Learning, Education and Games Book Launch & Panel


Details
What are the best practices for designing games for educational purposes? And what resources are available to teach us how to use games to teach others? Join us as we celebrate the book launch and learn from the authors of Learning, Education and Games, Volume One: Curricular and Design Considerations (http://legbookseries.wordpress.com/), the first publication of the Learning, Education and Games book series that was written, reviewed, and edited by members of the Learning, Education, and Games (LEG) (http://www.igda.org/group/leg) special interest group of the IGDA (http://www.igda.org/) (International Game Developers Association).
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ABOUT THE BOOK:
The Learning, Education and Games book series combines theory and practice, providing extensive research findings and frameworks, along with compelling case studies of games, research labs, and pedagogical practices.The first volume explores the latest research and practices in designing games for a variety of curricular needs–including STEM, literacy learning, history education, and computational, ethical, and critical thinking. The book also delves into design issues–such as aligning goals, designing for an audience, playtesting, and assessment.
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The first book in the book series is published by ETC Press, and will be available for free to download or via print on demand through lulu.com.
ABOUT OUR PANEL:
To celebrate the launch of the new book series, authors from the book will deliberate some of the big questions in educational games, as well as discuss the latest research and design practices. The panel will feature:
Elena Bertozzi, Quinnipiac University
Author of chapter “Using Games to Teach, Practice, and Encourage Interest in STEM Subjects”
Elena Bertozzi has developed curricula and game design programs at Indiana University, Bloomington, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater and LIU. She founded the Engender Games Group Lab to facilitate partnerships between the public and private sectors. Her team of student artists, programmers, and interface designers has worked on a wide range of projects ranging from frog identification to helping women make decisions about birth control. She is currently involved in efforts to increase the quality of game proposals submitted for federal funding, and she is working on a serious game to promote safe sex practices funded by a Gates Foundation Global Challenge grant.
Ethan Hein, NYU
Author of chapter “Music Games in Education”
Ethan Hein is a recent graduate of the New York University Music Technology program. He has spent fifteen years performing, teaching, composing, and writing about music. He is a co-developer of Play With Your Music, a MOOC (Massively Open Online Course) that introduces audio production concepts and techniques, developed in collaboration with New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, P2PU, and Peter Gabriel. He is currently developing an iOS app that teaches drum programming with a constructivist approach through a novel circular interface.
Gabriela Richard, University of Pennsylvania
Author of chapter “Designing for the Audience and Inclusive Considerations”
Gabriela T. Richard is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for Academic Diversity at the University of Pennsylvania in the Graduate School of Education. She is a National Science Foundation (NSF) and AAUW-funded scholar, whose research speaks more broadly to issues important to media designed for formal and informal education. Specifically, her research focuses on how to design and implement educational media and technology that is inclusive and sensitive to how social realities can disproportionately affect identification and achievement (particularly across sociocultural experiences, including gender, ethnicity, and sexuality). She has worked as an interactive designer, and taught instructional design and educational games courses at New York University, CUNY, and University of Pennsylvania. Before starting her Ph.D., she developed an innovative outreach program, which taught New York City public school students and teachers how to develop tangible media with physical computing, which received grant funding from the NSF. For over ten years, she has taught youth how to develop interactive and tangible media, including digital games. She has presented widely on why diversity matters in media design, as connected to her research findings of marginalizing practices in game culture and their relationship to social identities and stereotype threat. She received her master’s degree from the Interactive Telecommunication Program at New York University, and her Ph.D. from the Educational Communication and Technology Program at New York University.
The panel will be moderated by Karen Schrier, Marist College, who is the editor of the book series.
Dr. Karen Schrier is an Assistant Professor of Media Arts at Marist College, where she leads the concentration in Interactive Media/Game Design. She also directs the Play Innovation Lab (www.playinnovationlab.com), which researches and creates games and media for education and social change. Prior to Marist, she designed and produced websites, apps, and games at Scholastic, BrainPOP, Nickelodeon and ESI Design. She is the editor of this book series on games and learning, and has previously edited two books on games and ethics: Designing Games for Ethics and Teaching Values through Play. Dr. Schrier is also currently writing a book on games and social change (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015). She is a member of the steering committee of the IGDA Learning, Education, and Games (LEG) SIG—the group that collaborated to write, review and edit this book. She holds a doctorate from Columbia University, master’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College.
We hope to see you there!

Learning, Education and Games Book Launch & Panel