Games That Make You Smarter

AnnMaria

This category is for posts written by Dr. AnnMaria De Mars.

Jenn and Julia, two children I produced by having sex — No, this isn’t that kind of post. I do want to talk about virtual reality, though. I was reading on twitter comments from people who said, “There are only two kinds of people: those who think virtual reality will change the world and those who haven’t tried it yet.” […]

Virtual Reality and Sex

March 17, 2016 in AnnMaria / Educational Games by AnnMaria De Mars

book — Note: While this is a positive review of a resource, no one paid me to write it and I would not know the founders of livebinders if they charged at me with a sharp stick. I just thought I’d provide a helpful suggestion to readers of this blog who are […]

A tool for teachers (and students): livebinders

March 16, 2016 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM by AnnMaria De Mars

map — Where are all of the good educational games? Seriously, if you compare the games used in an average classroom and mainstream games like Grand Theft Auto or World of Warcraft, there is a pretty dramatic difference. Don’t even go with the GTA and WoW and other games with a seven-figure […]

Why We Can’t Have Nice Things in Educational Gaming

March 15, 2016 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Educational Games by AnnMaria De Mars

rabbit — TRUE STORY: When I was in the seventh grade, our school had a speech contest. I wanted to win simply because I was that obnoxious kid who had to win EVERYTHING. So, I worked really hard, did research, followed the exact format, practiced in front of a mirror, all of […]

Ed Tech, Investors and Bunnies

March 14, 2016 in AnnMaria / Education: Innovation and STEM / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Going through our archives, we came across this great post from May 20, 2014 “Is Social Media a Waste of Time?” that we wanted to share in case you missed it the first time around. I was asked to comment on how my use of social media contributed to my career as […]

Throwback Thursday: Is Social Media a Waste of Time?

March 10, 2016 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Throwback Thursday tagged AnnMaria De Mars / Dr. AnnMaria De Mars / Social Media / Throwback Thursday by Erick Salomon

Going through our archives, we came across this great post from April 16, 2014 “The Benefits of Being Uncool” that we wanted to share in case you missed it the first time around. Tom Peters has written quite a bit about the huge market opportunities in providing goods and services designed for […]

Throwback Thursday: The Benefits of Being Uncool

March 3, 2016 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Throwback Thursday tagged AnnMaria De Mars / Educational Games / Start-Up / Throwback Thursday / Uncool by Erick Salomon

Going through our archives, we came across this great post from March 28, 2014 “My best advice to myself” that we wanted to share in case you missed it the first time around. Sometimes, like Alice in Wonderland, I give myself very good advice. Unlike Alice, though, I occasionally take […]

Throwback Thursday: My Best Advice To Myself

February 25, 2016 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Throwback Thursday tagged Advice / Dr. AnnMaria De Mars / Life / Life Lesson / Throwback Thursday by Erick Salomon

Door leading into the jungle — We’re knocking off the last few edits on our grant proposal, we completed the pretest of math scores with 125 students with another 150 to take the test next week. We have hundreds of players participating in the beta tests for Forgotten Trail and Aztech. So, now that we have […]

The week of 1,000 changes

February 21, 2016 in AnnMaria / Game Progress / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Iowa map, with corn inset — I don’t think a lot of video games are set in Iowa. Our game under development, Aztech, begins in Iowa. We didn’t pick Iowa for any specific reason. We just wanted a state that was rural and far away from central America. Very early in the game, our heroes are […]

Here’s to you, Iowa

February 19, 2016 in AnnMaria / Game Progress / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Going through our archives, we came across this great post from February 27, 2014 “Taking All of your Children to Work Days; My Take Away From Let’s Move” that we wanted to share in case you missed it the first time around. When I add up all of the ad […]

Throwback Thursday: Taking All Of Your Children To Work Days; ...

February 18, 2016 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Throwback Thursday tagged Children to Work Days / Dr. AnnMaria De Mars / Sam Kass / Throwback Thursday by Erick Salomon

house — So … this is what I am working on today …. In short, and this is a rant for another day, we found through our pretests that the average student needed FAR more remedial help in mathematics than we had expected. Each time you go up a level in the […]

Game Design: Reusable Code, Part 1

February 17, 2016 in AnnMaria / Code Talk / Game Progress / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars

Dog — If you are thinking of joining a start-up, take this advice to heart: There is no room for specialists here! This weekend (yes, I know it is the weekend and Valentine’s Day, but we’re a start-up) – as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted – this weekend, […]

Variety is the spice of start-up life

February 16, 2016 in 7GenGames / AnnMaria / Start-up Diaries by AnnMaria De Mars