By Annie Downey and Kristin Boyett from the University of North TexasAt the beginning of a three-year, three-quarter of a million dollar project to build an RPG.Incorporates 3 Educational Elements: Information Literacy, Online Education, Educational GamingGame requires full participation- experiential learning, inquiry-based learningGame design concept:Character drivenProblem solvingFirst-personLinearModules build on one anotherGame can’t be lame. They’re [...]

Thanks to Sabine Little who alerted me to a blog post which describes a presentation in which Justin Hall was talking about a sort of webquest evaluating websites that has been turned into a game where the players (students) can interact “players can anticipate sites that their friends will be visiting, and plant bombs there, [...]

There is news about the Informs project (software enabling tutorial creation) , including results of their questionnaire and reports from the user meetings at: http://www.informs.intute.ac.uk/projectnews.htmlPhoto by Sheila Webber: Bench, Sabbatini Gardens, Madrid, Spain, July 2007. (Source: Information Literacy Weblog) More: continued here

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This article reports on case study research of seven- and eight-year-old children’s discourse about reading. The case studies were selected to provide classrooms in contrasting neighbourhoods within a white `working class’ town in the North of England. Mixed methods were employed, but primarily the case studies were ethnographic in character. A sociocultural perspective is taken, [...]

Compelling aspects I have noticed throughout my teaching life are the multitude of understandings boys have concerning themselves as readers. In this inquiry, as part of a larger year-long ethnographic study, I observed and analyzed how what counts as talk around text accomplishes curriculum mandates and achieves valuable social ends for one third grade boy. [...]

This article presents observations and discussion of the successful teaching of English to pupils, in English primary schools, for whom English is an additional language (EAL). It draws on research in Year 2 (6—7-year old) classes in three inner-city primary schools carried out in 2003 and 2005. Three recognized, effective teachers of literacy were selected [...]

Children’s resourcefulness can be seen in their ordinary, everyday `semiotic work’ as they select resources from those ready to hand to create play environments and artefacts. Is this resourcefulness also evident as they make meaning in the highly conventionalized mode of writing? Conceptualizing writing as a process of design opens up the possibility for understanding [...]

This article reports on some of the findings of an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded project that looks at the mark-making of children under three years old. The data were all collected in the children’s homes, and multimodal transcription and analyses were used. The project focused on an investigation of the principles that [...]

After participating in the Congressional Black Caucus Education Summit, Secretary Spellings issued a statement, saying “As we move forward with reauthorization of No Child Left Behind, we must remain vigilant against provisions that water down the ability of poor and minority students and ensure their progress toward grade-level success.” More: continued here