I am an Ed Tech heretic.

Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minute Thank you Freeman Dyson. http://www.edge.org/documents/archive/edge219.html#dysonf “In the modern world, science and society often interact in a perverse way. We live in a technological society, and technology causes political problems. The politicians and the public expect science to provide answers to … Continue reading

Take That, R.E.Clark….

Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutes Among the points highlighted in Clark’s recent article trashing serious games are that “ā€¦the research shows no instructional advantages of games over the other instructional approaches (such as lectures)ā€¦” and that “only poorly designed studies find learning benefits from games“. … Continue reading

R.E.Clark is at it again….

Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutes Clark, R. E. (2007). Learning from Serious Games? Arguments, Evidence, and Research Suggestions. EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY, May-June 2007, 56-59. Richard E. Clark says, “My goal in this column is to offer a brief view of the current state of the evidence … Continue reading

Visual-Syntactic Text Formatting

Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minute It’s been a long time since I’ve seen anything really new when it comes to presenting text, but this one looks like it has a lot of potential. Here is a link to the original article (the samples below come … Continue reading

Software Ethology, a new approach to design and analysis

Approximate Reading Time: 2 minutes I have recently been working on a new methodology for the analysis of commercial video games in order to uncover mechanisms used to support learning. I am calling this new approach Instructional Ethology. It combines structural analysis based on black … Continue reading

On Game Length

Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minute On Game Length [started Dec. 4 2006] http://www.gamasutra.com/features/20061201/qotw_01.shtml Talks about the length of games. This is of value to me because [I say] long games are ill-suited to school environments. School learning comes in bite-sized chunks, single lessons; units that … Continue reading

On Wasting Valuable Lesson Time

Approximate Reading Time: < 1 minute On ā€œwasting valuable lesson timeā€ We must. When ā€˜contentā€™ is stripped of its context, which MUST include those pesky extraneous details, it becomes disconnected. No wonder learners canā€™t remember stuff. Virtually all of the memory tricks we use to help … Continue reading

The Massively Multi-Player Online School

Approximate Reading Time: 4 minutes A typical encounter at a yet-to-be built massively multiplayer online school: Suddenly, Amy realized that unless they all worked together, they wouldnā€™t get out alive. She wiggles the fuzzy slippers dangling from her swinging feet and glances out the window … Continue reading