This conference is different, first, because it's being hosted by the National Academies, the premier academic organization in the United States. Second, representatives from 30 funding agencies will be there. The conference was developed in stealth mode, but the remaining seating is now open to the public. Invitation here [note: 3.1mb; link will go bad when the event is over]. See inside for an accompanying text.
"The Center for the Advancement of Scholarship on Engineering Education of the national Academies, The Woodrow Wilson Center International Center for Scholars, and Digital Mill invite you to participate in a one day workshop on "Challenges and Opportunities in Game-Based Learning." This event is intended as a dialogue between the research and development community and the federal funding agencies supporting game-based research. The day-long event will showcase advances in game-based learning, delineate policy and research needs, and identify current and future funding agency initiatives into which community needs may be integrated. A program announcement for "Challenges and Opportunities in Game-Based Learning." is attached. To RSVP to this invitation, please email Merrilea Mayo at [email protected] with your name and affiliation. Space is limited, and attendance will be on a first-come, first-served basis.
The workshop will take place on Nov. 2 at the National Academy of Sciences Building at 2101 Constitution Ave., NW. The timing is such that interested parties may plan their trip to attend both this event on Nov. 2, and the Serious Games Conference in the two days preceding.
The ability of electronic games to engage and absorb today's youth is well known. High school students spend as much time playing video games as doing homework. A "good" online game has as many active players as are graduated annually by the entire U.S. higher education system in science and engineering. A "great" (or free) game reaches ten times as many. And now, emerging research shows well-crafted games can teach much more effectively than traditional classroom experiences, and even stimulate decidedly postive health outcomes. The excitement caused by the confluence of an effective education medium with a national education need has stimulated the growth of the game-based learning community beyond all expectation in the past two years. "Challenges and Opportunities in Game-Based Learning" seeks to help guide the development of this fast-moving field."
Shamelessly, I will admit that I am nearly gloating about the fact that funders are finally interested in "games-based learning." It bodes well for my career and I'm selfish enough to celebrate that fact in fronta god and everyone. ~.^ But....
It does concern me some that more and more events about games-based learning that are coming up include very little expertise on learning (let alone pedagogy or education) and a whole lot of industry - experts in game design but not the last several decades of research on cognition etc etc. My worry is that we will build "games for learning" that leave the learning out and therefore have lukewarm outcomes at best - and then the whole effort will get cast aside as fruitless based on a few lame titles that were neither good for learning nor good games.
All this against a historical context in which lots of efforts to make a dollar here or there have tried to build "X for learning" without basing any of their design in solid educational research (of which there is several decades). Education is a lot like psychology that way. Folks think that, because they have a mind, they're experts on how it operates. Of course, that a lot like saying I'm an expert on cars because I happen to drive one. Or better yet, an expert on game design because I play them.
Just my 2 cents here. Its a general concern, not commentary on this specific event per se.
Constance
Posted by: Constance Steinkuehler | Sep 18, 2005 at 17:13