"You put the last piece in like this."

Apparently the grocery store is a good place for studies of cognition. As it turns out, it may also provide fertile grounds for the study of games and learning. My mother Judy shared the following story with me the other day. With her permission (and the permission of the Trader Joe's employee from this story), I offer it here for your consideration. She wrote:

"I took 3 TJ's* bags out of the back of Volvo, wandered around in the usual way and checked out to the tune of $75 or so. The checker started bagging and I said, 'Don't worry if there aren't enough bags. I have more in the car.'  He responded, 'So you don't want any extra bags?'  I came back with the usual bit about not needing to use more paper etc. 1 1/2 bags into the process he said, 'I don't think you need to worry about it Ma'am. Everything will fit. I'm good at Tetris. Do you know what Tetris is?'  We talked about Tetris, and he told me how you just have to think ahead and then finished up by putting the eggs across the top of the last bag of stuff saying, 'and then you put the last piece in like this.' " *Trader Joe's

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Games and Simulation for Healthcare Library and Database

My colleague Eric Bauman and his team of crack ninjas have been working on a new portal for Healthcare games and simulations (now with a new URL), and it is awesome! In their own words:

"This website aims to provide a portal and network to meet the needs of clinicians, researchers and educators in the healthcare community who want to integrate games and simulation into their scholarship and patient care strategy.  This resource also welcomes healthcare consumers, advocates, and others interested in patient and clinician education, and clinical research taking advantage of games and simulation-based learning."

If you're in any of the healthcare, serious games, or game and simulation research communities you should definitely check it out. If you want to get involved or have recommendations, there's a contact button on the front page. In case you're feeling lazy, here's the URL one more time. http://healthcaregames.wisc.edu/

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Not enough orcs they said

So it seems that my previous post advertising my need for more guild leaders for my research was less effective than I might have hoped. After consulting with the oracles of high fantasy gaming and research, I have established that the problem was a lack of orcs in the original post. I will rectify that now.

Orc Waaaaaghh borrowed from DustDevil75's photobucket

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The Escapist has made me happy today

I have tagged the following two posts from The Escapist in my Google Reader as well, but since I never publish out from there to my blog directly I am going to go ahead and share teh awsumness here as well. First I came across Tom Goldman's post that there may yet be hope for Goldeneye on the Wii! I recognize that this is probably yet another in a line of false hopes, but the prospect still delights. If for some reason you are reading my blog but you don't know why this would be significant, here for your convenience is a link to the article about the original game. Almost immediately thereafter, I read this extremely convincing argument by John Funk that we need an MMO with giant robots. Personally, I'm a firm believer in the power of giant robots to make things more awesome.

Giant robots in the process of making Warhammer 40K more awesome

Okay it's true, Funk wasn't writing about Imperator class battle titans at all. In fact, given his stated predilection for Japanese robots he might even find this a little disappointing (I can't really say)

At any rate, his post has inspired me and sometime in the not too distant future I will share some of my own thoughts on things we need in, around, and out of MMOs.

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R.I.P. Ted Sizer

An image of Professor Sizer from the Coallition of Essential Schools website This late post from the New York Times bears the sad news that we've lost one of America's great educational reformers. Personally, Horace's Compromise was a hugely influential read for me in my progression through the study of education and learning. More importantly I believe that America lost a great opportunity when we chose to focus on accountability through standardized testing rather than the sort of deeper learning objectives and means for measuring learning advanced by Sizer's Coallition of Essential Schools. Hopefully as we push forward in American education policy and practice, we will be able to draw more deeply upon the legacy Professor Sizer has left us with.

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