During his talk at the Games for Change festival today, Valve chief Gabe Newell mentioned that the company has begun working with schools to build a curriculum based on Portal 2. Check out our liveblog of the event for more.
The Joan Ganz Clooney centre at Sesame Workshop released a study today that names video games as an untapped federal resource for change in America’s youth. More »
EA can’t have all the fun turning great books into video games. Tracy Fullerton wants to turn Henry David Thoreau’s classic into one too. More »
An Online Journalism Blog article says that traditional news outlets need to start making video games that either replace or improve the delivery of news stories.
Brazil’s Mother Gaia Studios is the winner of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup, a competition that challenged students from around the world to use XNA community tools to build games around the theme of environmental sustainability.
Microsoft recently showcased the finalists at the 2008 Games For Change event in New York, and Mother Gaia took home the Game Development prize with City Rain, the company announced today. Australia’s Team SOAK won the Worldwide Software Design invitational, and Singapore’s Team Trail Blazers won the Embedded Development invitational.
Said Microsoft:
A total of 370 students from 124 teams representing 61 countries and regions competed in the worldwide Imagine Cup finals in nine categories: Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Development, “Project Hoshimi” (Programming Battle), IT Challenge, Algorithm, Photography, Short Film and Interface Design. The student teams were asked to undertake a series of challenges relating to digital media or technology depending on the invitational.
Full announcement and details on the winners after the jump!
Alarmingly, American teenagers are far more educated about entertainment media and pop culture than they are about their own government. For example, 59 percent of teens can name the Three Stooges, but only 41 percent can name the three branches of the U.S. government. 94 percent of teens know that Will Smith is the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air – but only 2.2 percent can name the current Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
At the closing keynote yesterday for the Games For Change event in New York, Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, along with interactive media scholar Dr. James Paul Gee, announced a promising new initiative – if teens are motivated to learn about media, then why not reach them through a computer game?
The project, called Our Courts, will be a game designed to teach civics and encourage teens to become involved in the democratic process. It’s being developed with input from teachers and curriculum specialists, and will be designed primarily for classroom use. Initially, the project will emphasise the court system, but will later expand to other areas of government.
“What we hope to do is pioneer a new teaching method designed to respond to the learning styles of this digital generation”, said Justice O’Connor in an address on the Our Courts website. “Students today seem to thrive on 3-dimensional, discovery-based learning. They’re much less wedded to linear presentations of information, and they prefer to explore around an issue. They seem to learn best by becoming fully engaged in an interesting issue, and they do particularly well when learning in a case study environment”.
“Digital students crave a media feedback, and they want convenience. Now, we hope to respond to each of these needs in the Our Courts online environment”.
Hit the jump for full details from Our Courts‘ mission statement:
Chip maker AMD’s philanthropic foundation is getting behind games for social change. At the 2008 Games for Change event in New York, chip maker AMD announced its “Changing the Game” program, which aims to teach kids to develop games with social content.
AMD also sponsored the Games For Change event, where it announced that its AMD Foundation will offer grants to non-profits that teach social game development to kids, including Girlstart, GlobalKids, Institute for Urban Game Design and Science Buddies. AMD also told us at the event that beyond donations, its employees will do volunteer work supporting these efforts.
Part of AMD’s support for Games For Change includes “Let the Games Begin,” a workshop co-sponsored with the MacArthur Foundation that aims to teach nonprofits how to build games around social issues, and the company will also create a how-to toolkit for Games For Change that includes information and guidance on building these projects.
Full details follow the jump:
