Meaningful Choices Presentation at 2020 CUNY Games Conference
Meaningful Choices Presentation at 2020 CUNY Games Conference
Meaningful Choices Presentation at 2020 CUNY Games Conference
Will you be in the New York City area on Thursday January 16, 2020? If so, I’ll be presenting at the CUNY Games Conference on “Meaningful Choices” on games-based learning.
The CUNY Games Conference lasts for three days. I’ll be presenting on the second day (Thursday January 16, 2020). My session will be during the 4:00pm – 5:00pm block. The conference takes place in multiple locations. My presentation will be at the CUNY Graduate Center located at 365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016.
There’s still time to register! Costs are $35 for full-time faculty or other professionals and $20 for adjunct faculty. Full pricing information is available here.
For more information, see below:
The CUNY Games Conference 6.0 January 15-17, 2020
Presentation
C197 Meaningful Choices 4:00-5:00pm Session 4
Thursday, January 16, 2020
CUNY Graduate Center
365 5th Ave, New York, NY 10016, USA
Presenter
Dave Eng, EdD
Clinical Professor & Educational Technologist
New York University
Abstract
You can define games as a collection of meaningful choices. But these choices are often difficult to create. Choices can extend from many different things such as where a player should go; how they should spend their resources; and how a character is created and customized. In the end all meaningful choices in games boil down to the player question: how should they play the game? This question can also extend to “how should a student learn in your class?” Especially if the instructor is using games-based learning. Join Dr. Dave Eng (Clinical Professor, Educational Technologist) as he discusses the four characteristics of making meaningful choices in games and why they should be included in all successful games-based learning and game designs.
Relevance to Higher Education
Agency is important for adult learning and development (Carr-Chellman, Kroth, & Rogers Shaw, 2019; Darling-Hammond, Flook, Cook-Harvey, Barron, & Osher, 2019). As such, choice is a meaningful application of agency. Giving students and players choices provides them with a means of articulating their activity their agency. This allows them to impact their influence in the class, game, project or activity. But agency alone is not enough for engagement. This presentation emphasizes how having meaningful choices, in addition to providing students with agency, helps them make engaging decisions which influence their retention and persistence.
References
Carr-Chellman, D. J., Kroth, M., & Rogers Shaw, C. (2019). Profound Learning and Transformative Learning: Characteristics and Comparisons.
Darling-Hammond, L., Flook, L., Cook-Harvey, C., Barron, B., & Osher, D. (2019). Implications for educational practice of the science of learning and development. Applied Developmental Science, 1-44.