Finally, a game for girls.

If anyone had any doubts about games and ideology....

http://kotaku.com/5848870/finally-a-game-for-girls?utm_source=Kotaku+Newsletter&utm_campaign=b734bbc9ab-UA-142218-8&utm_medium=email

12 Ways to be More Search Savvy

http://mindshift.kqed.org/2011/09/cracking-the-code-to-the-best-google-search/

Just in time for Talk Like a Pirate Day...

http://www.badscience.net/2011/09/academic-papers-are-hidden-from-the-public-heres-some-direct-action/

An interesting piece on the current state of academic research and the chokehold that academic publishers have managed to secure through capital control.  What to do about it?  The ethical answer may actually lie in piracy...

How Video Games are Changing Education

http://www.onlinecolleges.net/2011/08/25/how-video-games-are-changing-education/

A great little mind map of some of the inter-relationships.  I'm glad we are moving beyond just looking at sim games.  Of course the big question is how all this multi-path nonlinearity will impact on curriculum design

Gamification of culture

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2985-Gamification

An interesting video on the gamification of culture and what this might mean for work and education.  This has been floating around the news recently with a whiff of giddy utopianism.   Luckily the Extra Credit guys also look at the potential dangers involved as well.

They've also recently done an interesting video on tangential learning which is really useful when thinking about learning and interactive media.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/extra-credits/2957-Tangential-Learning

6 Famous Frivolous Lawsuit Stories that Are Total BS

While the Cracked.com style might be a bit fruity for some classrooms, these are excellent case studies in the way in which law gets mis-represented in the media.  Good for myth-busting lectures, and it starts with the famous McDonalds coffee case and even links to an image of the actual injuries suffered, not for the squeamish.

http://www.cracked.com/article_19150_6-famous-frivolous-lawsuit-stories-that-are-total-b.s..html?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=fanpage&utm_campaign=new+article&wa_ibsrc=fanpage

Goodies and Baddies

"The idea of "humanitarian intervention" which is behind the decision to attack in Libya is one of the central beliefs of our age. It divides people. Some see it as a noble, disinterested use of Western power. Others see it as a smokescreen for a latter-day liberal imperialism. I want to tell the story of how this idea originated and how it has grown up to possess the minds of a generation of liberal men and women in Europe and America."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2011/03/goodies_and_baddies.html

This is a link to Adam Curtis' blog and with with typical aplomb he launches into an analysis of mythbuilding in politics and media which ties together threads across his previous documentary work.   Not directly on the topic of  legal education, but really worth spending some time with this.

Games, Learning and the Looming Crisis for Higher Education

http://vimeo.com/15732568

"I see game design and learning design (what a good professional teacher does) as inherently similar activities. The principles of "good games" and of "good learning" are the same, by and large. This is so, of course, because games are just well designed problem-solving spaces with feedback and clear outcomes and that is the most essential thing for real, deep, and consequential learning"

http://henryjenkins.org/2011/03/how_learners_can_be_on_top_of.html

Mark Pegrum's E-Learning Wiki

This wiki is a great hub for resources on e-learning.  If you're sick and tired of the 'creepy treehouses' of Blackboard etc and want to embed some social networking technology in your practice, this is the place to go.

http://e-language.wikispaces.com/

Another excellent journalism link

Great if you are teaching students about evaluating information and fact checking:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/feb/23/churnalism-pr-media-trust?INTCMP=SRCH

Warning labels for news media

Some very cute stickers designed to emulate censorship warning labels, but for journalistic bias and bad practice.  A useful resource to discuss objectivity and information literacy with research students.

http://www.tomscott.com/warnings/

Fable Slides

These slides go with a paper I am writing on the regulation of the body (or avatar) in virtual spaces.  I apologise for the poor quality of the images,  I had two screen capture cards that completely falled to work and hard to resort to taking photos of the screen!

Project Based Learning

Slightly patronising in tone, but a good illustration of the points.   Also points out that 'project based learning' or 'problem based learning' is not the same as the old fashioned law problem question.

Connectivism

Contrary to appearances, I'm still alive here but I've been focusing on completing a teaching grant during the last few months and haven't taken the time to post.   I will get back on the box once the report is written, in the meantime check out George Siemens' Connectivism blog at http://www.connectivism.ca/