Chris found a way to bring video games into the classroom. As project leader for Penn State’s Educational Gaming Commons he works on integrating games into lesson plans.
Transcript
>> My name is Chris Stubbs [phonetic spelling], and I'm the project manager for Penn State's educational gaming [inaudible]. The work that we do here really changes, I think on a day to day basis and, in an over arching prospective, what we're trying to do is really look at ways that video games can improve the quality of education for people. What that entails can be any number of things, and so we'll build custom games from scratch, around specific learning objectives. We'll use commercial games sometimes, when appropriate, in different classrooms so that takes a little bit less time, and you get the high production values and things like that. We'll do research around games, because obviously, this is sort of a budding field, and it's important to have information conveyed to people, especially at a research institution, that proves, you know, that what your doing is actually, making a difference in a positive way. We'll work with companies to try and create internship opportunities, or try and negotiate licensing agreements and things like that. Or, or create entirely new opportunities we had never considered before. So it really depends, on the day, and it can really range, oh, like the previous answer, to any number of things right, it can be sitting down with a faculty number talking about a specific course, maybe specific challenges that they're having, or specific objectives that they want to try and meet. And then brainstorming ways to, to solve that, it can be working through technical issues, and if we're designing a game, how are we going to make this work, how are we going to make this stable, how are we going to make this secure. It can be working through assessment protocol, so designing research studies, or conducting focus groups with students, running through survey data, it can be writing papers. So there's really a huge range of things, I think on a daily basis, that we can be doing. We're here 8 to 5, sort of a standard working day, but, I think that sometimes the day will extend beyond just that, because we do a lot of creative work. And so if you're really engrossed in a problem, or trying to figure out something that you've just been struggling with. Sometimes, you know, you'll pull open a journal, or just open up a Google doc, or something at home, and just start working out ideas, or thoughts, or just notes, scratching things down. You know, I've had those moments where you wake up, at 2 a.m. with kind of that Eureka moment, and you're just scrambling to try and find a piece paper. So the other element of it, which is probably the biggest part of it, is really trying to work through things with people. The best solutions, really come from just sitting down in a room, and talking with people or, banging through ideas, or, putting stuff up on a white board, and crossing it off, and trying something new. And so in that way, I think it really helps to have the face to face contact with people, at least, pretty regularly, we'll visit a specific university and maybe to talk with them about something, or share ideas. We'll visit a specific company if we have something that we're working through with them. So, that's the bulk I'd say of our travel, comprises either conferences or just business to individual institutions and companies.
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