Tales of a Technology Omnivore

How cool is this?  Timez Attack is a fun math game from BigBrainz that helps you learn your times tables.  The game play is simple but it’s in a 3D immersive environment thats unusually high quality.  The game itself is fun and almost addictive.  You battle the ogre by answering the multiplication questions quickly.  You can really gain multiplication mastery with this program so give it a whirl.  Highly recommended.

I had a BLAST last week on vacation in Florida. One of the highlights of my trip was a visit to Universal Studios. What an amazing park! They combine innovation and creativity to come up with the most interesting rides and attractions I have ever seen. One has really got me thinking about the immersive learning environment that educators are enthralled with right now: the Spiderman ride. In the ride you are plunged (literally) into an interactive immersive environment where through the use of hydraulics, 3D glasses, elemental effects (fire, water, wind), and a holo-deckish type room, riders are immersed into Spiderman’s world. I would call this experience the pinnacle of immersive experiences and couldn’t help but think how immersion can be used in the learning environment. I REALLY felt like I was in Spiderman’s world. Imagine experiencing global history in this manner? Or standing in the city of Pompei to study volcanoes (before you get burned to death). Or discovery of outer space, a trip into the human body, etc. How much fun would learning that way be?

The Journal Magazine’s September issue has a wonderful article on a product that we love in NYC: Tabula Digita’s Dimension M educational gaming software. You don’t have to be a gamer to love this! Students enter a virtual world where they complete missions that teach them pre-algebra and algebra concepts. Using the latest 3D engines, these immersive environments are fun, have quality on par with commercial games, and educational. Here in Brooklyn, three of our schools piloted the product with tremendous results. Not only did the students love it, but most showed a marked academic improvement. The children learn the concepts without realizing they’re learning because it’s so much fun.

Check out the article: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21291_1