A beautiful story about the imagination, engineering, and entrepreneurial spirit of a 9 year old boy in East LA who built an elaborate cardboard arcade inside his dad’s used auto part store.

Among the topics discussed were embedded assessments within games to replace traditional written exams, the challenges involved in publishing and distributing educational games on a larger scale, and the possibility of creating game creator programs in schools across the nation. This first “Games Committee” meeting was a great start to an exciting collaboration that will further the cause of digital tools in education.

How can you use technology to revolutionize schools? Joe Wise, an educator and researcher with 39 years of experience, joins GameDesk to tackle this very question as our very own Associate Director of New School Models and Curriculum. Joe is co-directing GameDesk’s new game and digital based school that will be launching in the Fall of 2012.

Partnering with GameDesk is the natural next step for Wise. Recalling his first meeting with “kindred spirit” Lucien Vattel, CEO of GameDesk, Wise laughs, “It was like listening to me!” The two instantly hit it off and found they had remarkably similar goals. Moving forward alongside GameDesk and Vattel, Wise sees a bright future and the potential to finally realize his ambitious vision: “This is a culmination of years of cultivating relationships, and exploring. This is a really exciting phase in my life.” full story

Introduction: iCivics is a web-based education project designed to teach students civics and inspire them to be active participants in United States democracy. iCivics does a nice job of integrating instruction through gameplay and promotes civic awareness through a variety of interactions. The games cover a wide range of topics such as, “Citizenship and Participation”, “The Constitution and Bill of Rights”, “Budgeting”, “Foreign Policy & National Defense”, “Separation of Powers”, and all three branches of government (Legislative, Executive, and Judicial).

Site Overview:

iCivics is the brainchild of former Supreme Court Justice, Sandra Day O’Connor. It is intended to be a resource for students and teachers alike to promote civic participation. The site provides free games that can complement a student’s study in constitutional law, government, and debate. iCivics provides a platform that demonstrates to the player how our government operates, how to become an active civic participant, and how to construct arguments.

http://www.icivics.org/games

Overview: For students looking to perfect their utility of basic math skills while blasting robots, look no further than PEMDAS Blaster.  A well designed drill game, Blaster assumes prior knowledge and seeks to sharpen response time to basic math operations. Speed is paramount as evil robots come toward you with the intent to harm. The only way to destroy them is to solve each of their “access codes” (math problems). PEMDAS Blaster has a variety of engaging rewards that allow you to upgrade your weapons, throw grenades, and put up road blocks. The varied reward structure leads to prolonged engagement even for repetitive play.

Gameplay:

The objective of PEMDAS Blaster is simple: answer the math problems before the robots attack. For every correct answer submitted, you will shoot the corresponding robot, add to the progress bar, and receive “cash” in return. Incorrect answers will result in missing the shot, which wastes ammo. With only four lives before losing, it is paramount that each robot is destroyed quickly and efficiently. While there is no educational instruction, PEMDAS Blaster does promote strategies for students to solve more complicated problems without the use of a calculator. For example, by forcing students to think quickly and efficiently, a problem such as 19*15 is regarded as (20*15)-15.

Conclusion:

PEMDAS Blaster does a solid job of fulfilling its objective: creating an engaging and solid drill game that feels more like a first player shooter than it does a math drill.

http://www.mangahigh.com/en_us/games/bidmasblaster

*Review based on 1 hour of investigative gameplay