Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Nov 27, 2009, 11:03 AM

I don’t know of any other museum that does such a good job of conjoining ancient and modern, history and making, as one seamless, interactive, interconnected world of creative, playful learning.

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Nov 04, 2009, 06:41 PM

Mary Lou Maher of NSF's "Creativity and Cognition" division has just opened her talk on "Enhancing Creativity and Implicaions for Design Cognition" with an essential and elegant insight. She's showing slides of preverbal infants playing with laptops and iPhones. As she notes, for these toddlers, these complex digital machines are "toys," no different from other toys. They play, they respond, they learn, they play more. When something doesn't work, they hand the toy (ie iPhone) to and adult, "Huh, huh," and the adult shows them how it works, and then the process continues.

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Feb 16, 2009, 08:09 AM
Katie Salen, of the Institute of Play and Parsons New School of Design, sends this press release for the very exciting opening of the new game school, Quest to Learn, opening with 6th graders in New York. This is yet another project that is being supported, in part, by a planning grant from MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Initiative. It is thrilling: "New York, New York ? February 7, 2009. New York City will be home to Quest to Learn, a new 6-12th grade public school that will use game-inspired methods to teach both traditional and critical 21st century skills and literacies. Opening in fall 2009, the school is being supported by The Center for Transformative Media at Parsons The New School for Design. The school was created by the Institute of Play, a New York City-based not-for-profit organization that leverages games and play as transformative learning tools, in collaboration with New Visions for Public Schools. The school will be a District 2 school, located in Manhattan, near The New School campus. Quest will open with a 6th grade in fall 2009, adding a new grade each year.
Design and innovation are at the heart of the new school, labeled ?school for today?s digital kids.? According to principal Aaron Schwartz, former COO of Archimedes Academy, ?Quest balances traditional academic needs with a belief that students today can and do learn in different ways, often through work with digital media, games, online networks, and mobile technologies. Kids today use digital media as part of their everyday interactions?their learning should too.?

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Feb 03, 2009, 05:56 PM
This is a reblog from the MacArthur Foundation's Spotlight blog, including videos and lots of URL's for digital tinkering, brought to us by one of the most imaginative and thoughtful explorers of the technological imagination,USC's Anne Balsamo. Here's the url, and see the reblog below: http://spotlight.macfound.org/

Submitted by Mechelle on Oct 12, 2007, 03:45 PM
Microkids

Submitted by Cathy Davidson on Jul 13, 2007, 12:07 PM
Can a role playing game encourage kids to think like game designers?