Community News
January 2007
North Carolina Teachers Join QA!
January 25, 2007
With support from Food Lion stores, Frances Bradburn, the Director of Instructional Technology for The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction (DPI), and George Newman, founder of One Planet Education Network (OPEN), are pleased to bring the Quest Atlantis (QA) 3D Learning Environment to selected NC schools. QA will initially be offered to 60 North Carolina classrooms.
Through this generous donation from Food Lion, these teachers will receive accounts for all of their students, unlimited access to Quest Atlantis curricula, implementations resources such as novels and trading cards, online and face-to-face professional development, ongoing implementation support, and a customized Teacher Toolkit that aligns Quest Atlantis curriculum to the North Carolina State standards.
Classrooms will initially be selected from the eleven IMPACT schools. The geographically and demographically-diverse IMPACT schools are part of North Carolina’s statewide school library media and instructional technology program.
For today’s digitally-savvy generation of school children, this technology will help make education more interesting and engaging.
Interested North Carolina school teachers should visit our  North Carolina Info page and consider submitting a Teacher/Facilitator Inquiry Form to get started.
Note that other teachers in North Carolina who are interested in applying should do so even if they are not in the IMPACT schools.
New Jersey Schools Come on Board!
January 25, 2007
With the generous support of a NASA and Centenary College Grant, a select number of New Jersey 4-6th grade teachers can participate in an exciting new professional development program, Project 3D-NJ. The QA software and Project 3D-NJ Professional Development program is being offered for one-year free of charge to the first 20 New Jersey 4-6th grade teachers who sign up during February and March of 2007.
For more detailed information on the Project 3D-NJ program and Professional Development please visit our New Jersey info page. For an immersive demonstration and experience of Quest Atlantis please sign-up for a Guest Account.
 Project 3D-NJ is offered through a partnership of Centenary College Department of Education, Indiana University’s School of Education, and One Planet Education Network (OPEN).
IU receives MacArthur grant to enhance students' education
January 25, 2007
The Indiana University School of Education has received a $500,000 grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to help researchers better understand how video games can help students become empathetic citizens and to support their knowledge development. The project is called “Academic Play Spaces: Learning for the 21st Century.”
Barab and IU colleague, Lee Sheldon, assistant professor in the IU Department of Telecommunications, and Douglas Thomas, associate professor in the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California, will assist on the project as co-principal investigators.
“Learning for the 21st Century” will build on the existing QA multi-user virtual environment platform. This project allows students to interact and collaborate within a fictional, virtual world. Students participate in ethical decision making, exploring the world and making choices. Then, students actually experience alternative options and see consequences unfold with real and immediate impact on virtual characters in the game. Barab said video games can be a great way to teach children concepts and to collaborate with other students.
“It’s important that we help kids understand what it means to participate in new media. In our schools, we are not necessarily teaching kids how to knowledgably engage these media. We need to support more digital media literacy. On another level, it is important to get kids to think about what it means to be committed to the environment and how the decisions we make about the environment impact society.”
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