literacy | Liam O'Donnell

Writing Comics Workshop for Kids Session 2: Creating Characters

by liam | May 11, 2013 | appearances, comics, education, literacy, Teacher's Guide, writing news

I recently ran a four week Writing Comics Workshop for young writers at the amazing Toronto Public Library. Each Saturday, I met with 25 creators aged 8 – 12 years and we went through the steps to writing our own comics. We focused on using words to create story...

My YA Picks now available in Best Books for Kids & Teens 2013

by liam | May 7, 2013 | comics, education, literacy, media, writing news

A few months ago, I was honoured to be asked to be one of the judges picking the YA Best Books for 2013 on behalf of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. I blogged about getting all the books and then making the decision about would make the cut with a team of...

An Overdue Tour of the Multi-School Minecraft Server

by liam | May 4, 2013 | education, gamebasedlearning, gaming, literacy, media, Teacher's Guide, video games, virtual worlds

Since we launched the Multi-School Minecraft server in early 2012, myself and my GamingEdu pals have received a lot of questions about it. The most common question is usually: “What the heck is the Multi-School server and how does it work?” It can be...

From the Vault: My interview with James Paul Gee from 2004

by liam | Apr 19, 2013 | comics, education, gaming, literacy, media, Teacher's Guide, video games, virtual worlds

Back in 2003, I was a struggling freelance writer with a few graphic novels for kids under my belt. I was pitching articles to magazines, playing a lot of video games and wondering if a career in teaching was for me. That was also when I stumbled upon a newly released...

Introducing Tech Tales

by liam | Apr 2, 2013 | education, literacy, media, video games, writing news

Digital Stories for Digital Readers I’m excited to announce the arrival of Tech Tales, a brand new series of short stories for middle grade readers available exclusively as digital downloads. Written for Reluctant Readers, Designed for Teachers Reluctant readers...