In 2012 the project Game Research for Training and Education (GATE) was completed and the results were published. To inform and inspire policy makers and decision makers of various fields, we organized a GATE education meeting on Thursday, April 19 in cooperation with TNO and the HKU. As a representative from the Creative Learning Lab, I was responsible for hosting a master class. This meeting took place at the Faculty of Arts, Media and Technology at the HKU in Hilversum.
A select group of school principals and educational developers took part in the masterclass, which was centered around the theme: 'The State of the Art of Games in Education". Researcher and new media specialist Alex Gekker gave a fascinating lecture on what games really are, what impact of the growth of the (digital) gaming industry is on society and where the opportunities lie for education.
The subsequent lectures brought these theories even closer to practice. I gave a brief overview of games that are already used in education and showed how these can fit within a curriculum. My colleague Marieke Hochstenbach gave participants an insight into the development process of our pilotproject in education: the Game Factory. The other pilot projects that were developed during GATE, including ones by TNO and HKU, were briefly explained.
Creating boardgames
The newly acquired knowledge was then put into practive by the participants in a session of 'boardgame making'. The hard work of the participants led to a very nice game focused on math skills (see photos).
