There are some really interesting developments going on within the 3D virtual reality world, "Second Life". A group of librarians, (Greg Schwartz, Lori Bell, Kelly Czarnecki, and Jami Lynn Schwarzwalder) have embarked on the virtual development of a library inside this world. The library is called the Second Life Library 2.0. It is free to create an avatar and download the Second Life software. The Librarians who volunteer their time inside this world offer virtual library instruction tutorials. It is well-worth taking a look at.

Listen to an mp3 explaining Second Life Library 2.0.

This mp3 is linked from another site that will be of interest to us - Online Programming for All Libraries (OPAL).

I recently listened to a great online seminar from the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. Richard Van Eck's talk was entitled "An Instructional Designer Looks at Digital Game-Based
Learning." If you have access to ELI, you can listen to the seminar in their archive:
http://www.educause.edu/Archive/8996

Van Eck's 4 principles of learning in games: 1) Games employ play theory, cycles of learning,
and engagement 2) Games employ problem-based learning 3) Games embody situated cognition and learning 4) Games encourage question-asking through
cognitive disequilibrium and scaffolding

From the Chat, a free game development tool was mentioned that might be worth checking out:
Game Maker: http://www.gamemaker.nl/download.html

A commercial game engine (that does not require hard core programming skills) is Torque - $100 for a single user. http://www.garagegames.com/solutions/games/indie/

If you can recommend any other game development tools worth investigating (preferrably free) - please comment here.