I have a special someone in my life named Taylor. When I find a site I think might appeal to her, I toss it here. (Taylor, to improve the quality of this site, please let me know which "finds" are your favorites.)

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Animation/ Comics

 

Online comic strip creator: http://www.toondoo.com/

Program to help folks learn about animation (and do some!) online: http://goanimate.com/

http://xkcd.com/ - a webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language

The Last Knit - great animated short on YouTube, funny and extremely well done

Western Spaghetti - fun stop-motion animated short

2008 MetaTour - tour of existing virtual worlds (7 minute YouTube short)

 

SAM Animation software enables young people to easily create stop-action movies that express their ideas and understanding of the world around them. Designed at Tufts University, SAM Animation is freeware that's both PC and Mac (with Windows XP or OSX) compatible. The technology is accessible and engaging, and has multiple applications for both in school and afterschool. The developers offer support in the form of podcast tutorials on key features of the software. They also share tips, tricks, and activities... http://www.samanimation.com/

 

MIT's "Scratch" program is an internet-enabled authoring program that allows you to create simple animations and even games... there's free downloadable software and a large community of fellow creators... looks great!  http://scratch.mit.edu/

 

Online kid animation tool: http://www2.shidonni.com/

Another online animation tool: http://goanimate.com/

 

http://www.smallworlds.com/login.php : SmallWorlds is a 3D virtual world that runs inside your web browser. It enables you to build your own room, house, or even your own world, and fill it with a wide variety of items and fun activities.

 

Oooh, a blog entry highlighting SEVEN tools for creating comics/ cartoons! (some may be repeats, but still...)

 

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/02/7-resources-for-creating-cartoons-and.html

 

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Graphic Novels

 

Mouse Guard has won some awards: http://www.aspcomics.com/mouse_guard.php (and it's been turned into a role-playing game! see RPG section below)

And David Petersen, the creator of Mouse Guard, has a blog here: http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/

 

My friend Joan Hilty (with whom I went to college) is basically a talent scout for graphic novelists now! Article here: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6552165.html

 

Publish your own book! http://www.tikatok.com/

 

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Gaming / Game Design & Development

 

The famous Desktop Tower Defense: http://www.kongregate.com./games/preecep/desktop-tower-defense-1-5

 

Organization that finds and reviews online games from an educational standpoint: http://www.sedl.org/afterschool/guide/technology/ 

Essay about what games might be good for: http://www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org/2008/08/video-games-and.html

 

Interesting post about the "continuum between stories and games": http://www.costik.com/gamnstry.html

 

A blog about game development (full of lingo, but might become more intelligible if you read it consistently over a period of time): http://www.gamedevblog.com/

 

Free video game creation tool: http://atmosphir.com/

 

(promotional video for atmosphir below)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2009 Awards from the Independent Game Festival

 

"Gaming Unplugged" (includes reviews) http://www.boardgamegeek.com/

 

Hero Factory - generates an image of a hero that you control the variables of (except the name, which I wish they did let you control) - http://www.cpbintegrated.com/theherofactory/

 

Brenda Laurel on why girls didn't play videogames in in the beginning:

 

 

Tonypa's elegent web-based games (including Shooot): http://www.tonypa.pri.ee/start.html

 

Interesting post on different game designer styles (which one are you?): http://lostgarden.com/2009/03/what-is-your-game-design-style.html

 

Great collection of creative games where winning is not the point:

http://knol.google.com/k/bernie-dekoven/pointless-games/

 

According to Taylor herself, these games are "fun, and at the same time, funny, beautiful, and inspiring."

http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/

 

Big ol' list of games for team-building, group-learning, and training:

http://www.thiagi.com/games.html

 

The Wikiup Games Project is focused on creating a new paradigm for game content development through collaborative authorship.

http://www.wikiupgames.com/

 

5-29-09

EA announces that it's next Tiger Woods game will be browser-resident (internet connection required) rather than tied to operating systems.

A big shift. http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/05/29/computer-version-of-tiger-woods-to-be-browser-based-pc-and-mac-compatible/

 

6-2-09

Microsoft's answer to the Wii: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/e3-09-project-natal/50013

 

6-4-09 Little Big Planet: http://www.littlebigworkshop.com/en-us/ "What is Little Big Planet? It's a wonderful world where fun is the law! You have the power [...] to change anything [...]. And best of all, you can share your creations with your friends!"

 

6-5-09 InstantAction is the place to play high-quality in-browser games, and the slick interface makes it incredibly easy to join up with friends, or find a room that fits your needs. With a constantly growing user base of already over a million registered users, the popularity of InstantAction is obvious.

 

6-16-09 Interview w/ teacher of game design at UW-River Falls: http://storybridge.tv/elena

 

7-28-09

via makeuseof.com: "Check out Roblox. Not only is it fun, it has some great features. It’s a cool, free virtual world for kids where you get to create your own character, much as you would for SecondLife or any number of other virtual world games."

http://www.roblox.com/

 

9-3-09

Game designer on Twitter: Nicole Lazzaro

 

1-14-10

Differences b/t learning designers & gaming designers:

http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2010/01/elearning-video-game-designers.html

 

3-31-10 (via Tracy)

http://www.gamestarmechanic.com/

 

8-17-10

http://www.iamtheeconomy.com/ Very interesting game-design oriented blog.

 

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RPG (Role-Playing Games)

 

Bella Online (Role Playing Game Help and Information section): http://rpg.bellaonline.com/Site.asp

 

Mouse Guard: http://www.aspcomics.com/mouse_guard_rpg.php

 

This site is designed to help folks who are "running" role playing games keep it all organized online:

http://www.obsidianportal.com/

 

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Looking ahead:

Academic summer camp at Emma Willard (for rising 7th graders through 12th graders): http://www.emmawillard.org/summer/residential/index.html

 

Computer gamebuilding camp: http://www.gamebuildercamp.com/video.htm

 

An award for successful girl geeks (high school aged): http://www.ncwit.org/award

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Games & Real Life/ Social Change:

 

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/more-fun-than-talking-about-insurance/ (I love the fishbowl idea!)

 

"How Game Design Can Revolutionize Everyday Life" http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2009/05/games_wired

 

http://www.accreditedonlinecolleges.com/blog/2009/50-serious-games-for-social-change/

 

Jane McGonigal talks at TED about games changing the world (sent to T as birthday present in 2010):

http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html

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Games and Learning:

 

 

Wiki around the idea of gaming to learn: http://gamingineducation.wikispaces.com/

 

teacher Larry Ferlazzo's collections of learning games: 

http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2009/05/21/the-best-collections-of-online-educational-games/

 

6-4-09

http://gameslearningsociety.org/index.php Games+Learning+Society (these people are in your tribe, T!)

 

http://www.gamestarmechanic.com (In beta, not loading well at the moment, but keep trying back, because when it's working, it's going to rock: "Gamestar Mechanic is a game designed to teach young people about game design, with the emphasis on design, not programming. The goal is to help young people—gamers and nongamers—learn what it is like to think about design and to think like a designer.")

 

6-29-09

Online School Implements Game-Based Course:

Florida Virtual School (FLVS) is set to launch what it describes as the first complete online game-based course for high school students. School officials and the game's creators hope the course will help engage students who struggle in traditional classroom settings.

 

7-3-09

"Train Your Brain"

http://www.lumosity.com/

 

7-7-09

Learning Games Network: http://www.learninggamesnetwork.org/

 

 

 

Brief (~ 6 min.) interview with Henry Jenkins, academic & fan, author of Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide and eight other books

 

Cool post on learner motivation in games: http://www.shv.me/post/89800565/learner-motivation-and-gaming

 

9-3-09

Future of learning = video games?

http://www.economist.com/sciencetechnology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14350149

 

2-28-10

Future of games... "reality" as a desired destination, game thinking leeching into the real world... very interesting talk:

http://www.zefrank.com/zesblog/archives/2010/02/the_future_of_g.html

 

4-25-11

"Gamification" of real life, creating game-like overlays for actual "to do" stuff, like responding to emails:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5WmHR9BsTo (5 min. video of Email Game add-on)

 

5-13-11

Podcast on "Shifted Learning"

http://www.shiftedlearning.org/index.php?title=Episode_11:_Mark_Chen

Guest is Mark Chen... Mark is a Post-doctoral Scholar at the University of Washington in the Advancing Gaming in Innovative Learning Ecologies (AGILE) group with the LIFE Center and Institute for Science and Math Education. He focus on ethnographies of gamers and gaming culture and how this helps us think about games and learning. His blog is about his experience as a gamer in academia.

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Storytelling:

 

http://www.deardaddy.com/

(letters from a family during the Great Depression)

 

See also my bookmarked sites on storytelling, over here: http://delicious.com/butwait/storytelling

 

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Taylor's piece on landmines, featured on the Champs site:

http://www.champskids.org/get_involved/whats_new.html

 

Taylor's Barlow 2010 recitation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQiYGjJZzGw

 

Andrea Gibson's tweet re: Taylor's 2010 Barlow recitation: http://twitter.com/andreagibson/status/7529748335

 

Bonus poem:

 

Change

 

By Taylor Feld

September, 2008

 

I used to think thunder was God moving his furniture,

but now I know the scientific explanation.

I used to love the color green,

but now my life is painted blue.

I used to crave a dog,

but now I absolutely need another one.

I used to want to be an astronaut,

but now I want to make video games!

I used to be afraid of crossing streets,

but now I am a champ.

I used to sit and pretend to read,

but now I read and write.

I used to be a Waldorf Wolf,

but now I bear green and white.

I used to thirst for knowledge on animals,

but now I make up my own.

I used to suck on others' pinkies,

but now I most certainly don't!

I used to play with food,

but now I play with technology.

I used to call my best friend Lukey,

but now I've dubbed him Luke.

I used to be the way I was,

but now I've changed.