Scholastic Art & Writing Awards has just announced their National Winners and Finalists and I’m so pleased to say that several Globaloria students are 2015 winners for the Video Game Category! The Globaloria winners are Alexis Mondragon Martinez, Julio Anguiano, Marcelo Arpero and Isaac Shephard, who created the game, “All About The Solar System” in their Globaloria class at East Austin College Prep Academy (MLK) in Austin, TX and Edward Rinaldo from Herman Intermediate School, who created the game, “Quadractic Time”.

Since 1923, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards have recognized the vision, ingenuity, and talent of our nation’s youth, and provided opportunities for creative teens to be celebrated. Each year, increasing numbers of teens participate in the program, and become a part of our community–young artists and writers, filmakers and photographers, poets, and sculptors, along with countless educators who support and encourage the creative process.I’m so proud of the accomplishments has made by learning computer science and expressing their creativity and skills through game design.

My company, Globaloria, co-sponsored the Austin Education Game Jam (March 7-14), a professional game development contest inspiring the creation of high quality and commercially viable video games for education. It was inspiring to see game developers make mobile and online games with education focus. This competition continues the White House Game Jam and President Obama’s vision that education should be fun, interactive, and always evolving with students’ needs. Scott Lipton (Network Director of South/Central, Globaloria) organized it in collaboration with Erik Martin (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Education Technology), Sean Duffy (Founder, EdTech Austin), Chelsea Biggerstaff (STEM Programs Coordinator, Skillpoint Alliance), Drew Scheberle (Senior Vice President, Austin Chamber of Commerce) and their fellow colleagues. The Austin Game Jam launch at Capital Factory. After a week, finalists and winners were announced at the Geek Stage of the Gaming Expo at SXSWInteractive. The Austin gaming community came together to participate in the development of new, high-quality games for education. Sharing events from the week that started at SXSWedu and ended at SXSWInteractive.

Good day #austin! Getting ready for #austineducationgamejam w @eriklaes of @OfficeofEdTech & @slipton of @globaloria pic.twitter.com/7YKvOQwNoe

— Idit Harel (@Idit) March 7, 2015

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Digital Learning Day is here! Globaloria schools, educators and students will be joining the Digital Learning Day 2015 celebration on March 13, 2015!

Started in 2012, Digital Learning Day has provided a powerful venue for education leaders to highlight great teaching practices and showcase innovative teachers, leaders and instructional technology programs that are improving student outcomes. This grassroots effort blossomed into a massive nationwide celebration as teachers realized that Digital Learning Day is not about technology, it’s about learning. Digital Learning Day promotes the effective use of modern day tools afforded to every other industry to improve the learning experience in K-12 public schools. I’m happy to be celebrating this nationwide event and re-confirm the Globaloria’s mission to engage millions of students in digital learning! My congratulations to Bob Wise (President, Alliance for Excellent Education) and his team for putting on a great celebration.

.@Globaloria students in Tygarts Valley Middle & High School, WV participating in Digital Learning Day! #DLDay pic.twitter.com/c1z8ibK0pA

— globaloria (@globaloria) March 13, 2015