Blogs

The Institute of Play is growing its team and in search of talented players to join a range of new projects and developing initiatives. We seek outstanding, creative and committed game-changers to contribute to our work as a design-led non-profit focused on the future of learning. Positions include: Chief Operations Officer/Director of Engagement (PDF), Communications Director (PDF), Curriculum Developer (PDF), Afterschool Program Mentor (PDF), Game Designer (PDF) and Design Production Intern (PDF).

Our Core Values:

• Commitment and Care: Members of IOP team have a strong commitment to work they do and a deep sense of care about why their work matters and whom it impacts.

• Social Life: Teamwork, collaboration, and the communities that we have helped to build and of which we are part, energize us.

• Diversity: We value a team made up of people with different backgrounds, skill‐sets, experiences, and points of view.

• Positive Feedback Loops: We embrace an additive creative process, where no ideas are rejected outright and we build constantly on an inventory of ideas generated by the group.

• Passions: We believe in the idea of having passionate interests and want to cultivate and support a sense of passion and engagement in others, particularly kids!

If you'd like to join our team, download one of the position descriptions above!

The Institute of Play and a dedicated team has just completed the development of the Spring trimester's Boss Level. Inspired by the Boss Level of a video game, the climatic moment when a player uses all of his/her newly mastered skills to challenge the "boss" and all of its powers., Designed as an assessment tool to help determine how students have understood the fundamental ideas and themes that have defined the trimester. Although students do not engage in battle during the Q2L Boss Levels, students are placed in problem-rich environment and challenged to work together, analyze findings, build theories and propose solutions.

This trimester, seven groups of students were delivered a three-part challenge: to create an event, build a balanced team to participate in each event and to compete and win at the first Q2L Field Day! The students began the Boss Level practicing related skills and grappling with their design constraints—specific materials and physical actions, particular qualities or characteristics that the event should test. Students were also tasked with creating a tool that would measure their specific quality whether it was agility, brain power or strength.

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.