This is a guest post from Karen Schweitzer

Autistic students typically require a much different learning structure and environment than students who are not on the autism spectrum. This can cause challenges for both educators and parents of autistic students as well as the students themselves. Fortunately, there are many different education resources and games that are available specifically for autistic students, their families, and their educators. These resources are definitely worth checking into if you are looking for helpful materials to support an autistic student’s educational program.

Do2Learn – There are many different educational resources for autistic students available on this helpful site, including songs, games, art projects, learning tools, and software. This site also offers career and employment resources for job-seekers with disabilities such as autism.

AutismEducation – This website provides information and training to families with autistic students. It details the special education rights of students with autism as well as successful education and treatment methods that allow autistic students reach their full potential. This site also provides helpful downloads that assist parents and educators with understanding the educational needs of autistic students.

PCIEducation – With education resources for autistic students available in numerous subjects, this site is extremely helpful for both students and educators alike. There are various different learning tools available for each subject, including board games, audio cassettes and CDs, and activity cards.

AutismSupportNetwork – This extremely informative and helpful website provides great resources for families affected by autism. It has great articles on teaching methods and college internships for adult students with autism. There is also a free support community available where members can connect with other families affected by autism spectrum disorders.

IAutistic – If you are looking for some games to play with an autistic student, look no further than this website. It provides several free games that help autistic children better understand people and emotions. This site also provides a number of videos, articles, and treatment methods for autistic students.

Time4Learning – This site provides an online education service for students on the autism spectrum. It has been used with success by many families who have had educational struggles elsewhere. There is an interactive curriculum for students from preschool to eighth grade, which gives a visual learning experience that has proven to be very beneficial for many.

AutismSpeaks – There is a “Family Services” section of this website that offers many great resources for people affected by autism and similar disorders. There is information on “Autism in the Workplace,” which highlights autistic individuals who perform well on the job. There are also sections that provide educational tools and a resource library.

TinSnips – Educators of autistic students can find various educational materials on this helpful site. It provides activities that promote various skills through different learning styles. There are also ideas for seasonal activities, which can be quite interesting and exciting for autistic students. Multiple links to other useful educational resources are provided as well.

AutismInspiration – This website is a wonderful resource for parents and teachers of students on the autism spectrum. The content provided has been used with success in both home and classroom settings. There are lesson plans, games, activities, and worksheets that subscribers to this site can use freely.

AutismPDD – Adults coping with disabilities can find helpful information regarding employment, postsecondary education, and various other things through this website. It provides the contact information for various organizations and agencies that are concerned with the well-being of disabled individuals.

Guest post from Karen Schweitzer. Karen writes about online universities for OnlineColleges.net.

Additions from the comments:

Autism…Learn - Carol Rudd writes in that  she creates “visually structured learning activities that are designed for children that have autism. The focus of each activity is to help develop different skills.”

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It’s been a while since I last wrote about a serious game, but I continue to track games that support learning. One I heard about recently – on NPR, I think – is a game called Spent developed by Urban Ministries of Durham (NC). The premise – one that rings all too true for too many people – is that homelessness is something than can happen to anyone. Here’s how the Urban Ministries Web site puts it:

Work hard. Do the right thing. Homelessness is something that will never happen to me. Sometimes, all it takes is one life-changing experience to land you on the streets: a job loss, death of a loved one, divorce, natural disaster, or serious illness.

Next thing you know, a chain of events sends your life spiraling out of control…

How would you cope? Where would you go? What would you do? Figure something out, right?

Problem is, things often aren’t so easy to figure out. I decided to see if I could make it by taking a job as a waiter – work that at least felt familiar to me from college and grad school days.

Of course, to make things work, I had to live 30 miles from my job and forego health insurance. And I had landlord issues. And my gas was cut off. And the final straw was paying for some medicine my mother needed. All in all, I made it 18 days before I was completely tapped out of money and on my way to becoming homeless.

Spent is not a terribly complex game, but it is very effective. A while back I wrote about a similar experience I had with playing 3rd World Farmer. While certainly not the same experience as the real thing, games can go a long ways towards providing context for learning in an amazingly effective way. As Jane McGonigal argues – quite convincingly – they may may be one of the best shots we have at learning to change the world. Whether that proves true or not, Spent is definitely worth checking out and sharing with others.

Jeff

P.S. – If you like this post, please share it. And if you are a lifelong learner not yet subscribed to Mission to Learn, I’d be truly grateful if you would consider subscribing by RSS feed or e-mail.

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I hadn’t intended to follow my long dry spell on writing about games with two game-related posts (or two TED videos) in a row, but the Marketing Over Coffee guys mentioned the following video with SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch (@12 minutes), and it sounded too good not to explore and pass along. It also happens to be a great follow up to my previous post on learning to save the world by playing games.

Seth says in his talk that he doesn’t want to lose competitive advantage by revealing too many of the game dynamics that SCVNGR uses, but you can actually get the entire Secret Game Mechanics Playdeck over on TechCrunch.

I’m sure I don’t have to point out to the average Mission to Learn reader that this is powerful stuff from a teaching and learning standpoint. The ability to wield influence – which is what these dynamics are all about – has always played a significant role in effective teaching, and skilled learners should be able to recognize and manage influence. Of course, as social networks become more and more pervasive, the importance of these abilities multiplies dramatically. At a minimum, we need to be able to recognize game mechanics whenever and wherever they are used, and determine whether the intent behind them is for good or evil. Yet another layer of complexity in the massive, multi-player game of life.

Jeff

P.S. – If you have not ever read it – or haven’t read it lately – I highly recommend Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. As far as I am concerned, it should be read in high school, college, and multiple additional times throughout life.

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[tweetmeme] Somewhere along the way I began to write less about games here on Mission to Learn, but my interest in them as an approach to learning has never faded, and after seeing the Jane McGonigal video below it has multiplied many times over.

McGonigal begins with the startling – and no doubt disturbing to some – news that we now spend around 3 billion hours weekly playing games. Where she takes that statistic, however, is what is most fascinating about this video. From McGonigal’s point of view, we need to multiply the number of hours we spend gaming by 7 (yes, that means 21 billion hours weekly), if we want to solve big problems like hunger, poverty, climate change, global conflict, and obesity.

Why all this game play?

Because it is practice. It is learning in a virtual world the types of skills and behaviors we need to solve the seemingly intractable problems of the real world. For example, collectively all of the players of the highly popular World of Warcraft multi-player online game have spent 5.93 million years solving the problems of that world. In perhaps the most provocative turn of her talk, McGonigal frames this amount of time in evolutionary terms – human beings “stood up” approximately 5.93 million years ago, and everything else has happened since.

I’ll stop there, because I think you really need to see the entire video to appreciate McGonigal’s thinking fully. The video runs about 20 minutes, and I guarantee you that if you are the least interested in how we learn and change on a large scale, it will be worth your time.

I’m eager to hear your thoughts once you have watched it.  Do you buy the evolutionary analogy and the potential for transferring the benefits of gaming into the real world? Please comment and share your views.

Jeff

P.S. – If you like this post, you may also be interested in an article I did a while back for WE magazine called Playing for Change.

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Today is Blog Action Day, an annual event that unites bloggers across the world to raise awareness about an important issue. This years’ issue is climate change. Mission to Learn has participated in Blog Action Day since it began in 2007. Last year, when the issue was poverty, I posted 5 Games Against Poverty and Hunger. So, in that same vein, here are five learning games for climate change.

Climate Challenge
A game where you are president of the European Nations. You must tackle climate change and stay popular enough with the voters to remain in office.

Connect2Climate
Connect 2 Climate comprises of five different applications on the mobile – three mobile games involving different mindsets and psychologies of mobile users, and two mobile learning applications on climate change. The games are being deployed on low-end and low cost handsets to sophisticated high-end devices.

Copenhagen Challenge
The game “Copenhagen Challenge” … aims to create awareness among school children and youth on issues related to climate change – renewable energy, energy efficiency and reduction in greenhouse gases.Download the English and Hindi versions of “Copenhagen Challenge” game from the links below. Install it on your desktop, play the interesting game, and learn more about Climate Change and related issues.

LogiCity
LogiCity is a fun interactive computer game with a difference.  Aimed at young people under 25, it’s a game set in a 3D virtual city with five main activities where players are set the task of reducing the carbon footprint of an average resident.  As players work their way through the game they will pick up information about Climate Change, and some of the main ways in which everyone is currently contributing to the emissions of the main greenhouse gas (CO2) that causes Climate Change.

V GAS
V GAS aims at making the connections between individual lifestyles and greenhouse gas emissions, gauging personal contributions to global emissions. V GAS will try to help the user to answer the question ‘how does my lifestyle relate to the global problem?’, as well as ‘what options are there to reduce my contribution to the global problem?’

Learn and make change,

Jeff

P.S. – If you are interested in learning games, you may want to check out other posts on serious games here on Mission to Learn, and particularly 26 Learning Games to Change the World.

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1. The Bottle Ain’t No Friend of Mine: Blog Action Day 2010
2. Can you learn to save the world by playing games?
3. 10 Education Resources and Games for Autistic Students

It’s been far too long since my last round-up of learning games, but I have been squirreling away quite a few. Here’s a list of 12, with a bonus thrown in at the end. Most of these have to do with environmental issues, but there are also some that address the digital divide, microfinance, and helping kids deal with divorce. Except for any text in italics, all of the descriptions come from the game site. Also, unless otherwise noted, all of these are free!

51Tree.org
51 Tree is a new online computer game (social issue game) that lets players plant virtual trees in the country(ies) of their choice. It is great fun to play and teaches players all about the importance of tree planting, forest coverage and carbon offsets.

EnerCities
Are you ready to take on the challenge of running your own virtual city? Do you have the skills to create a solid, sustainable energy strategy? Will you build a nuclear plant or go solar? Whether you are an industrial tycoon or treehugging hippie, join the exclusive EnerCities beta program now. Your citizens need you!

Catchment Detox
Play Catchment Detox to see if you can repair a damaged river catchment and create a sustainable and thriving economy. It’s an online game where you’re in charge of the whole catchment. You get to decide what activities you undertake – whether to plant crops, log forests, build factories or set up national parks. The aim is to fix environmental problems and provide food and wealth for the population.

LogiCity
LogiCity is a fun interactive computer game with a difference.  Aimed at young people under 25, it’s a game set in a 3D virtual city with five main activities where players are set the task of reducing the carbon footprint of an average resident.  As players work their way through the game they will pick up information about Climate Change, and some of the main ways in which everyone is currently contributing to the emissions of the main greenhouse gas (CO2) that causes Climate Change.

Climate Challenge
A game where you are president of the European Nations. You must tackle climate change and stay popular enough with the voters to remain in office.

Connect2Climate
Connect 2 Climate comprises of five different applications on the mobile – three mobile games involving different mindsets and psychologies of mobile users, and two mobile learning applications on climate change. The games are being deployed on low-end and low cost handsets to sophisticated high-end devices.

Copenhagen Challenge
The game “Copenhagen Challenge” … aims to create awareness among school children and youth on issues related to climate change – renewable energy, energy efficiency and reduction in greenhouse gases.Download the English and Hindi versions of “Copenhagen Challenge” game from the links below. Install it on your desktop, play the interesting game, and learn more about Climate Change and related issues.

V GAS
V GAS aims at making the connections between individual lifestyles and greenhouse gas emissions, gauging personal contributions to global emissions. V GAS will try to help the user to answer the question ‘how does my lifestyle relate to the global problem?’, as well as ‘what options are there to reduce my contribution to the global problem?’

Earthquake in Zipland
Help your child cope with the challenges of divorce through a fun and interactive video game, designed specifically for children of divorce and legal separation.

Earthquake in Zipland takes your child on an exciting adventure that will enable you to sensitively deal with the psychological effects of divorce on children. (Note: This one cost $29.99, but there is a free demo available.)

MiniMonos

MiniMonos is a virtual world for children: a place of fun, beauty, discovery, generosity, sustainability and friendship. We created MiniMonos so that children could have a place of their own, a place that allows them to explore and grow without constant pressure to buy stuff. We also wanted them to have a place that embodied core values like sustainability and generosity, without turning those values into a boring lecture.

One Hen
Interactive activities and games to teach kids about microfinance. This is intended to complement a book on microfinance that currently sells for $12.89 at Amazon.com.

The Cuckoo of the Computers
“The Cuckoo of computers” consists of two parts that can be used together or separately. On the one hand an animated video presentation, playing with any fear, explains what is a computer and what can serve to. As the second block are the exercises that users need to be overcome that fears.

Bonus:

It would be hard to argue that the games at Games That Give have a great deal of educational value, but they are free, and the 70% of the revenue that the site collects from ads goes to charity.

Have fun. Learn a little. Change the world.

Jeff

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1. Can you learn to save the world by playing games?
2. 10 Education Resources and Games for Autistic Students
3. Game Mechanics, Bwah Hah Hah!

It’s been a while since I posted about learning games. Here are three serious, educational games that have come onto my radar screen lately:

Akoha

Described as “the world’s first social reality game,” Akoha awards players points for completing real-world “missions” that are distributed via decks of cards that players purchase from Akoha for $5 per deck. The idea is to spread good deeds in a sort of “pay-it-forward” fashion. Here’s the Akoha site summary on how it all works:

Akoha is technically in private beta right now, but it still seems to be possible to play so long as you are willing to pony up $5.

FloodSim

Straight from the game site:

If you’ve ever wanted to make important decisions, affecting millions of people, this is your chance!

FloodSim puts you in control of all flood policy decisions and spending in the UK for 3 years. Whether its deciding how much money to allocate to flood defences, deciding where to build houses, or how best to inform people about the risk of flooding, you are in control.

FloodSim is a serious game with the aims to raise awareness of the vast number of issues surrounding flood policy and Government expenditure and to increase citizen engagement through an accessible simulation.

Change Your Generation

This free online game from Austin Energy is intended to educate citizens about the challenges inherent in providing energy for a city. Players get to make decisions about what types of energy the City of Austin will use and see the impact of their decisions in terms of cost, availability, capacity, and the environment.

Play, learn, and have fun.

Jeff Cobb
Mission to Learn

P.S. – Follow Mission to Learn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/missiontolearn

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A couple of new serious games related to government budgets have popped onto my radar screen recently.

The first is Budget Hero from American Public Media, which sets its sites on the U.S. budget. “If you ever wanted to control where your tax dollars go, here’s your chance to decide,” is the game’s tag line. Here’s some further info provided on the site:

Budget Hero seeks to provide a values- and fiscal-based lens for citizens to examine policy debates during this election year.  Partisan messages tend to cloud the real issues at play during campaigns, and most candidates are loath to attach detailed financial impacts to solutions which make up their platform.  Budget Hero provides an interactive experience involving policy options that have been extensively researched and vetted with non-partisan government and think tank experts to enable players to objectively evaluate candidates.

This one is also available in widget form, so I’ll have to add it to More Than 50 Web Widgets for Your Learning Mix.

At a more local level, Gotham Gazette’s BALANCE gives players a shot at the fixing the New York City Budget.

Last month, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a $58.8 billion budget that could slash $1 billion from city spending, increase the sales tax by .25 percent (not to mention broaden it to include clothing, hair cuts and more) and seriously lean on Albany and Washington to pitch in billions of additional funding.

So that’s his plan. But what would you do?

Bloomberg overturned the city’s term limit so he could have a chance to lead the city through this ever-more dreary recession. With our new budget game, BALANCE, you can bypass the City Council entirely and fix our fiscal woes on your own.

And be sure to check out the group’s collection of other games and quizzes.

Have fun, learn, and stay balanced.

Jeff Cobb
Mission to Learn

P.S. – If you enjoy what you read here on Mission to Learn, I encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feed or use the e-mail subscription form at the top right side of this page.

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“Don’t search for Deepwell on any map: you won’t find it. The town, its residents and Ruby’s unusual bequest are all part of a unique immersive experience in which thousands of people will help forecast the future of caring in the United States.”

That’s from the FAQ for Ruby’s Bequest, a new alternate reality game (ARG) being developed by the Institute For The Future on behalf of United Cerebral Palsy and AARP. Here’s the situation, as described by the “voice” of the Ruby’s Bequest site:

A woman named Ruby Wood has left the town some money in her will. But to get the money we have to make our town a more caring place. And that turns out to be much harder to do than it sounds and we’re under the gun to get it done. We have no idea who Ruby Wood was, for one thing.

Not unlike Superstruct, which the Institute for the Future coordinated in the fall of last year, Ruby’s Request will be a highly collaborative, participatory experience – in this case, to learn more about how people interact and make decisions related to caring for others.

The fictional Ruby’s will will be opened on March 9, and during a super-accelerated 7-year period that will end on April 10, participants in the simulation will collectively make decisions about how the town of Deepwell reacts and what is done, ultimately, with Ruby’s bequest.

If that all sounds a bit fuzzy still, I have no doubt the fuzziness is part of the point. To keep up to speed on what is going on with this alternate reality learning game, send an email to maddie.madd@gmail.com.

Jeff Cobb
Mission to Learn

P.S. If you enjoy what you read here on Mission to Learn, I encourage you to subscribe to the RSS feed or use the e-mail subscription form at the top right side of this page.

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While I was taking a bit of time off for the holidays, the gaming world did not sleep. Here are a number of highlights from the last month, including some new games.

Gaming Trends & Research

Advertising Pawn offers up the following slide show on gaming trends (click through if you don’t see it). It’s nicely done and gives a solid synopsis of the current state of gaming and where we are likely headed (via Future-Making Serious Games).

Related posts:

1. Can you learn to save the world by playing games?
2. 10 Education Resources and Games for Autistic Students