learning game websites

Who are the biggies in this area?

There's:

PrimaryGames.com with their "Mondrian" design that fits so much advertising and content onto the page that it makes my head spin. I think they are very savvy commercially really working the revenue maximizing side of the puzzle. Their graphics suggest a younger kid focus.

sheppardsoftware.com is more aesthetic and cute. I can't tell whether they've selected topics by interest or for revenue. They have an remarkable structure of lessons and activities with different levels. It squeezes the maximum content and perhaps value out of the materials. I can't tell if it's databased or each one is standalone.

The LearningGamesforKids.com educational games website is very sweet. It's smaller and less commercial than the rest but only slightly.

CleverIsland.com is the most commercial of all. Want to see something interesting? Google free learning games and click on the CleverIsland paid advertisement. Give them your name and email so that you can see the free games. Use a variation of your real name. Then count how many people email you using that name variation. They're really aggressive.

To research:

funschool.kaboose.com
thekidzpage.com
learningplanet.com/
prongo.com/games
alfy.com/games/learning

funbrain.com

Gamequarium has collected all sorts of games and links. They are doing a little crowdsourcing with their add-a-link effort: gamequarium.org/cgi-bin/search/addurl.cg

BTW - Should I write a blog post for: learninggames.wordpress.com/2009/10/23/oer-in-games-sims-and-virtual-worlds

Peace Corps Volunteer

Here's a piece of trivia about me...I was a US Peace Corps Volunteer 1980-82 in Cameroon. I was contacted this week by Wendy who is a currently serving volunteer who is trying to build 30 libraries in schools Cameroon and is looking for help. As in donations. I helped. Will you?

Books For Cameroon

I think this can make a world of difference to those kids.

Blogs vs Twitter vs Facebook for Promotional Purposes

Blogs Can Still Drive Big Traffic - I thought this was a great post since in all the excitement about twitter and facebook, their limitations are overlooked. I received this from a colleague which I thought I'd share: Saw this in the comments of the post, and thought it was an interesting thought...

"Social marketing like 'twitter' and 'facebook' are not really business generators unless you sell/promote an event or an open day! These are more activity related results. Other business models get far more results from a good blog."

I think the idea there is that Twitter and FB are perfect for "fluid" content. Things that are changing/updating/moving/growing

But that static content can be better represented by a good blog post which offers the ability to EXPLAIN why a consumer needs this product.

My take: Facebook and Twitter are like cocktail parties, a good place to casually interact and exchange quick thoughts but no place for real conversation or information. Also, they're good for quick updates and questions like pools. But they're limited to snippets of info.

If I really wanted to learn about education, I'd go to an education forum or newsgroup.
If I really wanted parents discussion, I'd go to a parents discussion group.
If I wanted to find out about homeschooling, I might use Facebook to find a group but then, I'd go have real discussions on a blog or forum or newsgroup where the media allows for substance!

Free Giveaway from SpellingCity

I'm "reblogging" or passing on this info. It's a contest that ends this Monday so enter it or pass it on quick

Win a free SpellingCity account for student record-keeping!!!

Why not start the new school year off by winning a free SpellingCity.com account for the student record-keeping feature? Are you feeling talented and lucky? How to Apply for the GiveAway. Write your best explanation of how SpellingCity has helped your students and you. There are four ways to send it to us: - Post on the SpellingCity forum in the Features & Feedback category keeping your entry under 30 words. - Send your writing to us using the SpellingCity Contact Us form keeping your entry under 30 words. - Post on the SpellingCity Facebook fan page your entry keeping it under 30 words. - Tweet it onto the SpellingCity Twitter homepage keeping it under 140 characters. Please only apply once. On Tuesday, Sept 1, the Mayor of SpellingCity will pick among the best entries. He'll award five free classroom licenses to teachers and five free family licenses to parents. Specifically, the Mayor of SpellingCity will select the top entries and declare them finalists. The final ten will be selected randomly from the finalists. Background on Record-Keeping: SpellingCity has added automated record-keeping as a new feature. This allows teachers to instantly grade and record the students' spelling tests giving them a chance to immediately review the words and to take a retest. Traditionally, the grading of papers took a day, tied up a teacher's evening, and involved lots of hand-grading and recording. Automated record-keeping of spelling tests puts the results immediately recorded in the teacher's online gradebook. The student record-keeping is a new SpellingCity feature introduced in August 2009. The cost for a classroom (30 student licenses) is $49.99. A family (5 licenses) is $29.99 per year. Click for more details on student record-keeping. Questions, you can DM us on Twitter, Message us on Facebook, post in the forum or use our contact us form. The Mayor, SpellingCity.com

Learning & Communication Technology

>When I launched my online learning venture a few years ago, a blog was the cutting edge technique for online communication. Forums and Yahoo newsgroups were well-established by then and the traditional internet list-servs and old-fashioned bulletin boards were waning.

Since then, Friendster and Myspace hit their peak and have declined. Google groups came and seem to have gone.

Podcasts arrived and claimed their niche as did wikis and Linkedin and blog communities. They aren't exactly taking over the world but they seem to have their spots.

Youtube, Twitter, and Facebook, on the other hand, are taking over the world. They have dramatically changed our personal networks of communication and how we get news and communicate. Amazing. Thrilling.

Time4Learning is trying to navigate these trends and find a balance of how cutting edge we should be. We do have a Time4Learning fan page on Facebook. We started it within the last month or so and are up to 600 fans. Is that good? I'm not sure. I try to compare it with the fact the Time4Learning parent forum has 3521 members who've joined and 28 users on the site right now (it's Saturday, 4:48, 7 registered, 21 just visiting) but I find that I'm trying to compare apples and oranges.

So, we'll keep trying to listen to our members and locate interested non-members where-ever online they seem to be.

3DLearning

The concept of 3DLearners just popped up on a blog and it caught my eye. And I quote: There's been usage of the term 3D Learners as a category which includes kids with dyslexia and some other groups whose minds process less sequentially than is most common. It's a very clever term in thatthe imagery evokes the idea of being a visual learner.

I've often wondered if 3D was going to move from being a novelty to being mainstream on the web. Right now, it's big in some games and some niche uses.

I've spent a little time in 3D space in a chat system called IMVU and in the famous SecondLife world. My impression is that there are a lot of multiplayer 3D persistent web-based games. These range from the very juvenile and big Club Penguin to a huge number of MMORGs (massively multiplayer online role playplaying games) such as (and I'm just pulling this list from a blog post on 3D MMORGs):

1, Sherwood Dungeon
2, Club Marian
3, Earth Eternal
4Free Realms

But, I have a passing awareness of the game world and it looks like I'm pulling a somewhat obscure list since there's no big-name EA game on it.

Writing Prompts

A writing prompt is the term that teachers use as as the writing assignment that they give to students. Literally, as what "prompts writing". Many adults will remember the traditional writing assignments of:
- Write a book report
- Write about that you did this weekend or over this summer vacation

Today, teachers and homeschool parents recognize that quality writing prompts inspire quality writing. I've just been reviewing articles about writing prompts and have yet to find one that comprehensive discusses the issue across a range of ages and reading issues. Here's a quick review of articles that I've found:

Internet4Classrooms - A list of writing prompts from popular textbooks.
Tips for Creative Writing Prompts - This article astutely notes that it's a myth that the youth hate to write, there is a discernable current of interest which educators should learn to tap into.
Middle school writing prompts -
CanTeach List of Writing Prompts -

Saving the World - Kenya

I have a strong public service mentality. I was a Peace Corps volunteer long ago and actively contribute to: two homeless programs, some safe kids programs, several third world programs including one child, one laptop, and so on. My brothers are the same way. So I get emails like this:

More impractical grandiose ideas from your dreamy brother...

Today the news reported the completion of a undersea internet cable to
Kenya that is supposed to spur a huge jump in connectedness and
outsourced services in Kenya. I would call it the Bangalorization of
Kenya. It is also supposed to provide lots of online educational
services to galvanize Kenyan schools.

Is there some way one of your websites can capitalize on this? Free or
discounted subscriptions to computers located there? Some
way to help Kenyan education at the same time boost your reputation or
visibility or number of links? Could Kenyan schools also use SpellingCity?

Obviously, you would want to find a way to make money from this and not
just be pure charity.

There is an editorial column on page 7 of the attached by Nicholas
Kristof about the need to boost education in Pakistan, another
English-speaking chunk of the developing world. (Not to mention
Sangmalima (note - the town where I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the 1980s) and the rest of Anglophone Cameroon!) But Kenya is obviously
a lot more promsing right now.

Just musings...

Education - tweeting & personal learning networks

I'm surfing around. But not on the web. I'm trying to spend some time inside twitter to see what's going on. I read a Time Magazine (remember them?) article this week about Twitter which started with an insight that I totally agree with:

"One thing you can say for sure about Twitter, it sure makes a lousy first impression. Do you want a technology to communicate constantly with people in 160 characters or less? Of course not"

Yet, the article went on to describe that twitter has pretty much become one of the IT technologies because of it's high adoption rate. So I'm surfing around in Twitter.

To be honest, I'm confused. I've found some people that I would like to twitter with (no pun intended) meaning that I'd like them to be aware of the incredible SpellingCity.com website but I'm not sure how to go about it without being spamish and bad. So far, I'm only using twitter to find blogs or emails who I approach in my usual tongue-tied comment or email approach (..if its not too much trouble...and you're curious about such things....and if you have some time....but I don't want to bother you...I've worked really hard....in any case, it's called SpellingCity.com and I'd appreciate a look or review if you can.....if you can't, I won't take it personally and I won't mind.... MUCH!)

In any case, I thought I'd review some incredible websites by elementary school educators that I'm finding in case my tweets get lost.....

EraserTown USA, The New Primary Classroom by Maryann Molishus. My first thoughts, how did she get all those little Web 2.0 icons up there so small and organized and what are they? Her widgets and stuff are first rate as is her credentials...2008 Milken Family Foundation Award Recipient, Star Discovery Educator, Keystone Technology Integrator, Received 2007 Best Buy Teach Award, Member: ISTE, NAEYC, ASCD, Iditarod Trail Committee; Twitter/Plurk. My second thoughts are is EraserTown a play on kids with pencils and erasers or is it about the Eraserhead stuff. Does Molishus rhyme with delicious and is that her real name or just a fortunate coincidence? And lastly, why doesn't she do a little more with the blog like make review SpellingCity.com or Vocabulary Learning Fun?

Philly Teacher - Ms Hertz is a Computer Science teacher in West Philadelphia. Her blog is very active (as I think her tweeting is but again, I'm so confused when I go in there) and she's just too wired. For instance, in her most recent post, she's comparing different social bookmarking services (have I ever admitted that I never really understood Del.ic.ious?). She's comparing it with something that I've never before heard of...Portaportal. Other recent posts were about Shidonni (sounds very cool) and Jam 2.0.

I'll stop there... I want to go check out shidonni

PreK-3rd Education Advocacy Groups

I just listened to a very nicely done YouTube video by Christina Satkowski done earlier this week. She is part of the New America Foundation, a group that I had not previously heard of. I found them through the Foundation for Child Development, another group that I had not previously been aware of.

States agree to share standards: huge shift

Forty-Nine States and Territories Join Common Core State Standards Initiative

The Council of Chief State School Officers - CCSSO - led a Process to Develop Common English-language arts and Mathematics Standards. This was announced last week. It's amazing. Who would have thunk that the previously independent-minded states would sign up for a common set of standards? It's collaborative, it's efficient, it's sensible and it's about time. Bravo!

And I quote the release:

By signing on to the Common Core State Standards Initiative, governors and state commissioners of education across the country are committing to joining a state-led process to develop a common core of state standards in English-language arts and mathematics for grades K-12. These standards will be research and evidence-based, internationally benchmarked, aligned with college and work expectations and include rigorous content and skills.

“To maintain America’s competitive edge, we need all of our students to be prepared and ready to compete with students from around the world,” said NGA Vice Chair Vermont Gov. Jim Douglas. “Common standards that allow us to internationally benchmark our students’ performance with other top countries have the potential to bring about a real and meaningful transformation of our education system to the benefit of all Americans.”

This means no more armies of people redefining the educational standards at each state level. No more need for state specific textbooks. An ability to use common tests around the country and compare results. But wait, there's more:

- They are likely to include science. Maybe social studies too.
- They are likely to include preschool.
- They are likely to define benchmarks that are observable and measurable!
- They are likely to remain consistent with international norms such as the international bac.

an online alternative to cancelled summer school classes

This creates a lot of opportunity for innovative education a la homeschooling and the private sector. Tis indeed an ill wind....


June 5, 2009 - Time4Learning.com, a Homeschool.com top-rated online education software company, offers California parents an online alternative to cancelled summer school classes caused by the State budget deficit. Time4Learning.com provides award-winning, online Pre School to 12th grade education curriculum.

According to John Edelson, Founder and President of Time4Learning, “The summer is a critical time for many students to catch up or advance their skills. The cancellation of summer classes by the State of California has created a large gap in the ability to do this affordably for many families and the Internet is a great alternative.”

Ed Mouse Icon

I'm having some trouble uploading my little avatar onto a forum so I'm going to put here here and see if I can upload him across the web.

This particular Ed Mouse is only 8KB! He's a GIF.

Maryland Homeschooling

While the national debate about education is about coming up with a single national curriculum rather than fifty state versions, the debate that is not happening is about homeschool rules. Each state has its own rules and regulations about homeschooling. I think it's fascinating that these questions are too hot for any politician to handle. It's also interesting how dramatically different the Maryland homeschool rules are from say Alabama homeschooling rules.

If I've understood correctly, in Maryland, the families are required to meet with the board of education twice during the school year for a review of the program. As I've heard, while this seems scary, they actually send out very positive supportive well-informed people who seem to have a constructive relationship with the families.

In contrast, in Alabama, homeschooling is basically not allowed under that name unless the parent is a certified teacher. Families must join these bogus "cover schools" which are basically private schools organized to provide an umbrella or cover for homeschoolers.

For homeschooling in Florida, there are cover schools but many homeschoolers take the option of notifying their school board that they intend to homeschool and then fulfill the annual requirement of getting their child reviewed by a certified teacher or other formal annual review.

Geography Games

Geography forms the basis for understanding our political and physical realities. Want to understand the challenge of global warming, start with understanding the basics of our world...of geography.

How about playing some great geography games.

A great deal of geography education can be effectively taught through geography games and map games. These geography learning games help form the basis for understanding our country, our states, our world. Play on!