Games and Learning

From time to time, members of the larger Games and Learning Publishing Council (GLPC) will be sharing their thoughts about the educational game industry as commentaries on the site. Council member Leslie Redd has been working to build the new GLPC and has found that collaboration may be one of the keys to success in this field.

The sharing of information and resources is organically occurring among GLPC council members and subsequently strengthening the game-based learning ecosystem.  Council members champion each other’s projects, engender fruitful connections with other interested parties, and even retweet each other in support of making progress in the space.

LearnBIG, the site my company launched in early September, has been both a beneficiary of and a catalyst for this collaborative environment.

LearnBIG collects and curates online educational resources from pre-kindergarten through post-college, and some of the first organizations we approached for feedback and potential collaboration included Common Sense Media, Learning Games Network, GameDesk and BrainPOP.  Council members who are leaders within these organizations were generous with their time, advice, and, importantly, their content.

Each organization found a way for their expertise, whether in the form of a review, game or lesson plan, be shared with LearnBIG users.  Some of these initiatives are still a work in progress, yet all parties value the overarching goal of stimulating interest in game-based learning.  Other council members have provided valuable contacts and shared LearnBIG with their communities, and LearnBIG has done the same.

LearnBIG is based in Seattle and this fall Learning Games Network and BrainPOP included us as co-hosts of a Playful Learning professional development workshop for teachers featuring the basics of game-based learning.  LearnBIG obtained the space and spread the word.  At the conclusion of the informative and engaging workshop, local teachers asked for someone to visit their schools and speak to their colleagues – we’ll be doing that and showcasing all game-based learning resources.

But it’s more than just the organizations. Council members have impressed me as individuals working to “make things happen.”  I was recently asked by an important company with a commercial game studio to give an overview of the game-based learning environment as they’ve begun to think about the role they could play and impact they could have.  I pulled together a presentation and realized that half to two-thirds of my recommended resources were instigated and sustained by council members.  (And how wonderful it was to point to this, gamesandlearning.org, as a valued reference.)

If we think of the game-based learning market as a multiplayer game, GLPC members are on the same team.  Some teams are made up of two people, some teams more.

We players must form a coalition to promote each other’s innovations for the epic win of relevant, thriving and financially rewarding game-based learning products and services.