GLS NewsBytes: Game teachers undergrads research skills and WoW kicks up the difficulty
Video game teaches research skills to undergrads
Many undergraduates come to college having used little more than Google searches and Wikipedia when it comes to research methods. The complicated databases and myriad of academic journals in university libraries are often intimidating and difficult to navigate. A team of researchers in the School of Information at the University of Michigan set out to provide a solution that is both accessible and useful to universities across the country. Their answer to the issue? A video game. It’s called Bibliobouts, and it consists of four different sections covering collecting sources, selecting the best sources, rating and tagging opponents' sources, and compiling a final bibliography of best sources from everyone’s pool of resources.
Read more about Bibliobouts on Psysorg and check out the game on their website.
Sony UK exec pushes for games and technology in schools
Sony UK’s top executive Ray Maguire is pushing for video games to be integrated into the curriculum of schools throughout the United Kingdom. Recognizing that the weakened economy has potentially slowed the introduction of new technologies in schools, Maguire believes that the time is right for the games industry and government to collaborate and commit to funding technology in schools. Among other trends Sony would like to see are more game design courses in the universities and and increase in tax credits for game development studios.
Read more on GamePolitics and if you happen to have a log-in for Gameindustry.biz, get the full story there.
Blizzard commits to more difficult end-game content
Since many of the GLSers play and even research World of Warcraft, we like to keep up-to-date with chatter about our favorite MMO. World of Warcraft players have amassed on online forums to discuss the changes and differences they’ve observed in the game following the newest expansion, Cataclysm. Among the most discussed topics is the increased difficulty of the dungeons, especially for raids and heroic instances. Many players have registered their complaints, but others welcome the new challenge as an opportunity to test their skills and develop new strategies and tactics. According to the developers, they plan to keep this end-game content as it is, opting not to decrease or “nerf” the difficulty.
Read the full story on Game Informer and check out a more in-depth blog post from the Blizzard developers on the official World of Warcraft site .
