UVa-designed game teaches local kids about planning, urban development

Land on a crossing guard, skip ahead two spaces. Roll a pothole, lose a turn.

That’s how students in University of Virginia professor Nisha Botchwey’s Neighborhood Planning Workshop began to get third- and fourth-graders from Johnson Elementary School to think about urban planning and design principles.

“We came up with a board game, Race to Johnson Elementary,” said UVa graduate student Madeline Hawks. “They really enjoyed the more fun aspects of playing a game instead of learning definitions about what it means to plan cities.”  Read more.

Bhaloidam – an indie tabletop storytelling game

What is Bhaloidam?
Bhaloidam is a time, a person, a feeling. Bhaloidam is a language, an idea, a place, and a memory. Bhaloidam is a modern expression of three timeless cultural forces: bha to tell, loid to play, and dam the tribe. In other words, Bhaloidam is where Story, Play, and Community come together.

Bhaloidam is an indie tabletop game from Zakelro! that is an open and accessible storytelling platform. With it you’ll spin character-driven stories and weave them together with the stories of your friends. You’ll exert your influence upon the storyworlds you create together, shaping its future and controlling your characters’ destinies as you perform their successes and their failures.

Help this game get off the ground here.

Online gamers strike major blow in battle against AIDS

A bunch of gamers have untangled the structure of a key protein in the virus that causes AIDS, a mystery that has left scientists stumped for decades. Read more…

Violence in Video Games: It’s All Part of Growing Up

GeekDad has posted a new article on Violence in Video Games.  The article raises interesting questions.  I think the commenter Peter Cork does as well.  I do agree that people playing violent video games are not doing so because they ‘like to kill things’ or ‘are learning to kill things.’  I also think we shun violence in weird ways in this country.  No violent media, yet we wage unjust wars around the world.  After you read this GeekDad article read ‘Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy, Super Heroes, and Make-Believe Violence by Gerard Jones and Lynn Ponton’ for a more in depth look at the subject.

Video Games in Education Conference

GeekMom is quickly becoming my favorite geek parenting blog. Here Rebecca Angel gives a good balanced review of the Games in Education conference and the use of video games in education in general.

Wired Science – Children Play Like Scientists Work

   Young children play like scientists work, according to a new research project at MIT and Stanford University.

The findings, which were published in the journal Cognition, reveal how 4- and 5-year-olds approach games methodically.

They were given a specially designed toy “that lit up and played music when the child placed certain beads on it,” says Nature. The cognitive scientists found that, when the children didn’t know which beads would activate the toy — namely they had been given what the team defined as “ambiguous evidence” — they tested each variable in turn.

Read more…

GeekDad – Girls Benefit from Video Game Co-Play

Video games sometimes get roughed up by parents, teachers, and academics as having a negative impact on kids. However, a study conducted by researchers at Brigham Young University concluded that playing video games is good for girls … if they play with a parent.

In an article appearing today in the Journal of Adolescent Health, researchers at the School of Family Life interviewed 287 families with a child between 11 and 16 years old. They compared the gender of the kids and which video games were played to a number of measures, such as behavior, family connection, and mental well-being. Read more.

 

Ollie Bray – Computer Game Addiction and Young People

There is no doubt about it computer games are addictive that is one of the reasons that games like Angry Birds and Farmville have done so well in recent years. Why? Well, computer games are well made.

A recent report from the BBC references a government advisor (presumably from Westminster?) who warns that adolescent addiction to computer games is set to rise steeply over the next few years. Read more.

CNN – How video games can make you smarter By Scott Steinberg, Special to CNN

(CNN) – Critics often accuse video games of making players lazy, inept and socially awkward. Contrary to popular belief, though, many build, not burn brain cells by requiring extensive problem solving, teamwork and dynamic decision-making skills.

Also capable of building players’ confidence and helping them see the world from multiple viewpoints, games can be powerful learning tools.

At minimum, they readily encourage fans to fall on their face then pick themselves up and try again, promoting hands-on learning without the fear of ridicule or embarrassment.

Following are four ways that video games can actually help make you smarter. The next time some cretin demands you drop the controller, consider citing all as you strike a wounded pose and educate the poor Neanderthal.  Read more.

Games to Boost Brain Power

There’s a fun way to boost your child’s brain power with games this holiday season. The LearningRX in Charlottesville has put together the Smart Mom’s Toy Box. With Christmas just days away, they’re offering some gift ideas that build cognitive skills.  Read more.