announcements

Become part of the founding faculty at a new, innovative public school called Quest to Learn!

In partnership with several organizations including New Visions for Public Schools, the Institute of Play, and the New School, Quest to Learn will open its doors this fall at a Manhattan location to-be-determined. The school will open 6th grade and will eventually grow to accommodate grades 6 through 12. For the 2009-2010 school year, we expect to hire six founding staff members with specializations in math, science (physics preferred), English, social studies, special education, and technology.

The 2008 Summer Teacher Institute curriculum kits are now available online. The curriculum kits are downloadable versions of the game-based curricular units developed by the participating teachers and the Institute of Play. The kits include an introduction to the proposed school Quest to Learn and an introduction to the game-based learning pedagogy that informs the Institute of Play’s work, a narrative overview of each mission, a template that illustrates how the teacher’s pre-existing units were developed into games and quests, a rubric to assess student progress, and a pacing calendar that breakdowns the quests into class periods.

This Spartan Life Episode 6 from glomag on Vimeo
The executive director of Institute of Play, Katie Salen, was interviewed in 'This Spartan Life', a 'talk show in gamespace'. In this show, guests are invited into a live, online game of Halo 3 and interviewed by host Damian Lacedaemion. Here Katie talks about games and how their interactive aspect separates them from other kinds of media, giving live examples as she moves around the dynamic, interesting environment of Halo 3. Watch video for more details.