Last March, I wrote the post Levelling Up: two-digit math in kids’ video games, about how I used experience points and coins in kids’ mmos like Runescape and virtual worlds like Club Penguin to teach my Grade 5 students two-digit math. Writer Cora Lee and the editors at the great kids science magazine, YES Mag, took note and have featured my experience in the article “Adding Culture to Math”, appearing in the July/August 2008 issue.
Ok, so here’s how it goes: Writer announces that he’s delving into World of Warcraft, purely for research purposes and doesn’t blog for nearly a month. A classic case of gamer widowhood? Not really (honest!) I have been busy and there is much to report. For instance:
Wild Ride has gone into its second printing AND has been picked up by the Scholastic Book Club for the 2008/09 school year. Very cool. This is first time any of my books have gone into a second printing and it’s completely due to my fantastic publisher, Orca Book Publishers, and their even more fantastic connections in the USA.
I’m honoured that the AEP enjoyed the second book in the Max Finder Mystery trilogy as much as it liked the first. The AEP seal of approval means a lot because it more librarians will purchase the book and more kids will get to read Max & Alison’s mysterious adventures.
To celebrate my recent completion of my Bachelor of Education from OISE/UT, I decided to have a little fun and re-open the World of Warcraft account laying dormant on my hard drive. Part of this decision was to kick back and have some well-deserved fun, but it was also to help me with my latest (top-secret) writing project about mmos, avatars and all that online fun stuff. When I rolled up my toon, I thought I would be a warrior, rogue, or shaman. I never thought I’d become a scientist. But that is exactly what happened.
I’ve been quiet around here, but that’s because I have been busy, busy, busy. First off, I’m finally finished my Bachelor of Education course at OISE/UT and will be graduating on June 20th! This means that in addition to being a kids author, I’m going to be a teacher too! Most authors do it the other way around – become a teacher then an author, but I’ve never really done things the way I’m supposed to (just ask my mom!)
While I’ve been finishing up my studies, I’ve also had a sneak peak at the colour pages of Ramp Rats, the next book in the Graphic Guide Adventures series. The pages look great and once again Michael Deas has turned my words into totally amazing illustrations that’ll have kids reading all night long. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some images from the book very soon.
A few months ago, I asked if I was the only one troubled by Doodle 4 Google, the in-school marketing campaign art competition put on by the good folks at Google. Since then, over 16, 000 K – 12 students across the United States have spent valuable class time helping Google redesign their logo, just like Dennis Hwang does for special occasions and holidays. Unlike Mr. Hwang, the thousands of students working to “re-design” Google’s logo aren’t paid employees of the corporation. They’re just unpaid labour in Google’s latest marketing campaign to establish brand loyalty in young students, take over the learning and become the curriculum.
Check out the classroom product placement and unquestioning student/teacher adoration for the Google logo in the video below.
Key leaders from the fields of research, industry, policy, philanthropy, and education will convene to examine how recent research and experimentation with interactive media such as games, mobile technologies, and other platforms can accelerate children’s literacy learning. We will also be releasing recent research and reports from the Center, including a national survey conducted with Common Sense Media that examines parents’ and educators’ attitudes regarding digital media use in young children. Another highlight is the early release of a white paper by noted games expert, James Paul Gee.
The whole day was packed with great speakers, from PBS, EA Games and many NGOs, each outlining their plans for engaging learners with digital technology from virtual worlds to talking books and everything in between.
In the paper, Gee calls for the American education system to wake up and start some serious action to engage learners and prepare them for the digital future. In addition to calling for more funding of school programs and a revamping of how kids are assessed, Gee outlines a vision for “Digital Teacher’s Corp”, where teachers are “trained to help students learn to transform information for discovery and problem solving, not leave it inert in storage.” Gee also sees a role for the community in the learning of students through centres not unlike the Boys & Girls Club, where children can go to learn and build on their digital literacy skills. Personally, I see these centres working like the literacy tutoring centres, Once Upon a School Dave Eggers has helped create (and outlines in this fantastic TED Talk), but instead of magazine editors and writers, the place is filled with game designers who take the afternoon off to teach kids how to make video games.
Although the conference and the reports are all from US educators and based in the current education climate in the states, Canadian educators have the same lessons to learn. As our education system begins to move toward standardized testing, now is the time for provinces and school boards across the country to increase their funding of technology in schools and create innovative programming that is rooted in sound pedagogical theory but also designed for the future and the learners who will make that future.
Today is going to be a good day. The sun is shining and I have several great science fiction stories to read. They’re all part of the Visions of Science Imagine 2008 young writers competition and I have the honour of being one of the competition judges.
Visions of Science Network for Learning Inc (VoSNL) is a not-for-profit organization that advances the educational achievements and career aspirations of African Canadian and other under-represented youth in the fields of science, mathematics and technology.
I’m honoured to be judging this year’s competition. Initiatives like Imagine give students the power and the voice to create their own narratives and place themselves into fabric of learning about science. This is a transformative act that not only empowers youth by seeing themselves and others like them in the context of science, it also shines a light on lack of representation in much writing for young people in North America. Despite living in an amazingly diverse society, a quick survey of children’s literature (new releases and old) will show you that the vast majority of the heroes in these stories are white (usually middle class, often private/boarding schooled.) This is especially true in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Next time you are in the children’s section of your local bookstore, do a quick scan of the covers and see how much diversity is staring back at you. I would bet it is depressingly little.
This is one case where you can judge a book by its cover, because this is what young readers do. If they don’t see themselves represented, it becomes just one more hurdle to turning that learner into a passionate reader.
For these reasons alone, I am excited, honoured and eager to dive in and get some sci-fi reading done. As a sci-fi fan and writer, I am really looking forward to seeing what the imaginations of young people have created. So far, all the stories are great and full of surprises. But I know one thing for sure: picking a winner is not going to be easy.
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With the arrival of ning.com, creating social networks is as easy as creating an email account. I find places like Facebook too broad in their focus for an online network. Same with LinkedIn (although as more people are joining linkedin and find me, a cohesive network is forming for me.)
Already I belong to a few ning groups, like Classroom 2.0, but I’m really excited about the latest group I’ve joined: RezEd, the MacArthur funded network for educators interested in using virtual worlds in education.
I blogged about RezEd a few months ago and have been waiting for their launch ever since. They went into a live beta earlier this week and the place is beginning to fill up nicely now (I think they’re close to 200 members at the moment.)
Being a very new network, there is much territory that needs to be defined, so I took the initiative and created the K-8 Virtual Worlds group, with the aim for it to be:
A place to discuss, challenge and explore virtual worlds for elementary learners from Kindergarten to Grade 8. Join the discussion. Share your thoughts and help shape these powerful spaces for youth.
With educational virtual worlds like Quest Atlantis and others receiving both funding and accolades from the public, I think we are at the beginning of something very important in education. If you agree or are just curious about what these spaces are or what learning they can facilitate for students, then I invite you to explore RezEd and join the discussion.
In the meantime, check out this video of Quest Atlantis in action:
Award-winning children's author and educator specializing in creating curriculum relevant media for young minds.
Visit the books & graphic novels page to see everything I've written.
and doesn’t blog for nearly a month. A classic case of 
Not only was yesterday Canada Day, but it was also the day I learned that Max Finder 
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