Hello friends! Time to jam out to our latest roundup of the month’s hottest educational gaming, serious games, and AR/VR for learning news!
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Be sure to let us know on Facebook or Twitter if we missed any noteworthy articles or announcements. Here’s what’s goin’ on:
We’ve previously covered Game Builder Garage, a super cool new game creation tool for the Nintendo Switch that places a strong emphasis on coding. Now that GBG has launched, Nintendo is teaming up with the National Summer Learning Association (NSLA) and Girls Make Games to bring GBG to their communities. The NSLA is a national, non-profit organization focused on investing in summer learning to help kids return to school in the fall ready to succeed, while Girls Make Games hosts a series of summer camps, workshops and game jams designed to inspire the next generation of designers, creators and engineers. Game Builder Garage will be part of Girls Make Games’ popular summer camps, and Nintendo will be the title sponsor for STEM Day during the NSLA’s National Summer Learning Week, among other upcoming activities – all to help young people learn how to make games through the software’s highly interactive lessons. [READ MORE]
Level Ex’s latest educational mobile app Top Derm is aimed at helping dermatologists stay up-to-date on the latest dermatology advances, even to the point of offering continuing medical education credits. More than 140 dermatologists collaborated on the app with game industry designers, developers and artists, and is filled with carefully designed, photorealistic representations of skin conditions. The app is free to download from the Apple App Store or Google Play and features different levels of play and games across a wide range of common and uncommon dermatological disorders and diseases. [READ MORE]
Between the rise of NFTs and casual billionaire tweets about meme-based cryptocurrency, blockchain has been in the news a lot lately. Indeed, there are few terms that are as widely used and poorly understood as “blockchain.” To help broaden the understanding of this highly impactful technology, Murtuza Jadliwala, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Texas – San Antonio, has cultivated an innovative table-top game called CryptoMiner to educate younger students on how blockchains function and how they enable cryptocurrency applications. [READ MORE]
University of Leeds recently published a new report with input from a range of academics, technologists and health professionals, aimed at advancing the use of immersive technologies in healthcare education. Entitled “Immersive technologies in healthcare training and education: Three principles for progress,” the report argues for greater standardization of how to use immersive technologies in healthcare training and education. As contributor Professor David Peebles explains, “It’s about developing a set of principles and guidelines for the use of immersive technology in medical treatment. Immersive technology is becoming increasingly popular and, as the technology is advancing, it’s becoming clear that there is great potential to make training more accessible and effective.” [READ MORE]
Oculus recently announced several accessibility improvements to their Oculus Quest, highlighting the inclusion of a new Accessibility tab in the Oculus’s Settings menu. Users can now leverage simple accessibility features like changing text size, as well as two more complex features – Color Correction and Raise View. Color Correction modifies colors for users with color blindness, making like colors easier to differentiate. Raise View (a feature found in many VR games) allows users to experience VR from a “standing” vantage point even when seated. [READ MORE]
Miss last month’s entry? Check out our highlighted articles from June 2021!