Earlier this year I blogged about a new book edited by Scott McLeod and Chris Lehman, devoted to learning technologies for the digital age and written for school administrators. I’m honored to have written the chapter on educational games for this book. Here are a couple updates.
First, the name has been changed by the publisher to What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media. This makes sense, since many school leaders may not necessarily be administrators and could still benefit from information in the book.
Second, Chris Lehman notes the release date is in October. When we talked about this book within the tech directors’ SIG at TCEA, several members expressed an interest in buying it and maybe buying a copy for principals and superintendents. At the time, we expected the release date to be this summer. Still sounds like a good idea. I think it will be a worthy addition to any educator’s library. Fortunately, it’s now available for pre-order on Amazon.
Props to Scott McLeod for publicizing Florida Virtual School’s new video game course, Conspiracy Code Intensive Reading. This follows their first offering in the genre, Conspiracy Code American History.
The game seeks to bridge one of the key problems with educational video games. Video games are engaging with kids, and they stay glued to the screen while playing. However, pedagogical content is typically text and paper based. Conspiracy Code Intensive Reading seeks to engage players by making them read as part of the game. Students take the role of a young male or female secret agent and go about spy business in an immersive, 3D environment.
Scott McLeod and Chris Lehman have edited an excellent chapter book designed to help school administrators quickly get up to speed on technology.
What School Administrators Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media is due out this summer and includes chapters covering blogs, virtual schools, social networking, and one-to-one programs among other topics. I was honored to be asked by Dr. McLeod to write the chapter on educational gaming.
Teaming up to write the chapter on course management systems were fellow Texas bloggers and school technology administrators Scott Floyd and Miguel Guhlin.
This will be a great introduction to new school administrators, those working toward certification, and existing administrators who feel a tad “left behind” by all the changes in technology we’ve seen so far in the 21st Century.
More details and complete table of contents on Dr. McLeod’s blog here.
We’re up and running on our new site. All posts and comments from the last couple of years have been ported over, and already a steady stream of visitors is exploring the new URL.
Along with the changes in our location on the web, I’m happy to announce that Educational Games Research Blog is now affiliated with the University Council for Educational Administration’s Center for the Advanced Study of Technology Leadership in Education at Iowa State University. CASTLE is led by Dr. Scott McLeod, and the organization is dedicated to preparing school administrators for the unique technology challenges in K-12 environments.
Several blogs are affiliated with CASTLE, including Dr. McLeod’s Dangerously Irrelevant, Leader Talk over at EducationWeek, and The Edjurist, led by professors from U. Kentucky focusing on education law.
It’s an exciting time to be blogging, with so many conversations on technology in education. Now more than ever, educational gaming is a key issue. I hope you’ll find this blog useful throughout 2010 and beyond.
TCEA, books | John Rice | 
June 17, 2011 11:45 am | 
Comments (2) 
