Before we jump in to the actual lesson planning part, let’s set up a scenario. Let’s imagine that I’m an elementary school media specialist in the state of North Carolina. Animals are a key part of the 4th grade science curriculum in North Carolina. At my imaginary elementary school, a fourth grade teacher has approached [...]

Filed under: Games in School Libraries, Instructional Design on June 18th, 2010 | No Comments »

Soon after I wrote Pokemon for the 21st Century Learner, JP at 8bitlibrary.com continued the Pokemon series he began in Pokemon 101 with the posts Pokemon 102 and Pokemon Project Based Lesson Plan Idea: Habitats. JP’s lesson plan planted the seed of an idea in my head. I would go one step beyond a project [...]

Filed under: Games in School Libraries, Instructional Design on June 9th, 2010 | No Comments »

GameFAQs (http://www.gamefaqs.com) is a fully-searchable online archive of video and computer game information.  It is owned by the GameSpot network but independently operated by Allen Tynan, a member of the site since its inception in 1995 and a GameFAQs employee since 2004.  GameFAQs is free but ad-supported.  Strict policies ensure that ads are relevant and [...]

Filed under: Games in School Libraries, Reviews on February 15th, 2010 | 1 Comment »

In his excellent post, Pokemon 101 for Teachers & Librarians, JP of 8bitlibrary.com answers the question, “What does Pokemon have to do with schools/libraries?”  I’d like to take that a bit further and, based on his points, articulate what it has to do with school libraries. I believe that gaming is an excellent way for [...]

Filed under: Games in School Libraries on January 29th, 2010 | 1 Comment »