I will also be regularly checking into this blog. It is a really nice way to stay in contact and to bounce ideas. Even if no-one responds, just putting the ideas in writing seems to help.

The second thing about blogging is that the "incubation" seems to be an important part for me. The only problem with this is that by the time I am ready (and able) to respond, a week or so has passed. I never know whether to bring up a dead subject then or to just blog away.

Today I decided to just blog away. Robert was concerned about declining technology stocks. We talked about stocks a lot in Allison's 644 class a couple of semesters ago. She talked about the beginning of the automobile market. Apparantly, in the beginning there were hundreds of (wanna be) car manufacturers and over the first four or five years, through takeovers, poor workmanship and financial foolishness, the field was narrowed substantially. Her guess was that over these next couple of years a crazy Darwinian market would swallow tech companies leaving only the strongest few. The question really is, what happens to all the money. The automobile money still has lots of money invested. The market is stronger today than back then, so probably this will also be true for tech companies and people like us who want to work in the field.

Just One of the Girls

Just read a piece by Brenda Laurel, founder of Purple Moon, about the rise and fall of the company. Purple Moon, you may recall, had as its principal goal the creation of games that would appeal to girls. Here's a quote:

In our research about girls, we explored the social complexities of girlhood and the recurring themes of affiliation, exclusion, secrets, and self-esteem. Our understanding of these phenomena formed the core of the Purple Moon’s fantasy world and drove the design of its characters. In a remarkable case of recursion, these themes showed up again and again in the social dynamics of the companies involved, as well as in the feminist response to our work.

We tell ourselves a story about how women are more "collaborative" than men. In our business dealings, especially in a female-dominated workplace, we value consensus, and we sneer at hierarchy and order. Yet what often happens in reality might be described as an excess of "democracy." Everyone must agree, everyone has a vote, and everyone must feel good about it all.

The feminist ideal of collaboration is not a great recipe for getting things done. On the contrary — without a clear authority structure, a faux-flat organization forces people to resort to the underworld secret alliances and covert operations in order to exercise personal power. Such an organization can expend far too much energy on the complexities of its emotional and political life.

So Purple Moon declined, was gobbled up by Mattel and has for all practical purposes vanished from the earth. A shame, really. Maybe some of you 670 alums will give the idea a second chance.

How the West was Won

How Sony won the console game is an article discussing how Sony beat its competition in the PlayStation market and also giving insight to the conditions. one of the main reason is "Sony has a broader spectrum of games than either of its competitors and it will have up to 500 by this Christmas, suiting all age ranges with a Spice Girls game and adult footie for the over 18s." In addition, distribution barriers is one of Nintendo's problems in competing with PlayStation. Besides, Sony spent a lot of effort on concepts development. Like the PR consultant who worked on the project from the beginning says" "We held a series of workshops and demos a year before launch asking retailers what they weren't getting but wanted from Sega and Nintendo. We asked games developers where they wanted to take the concept and we were open and honest, we really courted our partners. It was a relief for them to find this sort of philosophy." I think this is an article that helps us stimulate the thoughts of how to develop a product that meet the market needs and beat the competitors.

What Girls Really Want

Girl Games Inc. released a qualitative research study report titled Teen Girls and Entertainment on September 26, 2000. It looks at a variety of specialized segments of the entertainment industry from girls' perspective, including Broadband, MP3, and DVD technologies and provides some recommendations for making current and future programming more girl-friendly. some significant findings are as follows:

• Broadband: Teen girls are very open to broadband entertainment, but configuring players and modems is a big turnoff.
  
• DVD: Including videos from movie soundtracks, pop-up video functions, and making of videos will increase DVD penetration among teen girls.
  
• Reality TV: Teen girls look to Reality TV to learn about life in similar environments to their own, not for adventure and to follow competition.
  
• MP3: Paying for MP3 downloads would take a complete reconditioning of internet usage for girls.
  

Computer Edge

Computer Edge magazine's Dec. 1 issue has 3 articles on games. One is titled "Online Games are Virtually Amazing". It describes 3 online games, EverQuest, Asheron's Call and Ultimate Ultima, that seem to have large followings. These games are multiplayer roleplaying games played over the internet. What surprised me was the amount of people playing these games online. (68,000 players can play EverQuest at one time!) Also, it seems that in order to play you pay a monthly fee (about $10 for EverQuest). The graphics and game design sound very complex and interactive. Very interesting to hear what's possible on the web, considering our most recent assignment.

Gore Wins over Bushed Parents

The blog is in response to Dave's blog on 12/12.
Dave, I think that you're right about playstation 2 and gory games that are brought home. I talked to the manager of our local blockbuster and he said that some parents allow their kids to rent games that are beyond their age limit. His take was that parents don't really pay attention to what's in the games. This goes back to what we were discussing in class about parental responsibility. I do think that someone has to filter content for kids and parents. And I also think that parents do have a responsibility to explain what is out there to kids, but not to censor. There are so many other negative images that kids see on TV and in the movies that it seems overwhelming.

Not Just for Kids

TV Guide (the small version) has a feature on video games. They briefly discuss how games have grown and changed since the early days of Pong to the new PlayStation 2. They also mention that games aren’t just for kids anymore. (They list 60% of Americans play interactive games, 32% are over 34 years old, 13% are over 50 years old.) They also provide a rating of the new game machines: Sega Dreamcast, Microsoft Xbox (fall 2001), Nintendo Game Boy (July 2001), Nintendo GameCube (Oct. 2001), and the Sony PlayStation 2. There is also a rating of games by genre (action, adventure, children’s, dancing & music, racing, sports, etc.). I think that it has something to do with upcoming holiday shopping, but its another perspective on games.

Sara's Farewell

Okay, and here's the second thing I wanted to say... in response to Holly's post about blogging. I actually kind of like it too, even though I don't look at it every day. But I'd love to feel that I could keep a connection with what is going on in the Ed Tech program through blogging.

(and by the way Bernie I left your CD with Marcie... thanks for the loan.)

Bye everyone!!!!!!!!!!

Parental Responsibility

Well, I just counted up my blogs and as far as I can tell I need 2 more which is good because I have 2 more things to say.

The first is a comment on the presentations at our last class. I am always impressed at the variety of ideas and approaches that people have. I do want to ask the game violence group something, and didn't want to take the time to do it in class. I have found that both Eric and Sharon, inasmuch as they represent opposite opinions, appear to be reasonable people. And obviously everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. But even though I tend to agree with Sharon that it's alarming to have so many violent messages aimed at our kids, I think that the WRONG thing to do is to censor those messages in ways that may shield kids but doesn't promote discussion. It's not ignoring violence that will save kids from it; it is understanding why it's out there, why it's appealing to some, and what the difference is between seeing someone shot in a video game and seeing someone shot on the news. I think Bernie brought this up before... but (though I'm not a parent) I really think it's a parent's role not only to determine age-appropriate material, but also to discuss with their kids WHY some things are not appropriate, or why one sees bad things on the news, and try to give the kid a frame of reference. Simply creating a rating systems does not replace the learning that takes place with that kind of constant discussion. I think that just telling kids "yes" or "no" without helping them understand why may lead to kids feeling an extra temptation towards that which seems mysteriously powerful because it is banned.

"Children Now" provides some recommendations for positive solutions to the negative game environment for girls. The article Girls and Gaming:Gender and Video Game Marketing focuses on gender and video games and the content available to girls in particular. In addition, it also identifies ways in which the industry can play a role in creating and advertising games that appeal to girls and can contribute not only to their desire for entertainment, but also to their healthy development. Based on our Webquset Project, we found that there is a gender gap in computer usage. SimilarIy, this article also states that "gender differences are evident in Children's Internet use."
The examples of Positive Games for Girls it provided are:
1.Cascade Pass Inc., You Can Be A Woman Engineer (encourages girls to learn about NASA and space exploration)
2.South Peak Interactive, Mia Hamm Soccer & Mia Hamm Soccer Shootout (are the first women's soccer games on the market)
3.HerInteractive, Nancy Drew Stay Tuned for Danger (challenges players' problem-solving and analytical skills )

"Children Now" is a national child advocacy organization that works to improve the quality of news and entertainment media for both children and about children's issues. Yesterday, they released the new research relating Video Games and its headline was Top-selling Video Games 'Unhealthy' for Girls. According to the research, "Almost half of top-selling console video games contain negative messages about girls. Those negative messages include violence, promoting unrealistic body images and stereotypical female characteristics, such as provocative sexuality, high-pitched voices and fainting." This research examined the top ten selling games for each of the three most popular games console systems, Sony PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast and Nintendo 64. Overall, 54% of the games surveyed contained female characters whereas 92% contained male characters. However, the female characters that those games displayed were with significant body exposure, : 23% exposed breasts or cleavage, 31% exposed thighs, 15% exposed behinds and 31% exposed stomachs or midriffs. Those negative images about girls convey wrong messages to both girls and boys. However, it might have more influence on girls. During this holiday season, parents may want have those information in mind and think more closely about purchasing games for their children.

The Case of the Missing Blogs

Hmmmm... I've generated the archive files again twice, and still the weeks from October 21 to November 10 don't show up. I can only hazard a guess that this is somehow related to the server upgrade and general flakiness that Blogger experienced around that time. Your blogs are all still there, as you can see by clicking on the calendar while in Blog-editing mode... they just aren't showing up in the archive.

I'll continue to try to fix that. You should all know that I haven't been deleting your blogs with one exception: if a blog's only content was to point out that a link was bad in a previous blog, I fixed the link and erased the problem report. Every other insightful thought you all posted is still here.

Utopia

Now that the semester is over, what are you going to do with all your free time? How about running your own feudal mini-kingdom? The web-based Utopia game will let you do that. Here's the opening description:

Welcome to Utopia, a world where reality and dreams come together, a world where the lowliest of peasants can become the world's greatest heroes. A world unlike any other that you may have experienced now stands before you.
Any peasant can become Lord of their own province, but only the greatest can survive. Being a leader in the world of Utopia will challenge your every skill and demand your careful attention. Without diplomacy and tact, you will never rise to the respect the people demand of you. You must decide when to be ruthless and when to be compassionate. Will you run an empire of might or magic? Alas, it is almost impossible to do both. Every decision, every challenge will be yours and yours alone. Are you ready to be a Lord or Lady here in Utopia? If so, continue onwards...

Dave on Blogging

I figure since this is my last blog, I should comment on my opinioins about this whole blogging thing. When it first started, I wasn't sure about the whole thing because I figured others weren't really reading my blogs. After a week or so I was getting some interesting feedback from other students, and I saw myself quickly starting to enjoy this whole blogging experience a little more. I think though, these blogs are only effective if they are being closely monitored as Bernie has done so well over the past couple of months. Without communication between students and the transfer of feedback, students will quickly find themselves blogging because they have to. All in all, I must say that this was a nice addition to the class, good job Bernie!

It Takes Napalming a Village to Raise a Child

This blog is for those who cannot get enough of research found on violence in video games. It talks primarily about Clinton singling out the game Quake and studying its effects. In June, President Clinton ordered the surgeon general to study the effects of all violent media on children and young adults. He singled out video games in particular, pointing to research showing that half the electronic games a typical seventh-grader plays are violent. "What kind of values are we promoting," chimed in Hillary Clinton, "when a child can walk into a store and find video games where you win based on how many people you can kill or how many places you can blow up?"

The industry launched a counteroffensive, arguing that the vast majority of video games sold today are not violent, and emphasizing that no causal link has ever been established between aggressive behavior and prior exposure to violent media. The makers of these games claim that it is not the violence that is making the industry grow it is their ability to provide users with, "some of the most compelling, stimulating, and challenging entertainment available anywhere, in any form."

What do a duck, a debtor and a politician have in common?

A colleague came running up to me last week excited because they found a game just like the Glass Bead Game. Tribond is published by Patch Products Inc.

The game asks the question. What do these three things have in common?
A player gets a list of three items: eg a duck, a politician and a debtor

The player must come up with what these three things have in common.

The answer: Bills... all three have bills.

Each trio of words have one given answer. When we played this game at work, we simply took the most creative answer. However, be prepared for non-G rated answers like the ones we got.

Drop-Com

This blog doesn't really have to do with technology and games but technology and corporations, so I thought I would talk about it anyway since I think it applies to our field. Anyway I have been hearing a lot of discussion on the news and radio about the fall of dot.com companies lately. Everyone's stocks are going down and they are laying their employees off by the hundreds. One story that really grabbed my attention was about Priceline.com. It was said that not too long ago their shares were going for about $165 a share and now were worth somewhere around $2.15! That's insane, especially because Priceline is one of the more successful dot.com companies. I was wondering what other's opinions were on this topic and why they felt this was happening. You can also find an interesting article on this subject here: http://content.careers.msn.com/GettingHired/JobHunting/0011_dropcom.asp.

This blog is in response to Amy's arcade experience. Just to let you know Amy that you don't have to go all the way to the arcade to see graphics as realistic and gruesome as the ones you saw. I know that Playstation 2 is supposed to have the best graphics and quality of all game systems yet. So it won't take long for the goriest games you can think of to end up in homes. After completing our webquest project and realizing the problem with the unreliably vague rating system out there, I think government needs to put some kind of rush on forcing the implementation of a newer rating system. As the video game systems become more advanced the games are going to get more violent. And lets face it, it won't be long until someone comes out with a system with better quality than Playstation 2.

Now that I see Blog in a different light, I would also like to start one. I would like to create one for high school students. However, I don't know how effective it would be. I have been searching for teachers that have done this, but I have not been successful. I would like to know what to do and what not to do. If the students buy into this, it can be a great tool for teachers and H.S. students as well.

Handbook of research for educational communications and technology
Subject: 26.4.3 Dynamic Pictures and Knowledge Acquisition

In this section, author reviews earlier and recent studies of examining the effect of dynamic visuals on learning. It concludes that there is no rationale of incorporating animation or other special effects into instruction existing because of the inconsistent results of studies. The inconsistent results derive from (1) the lack of appropriate controls, (2) the flawed methodologies or rationales,(3) the neglect of the work on memory models and theories of picture perception, and (4)the unclassified functional roles of visuals in instructional materials. However, investigators still make valuable contributions. Riber (1990), for example, presented three design recommendations for the use of animated visuals in instructional materials. Park and Hopkins (1993) identified five important instructional roles of animated visuals. Contributions of Riber, and Park and Hopkins, have provided a starting point for further work though the refinement and validation of their suggested functional framework are still needed.

There is a brief summary of several functional frameworks in static visual research on Ch26.4.2.3 and lots relative studies summarized in Table 26-1 and26-3. Conversely, the research on the effects of dynamic visuals is very limited.

The suggestions for further research on dynamic visuals on learning provided by Jonassen (1996) are as following:

In any case, further research investigating the effects of dynamic visuals displays on learning should:(a) be based on a functional framework (i.e., Riber, Park & Hopkins),(b) include content for which external visual information is needed and which requires the illustration of motion or the trajectory of an object, and (c)control for the effect of static graphics. (P.786) Besides, further research should derive from theories of picture perception and incorporate memory models.
That elicits my interests on reading those two scopes.The theories of picture perception represent on Ch26.2 and the memory models are described on Ch26.3.

By mistake/please delete

Looking for games especially for girls? Wondering what's out there in the recent market? Here is the place for you to dig in. The following is a list of brief explanations of girls' games. From here, you may get a sense of what girls' games look like and log on to the specific web page to probe for more details. Super Kids

Most girls enjoy software which involves creativity and mystery. There is a web site listing the games that are especially designed for girls, The Review Zone It also contains the description of game including price, features, etc.

Ok, I'll go ahead and do one more blog. After reading through all the past blogs (again - yes, I was reading them every week as we went along), I realized that I really have enjoyed "blogging." I was a little hostile to the idea at first - especially when the interface wasn't (in my opinion) user-friendly and it "lost" my first few attempts at posting a blog (I never resize my screen while writing a post - thus the increase in typo's after I reach a certain length). However, I have enjoyed the ongoing dialogs (esp. re: guys and computer games) and I do appreciate being able to go back throughout the entire blog to re-read the discussions. I agree that the Game Violence group as a whole probably used this blog to its fullest - and in the future I would do the same with my group(s). It's interesting to me how I feel free to write things that I may not say in person (well, then again, I probably would say them - especially in a hyper mood), but I think that CMC does bring out a different part of your personality. I could see a professional blog being a very useful thing. Perhaps after I graduate, I'll set up one for EdTech grads.... I don't know, what do you think about the idea? (Was it easy to set up,Bernie?)

Bernie,

I have just spent the past 35 minutes going day by day through all of the blogs from 10/21 to 11/11. Why? Well, as you indicated on 12/9, "all" we needed to do was to go to the archives and search through the weeks to count up our past blogs. However, i immediately noticed a rather large (and might I add an important) gap during the afore-mentioned period of time. Knowing of at least two blogs that I was rather proud of :-} I began to search to see if they were still there or if you had edited them out. I found them (and several more) during the time period and am wondering - what are you going to do with all those blogs? Why aren't they also archived? Did you purpose edit them out in an attempt to "hide" someone's blogs that you didn't like ;-} (Probably mine!) If you're interested, I have all the dates of those blogs (in addition to the ones archived on our website). I think that for bringing this to your attention - and for my effort - this blog should count for two - then I'd be done!!!

Has anybody visited Free-Game website?

On this website you can find free hints, cheats, tips and downloads for the pc, Playstation, Dreamcast and Nintendo 64. I like playing Civilization, and I found a lot of cheats for it. Player are sharing how to chet the game with other players. It is pretty interesting. Maybe you can find some cheat for your game.

What do software companies believe girls want from computer games, and are their views accurate??

recently, many software companies have become interested in designing a computer game for girls. Mattel Interactive and Electronic Arts are one of these companies. Mattel Interactive and Electronic Arts had workshop in March to address the question "What do software companies believe girls want from computer games, and are their views accurate?”They found following results:

Girls like software with strong characters, such as Amelia and the Purple Moon characters.
Girls like creating rather than destroying in games, and like to print out their products.
Girls like to win, but in more cooperative ways than their male counterparts.
Girls like puzzle-solving, learning in depth, and working with rich-textured games.

I realize that I my last blog sounded pretty negative. Let me also share something positive about my arcade experience.

There was one game, MTV Drumscape that was a drumming simulation, where were a drummer and you had to keep the beat to music played to you by the game. You sat inside this box and had 5 or 6 round drum pads in front of you. I have no musical talent so I didn’t try it.

Also there was a game called, Dance, Dance Revolution. In this game you stood in the middle of four foot pads (one in front of you, one to your right, one in back of you, and one to your left). You had to step on the correct one on beat with the music. The correct arrows were shown on a monitor in front of you and keep the beat. If you did or didn’t keep the beat you got feedback from the machine. I didn’t even dare try it, but it was really funny watching my friends try it.

And lastly there is still air hockey tables at the arcade. That’s my game.

Arcade experience - violence in games

I know that we've spent time discussing violence in games over on blogger, but I didn't really get it until I went to an arcade last week. Have you guys been to an arcade recently? First let me say that I haven't been to an arcade since I was a kid. There were almost no adults there. I was the only woman there who wasn't there with kids. That I expected, but what I wasn't prepared for was the level and graphic nature of the violence of MOST of the games. Based on what I saw, it's true that the games are directed more towards boys. Nearly all the games were first person shooter type games or first person driving/racing games. The games had rating stickers on them, for example "Animated Violence Strong" or "Mild Violence".

That may not sound like much but, I played this game called "The House of the Dead" rated "Animated Violence Strong". In it you are an agent who had to rescue hostages (and fellow agents). Zombies are trying to kill you with axes as you enter. The street and house scenes are incredible lifelike. Also, as you shoot the zombies, flesh, blood and body parts fly off them. If you don't completely kill them they keep coming at you. In order to encourage you, you are presented with a fellow agents who beg you to save the others. As you get close a zombie picks the agent up and throws him over the ledge. I think this is to encourage you to continue and to reinforce (if you haven't already gotten it) that the zombies are bad. Overall, I was both impressed and shocked at how lifelike and gruesome the graphics were. If you haven't been to an arcade or played a playstation type game recently, you should definitely try it, if for nothing else than to really understand what's out there.

Simulations in real life.

In Las Vegas at Circus Circus, they have this simulation in the Arcade called CyberCoster. It allows you (for $5 per person) to "design" a roller coaster ride from a series of pre-set selections (example, loops, dips, etc). Then you sit inside the simulation car (it looks like a smaller version of Star Tours at Disneyland) and they close you inside and run your simulation. There's only room for about 2 people. Kids under a certian height and age are not allowed. It was really interesting to see a real life example of a simulations.

A Different Kind of Game Bot

Want a PlayStation 2? So does everyone else. They appeared briefly in US stores and were snatched up in hours. New shipments appear sporadically and disappear in instants. How do you find a PS2? Crank up a Shopping Bot, of course. According to a CNET article Bots Snarl Sites as Shoppers Seek PlayStation 2, these things are overwhelming the online stores.

Amazon.com, Gohastings.com and Kmart's BlueLight.com are among the online merchants selling PlayStation 2 consoles that have had outages or slowdowns while featuring the popular, and scarce, toy. While Amazon has said its troubles are unrelated to heavy traffic, BlueLight and Gohastings, the Internet arm of Hastings Entertainment, say shopping bots are at least partially responsible for their technical glitches.

"We sat there and watched the site get 80,000 hits in a period of minutes," said Dave Karraker, spokesman for San Francisco-based BlueLight, which has suffered periodic delays in doing business because of heavy traffic. "It's clear to us that there are people using bots to scan the site for the PlayStation 2."

No Tokyo Roses

Bernie,

Having lived in Japan for three years, the article on Japanese men practicing their romantic skills is pretty interesting. I was listening to the radio one day when a Japanese man called in and argued that foreign men should not date Japanese women due to the fact that they were bestowing too much affection on the women and making it more difficult for Japanese men (Japanese men show very little affection to their wives/girlfriends). Interesting perspective. Seems now they are working on the improvement of their wooing skills. Ah, Japan...

By the way, if anyone is interested in Japanese animation and comic books (manga), check out this site. Enjoy.

-Dan

Count Your Bloggings

Want to take a walk down memory lane and see how many postings you've made here? Visit the blog itself, not via Blogger, and scroll down to the bottom of the page. There you'll see a link to the Archives which contain each week's Blog since October. You don't need to be an administrator to do that.

The EdGames Blog is accessible from the top level of the course page, or by going to http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec670/edgames/index.html.

Posting to the Blog is considered part of the WebQuest assignment. I asked for three blogs a week for the four weeks we were working on that. I'll look for a total of 12 blogs per person by next Monday and that will count for 10% of your individual WebQuest grade. Please don't fill up the blog with 11 hurried and not very interesting blogs today to try to catch up!

Love Bots

More signs that there's a market for AI agents that play with us. Japan's Men Date Hot, Sexy Bots, an article in Wired, described a subscription service in Japan which allows you to practice the writing of love letters via e-mail.

Pharaoh

It's hard to get away from The Sims nowadays.
I have seen plenty of articles in non-game publications and The Sims have been getting good reviews. However, if you feel like playing God in Egypt, check out Sierra's PHARAOH. It's kind of the same concept of The Sims, but only in Egypt. I've heard some of my female students talking about it and I asked them what they liked about it. They liked the fact that you call the shots and that your organizational skills come into place when you are playing. They also feel that is a very educational game and that they are learning about ancient Egypt. According to them school should be this much fun.

A hacker stole my email

Hi all,

This is not about games, but I think that it is important to know. I just would like to warn you about hackers. I don't know how a hacker did, but he got my password of hotmail account and changed it. He left a message for me at hotmail's secret question part. The message was " if you want to get your hotmail account back, email me". I emailed him, and yesterday morning I got email from a hacker. He was apologizing for stealing my email. He was telling me that this is his job, and he is not a bad guy. He gave my email account back, but I don't trust him. I couldn't understand what kind of work he is doing, does anybody have any idea about this?

Briefly, be careful and change your password periodically.

Demos to the Rescue

I'm not sure whether people who are frantically trying to finish their project will be visiting the blog, but I've got a helpful tool for you if you do. Need some software that you don't currently have on your computer such as Media Cleaner? Go to
http://www.hotfiles.zdnet.com to find demos and free downloads that can help. Good luck everyone!

Okay, I know we aren't supposed to blog just to blog, but I am wondering how we find out how many we have done (tired of hearing about this Bernie?) Anyway, I can't use the Archive feature because I am not an administrator. Any ideas besides finding the beginning somehow, scrolling and counting?

Semi-Private Bloggery

I was just looking that the patterns webquest and noticed that you had your own blog going. What a great idea for communicating with your team and still getting in your blogs. I wish we had thought of that. The only drawback I saw was that the rest of us could not respond back to your comments. Or was that the point...

Legoland Robotics

The Lego Robotics Network website sounds like an attraction at Legoland. Teams of kids can program a robot to move and turn. The decide how far it goes and how much it turns. For example, they can have it move ahead 3 inches, turn 45 degrees left and them move ahead 6 more inches. The purpose is to race the robots against each other. The robot may have to drop balls into a basket, etc. The kids really enjoy it and learn a lot from it.

While Legoland is says it is geared for 2-12 year olds, it really isn't. But this one thing the older kids like.

Lego RoboticsKids are building and programming a robot to achieve the mission.
Does anybody visit the Lego Robotics Network website?

There are alot of 3D simulations. Aim of the simulations is to build and program robotics invention in order to achive specific goals, such as creating a robot that can complete a lap around three course designs of increasing complexity.

Meet the Sims

Here's a story from CNN that ties together gender, violence and simulations. The Sims game is at the top of the charts because it manages to appeal to a wider than usual demographic. The appeal of playing God in a universe of your own design is apparently very deep.

An interesting quote from the author of the Sims: "It's rewarding to be able to change people's perceptions of reality," Wright said. "They just see their environment in a different way. They have a kind of different-colored glasses that they can see their world in. To me, that's really cool -- when games can change you."

Channel 8 on Violence

Set those VCR's! While we're in class on Monday, Channel Eight News at 5:00 M is supposed to be revealing their "10 Most UNwanted list." Apparently it is made up of violent video games or has something to do with them. I have only seen the commercial for this,but thought it sounded rather interesting. It will be interesting to see what they come up with and where exactly they gathered their information.

Newsweek

Newsweek magazine has come up with a special issue this winter named e-LIFE. It has a lot of cool techie christmas gifts. It also ranks the top 20 new video games, an alphabet of the best web sites, and unfortunately a little too late, an article that surveys children about violence on video games. You can't miss it. IT has some kind of robotic-looking mouse on the cover. Check it out!!

Children's Museum Online

I have a really cool website for you! It's sponsored by the Children's Museum of Indianapolis and it's at http://www.childrensmuseum.org/cosmicquest/index.html. On this site, you can choose to build your own space station. In the process, you learn a lot and have fun doing it! It's not a game per se, but it has given our group some good ideas. As a teacher, I am amazed at some of the cool sites for kids on the web - unfortunately, it can take a while to sift through the "junk."

Share Websites

I haven't had time to surf this week, so I thought I would go through my bookmarked sites to see if I had anything to share.

When we were building a website last semester, we spent some time looking at good websites to get ideas. This site had some great ones. http://websiteawards.xe.net/winners1.htm

Games on the Birthday List

We have been busy with Thanksgiving and my son's 9th birthday. We got him to write a wish list. At first, he could think of only two things, Pokemon Silver and Marioland. These are both GameBoy games. I don't quite know how the people at Pokemon have kept this game fad going. Our neighbor had a similar list, but got Pokemon gold and a gameboy survival kit. They are now the happiest of kids.

One of the new and interesting things about the pokemon games is that you can transfer Pokemon from one game into the another game. That is, if you catch a certain valuable Pokemon in the Gold game, and need it in the Silver game, you can link gameboy devices together and trade Pokemon. I have never seen this as part of a game before.
As part of the mission in the Pokemon games, players need to "Catch them all." All the Pokemon are not available in any one game, therefore, players need more games to capture more Pokemon. In the meantime, Pokemon the company continue to invent new Pokemon. What a catch!

How can educator use this in a classroom? If students form a group and each find certain information, maybe solve some math problems and all group members share. Maybe we are doing similar things in our WebQuests.

Feed the needy...Not a normal blogger posting, but I thought that this would be a good idea for the Holiday Season !

Quite clever of the UN to do this. Go to the Hunger Site at the UN. All you do is click a button and somewhere in the world a hungry person gets a meal to eat, at no cost to you. The food is paid for by corporate sponsors (who gain advertising in the process because you see their logo). All you do is go to the site and click on the DONATE FOOD BUTTON. It takes one second. However, you're only allowed one donation, so pass the word.

http://www.thehungersite.com