Wii-hab Rising: NIH Joins Research Push

David Twitty of the Associated Press writes of an increase in interest and research surrounding the use of videogames for medicinal purposes. Twitty brings up the following points:

- The National Institute of Health has joined research efforts. Carmen Russoniello over at East Carolina University is studying the use of videogames as therapy for sickle cell anemia at a clinical center run by the NIH

- The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation announced a $2 million grant program earmarked for Wii-hab research

- The annual Games for Health conference saw a continued spike in attendance this year, including reps from Humana, Cigna, and Kaiser Permanente who have all backed medical games lately

- HopeLab’s ReMission has been a particular success story, helping young cancer patients understand and deal with the disease

- A survey by PopCap games found a fifth of those surveyed considered themselves disabled somehow, and that casual games helped treat the disability, particularly depression and other mental disorders

References:
Twitty, D. (2008, July 15). Medicinal use of video games growing. Associated Press. [Online]. Retrieved July 16, 2008 from http://www.kansascity.com/382/story/705991.html

UT-Brownsville Mixes Chess Mastery with Academics

The AP has a good story on the chess program at University of Texas – Brownsville. Brownsville is down in the Valley, and is the southern-most campus in the UT system. The chess program at UTB ranks among the elite in the country, with students participating in tournaments against others in better known schools. Last year, it was named Chess College of the Year.

The article highlights the story of Axel Bachmann, an 18 year old chess phenom recruited by the university and riding on a full chess scholarship. The Paraguayan immigrant has attained grandmaster status, an elite group of less than 1,000 players worldwide.

Chess program director Russell Harwood learned of Bachmann through another of UT-Brownsville’s top players, Daniel Fernandez. Fernandez met Bachmann through South American chess matches. UTB’s president offers a nice quote in the article:

“I understand the relationship of learning a game of great discipline and rigor like chess and learning,” said Juliet V. Garcia, UTB president. “It just makes sense when you have this pool of chess babies [in the Valley].”

Garcia said children in South Texas have tremendous potential for chess. The region has produced Fernando Spada and Fernando Mendez, the Brownsville boys to whom Garcia offered scholarships. …

It’s also a source of pride for a relatively young school in a far-flung locale. Last year the school’s team beat Yale and Stanford head-to-head and finished ahead of schools including Harvard, Duke, Northwestern and Johns Hopkins.

Anytime a game can offer kids a full scholarship to college, I’m all for it. Chess goes to show that thinking games can offer scholarships just as well as traditional sports games.

References:
Sherman, C. (2008, February 17). Brownsville school an unusual chess incubator. The Bryan-College Station Eagle, p. A9.

Are Social Sites Good for Educating?

After examining the convergence of MMOs with social networking sites and their game-like similarities, we are faced with the question: Should schools leverage social sites for academic purposes? In a report released this summer, the National School Boards Association indicates that school districts “may want to consider re-examining their policies and practices and explore ways in which they could use social networking for educational purposes.” The discussion continues in an online chat at NSBA’s website with Will Richardson over at the Weblogg-ed blog and Connective Learning entitled, “What are the Educational Benefits of Social Networking for Students and Teachers?”

The report released by the NSBA, “CREATING & CONNECTING//Research and Guidelines on Online Social — and Educational — Networking” came out in July, 2007. The report compiled results from three surveys. The first was online, with 1,277 students aged 9-17. The second involved 1,039 parents and was also online. Finally, 250 school district decision makers were surveyed by phone. Grunwald Associates directed the study while Hypothesis Group managed the field research. Funding for the studies was provided by Microsoft, News Corp., and Verizon.

Researchers looking for statistics of online social networking among children will find a goldmine of info here. The 12 page report is filled with charts and graphs detailing online activities and preferences among young netizens in MySpace and Facebook showing that online activities are approaching parity with television watching among the nation’s youth in total hours devoted to entertainment.

But the recommendations at the end of the report have caused social sites opponents and those against use of the Internet in classrooms to cry foul. In particular, the following recommendations have ruffled the most feathers:

- Consider using social networking for staff communications and professional development.

- Find ways to harness the educational value of social networking.

- Reexamine social networking policies [in schools].

- Encourage social networking companies to increase educational value.

The funding element has led the focus for most of the criticism. In an L.A. Times article, reporters Alex Pham and Alana Semuels note that the Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston cast aspersions on the report due to its funding by Microsoft (part owner of Facebook), and News Corp. (owner of MySpace).

But because the report was funded in part by companies behind two of the most popular social-networking sites, the school board group should disavow its recommendations, said Susan Linn, director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood at the Judge Baker Children’s Center, which is affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

“The report reads more like a public relations tool designed to allay educators’ concerns about social networking than a serious investigation of the complex issues raised by introducing new commercialized technology into the classroom,” Linn wrote in a letter to Anne L. Bryant, executive director of the school group.

In response, Bryant indicated the funding entities had nothing to do with conducting and writing the report, and that to ignore the educational potential of social networking sites is tantamount to “putting one’s head in the sand.” The reporters conclude by suggesting most of the angst with social networking in schools revolves around online advertising on the sites.

The tug-of-war between those desiring greater access to technology and Web 2.0 tools in the schools versus those who do not, continues. As Miguel Guhlin pointed out last week, it extends down to the tech director level, showing up in various levels of attitudes. As more and more luminaries and national organizations come out in support of the idea, though, will resistance fade or strengthen?

References:
Creating & connecting//Research and guidelines on online social — and educational — networking. (2007, July). National School Boards Association. Alexandria, VA.

Pham, A., & Semuels, A. (2007, November 19). Educators weigh merits of social network sites. Los Angeles Times. [Online.] Retrieved November 24, 2007 from http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-fi-schools
19nov19,1,5428223.story?

Update:

Thanks to the folks at the LifeLongLearning Lab for pointing out the link to the report changed. I’ve updated it.

Raid a Dungeon then Trade Business Cards: Professional Networking Merges with MMOs

Here’s a refreshing Australian news piece slanted toward the positive aspects of gaming. An article running in ABC Southern Queensland offers an interview with Dr. Penny de Byl in the Department of Mathematics and Computing over at the University of Southern Queensland. Here is the most intriguing quote of many:

“There is a field called ’serious games’. Serious games have come from the ‘edutainment’ genre that used to be around. They’re serious games for training military personnel, mathematics applications, emergency wards in hospitals. If you can think of a domain, there will be a serious game out there for it. What they do is they bring the authentic environment to the students…Games inherently teach. Whenever you pick up a game you will learn something new, because you will learn how to control it. People learn better when they’re interacting with things. You can’t help but learn from games. Because kids are so engaged in games, if we can put serious content into them, in the correct way, they’re learning without trying.”

So academically, games are good fodder for research. The article then examines the social aspects of gaming. Now that doctors, lawyers, and other professionals are such ardent gamers, does this leisure activity gain the same social stature as, say, golf? It certainly offers possibilities for higher numbers of contacts while socializing than do many RL activities. “[Y]ou could still play golf, but you can’t play golf with thirty of your mates at the same time,” one interviewee pointed out.

On a related note, the Associated Press ran an article recently on the merging of social networking with online gaming.

Social and gaming networks, once considered polar opposites, are cross-pollenating [sic] as online interactions replace prime-time TV and other, more traditional media experiences. Games like “Kaneva” are attracting players that games like “Super Mario Brothers” never did … Game developers say there’s money for both sides in this convergence.

Kartrider and Kaneva offer opportunities to socialize while playing. Facebook has Scrabulous and MySpace plans a game channel soon. Could we see redefinitions of MMOs and MMORPGs as we know them?

MySpace and Facebook are massively multiplayer games in disguise, says Gabe Zichermann, who is developing “rmbr,” which he says will make a video game out of tagging and sharing digital photos … “They’re going to be able to monetize their users at the same level (as the games do),” Jessica Tams, managing director of the Casual Games Association, said of the social network sites. “That’s a lot of money.”

Christopher Sherman, executive director of Virtual Worlds Management, and Joshua Smyth over at Syracuse also get nice quotes.

So, stay a while, slay a while, and by the way … here’s my card.

References:
Associated Press. (2007, November 22). Online video games meet social networking tools and find they have a lot in common. [Online.] Retrieved November 22, 2007 from: http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/11/23/america/
NA-FEA-A-E-TEC-US-Social-Games-Online.php

Is it OK for adults to play video games? (2007, November 22). ABC Southern Queensland. [Online]. Available: http://www.abc.net.au/southqld/stories/s2098500.htm?backyard

The Family that Frags Together, Stays Together

The news feeds were abuzz today about a new AP/AOL Games poll of parents and videogames. The interesting finding from the poll is that a majority of parents, almost six in ten, play videogames with their kids to one degree or another. Gaming has become a family time phenomenon in this country. AP writers Alan Fram and Trevor Tompson chose to write the story accentuating the parents who don’t play:

More than four in 10, or 43 percent, of those whose young children play video or computer games never play along with them, according to an Associated Press-AOL Games poll released Monday … Besides those who simply don’t play the games with their children, another 30 percent say they spend less than an hour a week doing so. All told, about three in four parents of young gamers never or hardly ever touch the stuff.

The authors interviewed some poor parents who don’t bother, who see game playing as a waste of time. It reminded me of the story about the father writing in his diary, “Spent day with son. Day wasted.” The son wrote: “Spent day with Dad. Best day of my life!”

To their credit, the authors do show the other side, and later in the article interview a gamer dad, in his young 30s, who is an avid player both with his son and on his own. The family has an Xbox and a 65 inch television. Family time, especially among young adults and young families, continues to shift from watching TV to playing on the TV.

There are some other nuggets in the poll that the story reports on, making it worth a read.

References
Fram, A., & Tompson, T. (2007, November 12). “Many parents avoid video games with kids.” Associated Press. [Online]. Retrieved November 13, 2007 from: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5if3tJjIxhz596nF_zjpcPWstHt5gD8SSC7HO2

Teens Exercise, Learn PE at Video Game Gym

Here’s an AP article by Rachel Konrad about a gym called Overtime in Mountain View, California that focuses on teen-aged clientele. To get them in the door, the gym offers a video arcade with the latest in kinesthetic video games. The key quote:

Investors and employees – including founder Patrick Ferrell, who launched GamePro Magazine and helped establish the video game conference E3 – say high-tech toys lure some teens. But they say the gym also offers nutritional counseling and academic tutoring that encourage lifelong health.

Ximena Urrutia-Rojas over at UNT also gets a nice quote, emphasizing that good health needs a whole family approach.

Sarah Barlow over at Saint Louis University gets the final quote:

“Even for adults, the treadmill and stationary bike don’t sustain interest over time,” Barlow said. “I like the idea of taking video games, which are so successful at engaging kids, and modifying them to get kids engaged in physical activity – now that’s fun.”

Club Penguin and Webkinz Receive Coverage

Two AP stories over the weekend gave several inches of news type to Club Penguin and Webkinz, two online 3-D virtual worlds aimed at kids. The first was written by Anick Jesdanun, and focused more on Club Penguin. The site offers free access, with $5/month premium features. Children use penguin avatars to navigate and play games. Both Club Penguin and Webkinz restrict the chat features of avatars to prevent poor behavior and ease parental concerns.

Two researchers were brought up in the first article. Peggy Meszaros, a professor of human development at Virginia Tech, and Peter Grunwald, no affiliation given. Both suggested parental supervision, especially at younger ages, is important to maintain healthy balance and responsibility on the sites.

Jane Healy, author of Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children’s Minds – for Better and Worse, was much more critical of the sites. She claimed the sites are steering children toward consumer lifestyles.

The second story was by Matthew Barakat, and focused exclusively on Webkinz, mostly through the eyes of Barakat’s six year old son. Webkinz is a twist on the old cheap plush toy sales technique. Previous generations familiar with Cabbage Patch dolls and Beanie Babies will recognize Webkinz plush toys as a 21st Century twist on previous collectible trends. Each Webkinz product has a code allowing a year’s play on the Webkinz site. Barakat says that additional credits can be earned by playing games on the site, but it is easier to just buy another doll for $15. This has led to sell-outs of the dolls in many places.

Barakat doesn’t interview any researchers, but he says he thinks his son is learning some important lessons on the site, including money management and other responsibilities.

References

Barakat, M. (2007, July 12). Review: Webkinz site not just for kids. [Online]. Available: http://fe15.news.sp1.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070712/
ap_on_hi_te/tech_test_webkinz;_ylt=Aqqvj0kFaOh2ZdDNOmFTLw9j24cA

Jesdanun, A. (2007, July 13). Sites introduce preteens to networking. [Online]. Available: http://fe15.news.sp1.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070713/
ap_on_hi_te/social_networking_tweens;_ylt=AlcBUnLIP_3kfNb5.Ne26XFj24cA