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Wednesday, June 11 • 10:30am - 11:30am
Obligatory Games: The Impact of Social and Political-Economic Contexts on Games in US Classrooms

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Obligatory Games: The Impact of Social and Political-Economic Contexts on Games in US Classrooms
Casey O'Donnell, Louisa Rosenheck, Mark Chen, Peter Stidwill

Games designed and developed to be both "good fun" and educational is no longer novel. Increasingly, games are being developed to meet the needs of both teachers and students. However, the various organizations developing these games find themselves enmeshed in a complex ecology of interests placing a variety of demands on those making these games.

Perhaps most importantly, questions surrounding the relationship between games and the U.S. educational system loom large in the minds of both academics and developers. Does something "required" remain a game? To what extent do games in the classroom have a chance to change the total classroom ecology towards affording the learning conditions we associate with well-designed games – interest-driven learning, exploratory probing, an orientation towards mastery not performance, etc.? To what extent do they become coopted by the surrounding institutionalizations as yet another form of analytics and surveillance of students, teachers, and learning outcomes?
Speakers
avatar for Mark Chen

Mark Chen

Accidental Hero and Layabout, University of Washington Bothell
Mark Chen (NASAGA board member, PhD Education, University of Washington; BA Fine Art, Reed College) is an independent games scholar and part-time professor of interaction design, qualitative research, and games studies at the University of Washington Bothell. He runs http://esotericgaming.com... Read More →
avatar for Casey O'Donnell

Casey O'Donnell

Assistant Professor, Michigan State University
My research examines the creative collaborative work of videogame design and development. I examine the cultural and collaborative dynamics that occur in both professional "AAA" organizations and formal and informal "independent" game development communities. My research has spanned... Read More →
avatar for Louisa Rosenheck

Louisa Rosenheck

Associate Director, MIT Playful Journey Lab
Louisa Rosenheck is the Associate Director and Creative Lead of the MIT Playful Journey Lab. She manages the design, content, and development of educational games and software, and oversees the research on how ed tech can be effectively used in both formal and informal educational... Read More →
avatar for Peter Stidwill

Peter Stidwill

Executive Producer, Learning Games Network
I create educational games and digital learning products. I'm Executive Producer at the Learning Games Network, a non-profit spin-off of the MIT Education Arcade and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Games+Learning+Society program. I produced the award-winning ethical-thinking... Read More →

Wednesday June 11, 2014 10:30am - 11:30am CDT
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