Spotlights on Educational Game Design in Europe
The holy grail in education? A must-have of modern teaching? The biggest game design challenge? Or too much of an effort? Games have the potential to convey even complex topics, to stimulate reflection and open up various possibilities to make valuable (learning) experiences. For good reasons, they have received more and more attention in the educational sector in recent decades. However, only a few educational games found their way in everyday teaching practice and there are still many challenges to face.
The event highlights projects of different countries in Europe and invites to examine the topic of Games in Education from different perspectives. In short talks experts from France, Sweden, Germany and Austria give insights into their projects and key findings, followed by an open panel where participants are invited to engage in the discussion.
How to participate
No registration necessary, just join us via ZOOM:
https://donau-uni.zoom.us/j/97021903800
Meeting-ID: 970 2190 3800
PW: 674646
Program | 24.06.2020
18:00 – 18:30 | Natalie Denk (Center for Applied Game Studies, Austria)
Opening of the conference & Insights into the Erasmus+ project "Create Digital Games for Education"
18:30 - 19:00 | George Kalmpourtzis (Infinitivity Design Labs, France)
User Experience and educational games
19:00 - 19:30 | Katharina Tillmanns (Cologne Game Lab, TH Köln, Germany)
Blending Realities: Learning with Mixed Reality Gaming
19:30 - 20:00 | Jonas Linderoth (University of Skövde, Sweden)Being an Educator and Game Developer: The Role of Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Serious Games Production
20:00 – 20:30 | open discussion
Organisation and funding
The event is organized by the Center for Applied Game Studies (Danube University Krems) in cooperation with SUBOTRON and is part of the Erasmus+ funded project “Create Digital Games for Education” with the following partners:
- MITA – Malta Information Technology Agency
- Science Centre Malta (Department of Curriculum Management)
- Center for Applied Game Studies (Danube University Krems)
- Research and Innovation Management GmbH
- Université du Luxembourg
- waza! Games
About the speakers
George Kalmpourtzis (Infinitivity Design Labs, France) | George Kalmpourtzis is an award-winning User Experience & Games Consultant and Educator. Finding himself between the fields of education, game studies and user experience, he has been founder, director and board member of several European design studios and consulting agencies. He has designed and produced numerous games (primarily for education) and conducted usability studies for a diverse portfolio of projects and contexts. George is currently helping design teams around the globe set-up their own creative processes and bring user-centred creative problem solving in the spotlight of design. George also holds bachelor’s degrees both in education and engineering, a master’s degree in information systems and a PhD in design pedagogy.
Katharina Tillmanns (Cologne Game Lab, TH Köln, Germany) | Katharina Tillmanns is a researcher, designer and lecturer for interactive media at the Cologne Game Lab, an Institute for Game Development and Research at TH Koeln (University of Applied Sciences). In her studies and work, she is exploring and promoting the expressive qualities of games as a means of art and activism. A former co-president and founding member of the Games for Change Europe network, Katharina has been involved as project lead for a multitude of r&d projects on communal, federal and european level. She is currently focussing on her dissertation research on multi-sensual learning in the context of mixed reality environments. Further research interests include: Aesthetic approaches in the field of interactive documentary storytelling, game-based learning, transformation game design, player psychology, collaborative learning, behavioral economics, artistic interventions.
Jonas Linderoth (University of Skövde, Sweden) | Jonas Linderoth is a professor in Media, Aesthetics and Narration at the Department of Game Development, University of Skövde and a guest professor in Education at the Swedish defence college’s section for war-games.
Natalie Denk (Center for Applied Game Studies, Austria) | Natalie Denk has a degree in Educational Science and Game Studies. Her research focuses on Game-based Learning, Educational Game Design and the examination of age and gender aspects in relation to digital games. Since 2014 she has been working on several national and international research projects at the Center for Applied Game Studies at the Danube University Krems. Furthermore, she is involved in the teaching as well as in the course management of the Master’s courses “Game Studies”, “Media Game Pedagogy”, “Action Oriented Media Pedagogy” and “Game-based Media & Education”. Since July 2019 she acts as Head of the Center.
