After spending the last week wrapped up in GLLS 2008 and the election's joyous results, my RSS reading has taken a hit.  Below are some of the stories I missed from last week... maybe you missed them too.

I missed my "Adventure of Link" links last week, although I had the links combined. A head cold hit me and I woke up out of the haze to realize that it is Thursday. Well, here are some links for this week.

Using traditional games for educational purposes:

Instead of making serious games for education, why not embrace traditional gaming to enhance kids' lives?

The concept and the discussion in the article are good. We talk about games having educational and critical thinking value, but we in academic libraries work to create games to our specific needs. If we looked at games that were out there and the skills they taught, we could not only use their strategies (an application I promote), but we could use the game itself to help teach. Problem puzzles deep in a temple of a Zelda game? Logic puzzle from a Telltale adventure game? Physics challenges and predictions from a FPS? Games provide applications of educational concepts that we could use. GameSetWatch also ran the article from Serious Games Source.

Which is it? A serious game or a simulation?
Clark Aldrich has a quick post talking about each on his site. I think it is easy to blur the line when thinking of what we want to create or what we want our students to experience. The line can also be blurred when discussing educational gaming with administrators. Clark puts it as such:

But what is also tough is when people confuse serious games and educational simulations. Now these are obviously much closer together in any taxonomy. But serious games are light experiences that are easy and fun to engage while building awareness, and educational simulations rigorous develop skills and capabilities.

Cerise weighs in on game cannon:
I've mentioned the quality work at Cerise before. This article looks at the ongoing debate of if games are art/expression or have value... what is the core group of titles. What is the gaming cannon?

Gaming on a grown-up's budget:
Mister Raroo drew criticism from some gaming libraries with his initial column, but his most recent one is a good read for any "grown-up" with a gaming passion. Sometimes our passions and our pocketbooks don't have the same priorities.

Managing my money:
Speaking of budgets, Future-Making Serious Games has an interesting story about a new educational game used to help teens manage their money, learn budgeting, and other financial skills. As someone who's taught money management to 7th and 8th graders, a game to do this would be a welcomed resource. Granted there are many games that apply economic issues, but this is a great use of teaching a process through gaming.

While I've missed my first goal on Wii Fit, I continue to play at least a few days a week. I'm closing in on my new goal and more importantly I'm still enjoying the workout. With exercise, weight loss, and videogames on the mind, I wanted to highlight a few recent studies on active Wii gaming.

MTV's Multiplayer Blog discusses the recent findings by the American Council on Excercise. A study conducted by the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse Excercise and Health Program found that actively playing individual Wii Sports games only burned about half of the calories compared to playing the actual game. You can find the full study here. The results themselves are not too shocking, actual physical play burns more calories. While this study finds Wii Sports is a poor substitute for traditional excersice, it does burn more calories than traditional videogames.

The American Council on Excercise has begun a study on Wii Fit as well. More information on the upcoming study can be found here. Wii Fit, like DDR before it, is being study for exercise and health benefits. DDR has continually been shown to increase activity and is currently being used in a wide variety of schools. John Rice details some addition exer-gaming studies on the Wii, DDR, and some new applications in North Carolina schools.

As for me, I'm back to Wii Fit and working toward my weight loss goal.

As I've spent time catching up with video game and education game news over the past week here are a few key links that are worthy of revisiting.

Literacy and Learning in the 21st Century
Over at Mark Wanger's Educational Technology and Life blog he talks about some of the audiences responses to what literacy is and how it is changing. With the announcement of the ALA and Version's grant for Literacy and Gaming, the discussion of how videogames help shape and develop literacy is important. The more we expand our discussion and involve the wider scope of education and educational gaming, the better we will be able to address and shape our patrons and students multiple literacies.

Seven Things You Should Know about... Wii
I hope many of you follow the various resources out of EDUCAUSE, but they released a "7 things" list for the Wii. This quick list is a great resource to those still unaware of the details and specifics of the Wii. It also would function well as a resource for adminstration, boards, and other organizations to help them understand more of the educational possiblities of the Wii. The social functions of the Wii are well know and easy talking points... this list targets the educational aspects to go along with the community building.

ESA Essential Facts 2008
The Electronic Software Association 2008 statistical report has been covered on a variety of sites, but if you haven't downloaded, printed, and started using them for talking points.... here's another chance. I've read through the report a number of times and the findings provide a number of excellent talking points, many of which I've used in the past in presentations and media interviews. Know them.

Educational Games Research
John Rice continues to provide resources on videogames and their educational uses. In July, he discussed the educational uses of the Wii and the top 5 platforms for creating educational games. John has talked about the top 10 free educational games before, but his post on engines to develop games on is a great jumping off point (and testing ground) for people looking to try their hand & ideas on creating a game. Most of these are not new, but for people looking to get started, it's a good introductory post.


This "week in review" should return again next Friday to highlight some of the educational gaming news of the week.

Jessica Merritt compiled a great resource for librarians, of any type, with questions about gaming in libraries, "Bringing Gaming (and Gamers) to Your Library: 100 Tips and Resources."

Jessica's list of 100 collects a lot of previous written information on gaming events, collections, and research. The list adds other items of interest and general tips for libraries looking to bring in patrons, host events, start collection, promote learning, and defend these practices. This list paired with ALA's Games and Gaming wiki are excellent resources for librarians getting started or looking to expand their gaming programs.

Here are a few of the ideas that are relevant for gaming in an educational context:
21. Position yourself as a guide: Gamers will respect you more if you present yourself as a strategy guide for the game, rather than a gatekeeper.

At the reference desk and in the classroom, we need to be seen as guides and "walkthroughs." We are not gatekeepers, that model is past. Gamers often see guides as a crutch when they are stuck. Librarians are there to help when they get stuck, but we can also be there in the beginning as a tutorial.

31. Play games that require collaboration: Get everyone involved when you play games that focus on collaboration and teamwork.

Bee Gallegos from AZ State University described that students responded better to their game Quaratined when paired up an not isolated. Learning and play are not isolated experiences.

32. Be prepared for opposition: Not everyone understands the appeal of gaming, particularly video games, in the library, so you will find that you'll need to defend your actions with academic discussions and statistics.

Resistance and opposition to something new is unfortunately part of the process. Part of the goal of the ALA's Gaming wiki is to provide those resources to librarians to further the discussion and provide assistance.

50. Talking Points about Gaming in Libraries: Use this resource when explaining why bringing games into your library is so important.

51. Games for Teaching Information Literacy Skills: Felicia A. Smith considers how you can use games for education.

I've written about Felica Smith's work before, the link above is her formal article on her word and puzzle games in info lit.

62. Games for Higher Education: 2008: In this piece, Bryan Alexander examines the complexity of gaming, learning through gaming, and more.

When I started this blog back in 2006, there were very few central sources for gaming and education, let alone libraries (The one site I linked to is now dead). But with resources like these librarians have the tools to be successful in gaming for communities and learning.

Thank you Kelly for the link.

Since I'm an academic librarian, my RSS feeds for public libraries are on the lighter side. So this may be old news to some of you, but I'm still excited by the activity of this partnership.

After returning from LOEX tonight, there was just enough time to get to my local comic book shop for Free Comic Book Day. With my previous readings into narrative and transmedia, I was interested in the literacy and library connection. A quick search for "free comic book day" and "libraries" resulted in a large number of libraries partnering with comics.
I was overjoyed to find the sheer volume of libraries actively creating partnerships with local comic stores and taking part in free comic book day. ilovelibraries.org summed up the potential of the day nicely:

Aside from providing free exposure to many of the most exciting projects in the comics industry, Free Comic Book Day also presents an opportunity for libraries with graphic novel collections to partner up with local comic book stores. The expertise and product familiarity of the people at your local comic book store can often prove to be an invaluable resource, and the community outreach emphasis of Free Comic Book Day makes it an ideal situation for letting graphic novel fans know about what your library has to offer.

Local newspaper coverage from Norman, OK

The event is a single day when participating comic book shops and libraries around the world give away books to promote interest in the comic and graphic novel formats.

Some blogs highlighted the comic book store partnerships, As Madison did across the Madison, WI Public library system. Others, like Niles, IL used the day to promote existing graphic novel collection. I like Austin, TX Libraries approach to the day, helping promote the day for their local comic book stores and then providing addition copies at the libraries on Monday. Pikes Peak, CO used the to not only provide and promote comics but to provide some educational programming about the history of comics and show a few comic related films.

New Jersey State Library even got into the act.
And finally having the DIY Librarian blog about it helps raise the connection to libraries a lot more than my post.

As a comics read for over half my life, I am thankful to be able to work in a profession that recognizes and celebrates my passions and works to inspire that passion in others.

This week I am starting an ongoing series of weekly posts and discussions with Chad Boeninger, from Library Voice, on the education value of a new game on sale that week or related game series. Chad is an excellent librarian and he and I engage in frequent gaming discussions. This series is an attempt to formalize some of those discussions and share them with the larger library community. We are modeling the format after what Stephen Totilo has done with his Vs. Modes over at the MTV Multiplayer.

This series is designed as a way to offer various viewpoints on new games and their related series as well as creating talking points for those who are looking to advocate for video game not simply as a service to our patrons, but as a way to enhance and improve video game’s application in education. It is our hope that the dialog will be interesting and helpful for librarians interested in video games, learning, and libraries.

And so without further ado, Grand Theft Auto IV…

With news stories in the NY Times and NPR over the last 24 hours on the release of Grand Theft Auto VI (GTA4) and the months of building media by gaming outlets, it will be almost impossible for any another other game this year to match the hype and sales (and probably the controversy as well). While some may look at the game and worry for the future of our children, I look at the game and I’m thankful for the practical problem solving and critical thinking it requires.

Back at the beginning of April, Chad picked up a post by Wired’s Game|Life Chris Kohler about his experience playing GTA for the first time. Chad quoted Kohler and wrote:

• Kohler:You have to park the car perfectly. On my second try, I got the car back with time to spare, but pulled it in the wrong way. The game told me I had to park correctly, so I tried to, but the car I’d originally arrived in was blocking the way and I couldn’t get it right. Then, while trying to adjust the car’s position, I slammed it into the wall and now it was busted up. Mission failed. What did this teach me? The next time I did this mission, I parked the first car way outside the lot, thus leaving myself a clean path to pull the bomb-car in next time.

Once you successfully make it out of this mission, you’ll have learned a great deal about the rules of the game. As such, accomplishing all of this was a great feeling.

Boeninger: Yes, while the Grand Theft Auto series is controversial and a bit violent, this excerpt is a prime example the learning process in video games.

Now I do not disagree that the GTA series has some educational value, it is not in the trail and error method that Kohler described. Grand Theft Auto III series of games were not good teachers. Sure the games provided the player with an opportunity to try a new skill, in Kohler's example driving without crashing, but the game left it up to you to lean the skills. While the player's actions certainly had consequences (scratched car = failed mission) there was not a supporting structure their to practice the skill. Unlike a game like God of War were skills are slowing doled out with directions and practice or Zelda Twilight Princess that sets you on a ranch to practice and learn your skills.

Grand Theft Auto is the teacher who asks the question and when the wrong answer is given, quietly sits and waits for the right answer to appear. Giving the student / player the space and allowing them to make their own connections.

That space is where GTA succeeds in educational value. Every corner is filled with potential problems or fun events and it is necessary to think critically about a range of possible solutions to any given problem. GTA allows the player space to apply critical thinking skills to the world and seek out any number of possible solutions to a problem.

This problem solving creativity was highlighted by Kohler, Jeremy Parish, and others on this past week's Retronauts video game podcast. They describe parking cars at the exist before starting a mission to prevent the character from escaping. This open ended and forward thinking problem solving exists in most missions allowing the player to create their own game based on preferences but also live with the consequences.

GTA series does have educational value, but it is not a good teacher. It creates a world of possibilities and asks the player to think of creative solutions and how those choices affect the world around the character.

Chad is GTA a teacher or is it a classroom waiting to students to explore?

GTA Box art from Global Nerdy

Via a post over at WIRED's Game|Life, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) has recently updated their "Top Ten Industry Facts." Some of the facts, like the number of "E" rated versus "M" rated games and the average age of gamers (33), have not changed very much... but none the less it is good to have updated figures.

Sixty-seven percent of American heads of households play computer and video games.

Thirty-eight percent of all game players are women. In fact, women over the age of 18 represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population (31%) than boys age 17 or younger (20%).

Gaming spans generations and genders.

Thirty-six percent of American parents say they play computer and video games. Further, 80 percent of gamer parents say they play video games with their kids. Sixty-six percent feel that playing games has brought their families closer together.

Video games, like any other media, can be a family experience. The Wii has brought this to the cultural forefront, but parents gaming with their children is always a positive experience for both parent and child - regardless of the system or platform.

Forty-nine percent of game players say they play games online one or more hours per week. In addition, 34 percent of heads of households play games on a wireless device, such as a cell phone or PDA, up from 20 percent in 2002.

Video games are more than home consoles, handhelds, and PCs. As devices become more technologically advanced gaming will continue to expand.

After a busy week of teaching and shoveling out of more Midwest ice & snow, I'm finally catching up on my RSS feeds covering the GDC conference. I wrote earlier in the week on a couple educational focused sessions and some coverage on Nora Paul's mod of NeverWinter Nights. Some of the mainstream video game press covered the session about the University of Minnesota's journalism game.

Kotaku's Brain Crecente (who the game is named after) had a detailed write-up of the session and some more background of the game's history:

"The idea was to develop a game that would reinforce good reporting practices."

In the game, the players take on the role of a reporter (no, not me) who is covering an accident in which a train carrying anhydrous ammonia hits a truck and derails, forcing the evacuation of the surrounding neighborhood.

"We had to create the city...22 different characters," she said.

Students had to figure out what story angle they wanted to take, covering the health, public safety, transportation safety or environmental issues, before getting started. Once they figured that out that have to identify the important questions, collect the necessary background information, find the right sources and interview them, keep notes, and eventually return to the newsroom to write and file a story to the paper's website.

Christ Baker over at WIRED's Game|Life had another write-up, including some personal observations:

Paul says that they were pleased with the result, though there were some bugs and bad design choices. Students didn't like that their avatar didn't have a cell phone, and needed to go back to the office every time they wanted to call a source and set up an interview. The sword and sorcery trappings of NWN were minimized, but still present. For instance, the editor character is built off an ogre-like NWN character type. (Some reporters who consulted on the game said that seemed entirely appropriate to them.)

Due to a programming bug, the ogre/editor will block the virtual Crecente's exit from the newspaper office, and the only way to leave is to do battle hand let him kill you.

It looks kludgey and low tech, which Paul freely cops to. The team at the University of Minnesota are reworking the game on a newer engine. Still, the game seems like it has the potential to be a useful teaching tool.

I look forward to reading more about the experience of creating the game and how the application works out. Last year, presentation slides and other materials were posted about a few weeks after the conference. So I'm hopeful that the session's slides will appear sometime in March.


Photo by Kotaku

I want to stop feeling so important for student learning and simply see the importance of student learning. The tag line of "computer literacy does not equal information literacy" was attached to a recent report. And while this state was and is true, it should not be a call for librarians to stand firm in traditional instruction and deny our students' skills.

The report should serve as a rallying cry for academic librarians to build bridges, not ivory towers.

While the report "Information Behaviour of the Researcher of the Future" was released a few weeks ago and outlets like the Chronicle's Wired blog and Michael over at The Information Literacy Land of Confusion mentioned the report - I've read very little discussion on it. Even list-serve threads never created comments. My interest is not in what the report means for academic libraries - the report itself gives recommendations on page 31:

Students usually prefer the global searching of Google to more
sophisticated but more time-consuming searching provided by
the library, where students must make separate searches of the
online catalog and every database of potential interest, after
first identifying which databases might be relevant.

I'm concerned in what this means - or should mean for information literacy. The report discusses how students are getting results but not evaluating them. It outlines how their ability to enter search terms, does not equal an understanding of search processes or strategy. The tag line of "computer literacy does not equal information literacy" was attached to the report. While rightfully so, we as librarians need to apply that computer literacy and not deny it.

Building on our students computer literacy skills is essential. Denying their skills only isolates us as librarians and belittles their perceived experience. Instruction librarians can and should apply our student's computer literacy and use it as a bridge to information literacy skills. Yes, students with searching experience can inflated opinions of their search skills which can create concerns. But these inflated opinions can be tempered with applications of their computer literacy.

My use of fantasy football to open up information literacy depended upon student's basic search knowledge and experience. The fantasy football lesson applied their skills and provided a bridge to academic information literacy skills. Our library used a movie review research activity (that assumed students' computer literacy) to build a bridge to the evaluation and source quality skills of information literacy. Chad from Library Voice used the recent example of the Mass Effect controversy to help to evaluation and creditability skills.

I want to use this report to show the continued need for information literacy. But this report presents the challenge and the opportunity for us, as librarians, to apply the computer literacy skills of today in order to create the information literacy skills of tomorrow.

Since there has been some recent blog discussion and coverage of Carnegie Mellon’s Library Arcade by the LibrarianinBlack and other blogs here and here. I want to share some of my discussions with Daniel Hood, one of the librarians who worked on Carnegie Mellon University’s library game. Donna Beck and Rachel Callison were two of the other librarians heavily involved in the creation of the game. I talked with Dan at LOEX last spring and again in September right before the release of their games. The following is a summary of those conversations.

While the game project released as “The Library Arcade” in the fall of 2007, it was not how it was originally envisioned. The game was designed with an over-arching narrative very similar to what I described back in September:

Max has some work to do and he needs your help. Max is ordinary student who has procrastinated his research paper until the last day but before he can get started on his paper his needs to help his fellow students and the library.

Max was created as the main character to provide a story to connect and drive each of the minigames forward. The game and story was designed with five separate mini games, two of which are playable in “Library Arcade.”

“I’ll Get It” uses questions generated from subject specialist librarians based on reflections from actual student questions. A variety of disciplines were planned to be included (Music, English, Math, Business) and every discipline / department that supported the project by providing questions was included in the game.

“Within Range” was designed at a time when the library was undergoing the process of changing over from Dewey call numbers to Library of Congress. The game served multiple purposes of helping students understand subject organization within LC, practice reading LC call numbers, and help their students understand the transition from one call number system to another.

The game was envisioned with five minigames, with specific learning objectives for each game. The four members of the design committee had envisioned Max’s narrative tying each of the minigames together, but budget and time constraints led to the decision to release “Library Arcade” as stand-alone games. The project had a $50,000 dollar budget. The programming was initially done as part of a student project for a gaming / programming course. Unfortunately the dependence on a student project created a number of conflicts. The librarian design team had disagreements in direction and gameplay with the student group. While these design disagreements were good learning experiences for both the librarians and students the cost vs. benefits of using students eventually tipped in the favor of costs. As the semester came to a close and the assignment was due, the programming of the game slowed down and eventually drew to a standstill. The design committee used a good portion of the remaining budget to hire a Flash programmer to complete the work.

The game was designed to be incorporated into a first semester freshmen course as part of a library introduction. The course is a required one-credit class where the library has about 50 minutes to present material. Traditionally the librarians focused on databases and resources, but over the past few years have focused on creating an atmosphere by introducing people and some initial information literacy concepts. The game was designed to continue to help put a positive, public face on the library. Unfortunately the game was not ready for the fall 2007 semester.

The library opened up the “Library Arcade” in its beta phase at the end of September 2007. They team’s goal was to get feedback from other librarians on the games in order to help determine if they should continue to develop the project or leave it public as it is now. Fortunately, a variety of librarian blogs and even the ALA newsletter covered the games and raised awareness within the library community.

Back at the time of release in September, the committee members and the administration were happy with the results. Daniel stated that eventually the goal was to open up the XML files so that people could create new questions. While some on the committee like Dan have moved on to other projects, new members like John Fudrow are actively working on the project. John’s a great librarian and a gamer himself. He has continued to respond to blogs and questions about the games since there release.

I’m glad that people are still talking about these games even on gaming sites like Joystiq. It’s too bad their coverage was so negative and focused on the game that was less like a “game.” But that’s another topic.

Congrats again to Dan, Donna, Rachel, John and anyone involved in the project.

As Christmas draws closer and my sons become more excited, I'm continuing to work my way through unfinished posts. While there are some posts that are not worth coming back to, others like this article from Gamespot UK is a nice end of the year feature.

While Gamespot and their parent compancy CNet came under editorial fire in early December for how they handled the release of a long time employee, this review of serious games and games in education was a nice overview for those new to the field and those experienced in the conversation.

The Gamespot controversy was a mark against one of the longest running and most popular video game sites. But the content of the site's features and the creditability of it's staff is still high quality. I've read Gamespot for over 10 years and as the site releases it's Best Games of the Year feature it's worthwhile to look at this feature about educational games.

Gamespot's high profile for traditional gamers opens educational / serious games up to a market not usually aware of games in education. More people discussing educational games outside of academics is a good sign for the year to come.

Thank you to Serious Games for posting this story back when it was released.

Over at Educational Games Research, John Rice, provide an excellent year end "top 10 list" of free educational video games. I've tried most of these, but if you haven't here's a great chance to catch up.

John's list includes a number of games that I've talked about over the past year including Food Force (students' reactions) and Revolution (including my three part interview with co-creator Matthew Weise pts:1, 2, 3).

John's list also includes Arden, which while I was excited to see how it turned out the results were not as exciting as planned. But Arden's creators have opened it up to everyone and there is some real future potential for creating learning communities there, even without a driving narrative experience. MIT's Technology Review has a good overview article on Arden as well.

John Rice's blog is consistently a good read for anyone interested in applying video games in education. Thank you for the list John.

I blogged about this book back in the summer and Henry Jenkins recently had an interview with the author. Part 1 & Part 2 are here. If you missed them in October, set aside some time to read them. And if you read them the first go around... I ask you what comes next? How can librarians use these ideas in our research sessions?

If you are interested in the book, here is the table of contents. Jenkins' conversation was picked up around the gaming world as well appearing both on WIRED's Game|Life and Next-gen.biz.

The coverage and the conversation is great. So what is the next step?

The weekly game magazine the Escapist recently featured two stories relating to education.

Erin Hoffman wrote a good editorial about children and games. She continued in part two of her editorial as a short editorial about games and kids. It's quick read but gives another piece of support for why we as educators should continue to look to games and gaming strategies in education.

Ben Sawyer covers and debunks 10 Myths of serious games:

• Serious Games Aren't Fun
• Games Are Young Media, So Serious Games Are For Young People
• There Is No Proof That Games Affect Anyone

And for some lighter reading, Saund Sands of Gamers with Jobs wrote about his journey to quit World of Warcraft. Enjoy.

Clark Aldrich over at Learning Circuits posted a worthwhile discussion about what games for learning should be called. Serious Games? Simulations? Game-based Learning? Immersive Learning?

The discussion itself is interesting, but regardless of what games in education should be /will be / are currently called the distinctions that Aldrich draws creates a good opportunity for discussion and a better understanding of the full scope of applications and possibilities.

I purchased my Nintendo DS Lite during the first week they were released back in 2006 and since day one, it's been one of my favorite systems of all time (big words for gamers, I know). But part of my love for the system is the use that my wife and kids get out of it as well.

My wife and I were hooked on Brain Age for the summer of 2006 and I've used it to help my son with basic math. But now, it's official. Brain Age practice is successful for increasing math scores.

This story was picked up on next-gen.biz and dsfanboy.

Here is a nice quick slideshow from Tom Crawford that serves as a solid introduction to anyone to the world of educational and serious games.

This is a good resource to get people started and help explain some of the applications and potential of games in education.

Thanks to Elaine Alhadeff, of Future-Making Serious Games, for this link.

Max has some work to do and he needs your help. Max is ordinary student who has procrastinated his research paper until the last day but before he can get started on his paper his needs to help his fellow students and the library. Help Max organize a shelving cart of books by subject and LC call number as he races against the clock. Next Max needs to answer the reference questions of other students before he can get started on his own work, but the demands of time and deadlines force Max to "serve" as many patrons as possible. Test out your library skills and help Max complete his work.

If there had to be a preview for the two mini games that the Library at Carnegie Mellon University just released through their cleverly labeled "Library Arcade" that would be it. Thank you John Fudrow for passing along the link and information about the launch of the games.

Daniel Hood an Information Literacy Fellow and a small group of librarians worked with a graduate class from Carnegie Mellon's Entertainment Technology Center to develop and create an information game. I talked with Daniel back at May's LOEX conference in San Diego and just recently followed up about the progress of the game and the development process. I'll blog about that tomorrow, but before I get into those details I want to highlight the end product. The production values of both games are great and really have that "just one more try / one more level" feel that makes casual game so enticing and addictive.

There are two mini games available: "I'll Get It" & "Within Range." "I'll Get It" (shown on the right) plays very much like the classic casual game Diner Dash, and that's a good thing. You play as Max, a student helping other students answer reference questions on a variety of subjects. You "conduct" searches at a computer terminal and find a handful of results from various sources (books, articles, & websites). The task is to answer each students' question with the appropriate resource.

The game plays out exactly like Diner Dash making it easy for any student to jump in and play. The interface is completely mouse driven and there are hints available at any time. The player clicks on each table to get the reference question, navigates back to the computer to conduct a search. The results of the search (on the right) show the question at the bottom and the four potential sources in windows above the shelves (printed books and articles) and the public computer (internet resources). The player needs to determine which source best meets the need, retrieve it, and bring it to the patron. As shown in the screen shots, NPC students display a face over the head that represents their pleasure/anger level. Similar to Diner Dash (and real life), the longer a patron waits the more angry they become. The pace of patrons coming and going picks up as the game progresses. Too many "red faced" anger patrons and it's game over.

The second game, "Within Range" is much simpler and straightforward. Max needs to put the books back on the shelving cart in the correct LC order. The player races against the clock to put all the books away in order to move onto higher levels. Call numbers start simple and then before more complex. Higher levels include just subject (on the left wall) descriptions and require the player to place it accordingly.

Again the gameplay in simpler than "I'll Get It" but the interface is intuitive. There are hints available in this game as well.

I'll write more of my impressions later, but in the meantime check out the Library Arcade for yourself.

On Friday, Nex-gen.biz reported that Nintendo will be a sponsor for "The Handheld Learning Conference and Exhibition." The conference will be held in London and here are some of the themes of the conference. 1up.com also had a story on Nintendo's sponsorship as well.

Given Nintendo's dominance in the handheld market and their focus on non-traditional games like Big Brain Academy, Brain Age, and Flash Focus this seems like a natural fit. In addition to Nintendo there are a wide range of other companies developing educational games for the Nintendo DS as well, including math, spelling, reading, and music.

As a father of two, these application with the Nintendo DS look interesting and provide additional (educational) content that I can play with my kids on the DS. In past years, the conference seemed to have more coverage on cell phones and PDAs, but I'll be watching this year to see if there is a larger video game presence and what content comes out of the conference.