Nicole, Linda, and Simone are joined by Greg Toppo, USA Today’s national education writer and the author of the fabulous book “The Game Believes in You.” We talk about gaming news, Greg’s book about games and learning, and what we played. Hey, Overcast listeners! Recommend us if you have a minute, would you?
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News
- Is Yo-Kai Watch going to be the next Pokémon-like sensation?
- People who spend money on mobile games also spend on console games.
- Microsoft and Code.org have released an Hour of Code tutorial for Minecraft! (and Star Wars, too)
- Who is Linkle, and when can we play as her in a Legend of Zelda game? (and how much we like playing Evie Frye in Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate)
- NBA 2K 16, a great sports game, is free right now for Xbox Live Gold members.
Greg Toppo and “The Game Believes in You”
Journalist Greg Toppo started getting interested in games and learning when he realized his young daughter wasn’t terribly interested in books. Curiosity about that started him on a long and interesting journey investigating why games are great learning tools and how educators are using games and gaming principles to motivate and teach. We talk about:
- Jesper Juul, game theorist, game designer, professor, and author.
- Lucas Gillispie and Peggy Sheehy, awesome teachers who use games in the classroom.
- Setting limits for screentime and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations, the Play Diet concept, and the Digital Nutrition concept invented by Jocelyn Brewer.
- The Port Townsend, WA couple who are (sort of) trying to live like Victorians. (Apparently they do have wi-fi, though.)
- DragonBox games that teach algebra, geometry, and number sense.
What We Played
- Greg played DragonBox Numbers and I Have a Word.
- Linda played Assassin’s Creed Syndicate and Mini Metro, a subway-building simulation game.
- Simone played Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate.
- Nicole played blackjack in The Bahamas :-), some Hearthstone, and Rise of the Tomb Raider, which she reviewed for our sister site, remeshed.com. With a special song by Karen O:
Credits
This podcast was recorded in the studios of the Jack Straw Cultural Center in Seattle. The music is by Pat Goodwin at Novelty Shop Creative. Participating in this podcast were Linda Breneman, Nicole Tanner, Simone de Rochefort, and Greg Toppo (find him @gtoppo or @gamebelieves on Twitter, or at gamebelieves.com).
Thanks for listening and if you liked this episode, please rate us on iTunes and find us on BlogTalkRadio!
