Invited by U.S. Dept. of Educ. to Review Games in Education

Monday, July 9, I'm off to Madison WI. I was invited by the Dept. of Education to sit on a review panel and listen to presentations by grant recipients who are developing games and simulations for the Dept. of Education.

One product I will review is under the direction of Kurt Squire. I read some of his work while developing my dissertations's literature review, and also saw him moderate panels and also give talks at last year's
Games, Learning, and Society conference in Madison WI. (I attended
GLS last year and presented my Rome KaMOO). I feel privileged to get a look at one of Squire's recent projects. The project, "Augmented Reality Simulation Games for Mathematics and Literacy Learning with Emerging Mobile Technologies" seeks to leverage the effectiveness of AR simulation games on mobile computers with global positioning systems to improve middle school mathematics and literacy instruction and student achievement in those fields. Its target populations are under-served urban middle school students and teachers.

I will also participate on a review panel evaluating a University of Oklahoma project that "plans to incorporate current digital game-based learning research to develop an interactive game environment in order to allow students to experience a wide array of real-world challenges that require a combination of team collaboration and the constant use of a series of process and content standards. The project will also introduce teachers to a form of professional development, Lesson Study, that promotes a cross-curricular team to collaboratively plan, teach, observe and reflect on student engagement and interaction during the researach lesson."

Incorporating game-based strategies into the curriculum is one of the elements in my dissertation, so I am very excited to serve on these panels. Stay tuned on further blogs as I go on site!