Every day, I’m inspired by educators who innovate in the classroom to provide the best learning opportunities for their students and by leaders who continue to pursue new ways to expand access for all, adopt technology and grow economies through education.

Building on the momentum from a fantastic event in Paris earlier this year, today, live from EduTech in Sydney, Australia, I am thrilled to announce that we are hosting our 6th annual Education Exchange (E²) down under for the very first time—in Sydney, March 23-26, 2020.

Bringing the event to Australia allows us to highlight the incredible innovations in education happening across the country, while showcasing how the education system is taking proactive steps to provide technology access to students from the cities to the outback. When I think of the best examples of leaders supporting education and educators doing amazing things in the classroom, those in Australia often come to mind. Microsoft is extremely proud to partner with this system that, according to OECD, is one of the highest performers in education.

With a core focus on computer science, STEM and Minecraft: Education Edition as well as productivity tools, Teams and Artificial Intelligence, schools across the nation are encouraged to dream big and expect more. They leverage technology to achieve more and strive for equity and inclusion. As a nod to their excellence, I see no better place to host Microsoft’s E² | Education Exchange in 2020.

“I cannot wait to see the amazing achievements of Education leaders from across the world on our shores next year,” said Steven Worrall, Area Vice President, Microsoft Australia.

If you’re not familiar with E², the event brings together selected Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts to immerse themselves in what many prior attendees have called a “life changing experience.” E² inspires educators from around the world by offering them the chance to work through problems and collaborate on projects with peers who are equally enthusiastic and ambitious in their use of technology for learning.

Leaders will come together and participate in hands-on workshops and discussions on key topics surrounding education transformation, skilling and technology to help transform today’s teaching systems into learning organizations. They will also gain fresh insight into technology for teaching, learning and administration and share proven strategies to drive more effective learning outcomes across their systems.

Save the date for live, online events during E² 

E² features a number of renowned speakers and education changemakers, so we want to make sure all our audiences around the world can watch live from their homes or schools. To support this, many of the plenary session keynotes will be streamed live on the Microsoft Education Facebook page. Details will be announced on the Microsoft Education Facebook page and on the Microsoft Education Blog as we get closer to the event.

Become a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert

We invite all educators to join the Microsoft Educator Community—there you’ll find on-demand professional development and training courses that can lead you to your certification as a Microsoft Innovative Educator (MIE). After becoming an MIE, you can continue your journey towards becoming a Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIEE). Nominations are open from April 15, 2019 through July 15, 2019, and you can apply here.

It’s good to be back, hope you all managed to survive with out me. This week I’ve been making a concerted effort to be pro-active with smaller, news-y bits to break-up the Reviews/Reposts/Weekender cycle that nominated much of May, hope you’ve enjoyed the wider variety of topics. Next week we’ve got a gameplay guide, at least one review and then some other goodies in the pipe for later in the month.

It’s E3 next week but I’m not expecting much mobile-specific news unless it’s platform related (like Google Stadia from this morning).

Meanwhile, in mobile gaming…

Out Now

Mystic Vale (iOS & Android) – Full review coming soon!

2019’s conquest of digital board games continue, with Nomad Games bringing another popular table-top experience to mobile. Deck-building is starting to become a crowded genre with Mystic Vale’s Druidic offering, although new twists in the form of card crafting and a ‘decay’ system that can end your turn early promise to keep things fresh. Michael’s already on the case with this review, so look to the East next week for our own verdict. The mobile version comes with the Vale of Magic expansion included at no extra cost, although it’s listed as a separate IAP.

Also on our Radar:

Infectonator 3: Apocalypse (iOS) – The third instalment in a franchise where you play as the zombies trying to destroy the world, this one looks like it could be interesting but early reports suggest it’s quite buggy, so we’re going to wait and see.

Lovecraft’s Untold Stories (iOS) – Lovecraft x Roguelike makes for an interesting, if slightly overdone combination, but the price-tag means this will have to work pretty hard to impress. Take one of five heroes across randomly generated worlds, fighting unspeakable horrors.

SSC 2019 (iOS) – Uprising Games returns with the 2019 version of their free-to-play retro-themed soccer game. Mentioned only because sports releases are so rare, but beware the F2P trappings. New additions include improved AI, Online 2 player matches and a data editor.

Updates

Evolution: The Video Game (iOS & Android) (Review)

While the digital adaptation still doesn’t have async play, the recent update this week now means you do pass and play for up to four players. You rotate the device between players when picking traits but feeding happens simultaneously from multiple edges of the screen. There’s also been some extra optimization work and larger text for tutorials and cards.

Star Traders: Frontiers (iOS & Android) (Review)

Those mad bastards known as the Trese Brothers have updated Star Traders: Frontiers twice this week. The first on added a new Bounty Hunter vignette as well a host of other fixes and clarifications, while the second update added new Steel Song faction modules, a new starting ship that’s great for spying, and some balance tweaks around strike craft.

Auto Chess (iOS & Android)

The beta for the official mobile version of DOTA Auto Chess is well underway, with the app now in the iOS app store under the name Auto Chess: Origins. There’s been an update this week although I’m not 100% sure on the details, but recent big changes include the official introduction of a Season system, a Battle Pass, various Account improvements and optimisations and bug fixes.

Sales

Only a couple of sales of note this week – Ironhide’s sci-fi RTS Iron Marines is down to $2.99 on iOS & Android, while award-winning puzzle game Monument Valley 2 is also $2.99 on iOS.

You may also have spotted that Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lion is discounted on all mobile platforms, although the price is not as good as it was during the Black Friday sale last year. Also, playing that game on mobile kinda sucks. Don’t @ Me.

Seen anything else you liked? Played any of the above? Let us know in the comments!

YoYoGames have just released the beta version of the 2.2.3 release.  In addition to the usual slate of bug fixes and improvements, the marquee feature of this release is TvOS support, which is part of the mobile plan and enables you to target and support iOS based set-top boxes.  They have released three documents in support of TvOS with GameMaker.

Further details from the GMS blog:

• Desktop targets can now disable the file sandbox from the Game Options for each platform (Windows, macOS and Ubuntu). This permits you to save and load files from anywhere on the target system (within the limits of the OS and any antivirus or other file-permission restrictions on the local machine).

• The function surface_depth_disable() has been expanded to include all target platforms. This switches off the depth buffer for surfaces, which will reduce the memory overhead. For 2D games, especially on mobile, this is very useful – although for 3D you’ll probably want to leave it enabled. For more information see the manual.

• You can now create Local Asset Packages from resources in your projects. This means that you no longer need to go through the Marketplace to create YYMP files, enabling you to create your own local asset packages of scripts, objects, etc…. You can access this new feature from the Tools menu in the IDE, and the full details can be found in the manual inside the 2.2.3 IDE.

• New constants have been added to GML for NaN and infinity, as well as new functions to check these values, is_NaN() and is_infinity().

• Drag and Drop™ users can now add comments to their action scripts. This option is available from the Right Mouse Button menu in the active workspace.

• The resource tree has new options for sprites and sounds to quickly add one or more resources to a texture page or an audio group – accessed through the Right Mouse Button menu.

• A new option in General Preferences > Compiling to disable subst drives. When disabled, GameMaker Studio 2 will not create any virtual drives when compiling most platforms.

• Strings now accept 4 byte wide Unicode characters, allowing you to decode and encode Unicode characters in the upper bounds of the standard (including, but not limited to, emoji). This may adversely affect some users who have been using the \u escape character (see the manual for more information).

• New error reporting mechanism for submitting crash details to YoYoGames.

You can learn more about future GameMaker Studio releases in the development roadmap available here.  Details on accessing the beta channel of releases is available here.

GameDev News 2D Engine

Sega has announced Citizens of Space is coming to the Nintendo Switch later this month on 18th June for $14.99.

If the name sounds familiar, it’s because this is a follow-up to the 2015 release, Citizens of Earth. The new game is also being developed by Eden Industries. Below is a rundown of the story:

It’s your first day as the newly appointed Ambassador of Earth! Ah, smell that? That’s the smell of the slow-but-inexorable bureaucracy that keeps this galaxy running smoothly! Well, running, at least.

And now it’s your chance to become a part of that bureaucracy, finally! As you step into the hallowed halls of the Galactic Federation Assembly and give your opening speech, something seems off…no it’s not the smell of the Slorg ambassador, that’s normal. When the video screen lowers so you can show off your homeworld to your gathered Ambassadors…you realize the Earth is missing!

As the Ambassador, you know it’s your duty to save your beloved Earth! Plus, none of the other ambassadors seem to care much for a backwater planet they’ve never heard of. So begins your adventure to find the Earth and unite the galaxy’s Citizens under your banner!

The game will give players the chance to recruit more than 40 citizens, with each one serving a unique purpose. There’s a new battle system in place and multiple worlds to explore as well:

Citizens Unite!–You have access to over 40 recruitable Citizens, all available at any moment in the story, and each with their own role to fill in and out of combat. Everything has been streamlined so you’ll spend a lot less time managing and more time leading your Citizens!

A Brand-New Battle System–Put your skills to the test in a newly-designed combat system where your ability to leverage timing and reflex-based minigames make all the difference between a landslide victory and a concession speech.

New Worlds of Exploration–It’s not just Earth in trouble this time! Journey from your home planet to a variety of humorous, wacky worlds, each brought to life with vivid art and organic environments.

WIll you be picking this up on release? Did you play the original title? Tell us down in the comments.

Do you want to share a piece of Fedora news for the general public? Have a good idea for how to do something using Fedora? Do you or someone you know use Fedora in an interesting way?

We’re always looking for new contributors to write awesome, relevant content. The Magazine is run by the Fedora community — and that’s all of us. You can help too! It’s really easy.Read on to find out how.

What content do we need?

Glad you asked. We often feature material for desktop users, since there are many of them out there! But that’s not all we publish. We want the Magazine to feature lots of different content for the general public.

Sysadmins and power users

We love to publish articles for system administrators and power users who dive under the hood. Here are some recent examples:

• Securing connections with stunnel
• Measuring storage performance with dd
• Automating backups with restic and systemd

Developers

We don’t forget about developers, either. We want to help people use Fedora to build and make incredible things. Here are some recent articles focusing on developers:

• Four popular terminal multiplexers
• Making SELinux policy for containers with udica
• Building small container images

Interviews, projects, and links

We also feature interviews with people using Fedora in interesting ways. We even link to other useful content about Fedora. We’ve run interviews recently with people using Fedora to increase security, administer infrastructure, or give back to the community. You can help here, too — it’s as simple as exchanging some email and working with our helpful staff.

How do I get started?

It’s easy to start writing for Fedora Magazine! You just need to have decent skill in written English, since that’s the language in which we publish. Our editors can help polish your work for maximum impact.

Follow this easy process to get involved.

The Magazine team will guide you through getting started. The team also hangs out on #fedora-mktg on Freenode. Drop by, and we can help you get started.

Image courtesy Dustin Lee – originally posted to Unsplash as Untitled

Earlier this year, I shared Microsoft’s 2019 Washington state legislative priorities as part of our practice to engage constructively on important regional issues. Since then, a lot has happened, and I thought it was a good time to provide an update on where we landed on the issues we feel are important for the future of the state.

Washington made some great strides this session on issues like higher education funding, affordable housing and rural broadband — but some important initiatives, including the adoption of consumer data privacy protections, did not get completed and will need to be addressed in the next session.

Recession-proofing higher education funding
In March, I joined University of Washington president Ana Mari Cauce and Wayne Martin, vice chair of the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges in a Seattle Times opinion column that laid out why this was the right time to establish a dedicated funding source for public higher education.

Fortunately, lawmakers, led by Rep. Drew Hansen, agreed and made a $1.2 billion commitment to prepare Washington students and workers for Washington jobs over the next six years. These are new and dedicated funds for higher education institutions and state-funded student financial aid programs to supplement, not supplant, other federal, state and local higher education funding.

Why is this important? Because, historically, higher education has sustained significantly larger cuts than K-12 schools, criminal justice, and other general fund spending categories during economic downturns. By establishing a dedicated fund, the bill reduces the potential impact of general fund budget cuts.

Another important element of the legislation is that funds will go where they are needed most, with the costs borne by those who benefit the most from higher education. Over the next two years, more than $160 million will be directly invested into the futures of Washington students to create the Washington College Grant (WCG) program, a need-based financial aid program for students from low- and moderate-income families. The WCG will close the waiting list for the existing State Need Grant, which it replaces, within those two years. Students enrolled in qualifying post-secondary education and training programs qualify for grants based on income, with full tuition and fees provided for those at 55 percent or less of the median family income level (approximately $50,000 or less for a family of four), and smaller grants pro-rated for income levels up to the state median (approximately $90,000 for a family of four).

In addition to this important new resource, critical additional funding will flow to high-demand degree programs, from engineering and math programs at UW, to teacher education at Central Washington University, to nursing education at our state’s community and technical colleges.

What’s next: Microsoft remains committed to doing our part. The highest surcharges will be paid by advanced computing businesses with worldwide gross revenues in excess of $100 million such as Amazon and Microsoft. We consider it an investment in the future of our state.

Expanding affordable housing options
An equally important investment, announced about the time the Legislature was getting underway, is Microsoft’s $500 million commitment to expanding affordable housing options in the Puget Sound region.

When we made that announcement, we shared our belief that substantial public, private and non-profit resources will be needed to make our communities more welcoming to a diverse range of local residents.  Investments must be made not only to combat chronic homelessness, but also to create affordable middle-income housing opportunities for teachers, emergency responders, nurses and many others who contribute to the health and social fabric of the entire community.

With that in mind, we advocated for the state to almost double its direct public investment in affordable housing in the 2019-21 capital budget. Ultimately, lawmakers settled on an appropriation of $175 million to the Housing Trust Fund, a substantial increase over the $110 million included in recent budget cycles, more proportionate to the scale of the problem.  We applaud everyone in Olympia who worked to make this outstanding commitment to affordable housing.

We also were encouraged by passage of legislation to modernize Washington statutes on condominium liability, which Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law on April 30. The reforms in that legislation will eliminate barriers and stimulate new private development of affordable housing options for the middle-income market.

What’s next: We will continue to work in partnership with policymakers, business organizations, nonprofits and community groups on this pressing issue. It’s up to all of us to promote inclusive and vibrant communities in our region through affordable housing. We look forward to continued dialogue and collective action.

Protection of data and personal privacy
At Microsoft, we believe privacy is a fundamental human right. Technology plays an increasingly important role in our lives. But while technology is a tool that creates exciting new opportunities, people need to have assurance their data is protected and they can control it. At a time when other states and even other countries are strengthening their laws, we believe Washingtonians deserve world-class protections.

That’s why we strongly supported legislation introduced by Sen. Reuven Carlyle to protect the data and privacy of Washington consumers. Carlyle’s bill would have given Washingtonians a new level of control over their personal data while also allowing innovation to continue.

The movement to strengthen consumer privacy was advanced when this bill passed the Senate on a strong, bipartisan vote of 46-1; the privacy updates it would have ushered in were an important and meaningful step in the right direction. Unfortunately, as is sometimes the case in state and federal legislative bodies, political considerations ultimately got in the way of action and the bill did not pass the Legislature.

What’s next: Despite the Legislature’s failure to successfully address the issue, privacy concerns aren’t going away. Data privacy remains critically important for the people of Washington. We are committed to working with legislative leaders and other stakeholders to address the barriers to passage that emerged this session so that we can improve prospects for passage next year.

Creating additional opportunities in rural areas
As technology’s pervasive presence in our work and family lives increases the need for a regulatory framework to protect personal privacy, it also makes it more critical that all members of our society have access to the new opportunities created through innovation.

Unfortunately, in Washington and across the country, too many people living in rural areas lack access to the broadband communication infrastructure necessary to fully participate in our digital economy.

We believe bringing broadband to rural areas is as important today as the electrification of rural America was decades ago, which is why we launched the Microsoft AirBand Initiative to deliver high-speed internet access to more than 3 million additional rural Americans by July 4, 2022.

I’m pleased to see the state is continuing its commitment to expanding economic opportunities in every corner of our state with a $21.5 million appropriation to provide loans and grants for expanding broadband access in rural areas, as well as operating funds for a new State Broadband Office to be located within the Department of Commerce.

What’s next: Microsoft will continue to pursue strategic investments and support public policies to bring broadband access to all Washingtonians.

High-speed rail connections
Washington, Oregon and British Columbia have an opportunity to stake out a stronger position as leaders in the global economy through the continued development of the Cascadia Innovation Corridor.  Through coordination and collaboration we can create greater opportunities and establish ourselves as a global center of innovation and trade. Together, Seattle, Vancouver and Portland can expect to accomplish so much more than would ever be possible individually. By shrinking travel times between major Pacific Northwest anchor cities, high-speed rail will open the door for stronger relationships and new employment and entrepreneurship opportunities within and across communities.

We know establishing a massive public infrastructure project is no small feat and requires ironing out all manner of multi-jurisdictional and multi-national details. But I’m encouraged to see that the initial feasibility studies of high-speed rail in the Cascadia corridor have come back positive.

Given the long development times involved, it’s important to begin initial work as soon as possible to secure financing and governance structures needed to make this incredible service a reality.

The transportation budget adopted by the Legislature will provide another $242,000 in state funding to continue this critical development work. However, it makes the appropriation contingent on $671,000 first being raised from private and local sources. Although we appreciate their continued support of the planning and development process, we also believe that Washington state lawmakers should have made a more significant, non-conditional commitment to support this game-changing service. The fact is, Washington is the largest economy among the three regions, and we stand to gain substantially from the development of the Cascadia corridor. Our state should be stepping up to take a lead role.

What’s next: Microsoft will continue to work to secure the funding needed for state engagement and will work with private and public sector partners to host a conference focused on high-speed rail.

The conversation continues
Over this last legislative session, Microsoft advocated in Olympia for expanded computer science education options in K-12 schools, for strengthening companies’ legal responsibilities in the event of a data breach, and for furthering Washington’s commitment to carbon-free electricity generation in the years ahead.

We believe that as a major employer in the state, it’s our job to keep the lines of communication open, keep engaging on the important issues, and most of all, keep creating economic opportunities that improve the quality of life for Washington state residents.

Tags: affordable housing, Brad Smith, data privacy, education, Next Generation Washington

It looks like something really is going on with the Super Monkey Ball series. Following on from Sega filing a trademark for Tabegoro! Super Monkey Ball at the start of May, Gematsu has discovered the company also trademarked Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz in the same month, on 21st May.

While it’s still unclear what the first trademark could be related to, Banana Blitz was first released on the Nintendo Wii in 2006 as a North American launch title. It introduced a new pirate-like villain, had more than 50 mini-games, received a mixed response from critics and used a Wii Remote motion control scheme.

With E3 2019 just around the corner, a more official announcement could quite possibly be on the way. Assuming this is a re-release, it seems like there’s a fair chance the game would be announced for Nintendo’s latest device.

Monkey Ball began as an arcade title in 2001 and was ported to the GameCube not long after. The first two console entries by Amusement Vision are still considered to be some of the best entries in the series.

What are your thoughts about this Monkey Ball trademark? Did you play Bana Blitz during the Wii’s prime? Tell us below.

Oceans are the heart of our planet, and Skype in the Classrooms celebrates them throughout the month of June in honor of World Ocean Day (June 8th). We are inviting educators around the world to explore all the available ocean-related activities and register for one or more to raise students’ awareness about marine conservation.

This June, your class can take virtual field trips to a sea turtle rehab center to learn about turtle conservation, pick the brain of a World Wildlife Fund expert about corals, take a deep dive into the issues facing our oceans with Pulitzer Center journalists and many more. There’s no doubt our guest speakers will inspire your students to love and protect our oceans. On top of that, there is a great variety of collaborative projects so you can connect with other classrooms to work together on finding solutions and taking action to protect our oceans.

Finally, why not add some fun by connecting with another class for a marine-themed Mystery Animal Skype? If you haven’t yet, explore our Oceans OneNote—it has all the resources you need to help you get started with Mystery Animal Skype.

To celebrate the importance of oceans, Skype has just released a collection of ocean-themed emoticons. Open your Skype and start sharing them before, during and after your calls to spread the fun and get your students excited.

And we have more ocean emoticons coming next week!

We hope you’ll join us in celebrating oceans by getting involved with one or more of our activities that will make learning relevant and fun for your students.

As always, keep sharing your favorite moments with us and our global community on Twitter (@SkypeClassroom) with #Skype2Learn #MicrosoftEDU to celebrate your students’ global learning experiences.

Don’t miss out exploring the rest of our FREE ocean-related resources

1. Download our Ocean Month activity plan—full of ideas and suggestions on how to organize your Skype sessions—to guide your classroom’s celebration all month long.
2. Access the Oceans OneNote here
3. Download the Oceans Month 2019 Certificate your students!
4. Take a Professional Development Course to learn all about the importance of Teaching Marine Conservation.
5. Discover FREE hands-on Hacking STEM lessons that you can use during Ocean Month.