melanie mcbride.net

My second Machinima: Epic Journey: Travel forms in WoW Have you ever wanted to fly (like a bird)? This is just one more thing you can experience in a synthetic world that you can’t do in reality. And I stress the word “experience” versus activity – because the brain doesn’t distinguish between “real” or “unreal” [...]

Hurrah! The other day the New York Times feature “Learning by Playing: Videogames in the Classroom” was the big talk among many of the Twittering teachers I follow.  While many edu-gamers have long known the value of games for learning (and I’m not talking “educational” games), the really interesting story for me is the sudden [...]

“The reward, in other words, doesn’t have to be a useful or fun thing in itself, it need only be an obvious outward sign that the wearer of it has done some difficult work to get it.” – Edward Castronova, Synthetic Worlds : The business and culture of online games (2005) This is a screengrab [...]

After a wonderful and reflective summer I’m readying myself for a new school year at a new board in a new city. Though I will be shifting to part-time teaching in order to write a book, I am enthusiastic about the opportunity to meet diverse learners in varied learning communities throughout this region. In the [...]