Edina Digital Age Learning

Noted Game designer and author , Jane McGonigal was the Tuesday Keynote speaker at TIES 2014 .  The daughter of educators, she started by inviting us to take the next 45 minutes to take games seriously, as a way to shape the future of learning. The GOOD News, there are now 1 Billion Gamers world wide (1 hr./day). Some might argue that 1 Billion hours of gaming per day may not be a good idea... 300 million minutes/day is spent playing Angry Birds. That's 400,000 years! 1 in 4 Call of Duty players call in sick the day a new version is released! 81% of global workers are not engaged in the workplace. (Gallup, 2013) Not connected to a community bigger than yourself, and not optimistic. The longer you stay in school, the LESS ENGAGED you become! 52% of Americans do not feel they have the power to make a difference, yet 7+ Billion hours of time is spent playing games, McGonigal argues because they are looking for something. 99% of boys and 94% of girls spend an hour gaming. ...

Today's Meet: http://todaysmeet.com/create14 Doug Johnson , Technology Director for Burnsville, Eagan, Savage, shared his thoughts on creativity at the opening session at TIES 2014 . Vasco De Gamma was an influencer of Doug's in regards to creativity, due to the project his grandson did regarding him. He had created a first person narrative, where he was going to tell DeGamma's story, and was told by the teacher that he couldn't deliver it, and had to just read the report. Perhaps the teacher was so focused on standardized test scores, she couldn't get past that. Goals of the talk; Why is it imperative we take developing creativity seriously? Pink in "A Whole New Mind: Can someone overseas do it cheaper? Can a computer do it faster? Am I offering something that satisfies the nonmaterial, transcendent desires of an abundant age? 60% of an iPhone is pure Apple profit. How can they have 100% markup on a device? Because they have convinced us ...