Toca Boca recently released a new entry in the Toca Lab science game series. Toca Lab: Plants teaches students all about botany and the everyday plants they can find all around them. Available for iOS, Android, and

Editor's note: Reposted with permission from Michele Haiken of The Teaching Factor. How do you envision technology in your classroom? How do you utilize technology with your students to promote deeper learning, critical thinking, and creativity? How do you see technology enhancing your teaching goals? Technology is transformative. It is more than an instructional tool. Teacher

Games for Change has nominated its top games across the Neurogaming & Health, Civics & Social Impact, and Games for Learning tracks for 2017. All nominees are up for the top honor of G4C's Game of the Year award. G4C holds an annual festival in New York City each year to celebrate games making a positive social difference, and many of those fall into education. The 2017 festival will take place on July 31-August 2. Judges will select the winners, but G4C is also opening voting up t

About the game: In Con ’Em If You Can, the player — mentored by con artist Connor — uses a variety of fraud tactics to convince people to invest their money in bogus projects. By having players be fraudsters, the game hopes to make them more aware of persuasion tactics and more vigilant against fraud.

We were busy at ISTE this year! From hanging out with the guys of EdTech After Dark and giving sessions at the Microsoft and Google for Education booths to co-hosting EdTech Karaoke, we had a blast at this year's conference in San Antonio. And we can't wait for next year in Chicago! In case you missed it, here's a roundup of all our coverage, plus a fun gal

At ISTE 2017 in San Antonio, we took a tour of some of the best offerings on display at the Google for Education Playground and the Virtual Environments and Games & Simulations Network P

A Charlottesville school is using an awesome, homemade game to teach students about the brain's development in early childhood. The "Brain Architecture Game" is a collaborative learning experience where teams of four to six people build a model brain from common materials like pipe cleaners and straws. Our Neighborhood Child Developmen

This month, Microsoft introduced a Code Builder for Minecraft: Education Edition that will change the way your students learn to code. With Code Builder, students can write code in the virtual world of Minecraft. The feature provides familiar tools and tutorials for kids by connecting with other visual-progr

Over the last four years, I have embraced and implemented gamification and game design principles in my U.S. History classroom. When I have presented this idea to colleagues, there is sometimes a fear that this might lead to a loss of rigor or relevance. The most common misunderstanding is that video games are just easy fun. It is true that games are entertaining, but successful video games must also efficiently teach the skills of the game while engaging the player with meaning and purpose;

The U.S. Department of Education has announced the five finalists for its EdSim Challenge for next-generation computer sims—all of which feature virtual reality. EdSim Challenge encourages developers in the VR, video game, and educational technology communities to design simulations to prepare students for the demanding 21st-centur

[Editor’s Note: This is a guest post contributed by teacher Matthew Farber. Enter our giveaway to win one of five signed copies of the new, expanded edition of his book, Gamify Your Classroom: A Field Guide to Game-Based Learning — Revised Edition

We're giving away five signed copies of teacher Matthew Farber's newly revised and expanded book, Gamify Your Classroom. In the book, Gamify Your Classroom: A Field Guide to Game‐Based Learning – Revised edition, Farber interviews more than 70 authorities in education—experts like James Paul Gee, Lee Sheldon, Jordan Shapiro, Mary Flanagan, and Mizuko (Mimi) Ito—as well as dozens of organizations, including

Civic education is one of the most important things students will learn in school. Civics is where students gain an understanding of what is required of the citizens of a nation in order to maintain that nation's political structure. In America, this involves an active and informed participation in the democratic process. Making sure students understand the founding constitutional principles and the rights, liberties, and responsibilities that come with citizenship is vital. In a technologica

McAfee has just made an online role-playing game that teaches kids how to stay safe in the digital world. To celebrate World Password Day, internet security company McAfee teamed up with True Key, an alternative to text passwords that uses facial or fingerprint recognition, to release a game about cyber security. Th

We are lucky that we live in an age where numerous resources are readily available at our fingertips. The downfall is the lack of time we have to implement and fully discover their possible advantages and disadvantages. Recently, I experimented with adding the app Padlet to my classroom. Creating an ‘online resource box’ for students Initially, I created a Padlet page as an “online resource box” for students to access wh

3D printing is a fast-growing new technology, and it’s making its way into the classroom. So where do teachers and students begin? Our #ClasscraftChat with @twallerfishing (Tyler Waller, a technology teacher at Dawson-Bryant High School in Coal Grove, Ohio) emphasized the major points you should know before getting started. What is 3D printing?

About the game: The player, taking on the role of an Israeli or Palestinian leader, tries to bring peace to the Israeli-Palestinian region before their term in office ends in the game PeaceMaker. How it works: Although first released about 10 years ago, the game PeaceMaker (created by Asi Burak) remains relevant today as

Now you can take your students on a tour of ancient Mesopotamia. Dig-It! Games has released a new educational mobile game for social studies called Excavate: Mesopotamia. Available for iOS and Android (as well as browsers), Excavate: Mesopotamia teaches students in grades 3-7 about the scientific process of excavation by tasking them with un