XBOX on the syllabus

I have a sense or resurgent enthusiasm again with regard to the place of games in teaching: re my posting to this blog on 3DML and Robocode, when today I read that Microsoft are to offer XNA Game Studio Express, a free consumer version of Xbox tools that will run on a PC. In fact my interest in games has taken an upward leap after discovering the Sleeper Curve in Steven Johnson’s book ‘Everything bad is good for you’ ( I can recommend it). The suggestion is that our pop cultures game playing has contributed to our ability in managing rising complexity and cognitive demands. I wonder what impact the mention of xbox programming would have on the syllabus?

Coalescing virtually

I have been working on plans to encourage students to adopt the idea of virtual learning communities for the coming academic year. But to be realistic there has to be some sense of virtual value! It occurs to me, that the usual start of course ice breakers of ‘who I am, where I’ve been, going, gone wish I hadn’t and wish I had’ , type soon forgotten presentations, are evolved out by a dynamic, sustained and even organic online presence through myspace accounts, accessed from the vle. I naturally intend being part of all this as you can see here. In developing an on-line presence, I have some confidence the social networking aspects will act as a mechanism promoting the emergence of groups to eventually coalesce into virtual communities; eventually, though according to Rena Palloff they can happen almost instantaneously. Interesting times ahead.