The Art and Science of Designing Games for Learning Ken Perlin, Director Jan L. Plass, Co-Director Susan Stratton, Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships

Mission  Study the use of digital games for learning–socio-cultural, cognitive, and emotional impact.  Develop design patterns for effective learning games that industry partners can draw on to assure high quality when designing their own games for learning.  Focus is on games that teach science, technology, engineering and mathematics to middle school students, bridging in-school and out-of-school learning.

Sponsorship

Collaborators  School of One  NYC DOE – Network of Middle Schools  Mouse Squad (After School Programs)  New York Hall of Science  Computers for Youth  National Council of Women in Technology  Pragmatic Solutions  Games for Change

Research Team Participating researchers Mary Flanagan (Dartmouth) Steve Feiner (Columbia) Bruce Homer (GC/CUNY) Katherine Isbister (NYU-Poly) Charles Kinzer (Teachers College) Colleen Macklin (Parsons) Cath Milne (NYU) Andy Phelps (RIT) Carl Skelton (NYU-Poly) Joel Wein (NYU-Poly) Miguel Nussbaum (PUC Chile) Ken Perlin Institute Director Jan L. Plass Institute Co-Director

Advisory Board Kaelan Doyle-Myerscough James Gee Alan Kay Jaron Lanier Mitch Resnick Tobi Saulnier Will Wright

Game Design: Math  Games that teach mathematics to middle school students– School of One

Game Design: Science  Games that teach science to middle school students Adventure Game for Chemistry Augmented Reality Science Game

Research  From game design patterns to learning outcomes Affective Outcomes Educational Game Design Patterns Factual Knowledge Conceptual Knowledge Procedural Knowledge Meta-cognitive Knowledge Curricular Integration Educational Games Educational Games

Research  Using Sophisticated, Cutting-Edge Research Methods and Tools

Expertise/Products  Design patterns for effective educational games  Representative Games for Math and Science Learning  Framework for In-Game Collection of User Data  Methods for In-game Assessment of Learning  Mining algorithms to measure many user variables

Applications  Research Applications  In this open app culture, G4LI is seeking to create a public/ private partnership  Licensable options  Digital ‘Toolbox’ for teachers  Digital ‘Backpack’ for students  Digital ‘Shoebox’ for parents  Evaluation criteria (seal of approval) for learning games  Aggregated web site, the ‘Google’ of learning games  Licensing arm to achieve self-funding  Domestic base, global reach

Scope  Domestic and International  Emerging Leader in the Games for Learning Community  Hosting Will Wright talk  Hosting Games for Learning Day at G4C  Hosting Invitational Learning Games Summit with Gates Foundation support; Chair: James H. Shelton III, Asst. Deputy Secretary for Innovation and Improvement, US DOE