LEARNING GAMES NETWORK: $200k to Learning Games Network from NewSchools Venture Fund. The five-year-old non-profit (which emerged from an older research group, MIT Education Arcade) was established with the goal of building the bridge between university research and marketplaces. The nonprofit's deliverables include: consumer-facing games (most recently ethical-thinking game, Quandary); a language-learning portal (supported by the Hewlett and Gates Foundations); and the Playful Learning Initiative, an online PD resource for teachers to learn and share best practices and critiques dealing with games. LGN also worked with BrainPOP to design and develop its GameUP portal. Executive director Alex Chisholm's take on the learning games space: "Everyone still has a bad taste in their mouths from where the CD-ROM education market has gone. But with the emergence of new communities of teachers--especially those who grew up playing games--and the arrival of tablets, we're seeing an explosion in different media opportunities in the landscape."
