Games in Education Symposium - August 1 & 2

On August 1st and 2d, the Esteves School of Education at Sage College in Troy New York will be hosting the Games in Education Symposium.  I am excited to share that I will be presenting a workshop on using Game Maker to teach Video Game Design and Development in Middle and High School.

The two day workshop has many wonderful speakers lined up including:

Chris Haskell is a doctoral student and special lecturer for the Educational Technology Department at Boise State University.  Chris and Lisa Dawley created 3D GameLab, a game-based / quest based Learning Management System.  Chris Haskell focuses on the incorporation of emerging technology (social media, virtual worlds, gaming, etc.) in Teacher Education.

Joel Levin, "The Minecraft Teacher" (@MinecraftTeachr) and founder of Minecraft Edu  has been teaching 1st and 2d graders using Minecraft in the classroom.  He is certainly instrumental in the movement to bring Minecraft into Education as a teaching tool.  Joel was featured in a video case study as part of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center Research on Teacher Attitudes Toward Gaming in Education conducted by Jessica Millstone and Allisyn Levy.

Speaking of Allisyn Levy (@allisyn)... she will be presenting a talk on how teachers are using video games in the classroom.  Hopefully she will be showing some of the video case studies mentioned above.  Not to add a spoiler here, but I was the teacher in one of the case studies.  Perhaps you will see it at the symposium!

Lucas Gillispie (@PCSTech), known for his involvement with Minecraft in Schools and WoW in Schools, will share his latest game-based project encouraging middle school students to explore the rich storytelling in video games on a variety of platforms.  .

Peggy Sheehey (@PeggySheehy), also known for her work with WoW in Education, will be presenting "The Game Plan: Why Education Needs to Pay Attention to Video Games!".  She will dispel the myths about gaming and show the clear connections between games and learning.  

I'm very excited to attend a conference with such a clear focus on Games in Learning.  It should be a great couple of days for sure!  Oh, and did I mention... REGISTRATION IS FREE!!!

Games and Learning...Join me on my Adventure in Game Based Learning

My name is Steve Isaacs and I am very excited about Game Based Learning, and more specifically using Game Design and Development as a Teaching / Learning tool.  I developed and teach Video Game Design and Development at William Annin Middle School in Basking Ridge, NJ.  and online for Virtual High School.  I love to facilitate the learning process and witness that spark being lit as students become excited about learning and problem solving.  I'm a true believe that providing opportunities that engage students and put them in an environment that is intrinsically motivating does more to help develop lifelong learners than anything else.  Video Game Design and Development is interdisciplinary and encourages collaboration, critical thinking, creativity, and so much more!

This fall I will begin work toward my doctorate as I was selected to be part of the inaugural cohort in the Ed.D. program in Educational Technology at Boise State university.  I will be focusing my research on Games and Learning with a focus on Game Design and Development.  Thanks for reading and contributing to my blog.