come,” Pachecano said. “But if you say to them, ‘Hey, let’s go to the library and play video games,’ they’ll come. So the gaming and the arts and crafts gets them in here, and then when they’re here they realise they have something they need to do, like a report or some homework.”

Pachecano also said that many underprivileged young teens are dropped off at the library to spend whole days during the summer and the program gives them something to focus on while they’re there.

Library Program Engages Teens in Costume Role-Play [San Antonio Express-News (and image) via TheBBPS