education | Liam O'Donnell

Congress hearing on virtual worlds

by liam | Apr 1, 2008 | education, gaming, literacy, media, virtual worlds

Thanks [yet again!] to my twitter network, I learned about the Subcommittee meeting of the US Congress, Online Virtual Worlds: Applications and Avatars in a User-Generated Medium, (archived video here) just as it was kicking off. I managed to catch all the good and...

School but not school: Dave Eggers rethinks education

by liam | Mar 23, 2008 | education, literacy, media

Many times I’m introduced to something so smart, so innovative and already so established I wonder “Why didn’t I hear about this earlier?” The latest example came thanks Kevin Jarrett who tweeted about a new TED Talk from Dave Eggers, who,...

Levelling Up: two-digit math in kids’ video games.

by liam | Mar 22, 2008 | education, gaming, literacy, media

As I move forward with my teacher education, one of the key issues I keep reading about is student disengagement. Over the past few weeks working in a grade 5 class in Toronto, I’ve seen that disengagement first hand and much of it has been my fault. Part of my...

Edu-VWs gain ground with Quest Atlantis funding

by liam | Mar 2, 2008 | education, gaming, literacy, media, virtual worlds

With the recent swarm of new toy-based virtual worlds for kids launching in the coming months, I was very happy to hear [via Virtual World News] that the MacArthur Foundation awarded the University of Indiana’s School of Education $1.8 million to expand their...

Thinking critically about kids VWs at OISE/UT Conference

by liam | Mar 1, 2008 | appearances, education, gaming, literacy, media, virtual worlds

I just finished presenting Chillin’ at Club Penguin to a small but enthusiastic group at the OISE Dean’s Conference at University of Toronto. Happy to say that it went well, despite a few setting-up tech glitches (aren’t there always?) Once myself...