Games

Holiday Fun for the Library

 * Category:** Games

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 * Web Address:** []


 * Site Information:** These are two totally fun related sites, that young elementary students would enjoy. The first site, Funbrain, has games that teach basic concepts in reading and math.It also offers a few ebooks that students can read for free. The second site, Teachervision is linked to Funbrain and I think the two are intended to work together. On Teachervision you can find lesson plans, printable worksheets, project ideas and even tests. There were several free things, for others you had to pay, and the site encompassed a wide range of topics. Like Funbrain, the target audience for these lessons would be an elementary age student.


 * Application:** I focused on what would be useful for a 3rd or 4th grader learning about language arts, since that is the audience I currently teach. Funbrain has both ad libs and actual ebooks as reading options. The ad libs, where you fill in a story by selecting adjectives, nouns and pronouns without first reading the story would definitely appeal to this crowd. I would teach a brief lesson about what is a noun, what is an adjective etc. Then I would let the students play with the game and create some fun ad libs and share them with the rest of the class. As far as the ebooks go, I would just show the students they were there and explain they could read them when other students were reading their hard copy books. I am actually going to do this, because "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" is huge at my school right now and we just don't have enough copies to go around. Since that is one of the free ebooks that Funbrain offers, I am going to encourage the kids who are eager to read the book to go online and read it there! I am actually going to use Teachervision as well. If you click on 3rd grade and then scroll down to holidays and click on December holidays it brings up a whole slew of great stuff. The one that caught my eye was the unit on "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever." This is a short, fun book that would be perfect as a read aloud with my students this holiday season. Teachervision has grammer sheets, projects and tests. Basically they have done all the work for you! It's great. I am going to divide the lesson time in half. I have the kids for 50 minutes. I will read aloud for 25 minutes, then we can work in small groups on the projects or the grammer sheets for 25 minutes. The tests we will take as a whole class together, correcting as we go. I am thrilled! This takes care of my lesson plans for the entire month of December!

 Games are a great way to capture the attention of students. With computers and the Internet games are easier to incorporate then ever before. Lessons that start with a brief presentation and include a game as a learning tool work well. For example teaching student about measurements can include a demonstration using the ruler game then move onto a real life demonstration with a ruler and everyday items like a book, a pencil and persons shoe.
 * Name:** Caroline Carr
 * Category:** Games
 * Website:** []
 * Possible Use:** The ruler game can be used in a school library to explain the importance of a standardized system of measurement and then transition into a standardized system of book classification.
 * Name:** Gerardo Salazar

=Order in the Library=

**Catergory:** Games
====**Web Address:** [|**http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valmstrum/s2s/utopia/library4/src/library4.html**] Description: This is a site where people can sign in and play games to quiz themselves on the order of the library. It works on sorting, shelving, and reordering (reorgainizing) books. It has different levels for them to use, it has different characters to choose from, and it has tutorials for them to take, if they are having trouble with the games. Once a game is selected one can chose the level. Shelving is an important game that I like to teach because I have fifth grade students who are library helpers and this game actually trains them for shelving. Not only the fifth graders benefit from this game but many of the classes that visit the library is taught this skill. Students are engaged in this because it immediately provides feedback to the user.==== ====**Implementation:** This would be a great website to help children get familiar with library skills suchh has organization, shelving and sorting. The quizzes cover alphabetization, the dewey system, shelving and problem solving skills. You could use this site to reinforce library skills and garde level objectives. Students become more knowledgable on the library coding systems.==== Sarah Falcon Diwana Pinales = = =Games... in the Library?= Category: Games Web Address: [] Site Information: In the 35 years since Pong was introduced, games have evolved and they teach confusing concepts in an entertaining manner. The gaming world has expanded the term “literacy” to include the ability to interpret video screen cues – to distinguish abstract meaning from symbols. It is proposed that textual literacy is also increased since many games communicate to players via dialogue boxes. “ Librarians and teachers must be able to reach out to the digital generation…For librarians and teachers to remain relevant in our technological society; they must engage students and embrace new roles as the purveyors of digital culture.” Incorporating Gaming: Video games that support most school curriculum are available. These games range from LeadAhead Kindergarten and Lego Preschool (shapes and colors) to Mario’s Time Machine and Mario is Missing (geography) to Oregon and Amazon Trails. Creative teachers and librarians can use games to enhance almost any lesson. We have an obligation to expand the methods of communicating new concepts to our students. If a video game can reinforce a lesson, we should use it. Students learn in many ways, and those who do not benefit from traditional methods can learn from computer programs. I would use some of the “Coaster Tycoon” games to teach the concepts of force and motion to my students (if it was allowed). There also many RPG games where deductive reasoning is taught (and that is something that my students seem to lack). I would like to use these games as rewards for good behavior and to encourage the development of their analytical thought processes.

Carol Gibson

**Web Address**: []
==== **Site Information**: WingedSandals.com is a cooperative effort between the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and The University of Melbourne's Centre for Classics and Archaeology. The game opens with an aerial view of ancient Athens. Players have the option of clicking on different buildings and following links to games and activities or simply choosing from a drop-down menu. Options include storytime, games, crafts and activities, a directory of the Greek gods and goddesses, history, a question and answer session with the oracle, and some fun screensavers. Choosing the games or oracle links allows the player to participate in games while learning about Greek rituals, stories, wars, and music. ====

==== **School Library Connection**: Rick Riordan’s series //Percy Jackson and the Olympians// has created great interest in Greek mythology among upper-elementary and middle school students. The games included on this site work well as both curriculum support for this age group as well as independent learning for motivated readers. Ideally, a link to the webpage could be placed in an online library catalog as part of a webpath connected to the //Olympians// books and/or mythology in general. The games themselves are simple and focus on using teaching mythological characters and their stories within the game environment. “Visiting” the oracle is especially fun, because after going through the steps to earn an audience with the oracle, students may compose their own question to be answered. Answers seem to be given depending on keywords in the questions. For example, a question about the weather tells the student what needs to be paid to Zeus to achieve the desired result. The supportive history and biography pages are interesting enough that the students could preview these more extensive pages before playing the games and learn even more during the process. Students learning about Greek mythology will appreciate the hands-on introduction to characters. Librarians could encourage teachers to prepare materials in which students search and compile information about the characters from Greek mythology while exploring the games and activities. ====

__​Gaming: Best Practices for Using Games and Simulation in the Classroom__


Web Address: []

1. Overview of gaming and simulation or EduGames. 2. How to Sell the Idea - to educators, administrators, and students 3. How to Implement the Idea The most helpful part of this guide are the implementation ideas. It tells you teaching strategies, scheduling ideas and guidelines, location suggestions, grouping ideas, and suggestions for classroom management. Since the library is an extension of the classroom, this guide would work as a how to guide for librarians also.
 * Description:** This is a guideline for the K-12 educator on how to implement gaming and simulation in into the classroom. It's basically a how to guide that covers:


 * Incorporating Gaming:** Gaming is the one thing that gets a student's attention almost 100% of the time. If you mention that they are about to play a game, you immediately have all eyes on you. Gaming such as videogames, online games, and even virtual worlds is very appealing to students. This makes it a perfect way to connect with them and to use to instruct in the library. There are many gaming sites that are interactive and // specific to library skills // such as the Dewey Decimal System. These sites instruct then provide games that are fun for the students to practice their skills on. Software on keyboarding or reading can be used to strengthen their skills.Gaming can be used to accomplish the task of teaching students to be computer literate. Gaming has a large scope of positive effects in the classroom or library.

Brandi Choule s

Technology - Educational games, online games, recreational games are all discussed in the article in reference to a school library

"Finish Your Games so you can Start your School Work: A Look at Games in a School Media Library"

[]

This is a pdf format of an article written in 2008 in //Library Media Connection// by Scott Nicholson. The article reviews a survey that was completed by 78 school libraries. In the article, Nicholson goes over how the different libraries used gaming, whether it was to check out board games to kids that would not be able to afford them otherwise, or to have a Wii console set up for paid play to rise money for an after school program. Furthermore, the article reviews reasons that the school librarians gave for having different types of gaming available, so that other librarians have a good argument when it comes to convincing administrators of the power of gaming.

For the school that I am currently at (just a teacher, not quite a librarian yet), I would definitely have board games available for students to play in the library and ones that they could check out and take home. I think having the console games is a great idea, but a lot more budget wise. I think it would be really fun to have a checker tournament or a soduku tournament to really get the students into the library and get them aware of the kinds of things that are offered.

~Samantha Matush


 * __Website Name:__ ** QUIA
 * __Website Address:__ ** [] to create your own or to see an example check out []


 * __Description:__ ** This is an amazing site that helps create a webpage that not only aids in the communication with the community, but also allows you to design or modify already existing quizzes/activities that students can take. The website also allows you to create classes and track the students’ quiz results. Their FAQ page is very helpful in describing all the aspects of the website, and gives specific instructions on how to create your own webpage.


 * __Implementation:__ ** This can easily be used to supplement your lessons in the library. Once you teach a lesson or skill, you could create an activity or game that students could do to practice. Students who were absent could also participate to learn more about the lesson that was missed. The tracking data option also allows you to see whether more instruction is needed on a specific skill.

By Sandy Karas

==**Bringing Games and Gamers to Your Library: 100 Tips and Resources** == = = Web address: @http://oedb.org/library/features/bringing_gaming_100_library_resources

This website is a collection of tips, resources, and tools to help librarians successfully integrate gaming into the offerings of their libraries. A comprehensive list of 39 tips gets the creative juices flowing with ideas such as using games that support curriculum, getting parents involved, and promoting other, non-gaming related library events to gamers. Some of the tips are hotlinks themselves to other valuable information. There are also more than 25 links to articles and several to websites with advice about implementing a gaming program in libraries, as well as direct connections to blogs and groups for ongoing discussions about gaming in libraries. There is even a list of //books// (go figure!) that deal with using gaming as a teaching technique in school libraries.

Finding this website is like uncovering treasure to me, someone who has very limited experience with using video games in the classroom or library because the majority of my classroom teaching took place between fifteen and twenty years ago. Although the wealth of suggestions on this site is not limited to video games, it does speak strongly to that genre. Two of the tips to incorporate gaming into the school library setting that really caught my attention are to play the games myself and to involve the library staff in the games. At my age (48 - yikes!), the temptation is to believe that, "sure, games are good and necessary tools for learning and teaching...but not for me! I'm too old!" Experiencing the games myself will give me credibility with young patrons: I'm not the "gatekeeper," but rather a learner with them. In addition, involving the staff will break down some of the natural resistance felt by others to a new technology in the library. Ultimately, offering gaming - and a collection of games to check out - is just one more way to validate the library with its patrons, draw them in and involve them in learning, and have a really great time.

--Camille Pitts

Library Gaming

http://groups.google.com/group/LibGaming This Google Group site is geared toward gaming in the library. There are discussions, pages and files sections. Once clicked on the pages section, one will find “Video Games in Libraries Resources”. The third choice, “Library Success: Best Practices: Gaming”, is chalked full of ideas that could be adapted to fit in a school environment. I think that this is like a theme park. You could literally spend a whole day checking out the myriad links within links at this site, and probably still not see it all. Some of the information might be 2-4 years old. This technology could be used in an educational setting by giving librarians and teachers background information, such as research and how others have used this technology in their school setting. It also provides links on how gaming to attract patrons to the libraries.

B. Cheryl Conoly


 * Website Name: ** Scratch


 * URL: ** []


 * Description: ** Scratch is a free program, created by MIT, and provides users with a platform to create and publish movies, art, stories, and games, all of which can be interactive if the designer so chooses. Projects can range from basic to advanced, depending on the user’s level of experience and expertise. Scratch projects are published on the Scratch website under Creative Commons, so that creators maintain ownership for their projects, while allowing the projects to be shared and remixed with others. Creators can also choose to embed their projects in other websites.

Because of Scratch’s "building-block" nature, users working with it learn programming and content creation, both of which are important skills for 21st century literacy and which can be easily tied into school library and classroom lessons. Students can create projects based on books they have read or turn their own writing into animated, interactive movies, stories, or games. Scratch projects, once published, can be tagged, thus allowing students to think about and assign descriptive words and phrases to their creations.
 * Implementation: ** In a //School Library Journal// article//,// (available at []) the author tells how her son used Scratch to create a project based on, and as an extension of, a book he read. It also mentions how some public libraries have offered workshops on Scratch and other media, taught by teens.

I chose to include Scratch in the “Games” section of this wiki because of the interactive nature of Scratch-designed projects. Whether users create movies, music videos, stories, artwork, or virtual worlds, all have the potential to be interactive for the audience, much like games. Also, as the //SLJ// article points out, “ Scratch not only allows users to engage in content creation, it also helps them understand how video games work through the use of the programming blocks,” (Nelson, 2009). However, Scratch could easily be described as a type of social network, as users and creators of Scratch projects can tag, review, and comment on other people’s projects. Users of the Scratch site can also participate in forums, read blogs and Twitter updates, and become Facebook fans or Google Followers.

By Mary McGettrick

Works Cited: // Nelson, J. (1 May 2009). Celebrating Scratch in Libraries. School // Library Journal. Retrieved from []

 =**Order in the Library** =

[|http://users.ece.utexas.edu/~valmstrum/s2s/utopia/library4/src/library4.html]
=This is a great site that allows the user to insert his or her name, and then one can play three games to practice finding books on the shelf. The games are "Sorting, Shelving and Reordering." This would be super to use with elementary students as an introduction lesson on how to find books in the library. It also has an informational short tutorial about the Dewey Decimal System which is great for beginning library patrons.= Christine Kidd



School Library Gaming Example

Website: []

Description: This website gives a good overview of the gaming available in the school libraries of Genesee Valley BOCES, in New York. The description of the program includes information about the justification of the program, being that it is non-academic. The games are linked to state standards, however. The site also includes several links to Library Gamer, a website devoted to the topic, which includes podcasts, articles, and lists of available, appropriate games.

Implementation: This website would be an excellent source as a springboard for school libraries wishing to expand into the area of gaming in the library. The justifications for the program are solid and well-explained. A wonderful benefit of this website is the list of games available for check out. The list includes the appropriate age level and approximate time to play. The library games can be an excellent resource both when checked out by teachers for classroom use or when checked out by students for at home use.

by: Sara Parrish


 * Gaming in Libraries

Website: http://librarygamingtoolkit.org/index.html

Description: This site gives a vast amount of information on how to set up gaming in your library. It has topics ranging from the history of gaming in libraries, tools and resources (which include cost of programs, legal issues, marketing, and assessment) and best practices which give links to actual examples of implemented programs as model examples.

Implementation: As a future librarian this toolkit gives a thorough overview of what it will take to set up gaming programs within libraries. It is an excellent resource to refer to when starting my own programs within schools. Several of the examples I viewed showed how you can choose the right games to line up with curriculum standards. It can be something as simple as board games such as Amun Re which teaches property management to gaming clubs where you have video game tournaments in after school programs, to role playing games like Runescape and World of Warcraft to teach collaborative skills and stategy. The sky's the limit.

Terri Watkins**


 * Dewey Decimal System Game

Website: http://www.ccsd.edu/bardonia/LearningGames/LibrarySKills/

Description: This is a great site where students can play a game that quizzes them over their knowledge of the Dewey Decimal System. It also gives explanations for each question. This would be a great game for young library patrons to play to review library skills after they have been introduced to the Dewey Decimal System. This site also has colorful and interesting images and photos.

Katherine Collier**

Internet 4 Classrooms Reframing Gaming http://librarygamelab.org/reframinggaming.pdf

Category: Games

Implementation: Scott Nicholson is a librarian at Syracuse University and a strong proponent of incorporating gaming into libraries, both board games and console games. In addition to producing podcasts that introduce new strategy board games as well as having written several articles about the benefits of incorporating gaming into the library. Another Nicholson article is mentioned earlier on this page as well. This article is a PDF reprint of an article that appeared in the August 2008 issue of //American Libraries// in which Nicholson addresses three common misconceptions about having games in the library. Each misconception addressed gives support for any librarian who is trying to incorporate more gaming into their library programs. Nicholson compares gaming to storytelling as a way to support incorporating the activity into library programs. It is another way to reach out to patrons who might be slipping through the cracks in regards to library programs. Board games and console games can be used to bring in more teens and other groups can benefit from other groups as well, such as seniors and card games. This article will provide support for librarians who might be hesitating about bringing gaming into their libraries or need support to further expand the programs that they have incorporated into the libraries.​

Carrie Eaton

http://www.primarygames.com/**
 * PrimaryGames.com

Category: Games

__Description:__ Primary Games enable students to play a variety of educational games based on subject. The site includes a variety of school subjects such as: math, science, social studies, language arts and more. The site also includes various online activities that range from puzzles, widgets and virtual worlds to name a few. These games may assist students with certain problem areas they may have with a particular subject in a fun and interactive manner online. Teachers may use these games as an assignment with certain themes or units in their lesson plans such as "writer's block" for language arts. Students not only benefit from an educational perspective but engage in a fun and video graphic manner. As a librarian, I permit students to play these games in the library online, if and only when they have received permission from their teacher and when they have deserved a reward.


 * Frankie Brito**


 * Video Gaming and Other Technology in a library school setting**
 * [] is the home of “School Libraryland”. This is a blog written by a New York area elementary school librarian that vigorously promotes using technology including gaming in the library setting. He has good sources and links that backup his reasoning behind using games in libraries. He also has good ideas as to how to circulate different technologies such as playaways –MP3 players with downloadable audio books- and other types of technology.
 * I would use games that have a storyline to them so students can identify setting, plot, main characters, and mood among others. I would also use games that have additional content within that would allow the student to explore additional information about the subject matter.
 * http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN0qRKjfX3s&feature=player_embedded is an interesting description of how games should include more educational materials in them and thus the students can learn by "Tangential Learning."
 * Lenny Jaquez

 = Citation Games = Website: []

Description: This website hosts an interactive online game created by Jenne McCabe and Greg Brown at James Madison University that teaches students how to read a citation. The game is played in the form of a Tic-Tac-Toe match against the computer. The student selects a Tic-Tac-Toe square and then a citation appears. The student must judge what type of resource (book, website, newspaper article, journal article, etc.) is being cited only using the citation information as clues. If the students answers correctly, the games confirms the choice and gives a little added informaton about the source. Then an X appears in the square selected by the student. If the student answers incorrectly, the correct answer is highlighted, and an explanation is given. Then an O appears in the square. Then the student selects another square, and so on. A great plus to this game is the vast number of different citation examples used. It would take several plays before the game would become repetitive.

Implementation: This particular game can be implemented into the school library easily by placing a link to it on the library website. Other similar games can be created with little difficulty using programs such as Camtasia, SoftChalk, and Captivate. These programs gives the librarian the opportunity to tailor interactive games to different lessons. There are other citation games freely available on the web including the [|APA and MLA Citation Game] created at the University of Washington. This is an interactive game that helps students learn the correct format for APA and MLA citations of different types of resources. An added bonus is that this game has been recently updated to reflect the new changes to the MLA format. Williams College library also has [|citing games] that cover MLA, APA, Chicago, and ACS citation styles. These interactive games are great for students at the high school level who need help with the introduction to citing sources.

Kelli Wilder