Campus & Community

Author to speak at upcoming Bridges to the Future event

Popular science author Steven Berlin Johnson will speak Tuesday, March 31 at 7 p.m. at the final Bridges to the Future event of the 2008—09 academic year. Johnson is the best-selling author of six books, including Everything Bad is Good For You: How Today’s Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter.

Johnson’s appearance is the third that focuses on this year’s Bridges theme—“A Nation Still at Risk: The Future of Education.” The lecture is in the June Swaner Gates Concert Hall in the Newman Center for the Performing Arts on the DU Campus.

Johnson says technology has always had ties with education and video games should be embraced. Children learn from them, just like they would a game of chess.

“There’s probably more mental exercise in many video games because of the complexity of it,” he says. “We learn from the structure of games.”

Johnson believes it’s a great time for educators now that books are available online.

“We have an opportunity in our classrooms to use these tools to teach them important information in the world,” he says.

For those unable to attend in person, Johnson’s speech will be streamed live on the Bridges to the Future Web site. Additionally, the speech will be offered in its entirety on the site by April 6.

The University of Denver has partnered with Rocky Mountain PBS to offer these events to a wider audience. The speech will be featured in a one-hour special later in the spring. Look for air date information at www.du.edu/bridges or on the Rocky Mountain PBS Web site.

Bridges to the Future was created in 2002 to engage Coloradans in an exploration of American history, values and expectations in a post-9/11 world.

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