November 4, 2008:
We are in the news, again. 
This time, Channel 3 called us up because they wanted to do a coverage about the 2008 Pew Internet Report found that nearly all teenagers play video game (99% boys and 97% girls). (Nothing surprising here: give the girls and boys a NDS or a PSP, who won’t play it? This is the United States, after all!)
Overview
The first national survey of its kind finds that virtually all American teens play computer, console, or cell phone games and that the gaming experience is rich and varied, with a significant amount of social interaction and potential for civic engagement. The survey was conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, an initiative of the Pew Research Center and was supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The primary findings in the survey of 1,102 youth ages 12-17 include –
Game playing is universal, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day. Game playing experiences are diverse, with the most popular games falling into the racing, puzzle, sports, action and adventure categories.
Game playing is also social, with most teens playing games with others at least some of the time and can incorporate many aspects of civic and political life.
Another major findings is that game playing sometimes involves exposure to mature content, with almost a third of teens playing games that are listed as appropriate only for people older than they are.
[Download the Pew Report: Teens, Video Games and Civics here.]
Interestingly, too, is my new team, which have one new undergraduate who is a girl. They really latched on to her for most of the report. Never meet a gamer girl before? Here she is! 
July 13, 2007:
We are on TV! For this year’s game modding class (CI498N), I have decided to use Neverwinter Nights 2. Even though the game is more demanding on the hardware (one student ended up dropping the class because the laptop she purchased would not run the game). But overall, the class went very well, and the resources I gathered was sufficient to run the class. This has become my favorite class…
Our Video game class made it to Heartland News this evening! You can see some of my students in the video clips. [Check out the video feed (video feed no longer available, Nov 2007)]
Teachers Mod Squad: JaeHwan Byun, Brian Murley (Giant City School), and me
Video games teach kids in the classroom
Arnold Wyrick (July 6, 2007, 06:55 PM)
CARBONDALE, Ill. – The video gaming industry outsells movies in Hollywood. Now a professor at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale is trying to tap into the gaming craze by using video games to teach kids math, science and their A-B-C’s.”This is the gaming generation that has grown up playing games. Even the teachers themselves have grown up playing games. The idea of using video gaming is more acceptable to them,” said Dr. Christian Loh, assistant professor of Instructional Design and Technology at SIU.
His students are learning how to take a simply video game and incorporate learning tutorials for virtually any subject.
“If you can have the teaching material presented in a video format they will be more interested to try them out. Rather than sitting in a class and watching a Powerpoint presentation or a lesson on a dry erase board,” Dr. Loh said.
And as often as kids these days go online or turn on their X-boxes and PlayStations to play a video game in a virtual world, that world may soon become a real world teaching them in the classroom.
“Much more research is needed on this matter,” said Loh. “But we are hoping that with more research into video games that it could be used more efficiently in school and in learning. And that we’ll be able to ‘recapture education.’”
It’s a quest that Dr. Loh and his students at SIU are already on. Dr. Loh is working on developing a college class for a degree in video gaming programming.
[N.B. There is only one thing I would change: Dr. Loh is working on developing a college class for a degree in video gaming programing degree program with Instructional Gaming minor.]