Welcome to today's discussion! My name is Julie Evans and I am the CEO of Project Tomorrow. Project Tomorrow is the national education nonprofit group that facilitates the annual Speak Up survey each year. In the Speak Up 2007 surveys from last fall, we asked students, teachers and parents about educational gaming. The data findings are very interesting. I am looking forward to a stimulating discussion today on this topic with you.

We know kids love to play video games, but when they are introduced for learning does that same level of enthusiasm exist? For today's students, the use of games within learning is so much more than just engagement or enthusiasm. Students tell us that the benefits of using games within instruction include seeing the results of their own work, directing their own learning, understanding difficult concepts and being able to connect academic materials with real world issues. Sure, the students say they will be more engaged but it also is about productivity and that to some extent is even more important for the students. Don't worry - their "enthusiam" will not wane.

What should a school do to prepare parents or community members if they are going to start using games in the curriculum to offset any negative reactions? Like with many other new initiatives you need to bring your parents up to speed on the value proposition of using games within instruction and to provide good examples of the kinds of games you will be using. In our Speak Up surveys, 19% of parents last year told us that they thought that educational games should be part of a 21st century school. So, there is a base of support probably in your community that you can start with to build broad consensus. And don't forget - parents are playing online and video games already. You can draw upon that experiential knowledge to build your case.

We have not seen that in our work with teachers around the country. In fact, 51% of teachers representing all kinds of schools nationwide told us that they are interested in learning more about how to effectively use gaming within instruction. 11% are already incorporating some kind of gaming technology in their classroom right now. Our experience has been that teachers are always interested in solutions that provide real results. The use of games and simulations is a new area that each teacher needs to explore within their own classroom - but if it works, they will stick with it!

This area of gaming within instruction is not really new; we just used to call it educational software. What is new is the quality and sophistication of the games and the simulations. Given the current quality there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to assess the impact, but as with all technology assessments, it is a tricky job. How do you pinpoint the value of one particular game or a simulation as having a specific impact aside from teacher skill, student pre-knowledge, other materials etc. Increasingly, our students are coming to school with a wide range of background knowledge in academic areas as a result of online exploration, and so it is hard to isolate any one tool as the bit impact. To directly answer your question, I would look to NSF to see how some of their funded projects on gaming in education are handled assessment and impact.

Students tell us that they see games as a great way for them to practice skills or material they have already acquired. To really understand the potential impact of games on new material vs. remediation or practice, you need to think about gaming in practice - outside of learning. When kids play an game (online, video, console, handheld etc) they know that the best way to progress in that game is to fail - from failure they need how to move ahead. Too often we discount failure as a learning tool - but today's students are much more comfortable with failure since they know that the entire process is a learning process - from start to finish. Given that scenerio, we can see how gaming can be used to reinforce skills but also to acquire new skills or content along the way. Keep in mind that for the students they often say that the learning process is more important to them then the end result or acquired knowledge.

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We have already talked a bit today about parental viewpoints on gaming in education. One other way that you can build support is to collect student, teacher and parent data through the Speak Up surveys and use that data to build your case. Since we provide you with national data findings as well as your own local data, the value proposition for gaming is not just your own idea, but a national viewpoint. I have also thought for a while that we may need to do some semantics work on this - others are saying the same thing. Maybe "games" or "gaming" is not the right approach - I used gaming in a presentation recently and a school board member thought that I was talking about Las Vegas style gaming in school! I have been incorporating into my lingo terms such as "serious games" and "educational games" to reinforce the differences between the commercial products that are chiefly about entertainment and the new creative products that focus on learning outcomes.

The student safety issue is a big issue - for teachers, for parents, for schools. Please be aware however that many students are already playing online games from home without the same kinds of filters and firewalls that you have at school. The students we talk to universally say that adults are much more concerned with online safety than they are - and sure that is a typical student response. However, for the students they go further and say that they believe that the benefits far outweight the risks and they are willing to deal the challenges of the Internet to realize the much larger benefits. The students tell us that too often teachers, administrators and parents hide behind the safety issue when they don't want to deal with things like games in school. So, you won't get much empathy on your issue from your students! We all know that even the very best filters and firewalls will never protect 100% and so in addition to those tools, we always encourage schools and districts to teach students about responsible behavior and effective strategies for dealing with Internet safety issues. In this case as whenever you have students online, education is the real key to having a meaningful and safe online experience.

This is a big question for educators today. In fact, 46% of teachers in our surveys told us they needed/wanted professional development in this. I know that several sessions at this conference (and other annual ed tech conferences) are focused on helping teachers and administrators with pd for effective gaming use. Additionally, several of the nation's leading education technology groups have had or are planning on having webinars on this issue. Check our your professional associations as well. One word of caution however, look specifically for training sessions or pd that focus on strategies for incorporating or integrating the games into your curriculum - not just about how to play the game. Of course, many of the new educational game developers are incorporating training vehicles into their products.

You are right. I think many of us have "seen this movie before!" We still have a long way to go in terms of having gaming embraced as an part of our teaching tool box. Why is this the case with gaming and other useful tools? Here are a couple of thoughts from my experiences: We as an education community need to be more willing to take risks on these kinds of new technologies and to evaluate them directly in the classroom for impact. Of course that also means that we need a school or district culture that embraces continuous improvement and risk taking as a means of growth - and I know that is a tall order in many places. Increasingly I am asked this question: what needs to be done to effectively use technology in our schools to drive student achievement? My answer is always the same - regardless of what kind of technology or innovation we are talking about: We need visonary administrators and leaders who have the courage to really lead. We can have all of the funding we desire, all of the technology we can dream up, but without true 21st century leadership, we will have continue to have the same discussions year after year without any movement in the right direction. We need a new breed of leader in our schools and districts to drive a new kind of educational process.

I am not aware of a checklist or overall criteria to use for evaluating games or simulations in general. I know that in the context of certain academic areas, some of the associations have developed some criteria for their own members. Does anyone else know of a general checklist or criteria? I would be interested in seeing what was included on that list to see if items were adult centric or truly reflected the students' point of view.

I have a standard practice not to specifically recommend certain products. But if I was interested in seeing what products other schools/districts are using, I would participate in some of the workshops or sessions being held here at the conference and talk first hand with the administrators and teachers from those districts about their experiences - look for the sessions where the administrators and teachers are the lead presenters. Tomorrow morning, I am moderating a mini-academy here about gaming and we are going to have a great set of panelists. Some of those panelists are game developers and the format of the mini academy lends itself well to some deeper conversations. Of course, there is always the exhibit floor also!

Like all kinds of other technology products, costs are all over the board. From a budgeting standpoint, my recommendation is the same for games as other technologies - be creative! If the value is there for you, find alternative funding strategies until you can justify line items in your budgets. A great site for finding grants for technology at your school (including funding for games) is GrantWrangler. Check it out - it is specifically designed to help educators find creative sources of funding.

Thanks so much for joining us today - this has been fun with lots of interesting questions. And I would love to continue this conversation with all of you if you are interested. Email me at jevans@tomorrow.org or visit our blog at www.tomorrow.org. Have a great conference!