I couldn't be more proud of the exceptional graduate students at Iowa State University. Together, we entered the ISU Innovation Prize, a Shark Tank-style weekend of brainstorming, late nights, and a final pitch to investors.

We were awarded 1st place in the Ed Tech category for our next-generation idea on using Google Glass to help educators and administrators make a real impact on high school student drop out rates.
Did you know that over 2 million US high school students drop out each year? That dropping out not only impacts the student, but also the US economy and taxes? We have the technology to help solve this problem, but there are no educational application that target instant, real-time data collection and analysis for teachers and administrators. Click through the photos above to see more from our pitch.

An important part of my job is communicating my research to professional communities and the public, but not all academic conferences are created equal. I recently attended the Connected Learning Summit in California to present a paper on how to design learning experiences in 360 degrees. This conference was big enough (or small enough?) to network, filled with thought provoking speakers, and easily accessible hands-on activities. Most impressively was the presence of failed experiments and failed technology. Sharing what doesn't work is just as important as sharing what does. Well done #ConnectedLearning, I'll be back next year.

You can see all of the photos on the Connected Learning Alliance Flickr album (CC BY 2.0)

It's conference season for the field of education, and with conferences come poster sessions. I really enjoy this one on one time with authors to ask questions and look for research studies in gaming. The design of the poster is a HUGE influence which posters I choose. If I can't discern the topic of the research at a glance, I'm probably going to pass it by. This is unfortunate, since I may be missing out on some really great research.

Students in my Foundations of Game-based Learning course this semester are required to create a research poster. To help them along, I created this FREE TEMPLATE that focuses on audience interaction.  You could add:

• YouTube videos
• AR interactions using Zappar, Augment, or Blippar
• Polls and quizzes
• social media feeds
• links to publications and more!

Leave a comment and let me know if you used this template and how your audience "interacted"!

I am thrilled to share with you the collaborative document from my Foundations of Game-based Learning course (EDUC 510) at Iowa State University! We are about 1/2 way through the course now, but you can read the course notes to find definitions of game-based learning and research resources for topics such as assessment in games.

​Visit the Google Document
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