One of the things that I think is great about our area are the local resources that directly relate to my position. Not only do we have excellent teacher colleges in our area, but we also have a top technical University. The combination of these two things makes the possible connections between technology and education a real possibility.

Once such thing that has interested me now for over a year may be coming up locally. Augmented Reality Games are games that are based within the real world. The concept has been used for education, viral marketing, Television, and just for fun. Now it seems that there might be a possibility of people in our area being able to participate in a similar experience. That's right Rochester Institute of Technology seems to being working on a ARG that focuses on a local newspaper. There aren't many details, but imagine students learning about local history within a similar context, or the array of other things that might be able to happen.

The reason that something like an Augmented Reality Game interests me is because it relates directly to students having to solve problems with in a context. So much of the learning within Education, especially in grades 7-12, happens within isolated from a context. Using something like a ARG to provide a different learning environment would be a fantastic idea! It would be such an excellent opportunity to have the ARG that RIT is planning to fall at some point during the Annual NYSCATE Statewide conference, so that educators might be able to see what opportunities this may afford, or at least know that it is happening.

I realize that this is indeed something that is time intensive to create, and time is something that most teachers don't have a lot of. However I would be curious to try to work with one or two higher educational institutions to really try this type of a concept. Gaming and the motivation behind games contains an interesting way to use the theory of gaming within education. The exploratory opportunities is what makes me the most interested.

If you are at all interested in looking at a few resources that I have found interesting in simply getting an idea of what is possible you can check out the following links.

• 42 Entertainment ARG Production Company
•  Wired Article Secret Websites, Coded Messages: The New World of Immersive Games, talks about Nine Inch Nails use of the medium
  
• Handhelds, Avatars, and Virtual Aliens by Chris Dede
• Mscape A tool for creating resources that might work for an ARG