On June 7th, the second Irish Symposium on Game Based Learning was held in Waterford Institute of Technology under the lead of Dr Patrick Felicia, PhD and his research team.
The purpose of this symposium is to:
- Report on the use of GBL in primary, secondary and third-level education
- Define the roadmap for GBL in Ireland
- Provide evidence of the effectiveness of GBL to motivate and learn
- Identify how GBL can be included and facilitated in instructional settings
Margaret Keane is reviewing and following the first and second symposiums here. Related resources such as presentations, research reports, the handbook for game-based learning, game design tools are put together. Presentation files are made available here by Patrick Felicia, Editor-In-Chief of the International Journal of Game-Based Learning (IJGBL).
This year’s Symposium has a great mix of presenters and case studies. There are two focusing on the use of virtual worlds in education. My colleague James Corbett, CEO, MissionV Education is making a presentation on the MissionV 20 school pilot project which provided an open-ended non-proprietary environment for students to build, program and share their own interactive learning experiences. In addition Dr. Nigel Newbutt, PhD, from Smartlab UCD will examine the use of virtual environments for students on the autistic spectrum resulting from a 6 month UK case study. Brendan Buckley ofChessosity.com will be exploring the world of the school chess club and how playing chess can improve academic achievement. These are just my personal favourites but I’m looking forward to viewing all of the presentations when they’re available online!
