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 “…the research shows no instructional advantages of games over the other instructional approaches (such as lectures)…” 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€˜content’ is stripped of its context, which MUST include those pesky extraneous details, it becomes disconnected. No wonder learners can’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 wouldn’t get out alive. She wiggles the fuzzy slippers dangling from her swinging feet and glances out the window … Continue reading