Google Reader Backlog...links worth reading

With the long Easter weekend, I left my RSS feeder untouched. A dangerous thing to do. As I'm digging out of my RSS mess, here are a few recent stories that are worth checking out.

Peacemaker - The Game
I was just talking to a middle school student tonight about a social studies project about the Israeli / Palestinian conflict. Here's a new game that allows players to experience either side and make some difficult decisions about a path to peace. As someone with a Political Science degree, I love the idea about allowing students to actually make these decisions and discover the results of them rather than just discusses them in class.

Serious Games for a Mental Workout
An overview of a few serious / educational games that are designed to increase a players attention, memory retention, and recall. Again it's another great use of expanding video games for educational purposes.

Serious Games for the Global Market Place
This is a very solid article on the current state of serious video games. The outlook may appear rosy with the increase of serious games into GDC this year, but Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen, of Serious Games Interactive, suggests that the industry could take another downturn. He points to areas of concerns and opportunities for any of us looking at using games for educational purposes should be aware of.

Notes from a New World
Leading MIT scholar Henry Jenkins has the first of a multi-part discussion about the participatory culture and learning environments. I've been reading through Jenkins book, Fans, Bloggers and Gamers, and I'm interested in his work with games and learning. Jenkins is also a keynote speaker at this summer's ALA's Gaming, Learning, and Libraries Symposium (registration is now open, if you haven't seen already).

Practiceware
Andrew over at library+instruction+technology sent me this link. I read Clark Aldrich's book Simulations and the Future of Learning: An Innovative (and Perhaps Revolutionary) Approach to e-Learning last year. It's well worth looking at and he has two more recent books as well. His blog is a nice addition to his research and a working document for his ideas.

Strangers in a Strange Land
Susan Arendt from Wired's Game|Life wrote a fun piece for this week's issue of the Escapist about being an adult gamer, let alone a female gamer, and the stereotypes that people encounter. The Escapist and it's commentary on video games and game culture is a pretty solid read each with a few articles always worth taking time for. Enjoy


Photo via Manual of Civility