Games in Education Round Table

A round-table bringing together game publishers, academics and game-designers to discuss the opportunities for table-top games in education.

GAMES in EDUCATION ROUNDTABLE:

CHAIR: 

Matt Coward-Gibbs is a Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences at York St John University. He is the technical director of investigate.games, and the co-lead of the York Board Games Convention and Demons Wake. 

PANELLISTS:

Jim Wallman is a professional game designer with over thirty years’ experience in the serious game design field and Director of Stone Paper Scissors Ltd, specialising in wargames, senior leadership development games and games for developing insights, strategy, team development and education.

Laura Mitchell is a senior lecturer in people, work and employment at the University of York who loves using playful learning to brighten up dry theories about society and ethics. She has a background in Critical Management Studies and is the co-director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in Management Education. She is also a LEGO® Serious Play facilitator and LARP and tabletop roleplayer.

Alex Moseley is the Head of Anglia Learning and Teaching at Anglia Ruskin University and a National Teaching Fellow. Alex is the founding co-chair of the Playful Learning Association, co-chair of the Playful Learning Conference and an accredited Lego Serious Play Facilitator. 

Pen Holland is a professor of ecology and education at the University of York who got into game-based learning to help explain complex ecological models to managers and policy makers. She leads the Catastrophic project (catastrophic.york.ac.uk) that supports systems-thinking in biology and builds learning communities in the transition to university.

Jim Thompson is a Principal Lecturer in Games Design at the University of Central Lancashire. Over the last 20 years he has developed undergraduate and postgraduate curriculums in Games Design and has extensive experience as an HE external advisor. He has also been active in public family arts events developing playful experiences and games for a wide audience.

Jessica Metheringham designs family games on themes ranging from literature, to protest, to voting. Her expertise is in politics: she has worked in Westminster, with local government, and as a campaigner, and is currently chair of cross-party pressure group Unlock Democracy

Olive Kilby is a philosophy student at Leeds Trinity University, an officer of their Roleplaying & Table-Top Society (RATTS), and an experienced Dungeon Master.

Liz Cable is Digital Marketing Programme Lead at Leeds Trinity University, she is an award-winning game-based learning designer and author. Liz has designed and run LARP campaigns, escape rooms, RPGs, city-wide treasure hunts, alternate reality games and is the convener of UK Games Expo's first academic track.

This is the second of three informal Sunday events for the Games in Education academic track - new this year.

UK Games Expo is presenting its first ever academic track to bring together designers, teachers, academics, students, researchers and parents to explore what ideas, projects and partnerships can be formed going forward.

From a game designer’s point of view, access to academic research can inspire, inform, or even transform the nature of a game. Research funds can also pay for development and dissemination. There’s a growing opportunity for game designers to be involved in research bids and grant proposals.

If you are involved in providing any stage of formal or informal learning, and want to use games in your practice, come along.

We’ll be asking how we can use table-top and other analogue game formats to

·               Build community

·               Teach and encourage learning, especially social and higher order thinking skills

·               Share research in accessible ways

·               Provide authentic educational experiences and assessments

·               and solve real-world problems

Our track on Sunday will involve some short talks presenting the opportunities and possibilities, a roundtable for discussion, and networking including the opportunity to show off your projects at whatever stage of development.

10.30-11.30                     Games in Education Short Talks

11.30-12.15                       Roundtable

12.15 - 12.30                    Break

12.30-1.30                       Networking and Show your Work

Games in Education Short Talks: Jim Wallman, Liz Cable, Laura Mitchell & Alex Moseley will kick off with a discussion of their experiences bringing learning to life through non-digital games in education and training.

Roundtable: A discussion around the opportunity for educators and game-designers to work together.

Networking and Show Your Work: everyone is welcome to show their games in education project, whether its finished, a work in progress, or just an idea…