Presentation Title: Game Jams: Students as Designers

Presentation Description: Game jams have been growing in popularity. In a game jam, teams are challenged to design a game in a short period of time. In essence, game jams are a game about making a game. Students apply systems thinking, user empathy, collaboration, storyboarding, and iterative design, while also learning how to tackle broad, open-ended problems. Matthew Farber, author of Gamify Your Classroom: A Field Guide to Game-Based Learning, will discuss his use of game jams in his middle school social studies classes, as well as digital game jams in the after school club he advises. He will share resources from the Moveable Game Jams he attended in the New York area this year, including Quest to Learn, in New York City, as well as the A. Harry Moore School Game Jam Day, in Jersey City, NY, which he facilitated.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
http://gamejam.wikispaces.com/Game+Jam

Presentation Description: Everywhere you look, young people are playing games and mostly, they are playing games on their screens. But are they merely consumers of content or are they creators of it? With a nod towards the ideas of gamifying the classroom, this keynote presentation will delve into detail around encouraging young people to design and publish their own content-area video games, while still meeting pedagogical aims of teachers. By tapping into the elements of “play” and teaching the concepts of “design,” educators can engage students of all ages in gaming in a very positive way.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:

http://gaming4schools.yolasite.com/

Additional Information:
My Flipboard Collection on Gaming in Schools: https://flipboard.com/section/game-design-and-learning-bs1AKc

Presentation Description: What can platform technology do for eLearning? Platforms are what multimedia creators use to distribute their content to a user-base. In a learning context, platforms are also used to track and analyse the behaviour of users, in order to understand precisely how content is being consumed. In this talk, Dr. Jeremy Friedberg of Spongelab Interactive discusses the concept of an online learning platform – a system that goes beyond eLearning and helps to stitch together the multiple, and often fragmented, parts of the teaching process. Following discussion of how platform technology fits into the classroom of the future, a tour of Spongelab.com offers an example of an online teaching platform built for personalized education.

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
http://www.spongelab.com/globals/research.cfm

Additional Information:
Visit Spongelab.com for more information about our online teaching platform or follow us on Twitter @spongelab.

Presentation Title: Gaming to Learn by Learning to Game

Presentation Description: Gaming has a place in education. As we explore the world of gaming, we realize that gaming is actually based upon learning theory. Gaming can be used to create authentic problem-based learning opportunities that support and nurture 21st century skill. This presentation shows the connection between gaming, brain-based research and developing 21st century skills.

iPod video – mp3 audio

Link to presentation’s supporting documents:
http://tinyurl.com/k12gamingresources

Additional Information:
Dr. Z Reflects
http://drzreflects.com