Institute of Play's blog

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!

This week marked the launch of an online social learning network, custom-designed by the Institute of Play for the game-based learning school, Quest to Learn. A creative, resourceful and stalwart team of designers, programmers, project managers and wellness experts collaborated to bring Being Me to life. Being Me’s features enable students to engage in a range of practices from self-reflective moments where they track how they’re feeling to more community-oriented activities where they participate in online discussions or share perspectives. Being Me supports Quest’s trimester-long focus on team work and how elements interact to create relationships within systems. It will also have an active role in Q2L’s afterschool space, providing opportunities for students to post, rate and comment on their work with the support of their adult mentors.

On December 23, Quest to Learn's first Boss Level Challenge came to a successful close. The culmination of a semester-long investigation into the architecture of dynamic systems, the Boss Level is a two-week “intensive” where students apply knowledge and skills to propose solutions to complex problems. This trimester, Q2L students were invited to build Rube Goldberg machines or complicated machines that perform simple tasks.

After two weeks of tinkering, building, problem-solving and podcasting, it was finally time for Q2L students to not only show-off their machines but also demonstrate their understanding of rules, goals, elements and systems. Six teams introduced and ran their machines before a panel of prominent architects, game designers, television producers, designers and technologists. Joined by the Q2L community, the judges moved from room to room scoring the machines based on a predetermined set of rubrics including, performance, use of materials, ability to meet the predetermined goal, components, appearance and creativity. From toycars landing on keyboards to dominoes propelling scissors to cut string and trigger a lever, each machine was fueled by its own whimsical collection of found objects, re-purposed materials and inventive ideas.

This week, the Institute of Play launched a new collaboration with Eyebeam Art and Technology Center, called Super Art + Design Challenge Wednesdays. Presented at Quest to Learn, the program brings Eyebeam fellows and residents together with Q2L students to explore new ideas, techniques and technologies. This week's workshop, YouTube ReMix Mania, featured Eyebeam senior fellow Jeff Crouse, who showed students some of his own projects and introduced some big ideas about contagious media, robotic monkeys, participatory culture and parody. After a quick tour of iMovie and a review of effective editing techniques, Jeff challenged the group to make their own re-creations using their brand new skills and tools. At the end of the afternoon, when the students uploaded their remixes and shared them online, it was clear that they had aced the first design challenge with only seconds to spare!