Institute of Play's blog

“The best way to predict the future is to invent it.” - Alan Key

Expert practitioners, academics, activists, representatives from non-profits and game designers were gathered this week at the annual Games for Change festival in New York. Under discussion and debate was the games as a meaningful agent for social change, the impact of current games for social change and the future and transformative power of games and learning.

A lot of discussion evolved around mobile games and learning. As University of Madison assistant professor and researcher Kurt Squire pointed out, "With mobile devices, we can take kids out of the walls we’ve put up around them, that currently keep them from participating." Squired explained similarities between the process of playing and designing games to the process of designing and a community. In both activities stake holders must: identify resources, invent and change rule systems, achieve competencies and level up, plan strategies and ultimately organize their community. "This makes games a mechanism to participate in the world—as you become competent you want to do something about what you see happening around you."

Matthew Kam and Subhi Quraishi of ZMQ, also joined the conversation, presenting their work and research using mobile games to make education more accessible to children. Specifically in India, where child labor frequently prevents kids from going to school. As they pointed out in their presentation, mobile devices allow children to learn outside of the formal school setting. They also underlined the importance of a human-centered design process that focuses on the local culture and its needs.

This week marked the launch of Mobo Studio, the Institute of Play and Q2L's afterschool enrichment program. With a focus on digital citizenship, creativity and design for mobile platforms, Mobo Studio extends Q2L's focus on tinkering, problem-solving, creating, and inventing. In a studio-like environment, Mobo Studio brings together experts in their fields to empower Q2L students to take on the roles of designers, inventors and creativity specialists. This trimester, an amazing group of collaborators will come together to present our pod offerings— Pearson Foundation Mobile Learning Institute, Mark Ecko's Sweat Equity Enterprises and the Education Development Center. We're also cooking up something special with the art and technology center Eyebeam, called "Super Design Wednesdays."

The classes or "pods" include Comics, Character and Creativity, Generating Buzz, Mobile Fashion and Super Sleuths. Each pod is taught (or in some cases co-taught) by a hand-picked teacher-mentor who is eager to help kids learn new things. In the comics pod, work will be geared towards exploring drawing, designing characters and writing dialogue, with students using everything from paint brushes to digital pens as tools. Generating Buzz, a collaboration with Marc Ecko's Sweat Equity Enterprises, introduces students to the branding process, walking kids through the design cycle step-by-step, from brainstorming ideas to creating in-store displays. The fashion pod examines fashion as a communication system for the mobile generation. Students will make clothes that will not only carry mobile devices but also use them to communicate with one another using Bluetooth and encoded messages. The six-week pod, Super Sleuths, is presented in collaboration with the Education Development Center. Its focus—on playtesting science games—will help students think critically about games and what they teach them. Read more about Mobo's teacher-mentors on the Mobo team page. If you are in the NYC area and have sewing equipment or supplies to donate, please complete our online form or email William Moyet, Director of Afterschool: wmoyet@q2l.org.

Q2L has been open for three weeks and the energy and excitement of the students and teachers is simply contagious. We thought it fitting to highlight one member of the Q2L team responsible for the success of these first weeks of school. Please meet Elisa Aragon, Executive Director of School.

Elisa brings twenty-four years of experience with the New York City Department of Education to her role as Executive Director of School, having received her principal certification in 1997. Originally from Maryland, Elisa moved to “the big city” after her sophomore year at the University of Maryland (Go Terps!) and graduated from City College of New York with a Bachelor of Science degree, Magna cum laude. Elisa started teaching in the New York Public Schools in 1984 at Park West High School and then transitioned to the CMSP Model School, teaching 7th and 8th grade Humanities. She believes that all these teaching experiences prepared her for the extraordinarily challenging work of teaching in the alternative high schools. Teaching the five subjects of the GED she worked in the basement of homeless shelters, working tirelessly to effect the cycle of poverty for the young mothers who were her students, and their babies, who are our future. “I learned the life changing lesson of resilience through watching my students tenaciously grow far beyond societal expectations, and even surpassing their own expectations.”

After obtaining a Master of Science in Education from Hunter College with a 4.0 average, Elisa continued her post-graduate studies at Fordham University, achieving a Professional Diploma in Education and earning her SAS. Elisa continued her work in the alternative high school district in the role of Assistant Principal Administration. For eight year Elisa focused her passion and talents as an instructional leader, supporting and honing the skills of classroom teachers who were teaching the most at-risk population of students in NYC. In June 2008 Elisa was selected to participate in the elite New York City Leadership Academy, the centerpiece of Chancellor Klein’s mission of transformation for our public education system. Elisa provided administrative support during the September 2008 roll out of the innovative NYC iSchool in Soho, a selective 9 – 12 fully integrating 21st century technology in a progressive model of interdisciplinary, real-world, problem-based instruction. Elisa left her administrative position at the highly successful and respected High School of Telecommunication Arts to accept a leadership position as principal with Quest to Learn. Her dynamic leadership style, experience and deep knowledge of instruction make her a perfect fit with the goals and mission of our school.

Each week the curriculum team at Q2L puts out The Relay, a email newsletter that shares with parents the goings on in school that week. Below are excerpts from The Relay for the first three amazing weeks of Q2L's launch.

WEEK 1
September 9, 2009, was a very special day for Quest to Learn (Q2L) and its founding partner the Institute of Play! We opened Q2L's doors and the students came streaming in. They carried backpacks, summer projects, supply bags and hopes for what the first day of school would hold. Although there were many new faces, there were familiar ones as well, as Q2L welcomed many alumnae from the Institute of Play's Gaming SMALLab and Mobile Quest projects.

Q2L opened with a special curriculum designed to welcome the students to their new school and learning community. "Circle Up," "Break it Down," and "The Settlers" were the themes used to welcome the students and introduce them to the goals and guiding principles of the day. During these first three days, games, learning activities, domain classes and advisories were targeted to help students explore team-work, respect and discover the quirks and characteristics of the individuals who make up their new community.

The self-named "q-dents" created a Q2L team charter, a "smartool" to help learn one another's names and developed a very personal understanding of how individuals are components of systems and that systems have many interesting, interdependent components. The first three days ended with a bang, with students eating cake, trying on their new Q2L t-shirts in a celebration of their new school and its first week.

WEEK 2
It has been an exciting first full week of school at Q2L! Students continued to meet with their Home Base advisors daily, and we had morning meeting on Monday and Friday. During Monday’s morning meeting one of our students introduced the idea of a Q2L YouTube channel, and there was an overwhelming response from students – so much so that we are putting together a lunchtime club on two different days so that we can accommodate the large number of students who are interested. During Friday’s morning meeting we began our practice of a weekly silent meeting, which is a time for our community to come together and engage in self-reflection.

Students also spent their first full week in their domain classes, where their teachers introduced them to their first trimester’s missions. To read a summary from each teacher of what students have been working on for weeks two and three, click here.