Blogs

SMALLab-NY and Institute of Play game designer Kyle Li and his collaborators Albert Dang and Stephanie Tang, have won Best in Class: Innovation Award in the Digital Media and Learning Competition's Game Changers category. The Game Changers category aims to create new game play experiences that activate Science, Technology, Engineering and Math learning using the popular video games LittleBigPlanet™ and Spore™ Galactic Adventures. The competition is administered by HASTAC and supported by the MacArthur Foundation.

The team's winning game, Sackboys and the Mysterious Proof, was voted by the public to be the most innovative game in a competition with 800 entries. In Sackboys and The Mysterious Proof, LittleBigPlanet™ players must escape from the Proof family's century-old mansion by solving a series of puzzles using geometric reasoning. With puzzle mechanics driven by geometric theorems, players convert geometric concepts from the classroom into active knowledge through collaborative play inspired by precision learning. Congratulations to Kyle and the whole Sackboys team!

Katie Salen, the Institute of Play's executive director and the executive director of design at Quest to Learn, was recently profiled as part of Big Think's "Moments of Genius" series. In this interview, Katie discusses some of the key moments when she first envisioned how the learning architecture of games could help create dynamic and compelling learning experiences. Katie notes that games are player-dependent and focused, and as such offer kids "profound moments to understand notions of point of view, empathy and civic engagement." Katie also addresses the importance of problem-solving, intelligent resourcing and collaboration in both the design of learning experiences and the design of play.

This trimester, the keywords for the Institute of Play's Mobo Studio afterschool program are digital storytelling. The workshop or "pod" has been named Scratch Stories. Working with the popular programming language Scratch, students are working with the Mobo Studio team to explore digital media, graphic arts, programming and other 21st Century skills. These digital and computational media skills will be further developed in small groups with students applying their individual areas of expertise to collaborative team projects.

Last week, the Mobo Studio participants presented their works-in-progress, demonstrating games, graphics and sounds based on the theme "opposites attract." It was an impressive display of their burgeoning programming and design skills and an excellent opportunity for the students to practice articulating the decisions and motivations behind their practice. What's next? Students will continue to work in small groups on theme-based projects, by the end of the trimester, their work will come together as an interactive mural illustrating their experiences and stories exploring different New York City neighborhoods.

Quest to Learn's end of trimester Boss Levels, concluded on March 26, with the presentation of seven plays—written, performed, directed and designed by the schools sixth grade students. The performances were the culmination of two weeks of immersion into the art of theater and storytelling, in particular performance, acting and scriptwriting. The visual design and behind-the-scenes elements of theatrical productions were also explored and students worked in small groups to paint scenery and create of unique sound effects, costumes and a playbill for each play.

Days before the performance of the plays, just when they were in the throes of rehearsals and last minute script changes, the students were asked to stop and reflect on their roles and experiences. Some of the questions and issues they pondered, included, What did the production of a play entail? What was the significance of each area they had explored during the last week? Could the theater or the production of a play be described as a system? If so, how might you identify this system’s elements and their relationships?