CSTA Publishes Educational Game Programming Article

I opened the mail today to find the latest issue of CSTA Voice, a quarterly for members of the Computer Science Teachers Association. Late last year Dr. Chris Stephenson, Executive Director of CSTA, and Pat Phillips, Editor of CSTA Voice, arranged to reprint my article, “Programmed to Learn.” The article focuses on using Logo, Scratch, and Alice for teaching STEM topics. The article first appeared in TechEdge, the journal of the Texas Computer Education Association. The article will be printed in three parts in CSTA Voice.

The Computer Science Teachers Association is funded in part by the National Science Foundation. Below is the introductory paragraph from their website, explaining their raison d’être:

The Computer Science Teachers Association is a membership organization that supports and promotes the teaching of computer science and other computing disciplines. CSTA provides opportunities for K-12 teachers and students to better understand the computing disciplines and to more successfully prepare themselves to teach and learn.

The first part of my article, appearing in the March 2008 issue of CSTA Voice, focuses on the programming language Logo and the Logo Foundation at MIT.

CSTA Newsletter Picks Up “Programmed to Learn”

I wrote in September of my article in TechEdge, “Programmed to Learn,” about using Logo, Scratch, and Alice for educational purposes. Dr. Chris Stephenson, Executive Director of the Computer Science Teachers Association, indicated CSTA is interested in reprinting the article in the CSTA Voice newsletter, edited by Pat Phillips. This is quite an honor, as CSTA is a tireless advocate of computer science education. Their site is chock full of useful resources, and well worth a visit.

Academic Achievement Through Game Development

I’m on THE Journal’s mailing list, and I noticed a new article today on videogame development for educational purposes. I decided to check it out later and perhaps post about it. Imagine my curiosity when I saw hits coming into this blog from the very same article. It turns out authors Richard Ferdig and Jeff Boyer over at U. Florida listed this blog as a resource in the article.

Dr. Ferdig published a paper of mine in a special edition of the Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia on educational videogames, which he edited. I’m honored that the authors included this blog in their article for THE Journal.

The article, entitled, “Getting Started with Videogame Development,” continues a series the duo started last week. Previously they wrote an article addressing the question of academic achievement through developing videogames. That article, entitled “Can Game Development Impact Academic Achievement?” offers an introduction to theory underlying the notion of using videogame development as a learning tool, and examines some of the research behind the idea.

It’s important to make a distinction between playing a game, which is what most people think of when discussing educational gaming, versus leading students in designing and developing videogames. Developing a videogame is a whole other apple cart, requiring programming skills, logical thinking, and a big dollop of creativity. Fortunately, a variety of tools are available that allow an easy entry point to game development. Like so many other things, while the entry points may be easy, students must still work to produce quality products, and here is where good teaching can flesh out useful pedagogical chunks.

Today’s article continues the series, and the authors point out a variety of tools available that allow teachers to take videogame pedagogy into the classroom. These include such things as Scratch from MIT, Gamemaker from YoYo Games, and RPG Maker XP. They also note that Microsoft has released the XNA Developer Center, offering tools to individuals for creating games that play on the Xbox.

The authors conclude by throwing out a ton of highly useful links for teachers interested in game development as a pedagogical tool. Journals, sites, and software suggestions round out the list of resources. THE Journal has always been one of the highest read and highest quality practitioner periodicals out there, and this article adds to a long history of useful columns.

References
Ferdig, R. E., & Boyer, J. (2007, November 1). Getting started with videogame development. T.H.E. Journal. [Online]. Available: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21510

Ferdig, R. E., & Boyer, J. (2007, October 25). Can game development impact academic achievement? T.H.E. Journal. [Online]. Available: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21483