No longer child’s play: Hundreds to gather for games and learning conference
More than 700 scholars, teachers, game developers, publishers and more are descending on Madison this week for the 10th edition of the Games+Learning+Society (GLS) Conference.
This years event –- which is the largest games and learning conference of its kind — runs June 10-13 at the Memorial Union on the UW-Madison campus.
The GLS Conference features events ranging from cozy chats with leading international scholars to keynote presentations by some of the biggest names in educational gaming.
The Games+Learning+Society Center on the UW-Madison campus is a base for industry-tested game designers and a mix of faculty, students and academic staff from the Digital Media program within the School of Education’s top-ranked Department of Curriculum & Instruction. The center is co-directed by School of Education faculty members Kurt Squire and Constance Steinkuehler.
The GLS Conference provides a niche for everybody, as attendees can join animated discussion at one of the many paper presentations or can relax and play in the Arcade, filled with popular commercial and educational game titles. Steinkuehler describes the event as “part academic conference, part design workshop and part celebration.”
“Over the last decade we’ve seen tremendous growth of this sector,” says Steinkuehler. “We’ve moved from a small cottage industry of indie developers and heterodox academics to a thriving ecosystem for innovation. Games are no longer viewed as merely children’s toys. With substantial investments from federal agencies, philanthropic foundations, and venture capital along with increased academic focus and a growing games for impact design scene, the public demand for top notch educational games has soared. We are looking forward to seeing where this sector takes us over the next two years.”
The GLS Conference is hosting a variety of presentations, ranging from “Game Development Bootcamp for Educators” to “Start with the guts, go for the head: A well played paper on the Walking Dead.”
Whether through playing, discussing, or just hanging out over good food, GLS provides a place for scholars, educators, developers, programmers and artists to talk to each other, learn from each other and build something together.
The conference begins with the Playful Learning Summit, a national gathering that celebrates and deepens educators’ use of games and new media in various educational settings, while fostering collaboration among teachers, designers, researchers and others throughout elementary to higher education. According to Remi Holden, GLS Playful Learning Summit Co-Chair, “The Playful Learning movement has engaged over 1,300 educators, designers and game-based learning enthusiasts since our first national summit last summer. We are thrilled that GLS continues to play a leading role in advancing both Playful Learning nationally and ‘playful learning’ as a transformative vision for the future of education.”
This year, GLS also is hosting the Cyberlearning Summit, sponsored and organized by the National Science Foundation, which fosters collaboration between researchers to advance technology-mediated learning environments, and learn how to use cyberlearning technologies to collect, analyze, and better manage data. This Summit will take place June 9-10. In addition, GLS is adding a new pre-conference event, the Games in Libraries Day, hosted Tuesday June 10th, at the Memorial Union and developed in collaboration with UW’s School of Library & Information Studies to show participants how games in libraries can be used to foster learning and community building for library users.
For complete details, visit the GLS Conference website.