Worldview: the game

I'm currently working on a quiz game that allows people to guess where a photo may have been taken. The objective of the game is to get people to think twice about some of the assumptions they may have of some of the countries they may have heard of. Here's a link to the current version of the quiz game:

http://www.darneldegand.com/ISG

Dr. Joey Lee from Teachers College is the adviser on this project.

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Not a new book, but definitely a must read for all kids (and adults). It was published a while ago (in 2001), but it is still relevant. Walter Dean Myers does an excellent job of entertaining while educating. He keeps it simple but explains a lot at the same time.

Free Rice game

For each answer you get right, they donate 10 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program: http://www.freerice.com/

Ayiti: The Cost of Life

Another interesting game: http://www.unicef.org/voy/explore/rights/explore_3142.html

September 12th

I've known about this game for a while but I kept on forgetting to post about it. You can visit the site here: http://www.newsgaming.com/games/index12.htm

The McDonald's Game

Another game I recently heard about. This aims to teach the player about the negative ways corporations like McDonalds affect society and the environment. Check it out here: http://www.mcvideogame.com/

G!RLPower Retouch

I heard about this site recently. It steps visitors through photo touch up process used by many photographers/magazines. Visit it here:
http://demo.fb.se/e/girlpower/section0/index.html

CUNY Queensborough ST100 Online Course

Here are some screenshots from a project I completed last summer for an online course that was offered this year at CUNY's Queensborough Community College. The course was titled ST100:Introduction to College Life. This was a very challenging project but fun project. I did all of the drawings by hand, scanned them in and then colored and animated them in flash.

Higher Learning

I was fortunate enough to have been asked to design the image on the cover of thie excellent book about excelling in college. Preview this excellent new book here:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/31514683/Excerpts-from-Higher-Learning

And purchase it for everyone you know who will be attending college this fall:
http://www.learnhigher.com

Sesame Street Nominated in Emmy Category Recognizing Use of New Media to Reach Viewers

Old news but still something I'm proud of being a part of:
http://www.sesameworkshop.org/newsandevents/pressreleases/emmys_newapproaches

While at Sesame Workshop I worked on almost all of the online games:
http://www.sesamestreet.org/games

Moral Development through Social Narratives and Game Design

It's been a while but I'm finally getting my life back. Although I haven't posted for almost half a year it's a positive thing because I've been really busy getting a lot of stuff done. I'll post all the work I've been involved in over the next several weeks. Today's post is about a chapter I co-authored with my classmate Lance Vikaros in a textbook about Gaming and Ethics. You can read the abstract below:

Morality originates in dispositions and attitudes formed in childhood and early adolescence. Fantasy play and both the perspective taking, and interpersonal negotiation of conflicts that it affords, have been causally linked to the development of moral reasoning and a theory of mind. A closer examination of the self-regulated processes involved implicates a number of contributing factors that video games and virtual worlds are well suited to encourage. The chapter presents recommendations suggesting the ways in which such technology can facilitate moral development by supporting and simulating diverse social interaction in ways leading to the promotion of self-efficacy, critical thinking, and consequential decision making.

The book is available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Ethics-Game-Design-Teaching-Through/dp/1615208453/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274303885&sr=8-10

Popular Facebook game FarmVille raises $487,500 for charity

Popular Facebook game, Farmville, successfully raises almost half a million dollars for a Haitian charity. You can read more about it here:
http://www.gamezebo.com/features/news/popular-facebook-game-farmville-raises-487500-charity

Hope Lab's Re-mission game

Hopelab (http://www.hopelab.org/) created a really good game that teaches players about cancer. You can download it for free from here: http://www.re-mission.net/site/game/downloads.php

Here are some screenshots of the game:

Sesame Street

Sesame Workshop is turning 40 years old and a lot of new work is being done to prepare for the 40th season of the US version of the television show. I say the US version because I didn't know Sesame Street was available in so many localized versions all over the world until I started working for them. In preparation for the celebration, we've launched a new website. It's still in beta mode but a lot of its features are already available. You can visit the site at: http://www.sesamestreet.org.

And If you're like me and did not know about all the other Sesame Street versions around the world, you can click on this link to learn more about all of the co-productions around the world: http://www.sesameworkshop.org/aroundtheworld

Warner Brother's Kenyan Pamoja Mtanni game

Warner Brothers is developing a game that will be used to help teach Kenyan citizens about HIV prevention. It's not out yet but you can learn more about it here:

http://hivfreegeneration.warnerbros.com/