It seems that The Sprout Fund are not the only people excited about lunch! Games for Change Report-out Lunch & Learn attendee, Ellen Cavanaugh, wrote about the event in her blog on her site “Grow a Generation“. Ellen comes from the perspective of parent and educator, and offers to others ideas for innovative education tools and theories. She found the G4C Lunch & Learn, presented by Nikki Navta of Zulama and Todd Keruskin of Elizabeth Forward School District, to be informational, as well as inspirational.

Nikki mentioned that a common theme of immersion in the new gaming forums being built.  Dave Pentecost introduced using Unity 3D software and a fisheye lens (free download) to bring a 3 dimensional gaming experience into domes (imagine going to the planaterium, having all the seats removed, and interacting with game elements in 3D before you using Kinect sensors in the dome and an EEG controlled headset. There were demos in the Festival’s Awards Arcade! TheBlu.com was another new gaming experience, an incredible online world of individually created oceanographic life, bringing together the work of thousands of graphic artists (for example, I can use media maker to create my own reality based representation of a moon jellyfish that others can download as an app and place in their blu that supports conservation efforts).

Drawing significant conclusions and tactics from each presenters, Ellen will be able to integrate these resources into her work as both a mother and an educator. Teaching at Duquesne University, she intends to implement examples given during the Lunch & Learn into her coursework.

Todd’s vision as an educator opened my eyes to see that video game design is not simply some elective program running down the hall with the technology teacher. He told the group gathered for the lunch, “The days of teaching Microsoft Word and PowerPoint and keyboarding at the high school level are over.” Conference presenters shared stories of journalists not merely needed the skills to write an article about current events, but quickly create online games that communicate the news through interactive puzzles, stories of historians not merely writing a book about the latest in archeology, but creating a 3D domed experience of cave art, stories of emergency workers developing games that make earthquake safety lessons memorable.  I am teaching a theology class at Duquesne this fall.  I’ve added to the syllabus the option to use Game Salad to make an app for one of the portfolio assignments.

To hear more from what Ellen Cavanaugh thought of the Games for Change Report-out Lunch & Learn, visit her blog on “Grow a Generation“. To share in experiences like this one, check Spark’s site for upcoming events and opportunities!