Wizard101 creators Todd Coleman and Josef Hall of KingsIsle Entertainment will be the keynote speakers at the sixth annual Digital Kids Conference, a two-day event that purports to provide companies with "the critical information they need to reach digital kids and connected youth through online and mobile technologies." Speakers from the NFL, Spin Master, Cartoon Network, Ubisoft, SOE, Cookie Jar, and many others will also deliver talks April 25-26, 2012 in Los Angeles.

The Princeton Review released its third annual list of the best school to pursue an education in video game design. The latest list, the "Top Schools to Study Video Game Design for 2012," recommends a total of 50 schools. The full report on the 2012 list is available at princetonreview.com.

If you were looking to get your hands on a Raspberry Pi on launch day, you are out of luck. Within hours of announcing that the Model B version of the credit card-sized computers was available for pre-order, it sold out. The Raspberry Pi Foundation chose two UK resellers - Premier Farnell and RS Components - who have closed pre-orders in favor of taking your email so it can inform you when more are in stock,

A Paramus, New Jersey history teacher has developed a simple video game to help teach his students about the American Revolutionary War. History teacher David Alloco's game is called Choosing Sides: The American Revolution in Bergen County. In the game players take on the role of Hackensack resident John Van Dunk, during the beginning of the American Revolutionary War.

The Massachusetts Digital Games Institute (MassDiGI) revealed a new program for students looking to jump into the wonderful world of game development called the MassDiGI Summer Innovation Program. The summer program, which will being in May at Becker College (Worcester, Mass), will be preceded by the MassDiGI Game Challenge competition being held April 13-15.

Sony Online Entertainment is accepting applications and submissions today for its 2012 Gamers in Real Life (G.I.R.L.) Game Design Competition. In its fifth year, the G.I.R.L. program grants scholarships to four winners through the Game Design Competition.

The University of Minnesota has developed an online video game called Distraction Dodger, which teaches young drivers about the dangers of doing stupid things while driving. You know, eating, drinking, using your cell phone, texting - those kinds of things. In the game, players drive a virtual pizza delivery truck with the goal of delivering those pizzas while facing a number of distractions like eating and using a cell phone. At the end of the game session, the player is given feedback on how they did.

Former Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) President Joseph Olin has been appointed Executive Director of The International Digital Media & Arts Association (iDMAa). In this new role, Olin is charged with taking the association in a new strategic direction as a "champion for educators and creators in the growing digital media arts arena. Olin previously led the Academy of Interactive Arts as president and during his tenure grew the membership from 3,000 to 20,000.

Phaedra Boinodiris, serious games program manager at IBM, writes a guest editorial on Forbes exploring the way that games can be used to energize and enhance other things besides research projects. The point of her editorial is that researchers have been helped greatly by games created to solve problems that take advantage of "collective intelligence," and global participation.

Add-A-Tudez Entertainment Company and Team KAIZEN won a grant from HASTAC and The MacArthur Foundation to develop educational levels using the PlayStation 3 game LittleBigPlanet 2 (www.littlebigplanet.com). The levels created by the team have since went live among the over five million user created levels that are already free to play in the LittleBigPlanet Community.

Scientists are using a web-based video game to entice gamers to assist them in the study of genetic diseases.

The game, called Phylo and launched in November 2010, allows players to rearrange colored blocks that represent human DNA. Scientists have been studying the results and will release their findings soon. 

Indie game studio Size Five Games has won a BAFTA for controversial sex education game, Privates. The game won the Learning Secondary BAFTA.

"It’s a complete honor and a total shock,” Size Five’s Dan Marshall said about receiving the coveted award that honors the best and brightest entertainment that the United Kingdom has to offer. "I was excited enough about being able to start all my Press Releases from now on with the words ‘BAFTA-nominated’, but winning one is a whole other level."

While those who don't know anything at all about video games are quick to use them as an excuse for many of society’s ills (crime, violence, obesity, attention deficit and a myriad of psychological disorders), now everyone thinks they are bad. In fact a growing number of academics see the value in video games as teaching aids. For example, a Yale professor is trying to use them to teach sex education.

North Carolina State University researchers have received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation to develop a video game to improve computer science knowledge retention in middle school students. If the video game proves to be successful, it could be used nationally, according to North Carolina State University researchers.

Kids love Minecraft so it seems only right that they should be able to buy it on the cheap to learn something in school, right? Well Minecraft developer Mojang has teamed up with TeacherGaming, LLC to create MinecraftEdu.

MinecraftEdu is described as a "collaboration of a small team of educators and programmers from the United States and Finland who are working with Mojang to make the game "affordable and accessible to schools everywhere." This team has created a suite of tools that make it easy to unlock the power of Minecraft in the classroom.

Students studying criminal justice at Fox Valley Technical College (Oshkosh, WI.) will use a first-person simulator game next semester to train for various hypothetical policing scenarios - from domestic disputes to lost children and traffic stops.

"It's a first-person perspective on interacting with a virtual crime scene," said FVTC Vice President for Instruction Chris Matheny. "Students will walk through this virtual environment in order to practice these (law enforcement) skills before applying them, ultimately, in the real world."

Microsoft has teamed up with such brands as Sesame Street, National Geographic, and leading academics and learning research institutions to deliver new ways to learn using the Xbox 360 and its full-body motion sensing technology to deliver new ways to learn for young children.

A new video game called Focus Pocus hopes to help children suffering from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by having them control their game characters with their brain waves through 12 mini-games. The game incorporates a real-time electroencephalography (commonly referred to as EEG, or defined as "recording electrical activity along the scalp") headset to measure and improve impulse control, memory, attention and relaxation in children.

NASA has released an interactive educational video game today called NetworKing that its Space Communication and Navigation (SCaN) network operates. The release of the video game coincides with the close of World Space Week, Oct. 4-10. Developed by the Information Technology Office at NASA's Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, California, its developers say that NetworKing gives players an insider's perspective into how astronauts, mission controllers and scientists communicate during space missions.

GDC Online parent company UBM TechWeb Game Network debuts a browser-based game commissioned by Web Wise Kids (WWK), a non-profit organization that promotes and fosters the discussion of child safety online. The free title is called Passing The Ball and is created by indie game creator Gregory Weir (The Majesty Of Colors). It's an action game that follows a parent and their child as they learn an important lesson about working together.

The White House announced this afternoon that First Lady Michele Obama will speak at a press event on Monday, September 26 at 4:00 PM about the importance of supporting women and young ladies as they pursue vocations in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).

Retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has teamed up with the Verizon Foundation to celebrate Constitution Day by launching a national contest for middle schools students. The goal of the contest is ultimately to teach youngsters about the importance of our country's most important document and about the important role of civics in modern society.

Portal, Valve’s ultra popular and internet meme-generating first-person puzzle platformer, is available for free on Steam for PC and Mac until September 20th.

Those of you who insist on questioning a good thing may be interested to know that Valve hopes this short promotion will show educators how valuable video games can be in the classroom.

A new research project from the University of the Fraser Valley (Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada) uses video games to help test the motor skills of children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (or FASD). UFV has been running the after-school program, FAST Club, for children with FASD for the past three years. But this year brings a new element to the program - video games. The after-school video game program called BrainGamers Club helps children with FASD work on their motor skills and gaming skills, and measures whether the impact of these activities cross over into other areas.

Entertainment Software Association (ESA) president and CEO Michael Gallagher went before the United States House of Representatives' Committee on Science, Space, and Technology to promote the use of video games and game-like technologies for educational purposes. The talk, entitled "STEM in Action: Inspiring the Science and Engineering Workforce of Tomorrow," was meant to emphasize the fact that games are very effective in encouraging children to pursue careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).

This week the White House will launch what it calls the "Digital Promise Initiative," a gathering to promote breakthroughs in education and learning technologies. The event revolves around the national center created by Congress to advance breakthrough technologies that will improve America's education system will be launched on Friday, September 16, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at 10 a.m.

A new game engine technology designed to teach children in the United Kingdom the basics of game design was built using the UNITY game engine. The design makes it easy for young people to learn some fundamentals about game design while at the same time removing the technical barriers - such as programming - that might keep beginners away. The technology is endorsed by BAFTA, EA, NESTA and Abertay University.

Intel's marketing manager for South Africa, Ntombezinhle Modiselle, wants to bring games into local classrooms and she's using volumes of research to prove that it's a good idea.

"Today's learners are the gamer generation. They have grown up with technology and social networking. That's why it's only natural that today's more tech-savvy educators are recognising the potential of using games as a teaching device in their classrooms," said Modiselle.

Atari founder and game industry legend Nolan Bushnell thinks his new education program Speed to Learn, can cut down the time it takes to complete high school - using his software and cloud computing.

Two iPhone games produced in 12 working days during UK event Gamer Camp: Nano are now available on the Apple App Store. The games were built during a month-long game developer training course at Birmingham City University. The game are free to download. The two games, They Came From the Deep and Aliens vs. Humans, were created by thirteen trainee artists and programmers working together in teams. The one month course is a scaled down version of the full 12-month long Masters version of the course, Gamer Camp: Pro, which starts in September.