At the weekend I joined many others in celebrating my mum’s forty year’s service to the Girls Brigade in Coventry, England. Forty years. Forty years. Since she was sixteen, apart from a break to have her own children, she’s encouraged, supported and empowered thousands of girls by giving her time and energy to provide safe, […]
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This Week’s Review
Some of the articles that have caught my eye this week: General Issues Did you know there have been more than 2000 nuclear explosions on the planet since 1945? I didn’t. Displayed in an animation from Pink Tentacle Guillermo del Toro to make games – but what other film directors would you like to see […]
Stopping Children’s Play
The news today made me cry out with primal rage. The UK government is cancelling the funding for thousands of community playgrounds. The Playbuilder scheme was a key element of the 2007 Children’s Act and was establlished in response to the universally acknowledged need for safe outdoor places for children to play. Now the government […]
Recession Risk
I spend a good deal of time trying to respond to the social media/ online/ learning needs of all sorts of organisations. There is a commercial imperative to my efforts. Bluntly, I sell ideas. But these are peculiar times. Recession changes the game. In economic straits, all business, but public organisations especially, are less likely […]
Clever Fools
Now, here’s a clever science game. A game that actually generates valuable scientific outputs. Foldit is a game from Seth Cooper and his colleagues at the University of Washington where players score points by squeezing as many proteins as possible into a chemically stable configuration. Understanding how proteins can fold together is essential to establishing […]
This Week’s Review
Some of the articles that I’ve seen this week. Pathological internet use by teenagers can lead to depression according to School of Medicine, Sydney and SunYat-Sen University. http://archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/short/2010.159 Childhood traits predict adult behaviour according to report from University of California Riverside. http://newsroom.ucr.edu/news_item.html?action=page&id=2401 Behind the scenes of the museum…there’s real value. Director of the National Media […]
Self-fulfilling Prophecy
I get quite cross when some says “I’m no good at that” or “I can’t do that” or worse “You’re stupid.” I’m especially conscious of it as a dad of two small children. I believe talk like that can become a self-fulfilling prophecy: if it is said often enough about someone, they’ll live up to […]
The Week’s Review
Some of the articles that have caught my eye this week: Male modesty is a turn off for women (and men), at least in job interviews. From Rutgers University http://news.rutgers.edu/medrel/special-content/summer_2010/rutgers-study-finds-20100726 Send a picture of your face on the final shuttle missions. https://faceinspace.nasa.gov/index.aspx Cambridge study suggests that education reduces the risk of dementia http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/133/8/2210 (pdf). Here’s […]
Google Brain
I recently saw this on Facebook: Written by Matthew, an 11 year old boy. He’s not being ironic. It’s an attitude that is permeating society, particularly among the young. In a sense I think Matthew is right. We’ve never had access to such large amounts of information before so the majority of school activity suddenly […]
The Game Continuum
I spend a lot of my time discussing the efficacy of games for learning. I think all games offer us something for the real world but the crucial aspect for transferability is representation of the game world. I believe that we can map games on a scale ranging from reality to abstraction; I call this […]