Professor Game Podcast

John Meehan is a high school English teacher and the school instructional coach at Bishop O'Connell High School in Arlington, Virginia. John is a member of the 2016–2018 Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation's Teacher Advisory Council, a member of the ASCD Emerging Leaders Class of 2017, and a 2016 "40 Under 40" honoree of the Arlington Leadership Center for Excellence. A multi-time presenter at the annual conferences for Virginia ASCD, the National Catholic Education Association, and the Play Like a Champion Today conference at the University of Notre Dame, John is a champion for high-energy, student-centered instruction, and his professional Twitter feed (@MeehanEDU) is packed with a daily array of photos, videos, blogs, tweets, and podcasts of he and his students putting this same spirit into action. Mr. Meehan's fully gamified high school English class website is likewise loaded with all sorts of ideas for classroom games, side quests, leaderboards, and world building storylines.

Gustavo Tondello is the co-founder and gamification specialist of MotiviUX, research leader at GamFed (the international Gamification Confederation), and a Ph.D. candidate and sessional lecturer at the University of Waterloo, Canada. With more than 10 years of experience in software engineering and business analysis, he is currently researching how to design and personalize gameful systems and learning experiences. He has published many scientific articles on gamification and writes a popular blog on techniques for making everyday interactions more motivating, Gameful Bits. Gustavo uses gameful design methods to create participatory learning experiences, which help students practice what they are learning to further develop their skills in engaging ways.

Richard Bartle is best known for having co-written in 1978 the first virtual world, MUD (Multi-user dungeon), and for his 1996 Player Types model (killers, socializers, achievers, and explorers) which has seen widespread adoption by the MMO industry. His 2003 book, Designing Virtual Worlds, is the standard text on the subject, and he is an influential writer on all aspects of MMO design and development. In 2010, he was the first recipient of the prestigious GDCOnline Game Legend award.

Roman Rackwitz is the founder of Engaginglab GmbH, Europe's first Gamification Agency in 2009. Winner of the first international Gamification Challenge, done by Mashable and SETI in 2011. He teaches Gamification for HR and Marketing at Universities in Germany and Switzerland. In 2017 he also founded a Social Media Agency that uses the knowledge and experience from Engaginglab to help its customers targeting long-term relationships, mainly in B2B. He's also program director for the Gamification track at the Gamescom Congress and co-host of the GamificationDay. Roman is regularly featured on German television and print as a guest when Gamification is a topic. He is the co-host of the German Gamification Podcast 'Spiel aber Ernst.' and a member of the Board of Directors at Schultheiss Software AG.

Pete Jenkins is an international speaker, adviser and trainer in Gamification. Pete took the number one spot on the "Gamification Gurus Power 100" in February 2016. Pete founded his company GAMIFICATION+ LTD and has since advised and trained companies of all sizes, both in the UK and internationally, on the use of gamification. He is also Chair of GamFed (the International Gamification Confederation), where he helps spread the use of gamification best practices to benefit as many people and businesses as possible. He's the founder and organizer of Gamification Europe! Pete has been Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Brighton for 9 years. As well as researching gamification for HR, he lectures on gamification and entrepreneurship at undergraduate and post-graduate levels. Over the past 15 years, Pete has built and sold two businesses. Pete is also an Ambassador for Brighton & Hove Chamber of Commerce.

Michael has built his reputation as a Game-Based Learning Innovator, Architect, and Edupreneur. His current applied research and consulting focuses upon architecting and delivering immersive environments using serious games, workshops, and simulations. The initiatives leverage earning experiences by transforming key performance and quality indicators into increased learner satisfaction and institutional effectiveness. He has established an exceptional record of success in educational program delivery, learning communities' development, competency-based assessment, and problem-based educational program management through innovative adult educational and online programs.

Andrzej Marczweski is a Gamification Solution Designer and Consultant at Motivait. He is a recognized expert in gamification, especially on the topic of gamification mechanics and user types. In 2015 he published Even Ninja Monkeys Like to Play. In his spare time, Andrzej enjoys spending time with his family, playing guitar and video games.

Candis Best is the Founder and CEO of Learningateway. Her career in higher education began as an adjunct professor. She has worked as a consultant, faculty member and subject matter expert for higher education institutions, companies and community-based organizations. Along the way, she added two masters degrees (business and psychology) and a doctorate in social welfare and policy development. Candis' vision for Learningateway is to introduce much-needed disruption to higher education by leveraging technology to provide academically inexperienced learners with a transformative educational experience. She believes that President Obama's goal of a U.S. education system that is the envy of the world, is still achievable and she intends for Learningateway to lead the way.

Dr. Jonathan Peters has spent the last two decades studying why people do what they do, why they make the decisions they make. As a speaker, Dr. Peters has helped audiences from Augusta, Maine to Melbourne, Australia, better connect with customers and employees. He is an adjunct professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas and Chief Motivation Officer at Sententia Gamification. He helps entice, engage, and encourage learners. Jonathan Peters is a speaker, author, and bourbon connoisseur!

With a background in neuroscience, computer science, and psychology, Amy Jo Kim is part game designer, part web community architect. Her design credits include Rock Band, The Sims, Ultima Online, eBay, family.com, nytimes.com, indiegogo.com. and numerous startups. She's well known for her 2000 book, Community Building on the Web, and her work applying game design to Web and mobile services. Kim holds a Ph.D. in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Washington and is an adjunct Game Design professor at the USC School of Cinematic Arts.