The Joan Ganz Cooney Center has a couple of reports that might interest many of you out there. The latest is a report (Game Changer – Summary) on using games to learn that recommends:

• Implement R&D initiatives at federal and state levels to identify learning gains through games and other digital media, develop metrics and set research goals. This includes funding research into alternative assessment.
• Government should create partnerships with technology partners and game developers to develop games, using philanthropy and funding as a means to offset costs and potentially provide profit (my reading between the lines there).
• Support adult guidance through professional development for teachers on these new ideas and resources.
• Modernize public/education media (remember these are the people behind Sesame Street)
• Create a broad public dialogue on digital media and games to help educate everyone on these new literacies (they have a report on that as well – The Power of Pow! Wham!: Children, Digital Media and Our Nation’s Future).

The other paper is Pockets of Potential: Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning (Summary) that lists the opportunities, challenges and goals for mLearning:

Opportunities:

• Encourage “anywhere, anytime” learning
• Reach underserved children
• Improve 21st-century social interactions
• Fit with learning environments
• Enable a personalized learning experience

Challenges:

• Negative aspects of mobile learning
• Cultural norms and attitudes
• No mobile theory of learning
• Differentiated access and technology
• Limiting physical attributes

Goals:

• Learn: Understand mobile learning as a unique element of education reform
• Develop: Build mobile learning interventions
• Promote: Engage the public and policy-makers in defining the potential of mobile devices for learning
• Prepare: Train teachers and learners to incorporate mobile technologies
• Stimulate: Generate new leadership support for digital learning

It certainly is nice when there is a thinktank out there that is thinking the same way you do eh?

One Response to “Joan Ganz Cooney Center – gaming and mlearning”

1. Scott Traylor says:

   September 10, 2009 at 12:44 pm

   Related to the latest Joan Ganz Cooney Game Changer report, your readers might be interested in an interview I had with one of the principle authors of the report. You can find it on the 360KID blog at: http://www.360kid.com/blog/2009/06/game-changer-report/
   .-= Scott Traylor´s last blog ..Kids, Virtual Worlds, and TV Ads =-.