We couldn’t resist sharing this fascinating and compelling argument for games and the gamers who play them, which just so happens to be, nearly everyone. Did you know your surgeon is likely to preform procedures with 37% fewer errors if they’re a gamer? And that games are improving literacy, helping us get over our phobias, treating severe burn victims, even strengthening our marriages!

We’re clearly pro-game at Nukotoys and this infographic illuminates all the more reasons to be so. 

Source: Frugal Dad

Excerpt from: Digging Into Apple’s U.S. Job Creation Engine | NBC San Diego by Stewart Wolpin of NBC News.

Source: Digging Into Apple’s U.S. Job Creation Engine | NBC San Diego 

Blended learning is a disruptive innovation in education that can take many forms.

Here, we look at what blended learning is, why it’s spreading, and how it works in real and virtual classrooms. 

It’s difficult to argue against the use of technology in education, especially in the 21st Century classroom, where kids must learn to communicate and engage in a globalized world. Internet and tech, at the forefront of educational access and reform, provide an infinite amount of resources, tools, and vehicles for teachers and students alike. The potential is immeasurable, and the innovative examples of teachers integrating iPads and apps flourish across the social networks as we share what works, and sometimes what doesn’t. 

Some of the most outspoken critics in the Edutech space center on gaming, frequently correlating violent playground behavior with the violent games kids are playing at home. It is an argument that tends to reinforce the belief that games have no place in the classroom. 

While we’re not an educational software company, at Nukotoys we’re focused on bridging the positive effects of both real-world play with the benefits of digital —the collaboration, strategizing, and inherent social benefits of not just play with one another, but the sharing and promoting of each other’s achievements. 

The following infographic illustrates our optimism for the potential of games in the classroom. What if we can bridge the educational and enriching games kids play in the classroom, with what they take home? The world spends 3 billion hours a week playing video and computer games. As parents, caregivers, and educators, let’s make those hours count. 

Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

We have had fantastic showings throughout the 2012 Toy Fair season, beginning in Hong Kong and moving through London and Nuremburg to New York. The overriding trend at each of these international toy fairs is the merging of Apps that interoperate with physical toys: 

“A funny thing happened at [New York] Toy Fair this week. Not funny as in funny toys or funny games, but funny as in a sudden but fundamental shift in how we will play from now on.  Toy giants such as Hasbro and Mattel, middling companies trying to find profitable new niches and new companies all are creating a new type of product — apps (some Android, most Apple iOS) combined to interact with some sort of physical real-life objects to create a new virtual play experience…

Nukotoys is perhaps the poster child for this new Apple-generated toy economy. Nukotoys is a new company led by former high-level executives from Silicon Valley and the toy, gaming and trading card businesses.”

Source: Digging Into Apple’s U.S. Job Creation Engine | NBC San Diego 

For all of the excitement around Apps and toys, Nukotoys won the day at each of the fairs, as perhaps best expressed by a Sr. Marketing Manager of Flair, one of Britain’s largest toy distributors (owned by Giochi Preziosi, Europe’s largest toy company):

“Nuko had an unprecedented reaction at Toy Fair. I’ve never seen a product range which has universally been received in such a positive manner in the ten plus years I’ve been in the toy industry.  Both retailers and licensors cannot wait to start working on this range as the potential for Nuko is almost unlimited.

With ‘app toys’ being the vogue of 2012 and it seems like almost every toy company having one; Nuko is really a cut above the rest.  Standard ‘app toys’ seem clunky and outdated by comparison.  The relationship between Nuko and the smart device has been really well thought through aiding and increasing play rather driving it.  

With pricing being set at such a low entry point Nuko knocks the socks off the competition.  The average app toy starts at £20 and the targeted retail is only a tenth of that!  This allows children to spend their pocket money on Nuko driving massive potential for repeat purchases rather than just be a ‘special occasion’ gift.”

Nukotoys CTO, Mike North interviews at Screenburn Arcade at SXSW 2012!

After meeting with Nukotoys at the New York Toy Fair, Parenting Magazine awarded Monsterology NUKO™ “Best in Play Toy Fair 2012”

Check out @AnneCollier (Anne Collier)! She is part of #Nukotoys’s Parents@Play advisory board. Anne is a wife, mother of two sons, an esteemed new media journalist, and co-chair of President Obama’s “Online Safety & Technology Working Group”.  NetFamilyNews.org is a news site about kid-tech for parents.

You can learn about Nukotoys at Nukotoys.com, and read more about Parents@Play on our blog: http://www.nukotoys.com/news/parents-play-success-2/

We’re so happy to have Anne as part of the team!