The innovative and creative games in Learning to Play, Playing to Learn foster social skills to help young people deal with conflict without resorting to violence. It guides parents and educators in helping children identify their own set of values and feelings while playing with others. It also discusses several ways to modify popular games to encourage fairness and trust in children and encourages the use of healthy play techniques to increase self-esteem, cooperation, personal responsibility, and emotional and physical health.
When trainers use games, learners win big. As a trainer interested in game design, you know that games are more effective than lectures. You've seen firsthand how immersive games hold learners' interest, helping them explore new skills and experience different points of view. But how do you become the Milton Bradley of learning games? Play to Learn is here to help. This book bridges the gap between instructional design and game design; it's written to grow your game literacy and strengthen crucial game design skills. Experts Sharon Boller and Karl Kapp share real examples of in-person and online games, and offer an online game for you to try as you read. They walk you through evaluating entertainment and learning games, so you can apply the best to your own designs. Play to Learn will also show you how to: Link game design to your business needs and learning objectives. Test your prototype and refine your design. Deploy your game to motivated and excited learners. So don't just play around. Think big, design well, and use Play to Learn as your guide.
Everyone has fears. A fear of the dark, a fear of heights, or even a fear of the unknown can make leading an otherwise normal life difficult. But what if you were afraid not of the dark or of heights-but of other people? What if you were overcome with paralyzing terror and even pushed to the brink of sickness each time you talked with another person-even though you wanted more than anything to be with and enjoy the company of that person? In Learning to Play the Game: My Journey through Silence, author Jonathan Kohlmeier shares a coming-of-age memoir of his young life living with selective mutism-an extreme form of social anxiety. At first as a child being so afraid that he could barely speak outside of the home, Jon's story of struggle turns triumph as he is eventually able to join the debate team in high school. From the start of his journey in kindergarten to his high school graduation, Jon chronicles his desire to be "normal"-whatever that means. 2018 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist
Learning Through Play translates the theory of play into practice while seamlessly integrating the Australian Curriculum, government policy and current trends. It aims to create a shared understanding of play and play-based pedagogies that positively influence the everyday practices of educators and improve the learning experiences of children. The book extensively covers the various contexts that children may engage with during the early years - the period from birth to age 8. Learning Through Play is structured to complement the Early Years Learning Framework and early childhood education studies. It begins by drawing on theories to discuss the centrality of play to children's development and learning, then delves into the practicalities and challenges of implementing these play-based approaches, and finally discusses the future of play in early childhood contexts. With several learning features that blend theory, context and practical skills, Learning Through Play will not only help pre-service teachers to understand play in principle and in practice, but also to advocate articulately for play-based approaches.
In this textbook the author takes as inspiration recent breakthroughs in game playing to explain how and why deep reinforcement learning works. In particular he shows why two-person games of tactics and strategy fascinate scientists, programmers, and game enthusiasts and unite them in a common goal: to create artificial intelligence (AI). After an introduction to the core concepts, environment, and communities of intelligence and games, the book is organized into chapters on reinforcement learning, heuristic planning, adaptive sampling, function approximation, and self-play. The author takes a hands-on approach throughout, with Python code examples and exercises that help the reader understand how AI learns to play. He also supports the main text with detailed pointers to online machine learning frameworks, technical details for AlphaGo, notes on how to play and program Go and chess, and a comprehensive bibliography. The content is class-tested and suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on artificial intelligence and games. It's also appropriate for self-study by professionals engaged with applications of machine learning and with games development. Finally it's valuable for any reader engaged with the philosophical implications of artificial and general intelligence, games represent a modern Turing test of the power and limitations of AI.
Picking up a Guitar and Making Beautiful Music Is a Great Feeling Whether you’re young or old, there’s no better feeling than learning to play an instrument. Sadly, most people believe that they will never learn how to play Guitar. Local guitar teachers seem like a great option at first, but you could risk getting stuck with a wannabe rock star who can't really teach you. Or you could try YouTube but most of those videos go way too fast and they don't teach you the right way to play. Too many people start with bad guitar lessons, get frustrated and give up. Forget about boring theory and repetitive exercises. What you need is a solid guide that was made for beginners and taught by experts. Using this book, beginners can start playing songs right away through mastering the fundamentals in easy step-by-step lessons. Go from knowing nothing about the guitar and learning to play songs everybody loves in just weeks...Even if you've never touched a guitar before or have no musical knowledge. In this book you will discover: Chords That Will Allow You To Easily Play Millions Of Songs Common Challenges When Learning to Play the Guitar & How to Overcome Them Music Theory - Made Fun & Easy! How to Pick a Great Guitar for a Beginner (avoid this mistake) How to Tune Your Guitar Struggling With Strumming? Learn The Best Exercises Create Fast & Heavy Riffs Like Metallica With Power Chords Improvisation Tips That Will Take From An Average To An Awesome Guitar Player Prevent Bad Habits & Get Fast Results 8 Guitar Chords You Must Know Learn Funk, Blues, Rock, Acoustic And Many More Styles From Guitar Legends …and much, much more! Imagine being the star at the party where everyone loves you for your new musical talent. Whether you've had dreams of becoming a rock star or you just want to learn to play your favorite songs for friends and family. What are you waiting for? Try it out! Learn To Play The Guitar With This Book
In Play=Learning, top experts in child development and learning contend that in over-emphasizing academic achievement, our culture has forgotten about the importance of play for children's development.
The mind-set that has dominated the history of computer game playing relies on straightforward exploitation of the available computing power. The fact that a machine can explore millions of variations sooner than the sluggish human can wink an eye has inspired hopes that the mystery of intelligence can be cracked, or at least side-stepped, by sheer force. Decades of the steadily growing strength of computer programs have attested to the soundness of this approach. It is clear that deeper understanding can cut the amount of necessary calculations by orders of magnitude. The papers collected in this volume describe how to instill learning skills in game playing machines. The reader is asked to keep in mind that this is not just about games -- the possibility that the discussed techniques will be used in control systems and in decision support always looms in the background.
‘Play is the highest form of research’, said Albert Einstein. Based on the theory of ‘Multiple Intelligences’, this book is a journey to the child and with the child and an answer to the prayer of a parent who wants to raise a genius or a teacher who wants to make every day count. Filled with over 250 fun, unique, creative, hands-on activities, to introduce and reinforce literacy, numeracy and STEAM concepts for the early years. It’s time to set aside the boring printed worksheets and provide children with priceless lifelong learning experiences because we must remember that ‘play’ is the only work of a child. Fun filled educational activities that can be done with: Minimal preparation time for busy parents and teachers Readily available day to day materials Easy recipes for slime and play dough
