education | Liam O'Donnell

Talking kids’ virtual worlds at Dean’s Conference OISE/UT

by liam | Feb 28, 2008 | education, gaming, literacy, media, virtual worlds

Been a very hectic last few days, but I have a few minutes to let you all know that I’ll be at OISE/UT’s Dean’s raduate Conference this Saturday spreading the word about virtual worlds to educators. I’ll be part of the Critical Literacies in...

RezEd gets funding

by liam | Feb 21, 2008 | education, gaming, media, virtual worlds

Not much time to write about this, but the MacArthur Foundation just granted the great folks at Global Kids $72,000 to create RezEd, an online social network for educators intreresting in using virtual worlds in edcuation. From the MacArthur site: The Virtual World...

VW-linked toy hype in full swing at Toy Fair

by liam | Feb 18, 2008 | education, gaming, media, virtual worlds

Virtual World News reports on the unhinged hype of Webkinz copycats cramming themselves onto the real world/virtual world toy bandwagon. Toy Fair, the leading toy show and expo in the country, has barely kicked off, but virtual worlds-related toys are already making a...

Liking PowerUp, IBM’s multiplayer game for teens

by liam | Feb 15, 2008 | education, gaming, literacy, media, virtual worlds

I’ll admit that I’ve haven’t even finished downloading PowerUp, IBM’s new multiplayer game about the environment and alternative energy, but so far I like what I see. Check out their launch/promo video below and see for yourself: Adblock A...

Am I the only one troubled by Doodle 4 Google?

by liam | Feb 14, 2008 | education, literacy, media

From a search of the web on Doodle 4 Google, it looks like I might be. Is anyone wondering about how elementary students and high schoolers spending valuable, publicly funded, class time helping Google redraw their logo benefits students’ learning? Not that I...