Games+Learning+Society

tatiang

I'm heading to the Games+Learning+Society conference next week. I'm hoping to learn some new ways to work with game design and especially to teach game design in schools.

tatiang

GameSalad isn't even mentioned in the educational space. I'm guessing that's because of a lack of marketing. At GLS 8.0, it should be here among the other giants (Scratch, GameStar Mechanic) because IT IS BETTER. As evidenced by a whole-day workshop on game design with students at this conference, educators are ready to start a gaming revolution. Unfortunately, everyone is mentioning other tools and I haven't heard GS even once (except when I've mentioned it!).

RThurman

Any more on GLS? Several presentations for Thursday and Friday look interesting.

Don't worry about GameSalad not being mentioned much. As you know, most educators are extremely conservative when it comes to technological innovation. Its a rare teacher that is an early adopter. The participants at the conference probably consider themselves as early adopters, but in reality, they are +10 years behind the 20 year adoption curve. (The presenters themselves are probably only about 5 years behind the curve.)

Once GameSalad has clear documentation (meaning some traditional textbooks/materials that teachers can adopt for classroom use), then there will be a groundswell of interest. For example, you mention both Scratch and GameStar Mechanic. One of the main things that makes these two platforms useful for educators is that both have a clear curriculum that teachers (typically middle adopters) can see how to implement into the classroom.

The good people at GameSalad need to get students (and schools) using their development system as a form of long term marketing strategy. And once GameSalad has learning resources that teachers (middle adopters) can use, the product will become a common component of game-based learning and instruction.

tatiang

You're absolutely right about documentation as a prerequisite for teachers to adopt technology. I happen to be a technology teacher / IT person so it doesn't phase me when software doesn't have educationally-relevant documentation, but most teachers don't have the time or necessarily the interest to go it alone.

I'm developing lesson plans for use with GameSalad (and Game Design in general), and meeting some people here doing the same thing but with other tools.

It's a really interesting conference. About 1/3 teachers, 1/3 researchers, and 1/3 game developers, so the discussions in each workshop are quite diverse. Everyone looks at games and gaming (and gamification) from a different perspective.