Ed Got Game

Our guest brings us an update on some of the initiatives and groups who are collaborating to help move gamifcation into mainstream classrooms.

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Steve Isaacs has been teaching game design and development at William Annin middle school in Basking Ridge, NJ and online for Virtual High School for years. In addition, he is the co-founder and moderator of the weekly #EdTechBridge chat; a community of edtech stakeholders with a goal of developing collaborative relationships involving educators, developers, students, and researchers working together to build better edtech products. Steve is also a founding member of the games4ed initiative which aims to examine and break down barriers to getting more games in the classroom to enhance learning opportunities for students.

Our guest discusses the education value of video games. In this segment we talk about how video games encourage discovery, exploration and pushing the boundaries.

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Paul Darvasi teaches high school English and media studies at Royal St. George's College in Toronto, Canada. He is completing a PhD at York University's Language, Culture and Teaching program with a focus on the integration of digital and pervasive games in educational environments.

Game-based learning shows up in many different ways. In this segment we look at the hidden ways in which games promote learning.

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Scott Nicholson is currently the director of the Because Play Matters game lab at Syracuse University's School of Information Studies. He focuses on games for informal learning, meaningful gamification, and creating escape rooms in a learning environment. He is also the creator of two games, Tulipmania 1637, Going, Going, Gone!

In this segment we look at how game-based learning has evolved into what is now increasingly being called playful learning.

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Jessica Millstone is the Director of Engagement at BrainPOP, where she works on bridging games-based learning initiatives between BrainPOP’s GameUp and its many game partners. Prior to joining BrainPOP, Jessica was the inaugural Education Fellow on the Games & Learning Publishing Council at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, a research and innovation lab at Sesame Workshop, where she investigated the theory and practice of using digital games in the elementary and middle school classroom.

Our guest opens our eyes to the diverse sorts of things that can be achieved through game-based learning.

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Clay Ewing is Assistant Professor of Interactive Media/Games at the University of Miami. His research focuses on serious games, implementing game mechanics into real world applications, and social justice. As a game designer, Professor Ewing’s games have tackled issues such as vector borne diseases, the cost of health care, social safety nets and labor practices.

Our guest was passionate about game-based learning before he knew it existed. Now he's immersed in teaching with games.

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AJ Webster brings more than a decade of classroom experience to GameDesk’s PlayMaker School. He specializes in game learning, a passion that began stirring in him at 7 when he designed a Monopoly-Chess hybrid. AJ’s transformative methods include puzzle-based projects, historical simulations, and technology-assisted scavenger hunts. Outside the classroom, AJ is active in the Puzzle Hunt community. A veteran of the Shinteki puzzle competition and the Bay Area Game, AJ helps develop challenges for the annual DASH puzzle competition in Los Angeles.

Quest-based learning is not quite the same as game-based learning, but includes choice, challenge and other fundamentals of a good educational game. Learn more...

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Chris Haskell is serving as a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Technology at Boise State University; he is actively piloting and developing ground breaking alternative approaches to delivering and tracking learning. With co-inventor Dr. Lisa Dawley, Chris created 3D GameLab, a game-based/quest-based learning management system.

All games used in the classroom are not created equal. Some can meet serious learning objectives, some can't. In this segment we talk about what makes a great and effective instructional game.

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Dan Norton is a founding partner and Creative Director at Filament Games. He specializes in crafting educational game design documents and storyboards that originate from learning objectives. His games have won multiple awards, including the National STEM Video Game Challenge Developer Prize and the 2010 CODiE for Best Educational Game or Simulation. His work has also garnered recognition and/or awards from organizations as diverse as the ACLU, Tech & Learning.

Using games that were not specifically designed for education purposes is viable, but there is much teachers need to know to do effectively and credibly. In this segment we look at the pros, cons and pitfalls.

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Richard Van Eck is an Associate Professor of Instructional Design & Technology at the University of North Dakota (idt.und.edu). He has published extensively in the field of digital game-based learning, including two edited volumes on interdisciplinary approaches to serious games published in March, 2010. In addition, he has also published and presented on intelligent tutoring systems, pedagogical agents, authoring tools, and gender and technology.

In this segment we talk with an instructional technology leader in a school district that is using Minecraft for game-based learning with some pretty spectacular results. Our guest talks about setting up the program, managing it and how to think creatively about connecting the game to the curriculum.

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Lucas Gillispie is an Instructional Technologist for Pender County Schools in North Carolina. He is the founder of the WoWinSchool Project, a program designed to explore the educational potential of online games like World of Warcraft with middle schoolers and leads one of the largest school-based Minecraft implemen- tations in the world. Lucas is an internationally recognized speaker, and shares his experiences and resources on his blog: http://www.edurealms.com.