Games and Learning

Games for Change runs Thursday June 23 to Friday June 24 at the Parsons School of Design in New York City.

A year ago Game for Change tried an experiment, hosting a one-day, invite-only event focused on learning games. This year, the schedule is very different, with two full days of sessions, keynotes and panels forming a full track of programming within the New York festival.

Games for Change President Susanna Pollack told us earlier this year that, “We wanted to see what appetite our community would have and to see what other stakeholders in this space could we attract to come to New York and participate in this conversation,” adding that the event ended up being “standing-room only and we realized that there really was a demand for this kind of conversation.”

So there are a few sessions we will be watching this week and thought you might want to check out as well.

Thursday

The Policy Perspective

Richard Culatta, the former top learning games guy at the Department of Education will offer a brief keynote on Thursday at the Tishman Auditorium. He was critical in helping push the idea of open educational resources and hosted many discussions with game developers and so his thoughts on the state of the industry is always interesting.

Designing Better

We’re intrigued about the UX session Celia Hodent from Epic Games is hosting at 11:15 in room 105. The idea of learning from the user experience efforts of commercial game companies is something we have heard from other designers and so that may be one worth checking out.

Lots of Brains in One Place

There are a boat-load of experienced and pioneering folks at a session on Thursday afternoon, “More Than Child’s Play: Games for Early Learners,” from 1:45-2:30 at the Starr Foundation Hall. PBS Kids, Toca Boca, Code Spark and others will be exploring “the needs of early learners and creating effective age-appropriate content that supports their growth.”

Answering the Question We All Have

Well, if there is a name in learning games that always attracts a crowd it is Minecraft and Deirdre Quarnstrom, director of Minecraft Education at Microsoft, will be in Room 105 at 2:15 letting us know some of what to expect.

One of gamesandlearning.org’s Own

You don’t even have to change rooms to hear from Sande Chen, author of a five-part series on the state of the learning game industry, who will be presenting her findings at 2:45 in 105. You can see the series here.

Friday

Jesse!

Jesse Schell of Schell games is always worth listening to. He will be tackling the idea of virtual reality and games for impact in his Friday morning keynote at 9:30 in the Tishman Auditorium.

The White House View

President Obama may only have a few more months in office, but during his presidency the White House has taken a much more aggressive approach to gaming. On Friday his likely last games czar – Erik Martin – will be back in Room 105 at 2:15 to offer some insight into how the White House has come to view games and what the future may hold.