Recent articles
How To Start an Esports Club
02/18/2022
Esports is a mammoth and growing ecosystem that includes game publishers, streaming platforms, products, leagues, tournaments and more, all of which add up to a $20-billion-a-year industry. It’s an engine that’…
How 3 Gaming Industry Trends Can Boost Education
04/12/2021
Topics: Gaming
To flatten the curve when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we were all encouraged to stay home as countries across the world shut down schools, businesses, churches and events. That’s why the World Health…
Students build coding skills block by block
04/19/2018
Topics: Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking, Gaming, Robotics
New knowledge is constructed by building on what we already know, making connections by tinkering with new combinations of familiar blocks.
In the same way that a musician improvises new melodies, or a poet constructs new juxtapositions of sounds, words and images, students…
Use Dungeons & Dragons to engage all students!
03/14/2018
Topics: Assistive and adaptive technologies, Gaming
Groog's dark knuckles turned white as he tightened his grip around the handle of his war hammer. Battle. He could smell it coming. He had followed his compatriots into deadly situations before and they had always been victorious. Would this time be any different?
A kidnapped prince, a…
Can Minecraft Teach Team Building?
09/01/2021
Topics: Digital Citizenship, Gaming
It was October. My Introduction to Computer Science class had been meeting for two months, and we were deep into a discussion about game design. One of my students gestured casually at the student across the room. “That’s right! I agree with what … what’s-his-name said over there.”…
Weigh in on the ISTE Standards for Administrators
12/18/2017
Topics: Assistive and adaptive technologies, Augmented reality, Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking, Digital Citizenship, Digital storytelling, Education leadership, Gamification, Gaming, Literacies, Makerspaces, Personalized Learning, professional learning, Project-based learning, Robotics, STEM & STEAM
“Leaders get people moving. They energize and mobilize. They take people and organizations to places they have never…
Teach kids computer science through design and inquiry
12/04/2017
Topics: Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking, Gaming, Robotics
I first discovered computer science (CS) and coding more than 20 years ago while completing my undergraduate work. Little did I know that one day CS would be the …
3 powerful words can unlock computer science success
07/31/2019
Topics: Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking, Gaming, Robotics
I was reminded recently of the three powerful words that capture the everyday miracles of learning and teaching. It happened as my sixth graders were just beginning to create ordered and unordered lists during their first lessons in HTML. All at once, I heard a chorus of voices exclaim…
Try game-based learning to teach multiculturalism
09/08/2017
Topics: Digital Citizenship, Gaming
In many classrooms, educators use games to teach math or science concepts in the cognitive domain – learning focused on acquiring knowledge about processes, procedures and principles.
But educators are discovering the benefit of educational games that help students…
Learning happens in a zigzag and that's OK
06/24/2017
Topics: Assistive and adaptive technologies, Augmented reality, Coding & robotics, Computational Thinking, Digital Citizenship, Digital storytelling, Gamification, Gaming, ISTE Conference & Expo, Literacies, Makerspaces, Personalized Learning, professional learning, Project-based learning, Robotics, STEM & STEAM
Jad Abumrad is quick to say he doesn’t feel comfortable giving educators advice, and yet his career in radio touches on many topics educators are familiar with.
Tinkering. Curiosity. Messy experiences. Failing forward. Transformation.
Abumrad, host and creator…