eBook downloads, eBook resources & eBook authors
Imprint. In this text, built entirely around computer games and game play, the author shows how good video games marry pleasure and learning and, at the same time, have the potential to empower people.
With complex stories and stunning visuals eliciting intense emotional responses, coupled with opportunities for self-expression and problem solving, video games are a powerful medium to foster empathy, critical thinking, and creativity in players. As these games grow in popularity, ambition, and technological prowess, they become a legitimate art form, shedding old attitudes and misconceptions along the way. Examining the Evolution of Gaming and Its Impact on Social, Cultural, and Political Perspectives asks whether videogames have the power to transform a player and his or her beliefs from a sociopolitical perspective. Unlike traditional forms of storytelling, videogames allow users to immerse themselves in new worlds, situations, and politics. This publication surveys the landscape of videogames and analyzes the emergent gaming that shifts the definition and cultural effects of videogames. This book is a valuable resource to game designers and developers, sociologists, students of gaming, and researchers in relevant fields.
Deliberately selected to represent as many parts of the globe as possible, and with a commitment to recognizing both the similarities and differences in children and young people's lives - from China to Denmark, from Canada to India, from Japan to Iceland, from - the authors offer a rich contextualization of children's engagement with their particular media and communication environment, while also pursuing cross-cutting themes in terms of comparative and global trends.
"This book presents a framework for understanding games for educational purposes while providing a broader sense of current related research. This creative and advanced title is a must-have for those interested in expanding their knowledge of this exciting field of electronic gaming"--Provided by publisher.
In recent years, with the rise of new media, the phenomenon of 'multimodality' (communication via a number of modes simultaneously) has become central to our everyday interaction. This has given rise to a new kind of literacy that is rapidly gaining ground as an area of research. A companion to Making Sense, which explored the functions of reference, agency and structure in meaning, Adding Sense extends this analysis with two more surrounding functions. It addresses the ways in which 'context' and 'interest' add necessary sense to immediate objects of meaning, proposing a 'transpositional grammar' to account for movement across these different forms of meaning. Adding Sense weaves its way through philosophy, semiotics, social theory and the history of ideas. Its examples cross a range of social contexts, from the meaning universes of the First Peoples, to the new forms of meaning that have emerged in the era of digitally-mediated communication.
With the rise of new technologies and media, the way we communicate is rapidly changing. Literacies provides a comprehensive introduction to literacy pedagogy within today's new media environment. It focuses not only on reading and writing, but also on other modes of communication, including oral, visual, audio, gestural and spatial. This focus is designed to supplement, not replace, the enduringly important role of alphabetical literacy. Using real-world examples and illustrations, Literacies features the experiences of both teachers and students. It maps a range of methods that teachers can use to help their students develop their capacities to read, write and communicate. It also explores the wide range of literacies and the diversity of socio-cultural settings in today's workplace, public and community settings. With an emphasis on the 'how-to' practicalities of designing literacy learning experiences and assessing learner outcomes, this book is a contemporary and in-depth resource for literacy students.
What if schools, from the wealthiest suburban nursery school to the grittiest urban high school, thrummed with the sounds of deep immersion? More and more people believe that can happen - with the aid of video games. Greg Toppo's The Game Believes in You presents the story of a small group of visionaries who, for the past 40 years, have been pushing to get game controllers into the hands of learners. Among the game revolutionaries you'll meet in this book: *A game designer at the University of Southern California leading a team to design a video-game version of Thoreau's Walden Pond. *A young neuroscientist and game designer whose research on "Math Without Words" is revolutionizing how the subject is taught, especially to students with limited English abilities. *A Virginia Tech music instructor who is leading a group of high school-aged boys through the creation of an original opera staged totally in the online game Minecraft. Experts argue that games do truly "believe in you." They focus, inspire and reassure people in ways that many teachers can't. Games give people a chance to learn at their own pace, take risks, cultivate deeper understanding, fail and want to try again—right away—and ultimately, succeed in ways that too often elude them in school. This book is sure to excite and inspire educators and parents, as well as provoke some passionate debate.
Directions and Prospects for Educational Linguistics explores innovations that have developed from the creative syntheses of diverse methodological and theoretical approaches used to explore a broad rang of issues and topics related to language (in) education. The volume provides unique insights into current practices and new frontiers for educational linguistics by bringing together contributions from scholars who draw upon on established research traditions while at the same time pushing their boundaries beyond the confines of specific disciplines. Each paper serves as a thought provoking starting point for scholars and advanced graduate students to contemplate directions and prospects for research that contributes to linguistically appropriate and socially responsible education.
Targeted at educators and researchers wishing to use virtual environments in their teaching practice, this work provides practical advice specifically for educators in higher education. It focuses on the use of Second Life - a free, readily-accessible virtual world which is increasingly being used for both formal and informal learning.
Creating and Promoting Lifelong Learning in Public Libraries: Tools and Tips For Practitioners is the sequel to Lifelong Learning in Public Libraries: Principles, Programs, and People. On the one hand, Lifelong Learning in Public Libraries focuses on the information needs and the developmental and psychological characteristics of diverse library users of all ages. It endorses the use of ILI to promote lifelong learning in public libraries, both by borrowing techniques from academic and school libraries and by building on existing public library traditions of programming and outreach. This book also compares lifelong learning in public libraries to informal and nonformal education in museums, community organizations and agencies, places of worship, and other organizations. In addition, Lifelong Learnng in Public Libraries describes basic steps that librarians can execute in order to get started. On the other hand, Creating and Promoting Lifelong Learning in Public Libraries focuses much more on how public librarians can specifically plan and implement their instruction with chapters on planning for instruction, using teaching methodologies, teaching with and about technology, and bringing ILI together with more traditional public library services, programming, and activities, such as reference and Readers’ Advisory services, bibliotherapy, and cultural and literacy programming. Changes in ILI standards and comparisons of ILI with basic reading, media, digital, and cultural literacies are also described. Both books together should act as basic manuals for public librarians who promote lifelong learning. Creating and Promoting Lifelong Learning in Public Libraries also have helpful teaching hints for all librarians and other professionals who teach in a variety of settings.
