Synopsis for The Dynamic Classroom: Collaborations between Game Designers and Teachers

This presentation uses a game-based curricular unit—the Annual Blubonian-Spanish Treasure Hunt—as a point of entry into a larger examination of the myriad issues facing game designers and educators when creating effective and dynamic classroom learning experiences. Developed as part of the Institute of Play's Summer Teachers' Institute, the Annual Blubonian-Spanish Treasure Hunt was a game-based unit created for first-year Spanish students in the 6th grade at a New York City public school.

Designed to be played across multiple classrooms over a 10-week period, the goal of this media-rich unit was to help students become comfortable communicating in Spanish. Employing a pedagogical strategy based on the "teachable agents" concept to assess students' burgeoning skills, the Institute of Play created two major game components: an online dictionary (a reference tool populated by students and used throughout the year) and a blog (which allowed communication between the game master, athletes, and students via a system of letters, clues, Skype sessions, YouTube videos, physical objects and audio recordings).

We will discuss the findings from this pilot and examine larger pedagogical and teacher development issues, namely, creative collaboration, differentiated learning and the game design process, and the seamless integration of technology into the curriculum.