Earlier in 2012, I had the great pleasure of meeting and interviewing several teachers in the New York City area who are pioneering the use of digital games and video game design in their individual classrooms. These interviews were turned into four short video case studies and informed the creation of a first-ever national survey (PDF) of K-12 educators to gauge the impact of digital game use on teaching and student learning.
After conducting and releasing this research, I had the opportunity to travel outside New York City and present the results of our national survey and show the videos to audiences filled with teachers, school leaders, video game developers, educational policy makers, and investors. At one such event, hosted by The Atlantic magazine in May 2012, I shared a stage with one of our video case study subjects, Joel Levin, a.k.a. “The Minecraft Teacher“, as well as two professors of education who are working directly with teachers to use video games in the classroom. After the panel discussion, I was approached by Jerri Drakes, the Director of Technology at St. Philip’s Academy, a K-8 school located in heart of Newark, NJ. She told me about her school’s growing use of digital games in an attempt to better engage her school’s student body, many of whom come from lower-income families and are not accustomed to the school’s demanding curriculum, but who shine in this friendly, well-resourced educational environment. (more…)Earlier in 2012, I had the great pleasure of meeting and interviewing several teachers in the New York City area who are pioneering the use of digital games and video game design in their individual classrooms. These interviews were turned into four short video case studies and informed the creation of a first-ever national survey (PDF) of K-12 educators to gauge the impact of digital game use on teaching and student learning.
After conducting and releasing this research, I had the opportunity to travel outside New York City and present the results of our national survey and show the videos to audiences filled with teachers, school leaders, video game developers, educational policy makers, and investors. At one such event, hosted by The Atlantic magazine in May 2012, I shared a stage with one of our video case study subjects, Joel Levin, a.k.a. “The Minecraft Teacher“, as well as two professors of education who are working directly with teachers to use video games in the classroom. After the panel discussion, I was approached by Jerri Drakes, the Director of Technology at St. Philip’s Academy, a K-8 school located in heart of Newark, NJ. She told me about her school’s growing use of digital games in an attempt to better engage her school’s student body, many of whom come from lower-income families and are not accustomed to the school’s demanding curriculum, but who shine in this friendly, well-resourced educational environment. (more…)