ASU’s very own James Paul Gee was this morning’s keynote speaker at the 2012 Games for Change conference. Watch his incredible talk on “Big G” Games.

Other noteworthy talks that you can watch include:

geeA few other games/sites that are noteable AND discussed at this year’s conference:

  • Center for Games and Impact — “The Center has been launched by ASU Professors James Gee (Chief Games Scholar) and Sasha Barab (Executive Director) in partnership with E-Line Founders Alan Gershenfeld (Founding Industry Fellow and Innovation Director) and Michael Angst (Founding Industry Fellow). Along with a network of aligned partner organizations and industry fellows, the Center will develop exemplar impact projects through an innovation lab, host workshops, provide resources and share best practices, methodologies and case studies that can benefit the whole sector.” Make sure to check out the Center’s game page and links to articles.
  • Spent Challenges players to make it through a month with little money and tough decisions. (Great game currently being used in ASU courses to explore poverty in America.)
  • SuperBetter Jane McGonigal’s new game. “SuperBetter helps you achieve your health goals — or recover from an illness or injury — by increasing your personal resilience. Resilience means staying curious, optimistic and motivated even in the face of the toughest challenges.” (I’ve registered and WILL reach my goal!). Explore her blog site to review the research in which she based her game.
  • The End — A game of self-discovery that integrates strategy, puzzles and questions into a world which explores a range of commonly, or less commonly, held views about death. (Fascinating game with applications in many courses.)
  • Fibber — Fibber seeks to promote self-reflection around one’s susceptibility to political deception in an effort to heighten fact-checking. (Political Science/Justice Studies + courses)
  • Unmanned — Play the newest kind of soldier: one who remotely drops bombs on foreign soil during the day, and at night goes home to his family. (Political Science/Justice Studies/Psychology+ courses)
  • Family of Heroes — A role-playing training game where families of returning veterans learn skills to manage common challenges in adjusting to post-deployment life including how to connect a veteran experiencing PTSD with support services at the VA. (Nursing, Military, Psychology+ courses)
  • The Top 100 Games Everyone Should Play! — “The 100” – a crowdsourced list of the games everyone should play.

Games are a fabulous way to encourage student to content interaction. Games can “be” the course, illustrate course concepts, or spur content discussion.

Enjoy!