Jason Sellers and class onscreen at
the French American International School, San Francisco, CA.

Jason Sellers wanted his 10th-grade English students at the French American International School to improve their descriptive writing skills. So, while subbing for a fellow teacher earlier this year, he launched a three-day classroom project—on writing code.

Sellers, the San Francisco school’s academic technology coordinator and the technology liaison for the University of California Berkeley’s Bay Area Writing Project, says, “You hear a lot about gaming and engaging kids in STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] subjects, and I wondered, what does gaming look like in English?”

For three days Sellers found out, adopting interactive fiction as his vehicle. As opposed to programming code such as Java or C++, interactive fiction sites use a pseudo code that’s only recognizable inside a particular game, which organizes the language into commands and variables that tells the game what to do. It’s the principles of code writing, but with more latitude; by stringing together words, kids can create an interactive world, which comes to life onscreen. One of Sellers’ students calls it “3-D writing.”

Lessons are based in Playfic, an online community where users write, share, and play games using Inform 7, a programming system for creating interactive fiction based on natural language. Games are simple to play—users just click and write as they would a text message. While low on graphics and sound, the games can nevertheless be engrossing.

Having played Zork games on a used Commodore 64 when he was a kid, Sellers had some experience with interactive fiction. Even so, he had to spend the previous evening boning up before presenting his lesson to the class. And it was a hit. “It wasn’t just something for their teacher to assess and get a grade,” says Sellers. “They were creating a game for classmates to play and that was fun.”

Most games feature some simplistic narrative, such as rescuing a commando force from enemy fire. But writing narrative code as an English assignment—as opposed to writing code to create a narrative game—not only allows greater creativity in the game design process, but also enhances writing skills and text comprehension in a different genre—an aspect of the new Common Core State Standards.

“What Jason is doing is giving them more tools to create games as producers and not just as consumers,” says Paul Oh, senior program associate for the National Writing Project (NWP). “They’re being given the opportunity to understand the narrative of the game and how to construct their own narrative.”

After posting his project on NWP’s Digital Is site, Sellers has developed a bit of a following. He and four of his 10th graders recently attended the California Association of Teachers of English conference in Santa Clara to present the project, helping teachers in the room craft some code themselves.

Should he try the lesson again, Sellers says he would strengthen the emphasis on descriptive writing, as some of his students were more focused on building a playable game rather than creating a world through descriptive language. But did he feel he got them hooked into a new world of gaming?

“I’m competing with a lot of other ways to spend their free time,” he says. “But I think it’s pretty cool.”

Close the digital divide: The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) and Best Buy have become partners in attempting to close the digital divide for teens. Every time Best Buy Mobile opens a new location in the United States, YALSA will designate a public or school library in the vicinity to receive $2,000 from Best Buy to purchase digital library resources for teens. According to YALSA, that library will take part in a community celebration to promote the partnership. To help the designated libraries get training on how to best use the money they receive, YALSA is creating an online community for the recipients to share information and best practices.

“This partnership is so important to YALSA because it helps us make strides towards fulfilling our mission of expanding and strengthening library services for and with teens,” said Jack Martin, YALSA president. Best Buy Mobile specialty stores are usually located in shopping centers and malls and offer smartphones, tablets, accessories, services, and plans.

Video game challenge: The National STEM Video Game Challenge, presented by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and E-Line Media, is the perfect way to tap into your middle and high school students’ passion for playing video games. Now in its third year, the Challenge promotes science, technology, engineering, and math education. U.S. students in grades five to twelve, either individually or in teams of up to four students, can submit an original game concept and design through April 24, 2012. The games can be created using any game-making platform such as Gamestar Mechanic, Mirosoft’s Kodu, GameMaker, Scratch, or a written game design concept document. Be sure to check out all the rules and entry information.

Winners will receive an AMD-powered laptop computer loaded with game design and education software. Additionally, the school or non-profit organization designated by the winner will receive a donation of $2,000.

This year, the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) is joining returning sponsors: the AMD Foundation, Microsoft’s Xbox 360, the Entertainment Software Association, the Hive Digital Media Learning Fund in the New York Community Trust, BrainPOP, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting PBS KIIDS Ready to Learn Initiative, Learning Game Network, and Edmondo. As a new sponsor, IMLS is supporting the development of tools and online museum- and library-specific content to help these institutions help students create games. There will be 14 workshops held throughout the country, so make sure to check out the Game Design Workshop page.

Freebies

Interactive ebooks: Listen up, libraries with tight budgets. Capstone, a publisher of children’s books and digital products and services, is offering library customers free interactive ebooks for their library. All you have to do is order any of Capstone’s library products, including hardcover books from any of its imprints, PebbleGO, or Capstone Interactive Library interactive eBooks, and you can receive these free ebooks for your library. Customers who purchase $1,000 of any Capstone library product, can select 20 free interactive eBooks; those purchasing $2,000 of library products can select 50 free interactive eBooks. Use the promotion code “13CILANY” and place your order by May 1, 2013. “With over 2,000 interactive ebooks available, there’s plenty of choice,” said Matt Keller Capstone Chief Marketing Officer.

Publishing News

Acquisition: Dreamscape Media has acquired the iconographic book to video firm, Nutmeg Media. Its new owners will be responsible for the sales, marketing. and distribution of the entire Nutmeg Media catalog of 107 award-winning, book-based children’s video titles. “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to bring such a highly regarded line of video titles into our growing portfolio, and we’re hoping to introduce even more libraries to these wonderful programs,” said Brad Rose, Vice President of Dreamscape. “As we move forward and produce new video titles, we intend to continue the Nutmeg tradition of high-quality, award winning, iconographic video programming based on new children’s books.”

Star Wars: National Star Wars Reads Day is October 6. The event is an initiative of Lucasfilm and its publishing partners, Abrams, Chronicle Books, Dark Horse, Del Rey, DK, Scholastic, Titan Magazines, and Workman. Although the sign-up period to receive a free Star Wars event kit from the sponsors (1000 libraries signed up) has ended, there is another option available for libraries that want to participate in the event. ABDO Publishing is offering a free Star Wars event guide containing teacher’s guides, promotional posters, interviews with celebrities connected to the franchise, a list of nearly 300 Star Wars universe terms, a video of the event that was held in the Hennepin County Library in Minneapolis, and an order form for the 68 ABDO/Spotlight Star Wars library editions. You can also follow Star Wars Reads Day on Facebook.

Game On

Free online game: Electronic Arts’s Star Wars: The Old Republic, previously a subscription only massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), will be available online for free starting this fall. The free version allows players “to play free to Level 50, with game play restrictions that limit game options and access to certain game content,” according to Jeff Hickman, the game’s executive producer. Those who continue to subscribe for $15 per month will have free unlimited access to all game features and game updates. The publisher will rely on players buying premium content and virtual items to make money.

Digitally Yours

Multimedia ebooks: eBoost is ABDO Digital’s new multimedia line of flip book ebooks that are combined with related media links. Among the multimedia features of ABDO’s flip books is the ability for readers to turn pages and make them larger. Each ebook in the new eBoost line also includes Web links; downloadable content; embedded videos; RSS and/or Twitter feeds; notes and custom links fields for teacher comments, posting messages, and student assignments; and more. The eBoost titles, featuring secure Web-based hosting by ABDO, are compatible with Macs, PCs, iPads, and Android-based tablets such as Kindle Fire or the Nook. The new line is being launched with 164 titles for elementary through middle grade students. Titles can be ordered individually or in bundles such as Animal Kingdom, Body Systems, The Civil War, Planet Earth, and more. eBoost is sold as a site license with simultaneous access for multiple users.

Granted

Public awareness campaign: The 2013 Scholastic Library Publishing National Library Week Grant is an annual $3000 award open to all libraries. To apply for the grant, libraries must come up with a public awareness campaign using the National Library Week Theme—“Communities matter @ your library—and involving at least one other community organization. An application form and guidelines are available on the Scholastic Library Publishing National Library Week Grant website. The application deadline is September 30. The winner will be announced after the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Seattle in January 2013. The winner must provide documentation of their activities and submit a report to ALA’s Public Awareness Committee by May 20. The grant is sponsored by Scholastic Library Publishing and is administered by the Public awareness Committee of the American Library Association (ALA).

Read On

Literacy initiative: Author John Green, Michael L. Printz and Edgar Award winner, has been named the spokesperson for the 2012 Teen Read Week, a literacy initiative of the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). The theme of this year’s Teen Read Week—celebrated October 14-20—is “It Came from the Library!” “Getting more teens to pick up a book and make it a regular habit” is what Teen Read Week is all about says Jack Martin, YALSA president. Among his duties, Green will host a national event to kick off the celebration and will judge a contest in which teens are charged with creating a video about their favorite book.