Eric Rosenbaum and Jennifer Groff are on the “Meeting Web Kids” panel  at NSDL’s Annual Conference.  They work for MIT’s Education Arcade, which is a collaboration between MIT and the University of Wisconsin to explore the educational gaming space.  Its web site is about to undergo a major renovation, but you can see information there about a few past projects.  Eric suggests these additional links to resources on the subject of educational gaming:

The home page of the MIT Teacher Education Program, headed by Prof Eric Klopfer.  The MIT TEP offers a sequence of undergraduate courses leading to secondary-level teaching certification.  TEP is also home to several research projects under the theme of simulations and games for learning.

The home page for augmented reality games research carried out by MIT TEP.  Our augmented reality (AR) games run on location-aware handheld computers.  Students move through a real physical environment augmented by virtual information that they access through their handhelds.  They collaborate to solve problems, such as tracking down the source of a toxic chemical spill by taking virtual measurements and interviewing virtual characters.

POSIT is an augmented reality game designed to get kids engaged in science controversies.  It’s a role-playing game in which students move between real locations gathering information and using it to persuade each other toward their position.  In our first scenario, students must take a position on whether MIT should build a laboratory to perform boidefense research and study deadly infectious diseases.

The home for participatory simulations research at MIT TEP.  Participatory simulations are played on Palm handheld computers within the classroom.  “Virus” is a game that lets students perform experiments to learn about the spread of disease.  “Big Fish-Little Fish” puts students into an ecosystem and challenges them to form collaborative strategies in order to survive.   “Live Long and Prosper” asks students to decode a small genome in order to survive and reproduce.  “Discussion” asks students to consider a single opinion question, and compare their opinion with classmates in pairwise interactions.

StarLogo TNG (the next generation) is the latest incarnation of the Logo programming language.  Students construct programs graphically, snapping together puzzle piece-like statements whose shape reflect syntactic constraints.  Their programs control characters in a 3D world.  Students can make a wide variety of science simulations and 3D video games.

Revolution is an multi-player online role-playing game that lets students play the role of a variety of characters in colonial williamsburg, on the eve of a violent revolt.  It was created by modifying (”modding”) a commerical video game.