2018 Games for Change Festival: Full Schedule

10:15am EDT

Keynote - Thinking Inside the Box: The Changing Landscape of Learning with Adam Bellow

Would you like to play a game? Of course you would! Let's take a look at educational gaming. We will start with a peek back at where we have been and then discuss where we are today and where we will level up to in the near future.

Speakers

Adam Bellow

Co-Founder, Breakout EDU

Adam is a dedicated educational technologist, father of two young boys, and Co-Founder of Breakout EDU, the immersive gaming platform that enables teachers and students to transform classrooms into places of discovery and inquiry-based learning. Previously, he served as a Presidential... Read More →

Thursday June 28, 2018 10:15am - 10:45am EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

Games for Learning Summit Keynote

11:15am EDT

From Apps to Nordic schools: How DragonBox created a full math curriculum with games, toys and storytelling

For the last 2 years, DragonBox worked with Norwegian, Finnish and French teachers to pilot a play-based solution that covers the full math curriculum and involved 1300 school students. This talk will describe the challenges that involved creating a research-based pedagogical design that took into account the needs of students, teachers and administrators (spoiler: it was not easy). DragonBox School is a hybrid solution: games are complemented with multiple printed textbooks and story books: we'll also analyze why we reached that format rather than going all-digital. We recommend this talk for game creators interested in making real impact in schools.

Speakers

Gonzalo Frasca

Chief Design Officer, DragonBox

Gonzalo Frasca, PhD is Chief Design Officer at DragonBox and Professor of Videogames at Universidad ORT, Uruguay. Frasca is an award-winning game designer and scholar who has been creating videogames for the last 20 years. Some of his serious games includenewsgaming(dot)com's “September... Read More →

Thursday June 28, 2018 11:15am - 11:35am EDT
Room 104

Games for Learning Summit, Talk

11:45am EDT

Keynote - Going Global: Using Games To Eradicate Illiteracy World Wide with Robert Torres

Over the last decade, the incredible efforts made by game designers, researchers and foundations has inspired the World Bank, UNICEF and NGOs to launch large-scale innovative solutions that capitalize on this work. Today refugee children in Syria and Bangladesh are acquiring academic and social emotional learning skills through games. This session offers a historic perspective of the movement and presents insights and data of how children around the world are using games to learn.

Speakers

Robert Torres

Chief Strategy Officer, Teach the World Foundation

Robert is the Chief Strategy Officer at the Teach the World Foundation, a global organization seeking to eradicate illiteracy by teaching reading and numeracy using game-based technologies. Until recently, Robert served as the founding Chief Learning Scientist for EkStep, the game-based... Read More →

Thursday June 28, 2018 11:45am - 12:05pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

Games for Learning Summit Keynote

11:45am EDT

Project Briefs: Games for Learning

Aya Saket (Research and Program Development Officer at the Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development)
Playing Math in Jordanian Public Schools

Natalie Gillard (Creator/Facilitator, FACTUALITY, LLC)
Anti-Racism & Beyond via Board Game

Stuart Claggett (COO/CTO, Dig-iT! Games)
Simplifying Collection and Improving Interoperability of Game Learning Data & Assessment

Speakers

Ed Barton

CEO, Curiscope

Ed is the CEO of Curiscope, a startup from the UK that uses AR & VR to bring Science to life. Curiscope is responsible for the Virtuali-Tee, an AR T-Shirt that teaches human anatomy and for Great White Sharks, one of the most viewed VR experiences of all time. They also recently... Read More →

Stuart Claggett

COO/CTO, Dig-iT! Games LLC

Stuart Claggett is the COO/CTO at Dig-iT! Games, a mission based game developer and publisher that with a goal of having a positive impact on education by harnessing the power of game-based learning. He currently overseas company operations and provides technical leadership for game... Read More →

Natalie Gillard

Creator and Facilitator, FACTUALITY, LLC

During her undergraduate experience, Natalie Gillard found that support for individuals from diverse backgrounds was rather limited. The latter ignited her desire to pursue a self-designed graduate study in Race and Ethnic Relations as well as diverse professional opportunities. Natalie... Read More →

Aya Saket

Research and Program Development Officer, Queen Rania Foundation for Education and Development

I have completed my BCom at McGill University with a major in International Management and a minor in Economics. After graduation, I worked as a Research Assistant for a marketing professor at McGill. My scope of work included conducting research and drafting Case Studies on global... Read More →

Thursday June 28, 2018 11:45am - 12:30pm EDT
Room 104

Games for Learning Summit, Mini-Talk

1:00pm EDT

FACTUALITY: A Gamified Crash Course on Structural Inequality

During this workshop, participants will discuss and unpack the structural limitations and advantages that coincide with various intersecting identities. Participants will be required to select an identity/character that differs from their own, removing much of the angst that inevitably plagues conversations regarding inequality. Session attendees will be engaged in a conversation via board game that includes but is not limited to: racial, ethnic, gender, faith, and sexual orientation discrimination, privilege, gender and racial pay gaps, redlining and gentrification, median income averages by race and gender, class, (mental) health disparities, prison and bail disparities, ableism, education inequity, and intersectionality. A thorough examination of Census, Bureau of Labor Statistics, NAACP, and other credible data sources was conducted to capture the past and present obstacles that have kept marginalized groups, marginalized. FACTUALITY is a board game, and board games are notoriously engaging, which makes its inclusive cultural competency component, uniquely digestible.

Speakers

Natalie Gillard

Creator and Facilitator, FACTUALITY, LLC

Thursday June 28, 2018 1:00pm - 1:45pm EDT
Starr Foundation

Games for Learning Summit, Workshop

2:00pm EDT

Panel - Designing for the Playful Classroom

Come play with us! This panel brings together practitioners to discuss the unique challenges and opportunities in designing playful learning experiences for the classroom in an appropriately game-inspired format. Participants from BrainPOP, Cracking Wise Interactive, Classroom, Inc., Curriculum Associates, and Teachley will draw on their diverse experience to speak to topics including implementation and design, distribution, and professional development and teacher training. Topics will be selected by the audience from a set of possible directions and answered by the panelists in a playful "Family Feud"-style format. Time will also be reserved for audience Q&A.

Moderators

Anne Richards

Founder and Creative Director, Cracking Wise Interactive

Anne Richards is a strategist, writer, producer, and game designer who has spent her career developing narrative-rich learning experiences for young people. She is the Founder and Creative Director or Cracking Wise Interactive, a game design and creative development consultancy whose... Read More →

Speakers

Kara Carpenter

Cofounder, Teachley

Kara Carpenter, PhD is Cofounder of Teachley, an edtech startup giving elementary schools formative assessment data from games. She is a National Board Certified Teacher with over 10 years of experience teaching children of all ages as a classroom teacher, outdoor education instructor... Read More →

Charlotte Duncan

Producer, Curriculum Associates

Charlotte Duncan is an educational technology professional who researches, designs and builds digital reading lessons for grades K-8 as a Producer at Curriculum Associates. Previously, Charlotte researched and developed educational games at Learning Games Network and Learning Games... Read More →

Allisyn Levy

VP, GameUp, BrainPOP

Since joining BrainPOP in 2007, Allisyn Levy has played an integral role in the creation, launch, and continued development of the professional community BrainPOP Educators. Now, as Vice President, GameUp, she leads outreach efforts for both BrainPOP's online learning games portal... Read More →

Christina Oliver

VP, Chief Program Officer, Classroom, Inc.

Christina brings 15 years of program design and curriculum creation experience with a focus on transforming the teaching and learning experience for educators and youth. At non-profit, Classroom, Inc. she leads the professional learning and partnership work with schools and community... Read More →

Thursday June 28, 2018 2:00pm - 2:45pm EDT
Room 105

Games for Learning Summit, Panel

3:15pm EDT

Factitious News Game - Polling Fact from Fake

Factitious, an engaging news game developed by the American University Game Lab’s JoLT Initiative, challenges players to detect fake stories from a set of real and fake online articles. The database-supported smartphone app was released in early July 2017 and quickly racked up impressive traffic with more than 540,000 players judging more than 5 million articles in the first 3 weeks! AU Game Lab Director Lindsay Grace will provide an inside look at how the creation of the Factitious game leveraged the talents of game designers and journalists.

Speakers

Lindsay Grace

Director, American University Game Lab

Lindsay Grace is a professor and founding director of the American University Game Lab and Studio. His work has been awarded by the Games for Change Festival, the Digital Diversity Network, Black Enterprise and others. He has given talks at the Game Developers Conference, SXSW, Games... Read More →

Robert Hone

Professor, American University

Bob Hone has had award-winning careers ) as an interactive/game designer (Codie, Prix Mobius) as well as a documentary filmmaker (Peabody, Emmy awards). Currently Bob runs the Game Studio, part of American University's Game Lab, where he designs and manages collaborations with external... Read More →

Thursday June 28, 2018 3:15pm - 3:35pm EDT
Room 105

Games for Learning Summit, Talk

3:15pm EDT

When Journalists Educate With Games: How and Why the New York Videogame Critics Circle Mentors Students and Older Adults

Through games journalism, the New York Videogame Critics Circle gives back to the community by mentoring, designing paid internships and offering scholarships to high school students in the Bronx. We also mentor older adults with VR. In this session, author and Washington Post and New York Times contributor Harold Goldberg will speak about leading a group of diverse multicultural journalists to teach writing, reviewing and team-building in New York's schools. What have we done right? What do we still need to do? How are school educators and self-starting students invaluable to the process? How scalable is the program for other schools in other cities and states?

Speakers

Harold Goldberg

President, Founder, Editor-in-Chief, New York Videogame Critics Circle

Harold Goldberg writes for the Washington Post, The New York Times, Playboy and elsewhere. He is the founder of the New York Videogame Critics Circle, a non-profit organization dedicated to mentoring underprivileged high school students and older adults through games. He's the founder... Read More →

Thursday June 28, 2018 3:15pm - 3:35pm EDT
Room 104

Games for Learning Summit, Talk

3:45pm EDT

Keynote - Good Play with Katie Salen

Tackling the growing problem of toxicity online, Good Play implicates us all in developing a response: designers, technologists, parents, and educators. How do we develop kid-friendly online communities that cultivate empathetic, compassionate, and civically engaged kids? Drawing from best practices in conflict resolution, nonviolence, and prevention science Good Play develops techno-social design solutions to issues like inter-player conflict online. This talk will explore a play-based approach to raising socially and emotionally aware gamers.

Speakers

Katie Salen

Professor, University of California, Irvine

Katie Salen works at the intersection of play, game design, and learning, bridging the gap between academia and industry to create platforms that will better educate and empower kids. She is a Professor in the Department of Informatics at UC Irvine, and Chief Designer and co-founder... Read More →

Thursday June 28, 2018 3:45pm - 4:15pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

Games for Learning Summit

4:15pm EDT

Classcraft Quests Workshop: Experience New Personalized Learning Adventures Firsthand

Join Classcraft co-founder and president Devin Young in an interactive workshop featuring Classcraft’s new Quests. Hailed as the new lesson plan for the 21st-century classroom, Quests are personalized learning adventures designed to create a unique journey for each student. Participants will set off on an epic adventure spanning the history of video games. Come prepared with your best video game trivia and your willingness to learn, and great surprises are sure to await you!

Speakers

Devin Young

Co-founder and President, Classcraft

Based in New York City, Devin Young is the co-founder and president of Classcraft, an Engagement Management System used by over 4 million teachers, students and administrators worldwide. Well-versed in education and experience design, Devin has spoken at SXSW Interactive, Games for... Read More →

Thursday June 28, 2018 4:15pm - 5:15pm EDT
Starr Foundation

Games for Learning Summit, Workshop

5:30pm EDT

Keynote - Beyond Gaming: How Assassin’s Creed Expanded for Learning with Maxime Durand, Marc-André Éthier, David Lefrançois

Join Maxime Durand as he discusses his work as Franchise Historian of the Assassin’s Creed series at Ubisoft Montreal. Maxime will guide us through the development of Discovery Tour by Assassin’s Creed: Ancient Egypt, a new educational mode of Assassin’s Creed Origins which allows players to explore and learn about the historic landmarks featured in the game.

Speakers

Maxime Durand

Franchise Historian for Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft Montréal

Days after graduating in History from his hometown Université de Montréal in 2010, Maxime moved in directly at Ubisoft to work as the Assassin’s Creed franchise historian. Making his grand debut with Assassin’s Creed III, he has collaborated on most games and projects of the... Read More →

David Lefrançois

Professor, Universite du Quebec en Outaouais

David Lefrançois is a full professor at the Université du Québec en Outaouais (UQO), Canada, since 2008. Lefrançois is funded by the main Canadian and Quebec granting agencies in collaboration with his work partner, professor Marc-André Ethier. Lefrançois is an active member... Read More →

Marc-André Éthier

Professor, Université de Montréal

Éthier has been a professor of social sciences methodology at the Université de Montréal since 2004. Before that, he was a high school teacher and then a professor at UQTR.His work focuses on history teaching and learning in high school. With his team and with financial support... Read More →

Thursday June 28, 2018 5:30pm - 6:00pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

Games for Learning Summit, Keynote

9:45am EDT

Keynote - Connected Learning with Mimi Ito

Today’s social, mobile and gaming technologies offer new ways of supporting learning that is engaging, connected to the wider world, and tailored to specific interests, identities, and learning styles. Our research has found, however, that only the most activated digital learners are taking advantage of this potential. Young people are going online for informal and interest-driven learning, but with few connections back to school and academic subjects. What kinds of platforms, policies, and technologies can best connect between in-school and out-of-school learning and between adult and young people's social and cultural worlds? Mimi Ito will describe her ongoing research on interest-driven and digitally enabled learning, and describe connected learning, as a framework for how to best support learning in a digitally connected era.

Speakers

Mimi Ito

Director, Connected Learning Lab, University of California, Irvine

Mizuko Ito is a cultural anthropologist of technology use, examining children and youth's changing relationships to media and communications. She is Professor in Residence and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Chair in Digital Media and Learning at UC Irvine. She is director... Read More →

Friday June 29, 2018 9:45am - 10:15am EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

Games for Learning Summit

11:15am EDT

Ending Poverty Wisely Through Games: EdTech Gamification Solutions for Global Financial Disparities

Speakers

Angel Rich

CEO and Founder, WealthyLife

Creating an algorithm to win Goldman Sachs Portfolio Challenge, authoring the first ever African American Financial Experience study, and named the “Next Steve Jobs” by Forbes before 30, Angel Rich has earned the title Wealth Pioneer. In 2009, Rich became a Global Market Research... Read More →

Friday June 29, 2018 11:15am - 11:35am EDT
Room 105

Games for Learning Summit, Talk

11:15am EDT

Not Becoming History: The Future of Mission US

How can an educational game series stay “current,” through shifting technology, educational policies, and social attitudes? Learn how the team at Mission US -- the award-winning series of interactive history games -- is facing these challenges, as both educators and game developers. The speakers will touch on the past, present, and future of Mission US, sharing proven strategies, lessons learned, and continuing questions of sustainability applicable to the wider G4C community.

Speakers

David Langendoen

Founder & Executive Director, WNET/THIRTEEN/Electric Funstuff

David Langendoen founded Electric Funstuff in 1998 with a vision of bringing game design principles to educational technology. His belief is that motivation and engagement -- something that games do well -- are drivers of task persistence, which research has shown to be one of the... Read More →

Leah Potter

Senior Instructional Designer, WNET/THIRTEEN/Electric Funstuff

Leah Potter is an instructional designer at Electric Funstuff, makers of Mission US––the critically acclaimed series of history learning games produced by WNET with over 2 million users. She collaborates on almost all aspects of game design, from research to story treatment to... Read More →

Friday June 29, 2018 11:15am - 11:35am EDT
Starr Foundation

Games for Learning Summit, Talk

11:45am EDT

Panel - Beyond Blocks: How Minecraft is Helping Transform STEM Learning

A panel of school leaders will share how Minecraft Education is empowering educators to engage their students in immersive STEM learning.

Moderators

Meenoo Rami

Manager, Microsoft

Meenoo Rami, author of Thrive, is a national board certified teacher who taught students English in Philadelphia for ten years, at the Science Leadership Academy and in other public schools in the city. The founder of #engchat, an international Twitter chat for English teachers, Meenoo... Read More →

Speakers

Trish Cloud

Coordinator of School Partnerships, Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools

Trish has been working for Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools for ten years. She first introduced her district to Minecraft by starting a Minecraft Club in 2010 and continues to promote its use by working with teachers in all grades to develop cross-curricular lessons to enhance learning... Read More →

Chris Fuge

Teacher, Sequoia Middle School

I have been teaching middle school science and technology in Fresno California since 2007. My course includes 3D design and printing, web design, game design, graphic design, robotics and video production. I love designing games, creating worlds and learning basic programming. I have... Read More →

Beth Hobbs

Minecraft Global Mentor, Minecraft Education Edition

I am third grade teacher at Montour Elementary School. I started using Minecraft in my classroom three years ago to make the topics in my curriculum engaging and applicable to real life situations. I continue to teach important STEAM concepts through Minecraft Education Edition... Read More →

James Protheroe

Darran Park Primary School

As a global Minecraft Mentor, James has collaborated with teachers from across the world, using Minecraft to transform teaching and learning. He has developed a number of internationally acclaimed projects focusing on developing skills literacy and history skills. To support teachers... Read More →

Friday June 29, 2018 11:45am - 12:30pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

Games for Learning Summit, Panel

2:00pm EDT

Hololab Champions VR: The Making of a VR Chemistry Lab

How can you balance fun and learning when creating a VR chemistry lab? What technologies make it work? What is the best way to integrate VR into the classroom? These questions and many more will be answered by the experts from Schell Games.

Speakers

Harley Baldwin

Vice President of Design, Schell Games

With over 20 years working in the AAA game industry, Harley has worked as a creative lead on a huge variety of games including Star Wars FPSs, Rock Band, XCOM, Tomb Raider & Call of Duty. At Schell Games, she brings determination, inspiration, resilience, curiosity, and humor to solving... Read More →

Jesse Schell

CEO, Schell Games

Jesse Schell is the CEO of Schell Games, a team of one hundred people who strive to make the world’s greatest educational and entertainment games, including Hololab Champions VR, the Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood games, and Happy Atoms. Schell Games also creates pure entertainment... Read More →

Friday June 29, 2018 2:00pm - 2:20pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

Games for Learning Summit

2:00pm EDT

Panel - Teaching Games and Civics through the G4C Student Challenge

Learn how game-making competitions, hackathons, game jams inspire youth to level up from players to developers, build 21st century skills like coding, computational thinking, and system design, and pursue college and industry pathways.

Speakers

Marc Lesser

Senior Director, Learning Design, Mouse

A specialist in the fields of digital learning and youth development, Marc recently served as Youth Studies Fellow at City University of New York and is the producer and host of a podcast on digital learning titled, "No Such Thing."Since March 2008, Marc directs national efforts... Read More →

Laura Levy

Research Scientist II, Interactive Media Technology Center, Georgia Tech

Laura Levy is a human factors psychologist at the Interactive Media Technology Center at Georgia Tech specializing in serious game design, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and human-computer interactions research. Levy has worked on the design and scientific evaluation of a... Read More →

Kalonda McDonald

STEM Coordinator, Detroit Public Schools Community District and Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow

Kalonda is helping “bridge the gap” through MakerMinded to ensure that students will have the knowledge, skills, and confidence necessary to thrive in STEM-related careers. MakerMinded is a digital platform that was launched in 2016 to impassion students in advanced manufacturing... Read More →

Stacie Pierpoint

Senior Coordinator, Marketing and Communications, Annenberg Learner

Stacie is the Senior Coordinator for Marketing & Communications at Annenberg Learner, the educational branch of the Annenberg Foundation. Learner’s mission is to advance excellent teaching in American schools. Committed to teaching students about civic engagement, rights, and responsibilities... Read More →

Jennifer Stone

Technology Director/Computer Science Teacher, STEM of Hollywood

Prior to joining the STEM Academy of Hollywood, Jennifer worked for IBM, Samsung, and a number of small software companies. She is now a certified career technical educator in California. Jennifer is happy to have created the first Computer Science program at the STEM Academy and... Read More →

Friday June 29, 2018 2:00pm - 2:45pm EDT
Room 105

Games for Learning Summit, Panel

3:15pm EDT

#EsportsEDU: Building the K-12 to College #Esports Pipeline

Speakers

Steve Isaacs

Teacher, Game Design and Development, Bernards Township Public Schools

Steve Isaacs is an educator with over 25 years of experience. He’s an edtech influencer, community builder, and leader in the area of game-based learning and teaching Game Design and Development. Steve has been part of a wide scale research study on VR in the classroom with foundry10... Read More →

Friday June 29, 2018 3:15pm - 3:35pm EDT
Room 104

Games for Learning Summit

3:15pm EDT

Panel - BBC Earth: Life in VR

BBC’s natural history programmes have long exposed the beauty and fragility of our planet to a global audience, and inspired interest in the current state and future of life on Earth. Now BBC Worldwide and Google have teamed up to bring fans of the BBC’s natural history programmes an immersive real-time virtual reality experience inspired by series like Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II. The panel will bring together BBC Earth: Life in VR’s core team to explore the editorial and strategic aims of the project alongside the creative / transformational intent of this landmark format. They will also discuss the opportunities VR developers have to reach mainstream audiences, and provide insight into how to best shape a product around their wants and needs. They also hope to present data from the product and where it’s going next.

Moderators

Susanna Pollack

President, Games for Change

Susanna Pollack is the President of Games for Change. With a background in media and entertainment, she now leads the nationally recognized organization and produces the annual Games for Change Festival, the largest gaming event in NYC as well as the Games and Media Summit in partnership... Read More →

Speakers

Bradley Crooks

Head of Digital Entertainment & Games, BBC Studios

Before joining BBC Studios to look after its games and digital entertainment team Bradley worked in a variety of roles at games developers and publishers including Headstrong Games, Sony and EA. Bradley has worked on everything from First Person Shooters such as Crysis to Art Drawing... Read More →

Kellee Santiago

Senior Producer Apps & Games, VR/AR, Google

Kellee Santiago, as former president and co-founder of thatgamecompany, has developed one of the most prominent brands in independent and innovative game development, pushing the communicative possibilities of video games as a medium. She is currently on the Daydream team at Google... Read More →

Phil Stuart

Creative Director, Preloaded

Phil is founder and Creative Director of Preloaded, a BAFTA winning games studio using the power of play to reinvent the way organisations connect with audiences. In VR his focus is on user-experience and telling new types of stories with agency, authenticity and purpose. Recent projects... Read More →

Friday June 29, 2018 3:15pm - 4:00pm EDT
Mainstage - Tishman Auditorium

Games for Learning Summit, Panel

3:15pm EDT

Panel - Games and Empathy

This panel will take a critical look at if and how empathy can be fostered in young people through the use of games. The discussion will include game developers, educators, guidance counselors and researchers and will offer a holistic, yet practical look at the use of games to spark, drive and teach empathy.

Moderators

Arana Shapiro

Co-Executive Director, Institute of Play

Arana Shapiro is Co-Executive Director at Institute of Play. She leads the Institute’s strategy, growth, development, and operations. She also oversees the Institute’s major initiatives in relation to school design, leadership, and school-based partnerships. She has over fifteen... Read More →

Speakers

Daniel Braunfeld

Senior Program Associate for Special Projects, Facing History and Ourselves

Daniel Braunfeld is the Senior Program Associate for Special Projects at Facing History and Ourselves - an educational non-profit whose mission is to engage students in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed... Read More →

Matthew Farber

Assistant Professor, University of Northern Colorado

Dr. Matthew Farber is an Assistant Professor of Technology, Innovation and Pedagogy at the University of Northern Colorado. He has been invited to the White House, to keynote for UNESCO, and he has been interviewed by NPR, USA TODAY and The Wall Street Journal. With Karen Schrier... Read More →

Karen Schrier

Associate Professor/Director of Games, Marist College

Dr. Karen Schrier is Associate Professor and Director of Games at Marist College. Prior to Marist, she produced and designed media at places like Scholastic, Nickelodeon and BrainPOP. She is the editor of the book series, Learning, Education & Games, published by ETC Press (Carnegie... Read More →

Rachelle Vallon

Guidance Counselor, Quest to Learn

Rachelle Vallon is the Middle School Guidance Counselor and Wellness Coordinator at Quest to Learn. She has supported her school in the implementation of Game-like Learning and design thinking. Rachelle has provided game design experiences to students and staff in Public Schools and... Read More →

Jackson Westenskow

Assistant Director, Mapleton Expeditionary School of the Arts

Jackson is an English teacher, Spanish teacher, and school leader passionate about project-based and game-based learning. He has worked as a school designer for Institute of Play and was recently awarded an Innovation Grant from Facing History and Ourselves for the design of a tabletop... Read More →

Friday June 29, 2018 3:15pm - 4:00pm EDT
Room 105

Games for Learning Summit, Panel

4:15pm EDT

The Truth in Our Stars: Using Actual Science to Educate and Entertain

Every game involves interacting with some form of simulation of the real world, whether it's physics or in-game economics or social interaction with NPCs. This fact offers designers an unprecedented opportunity for educating their players, without ever breaking the gameplay experience. Follow the development of TerraGenesis, the indie mobile sensation with over two million players, and explore how it seamlessly integrates real scientific principles into its game mechanics. By using real-world science alongside fictionalized gameplay, TerraGenesis simultaneously deepens its players' experiences and introduces people to new aspects of the world they might have never discovered.

Speakers

Alexander Winn

Founder & CEO, Edgeworks Entertainment

Alexander Winn is the founder and CEO of Edgeworks Entertainment. After developing the hit science-based terraforming game TerraGenesis in his free time, he captured the public imagination with over 2.5 Million downloads on iOS and an impending Android release. Alongside his wife... Read More →

Friday June 29, 2018 4:15pm - 4:35pm EDT
Room 104

Games for Learning Summit, Talk

4:45pm EDT

Panel - Game to Grow: How Esports Can Shape Student Success

The Orange County High School Esports League is leveraging student skills and passion for esports to frame an exciting new program for student learning. While gameplay and rivalries are the cornerstones of the League, experts see an opportunity to weave STEM, English Language Arts (ELA), and social emotional learning into one of the most popular pastimes for students today. The League combines a competitive tournament, mentorship, adaptive learning programs, and a blooming curriculum (planned for Fall 2018). Partners include the Orange County Department of Education, University of California Irvine, Connected Camps, Connected Learning Lab, OC STEM, and Alvarez & Marsal.

Moderators

Gerald Solomon

Executive Director, Samueli Foundation

Mr. Solomon serves as the Executive Director of the Samueli Foundation since 2008, overseeing their philanthropic activities, focused on STEM Education, Youth, Integrative Health. He led the design of the OCSTEM Initiative, now replicated in 56 cities around the country, and has led... Read More →

Speakers

Adrian Olmedo

Educator, Anaheim Union High School District

An innovation and creativity advocate, Adrian has helped empower students to flourish personally and professionally through authentic and meaningful experiential learning. Adrian has a passion for helping reimagine professional leadership and global education initiatives to ensure... Read More →

Constance Steinkuehler

Professor, University of California, Irvine

Constance Steinkuehler is a Professor of Informatics at the University of California, Irvine where she researches the cognitive, intellectual, and social aspects of esports and multiplayer online videogames. Current projects include esports analytics and survey research, methods for... Read More →

Tom Turner

Director, Orange County Department of Education

Tom currently serves as the Director of Instruction overseeing STEM with the Orange County Department of Education. In this role, he regularly interacts with classroom teachers, site administrators, and district leadership in implementing STEM professional learning and program development... Read More →

Friday June 29, 2018 4:45pm - 5:30pm EDT
Starr Foundation

Games for Learning Summit, Panel