The Adventure of Links: A Week in Review

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.