TLT Community Hubs

One mission of the EGC is to build community around educational games.  We recently had the opportunity to continue towards this goal by talking with the folks from Learnstorm, a company that is putting together a great platform to bring educators together around games utilizing several web 2.0 tools along the way.  They already have many Charter Schools on board on the West Coast and are putting together games that map to curricular objectives.  They also plan to release an SDK that will allow other game makers to submit games to their platform, similar to Apple's App Store.  We look forward to a continued dialogue and possible ways we can collaborate with Learnstorm as they grow by providing opportunities for PSU teachers and researchers to leverage their tools and technology.
A couple years ago we explored using CyberCIEGE, a network security game, in a course in the College of IST.  The game was still a bit raw, but it did show a great deal of promise.  Now that IST has a major in security and risk analysis, a few faculty are revisiting CyberCIEGE.  Dr. Aungst and his colleagues have downloaded the SDK and conceptualizing a project around CyberSIEGE for the fall.  We're looking forward to helping wrap instructional materials around this game as it appears to be gaining adoption in educational use.
The Learning Design Summer Camp is right around the corner and we are working on a small game that participants will be able to play throughout the 2-day event.  During a brainstorming session, we jokingly brought up "Buzzword Bingo".  Anyone remember that IBM commercial from a couple years back?
We're running with the idea, and have a series of Bingo cards in production that contain words and phrases that will likely be discussed at Camp.  Not only does this provide an interesting way to engage participants, it also gives participants a great takeaway: a game that can easily be customized and repurposed to fit in any class session and hopefully increase attention and participation.
 
Finally, the lab is nearly complete!  We're testing the software, which is shaping up to be a great list of games and gaming authoring environments.  Once we finalize the list, you'll see it here.