Going to Austin: Cooney Center Panel Selected for SXSWedu

Today brought some good news as one of our proposed panels was selected as part of the SXSWedu conference slated for next March. The session, “Lost in Translation: Applying the Latest Game Research,” emerged from the 700 submitted ideas to the major education and innovation conference.

It’s exciting news for a couple of reasons. First, it is affirmation of one of the major initiatives we are about to launch at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center. We have been working through the summer and fall to develop a new news and information service that seeks to connect the latest research on learning science, the gaming market and education with the developers and funders hoping to make the educational games of the future. This service, gamesandlearning.org, aims to translate research into content these game makers and supporters can use – to make sure the power and learning from those studies does not get lost in the translation between research and practice.

Second, it is an intriguing concept to take to Austin. SXSWedu has quickly emerged as one of the most creative and influential conferences among those looking to see what is next or imagine what is possible. As they themselves describe it, the conference “seeks to inspire, engage, enlighten and entertain its passionate, forward-leaning community of education innovators.”

The session will try and take the concept of the soon-to-launch gamesandlearning.org and bring it to life before the audience. What we plan to do is to start with a video interview with a researcher who has just released a new study that could influence or affect the learning games market. The research will explain what they found and discuss possible ramifications of their work.

What is often left unexplored is how do different actors in the learning games world react or interpret the same research. We aim to answer that in the panel that follows by talking with some of the key stakeholders – investors, game developers and teachers — who will decide what the research means from their perspectives.

We plan on talking with:

• Chris Curran, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Education Growth Partners
• Bjorn Jeffrey, CEO & Co-Founder, Toca Boca
• Sujata Bhatt, Teacher and Founder of The Incubator School

With these three thinkers we are sure the conversation will be interesting and far-reaching.

The panel and gamesandlearning.org are both products of the Games and Learning Publishing Council, a Cooney Center project that has received a 30-month grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The GLPC is a group of game developers, investors, academics and education experts who seek to unlock the power of gaming to teach. The goal is by encouraging more investment in educational games and helping producers develop new products for the educational market, young people will have a chance to learn in a more individual way and teachers will have new tools to gauge student performance and encourage their success.

 

Check out the list of sessions on the SXSWEdu site, which includes some really great panels featuring many of our colleagues, including Education Fellow Jessica Millstone (ListenUp! SpeakUp! GameUp! A Game Data Discussion and The Competitive Advantage of Teacher Leadership).