Talking about gaming and learning at SXSWedu

Last week, I had the chance to attend the 2nd annual SXSWedu event. It was a great time for networking and learning, and I think they’ve taken the spirit and energy of the main SXSW film and music festival and applied to a more thoughtful and open dialogue for education reform.

I had an opportunity to lead a panel on game-based learning and its impact on student achievement with some experts in the field from Rochester Institute of Technology, Just Press Play, Second Avenue Learning and Chicago Public Schools. We talked about how gamification could impact the core of the way in which learning and content is transformed, how we can create new models for teaching more innovatively, as well as thinking differently around getting kids connected in personal ways both as it relates to gender equity, as well as driving the right kind of education outcomes for careers and skills. It was a thoughtful conversation but there’s lots of work to explore in this space.

I had the opportunity to talk more with Stephen Jacobs from RIT after the panel to share some more of his insights with Just Press Play and what he is doing at RIT.

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 15, 2012
  This has lots of potential and the ideas are highly transferable to schools. As the project is in the early days it will be good to revisit this space in 12 months and see how they got on and what the students thought of it. BTW - Hope you liked the eBook? www.slideshare.net/.../playful-learning-computer-games-in-education