Right after SCMS 2024, I will be heading to Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2024, which is always held in San Francisco, CA. I had an opportunity to go a couple of years ago as part of the Educators Summit, but I could only attend and present virtually. This year, as part of the same panel on “Teaching Games with Games,” now helmed by friends and colleagues Patrick LeMieux and Stephanie Boluk, I will get to go in person. Given the theme of the panel is “face to face,” I had to be there. It is right after SCMS and right after my spring break, but I decided it was an important opportunity to break into the industry side of video games and game studies. Here’s the info on the panel:
“Teaching Games with Games”
Educators Summit @ Game Developers Conference
Tuesday, March 19
10:50-11:50 AM
After years of working from home, teaching from home, and playing from home, in 2024 many of us are transitioning back to in-person teaching in classrooms and offices—whether we like it or not! But something has changed. Students and colleagues are reluctant to raise hands and hesitant to navigate public play after many years apart. At the same time, our physical teaching spaces often sit in tension with hybrid forms of learning. Drawing on traditions of folk games, tabletop roleplaying, improv theater, standup comedy, corporate icebreakers, reality TV, mixed media, and other forms of collaborative, cooperative play, we invite five educators to share a single exercise, lesson, method, or moment that got their students playing face to face.
