Linked from the Technology and Standards Watch Reports: The relevance of gaming and gaming consoles to the Higher and Further Education learning experience [RTF format]

Thanks to a colleague for e-mailing the link and providing the following synopsis:

This report presents an overview of gaming consoles and a comparison of consoles and the PC. Benefits of games to learning and the learning environment are touched on, as is the use of games consoles in research and teaching. Issues pertaining to potential future applications of games and consoles to learning and teaching, especially through the enhanced functionality of consoles, are addressed. The report concludes with an overview of other gaming platforms, and a summary of key points and trends to monitor.

Of course, some of us are using games consoles as a focus of study in themselves ;-) - [52.225] CAD Practical #1

...a comparison between the new architecture of the Xbox [xbox.com] and the architecture of A N Other console(s). The A N Other console(s) could be, for example, Playstation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Dreamcast, or a game-specced PC (or even a Mac ;-))

I'm enjoying Channel 4's Salvage Squad series. Tonight's Salvage Squad - Thames barge episode was especially interesting because there's a family connection with Thames barges - Google Search: george smeed thames barge!

The Thames barge George Smeed is one of only a small number of surviving Thames Sailing Barges.

In Re: Extreme Learning (XL) Don announced:

Over the past couple of days I have handed back 120 reports to second year students (13 year olds). I took the opportunity to ask each student what they thought about the idea of a collaborative weblogging project along the lines we have been discussing. The response was very positive from students across the range of ability. I think we could get all of our students to partipate in the pilot project.

This is very exciting news. Looks like there's a whole slew of things that are coming together nicely.

I have some more thoughts about XL I'm mulling over but I'm really tired just now and will hone these on the train in to work in the morning.

Thanks for the very positive feedback Don. Looks like I'm going to be be busy over the coming months on XL stuff. Very much looking forward to it.

There's a lot of interesting stuff in the Advanced Operating Systems Project Reports for CS736 Fall 1998 from the University of Wisconsin Computer Sciences Department