Descent to the Underworld

Peacemaker-A Video Game to Teach Peace

Play-centric Design Education

Chris Swain
Interactive Media Division, USC-

March 3, 2006
UC Auditorium

Combine a broad liberal arts school with specialization in the history, theory, and practice of creating games and interactive entertainment. Add a class full of critical thinkers and designers, and you get a program that embodies the concept of “Play-Centric Design.” Player experience is the heart of the design process, sided by a system of prototyping, playtesting and iterative design that has been proven in almost a decade of student work.

An Instructional Designer Looks at World of Warcraft

Katie Livingston Vale
MIT New Media Center

February 17, 2006
Hodges Auditorium

This session looks at players of World of Warcraft to determine what the game might teach education professionals about peer learning, exploratory learning, and engagement and
feedback strategies.

Katie Livingston Vale, Ed.D. is the head of the educational technology consulting group in Academic Computing at MIT.

Play Time = Class Time

Richard Van Eck
University of North Dakota

February 3, 2006
Hodges Auditorium

This session will present an overview of the field of digital game-based learning (DGBL), including what it means to integrate games into the curriculum and the theory and rationale behind how, why, and with whom games are effective.

Dr. Van Eck is an associate professor and the Graduate Director for the IDT program at the University of North Dakota.