The CUNY Games Network is excited to publish a new video series to inform the faculty and students at the various campuses at CUNY about developments in game-based learning. New “gamecasting” episodes will be released on Mondays every two weeks. The channel will feature full-length interviews of domain experts in game-based learning, edited videos on special topics, live playtesting sessions, and more. Please subscribe on our YouTube page or check back here!
Episode 1: Kathleen Offenholley
Kathleen Offenholley is a Professor of Mathematics at BMCC (Borough of Manhattan Community College) who is passionate about including game-based learning in her classroom. In their conversation, she and Carlos Hernandez discuss three games that she developed with professional game companies as part of an NSF grant to put math games in the classroom.
Episode 2: Joseph Bisz
Joe Bisz is a part-time educational games designer and an Associate Professor of English at CUNY Borough of Manhattan Community College. Not so long ago, he received a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and English Literature from Binghamton University. Since then he has sailed his theoretical ship into a few ports of the world, including gender & sexuality studies, Popular Culture & Sci-fi, and games-based learning. His critical work has been published in Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture, Transformative Works and Cultures, and his creative writing in a dozen journals and anthologies including Diagram. His free time is mostly taken up revising a novel titled World Without End, set in New York City in 1982, and developing a game-based learning management system (LMS) called College Quest. “In teaching, we would call it scaffolding. In game-based learning, we would call it a game.” (See Joe’s website at http://joebisz.com). In this interview with Robert Duncan of the CUNY Games Network, he discusses the origin of the CUNY Games Network, how he got started in game-based learning, and best-practices for including tabletop games in the classroom.
Episode 3: Robert O. Duncan
Robert Duncan’s primary research interests are (1) to study the physiological mechanisms of visually guided behavior in healthy individuals and (2) to develop novel functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques to quantify neuronal, vascular, and metabolic contributions to neurodegenerative visual disorders. Additional interests include inquiry-based pedagogy, undergraduate research, and games-based learning for behavioral intervention or social impact. His research develops and studies how our knowledge of psychology and neuroscience can be used with game-based learning to improve learning outcomes in undergraduates. He also uses virtual reality as a means to provide cognitive models in learners who are faced with challenging texts. His most recent work studies collective intelligence in creative, game-based activities. Dr. Duncan has co-authored over fifty conference proceedings in game-based learning with students, and discusses strategies for co-design in this discussion.
Episode 4: Carlos Hernandez
Carlos Hernandez is an Associate Professor of English at the Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) with broad interests in Multicultural Literature of the United States, Experimental Literature, Creative Writing, and Contemporary Fiction. Dr. Hernandez has also partnered with Sortasoft to create an epic game that chronicles the historic journey of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. In his conversation with CUNY Games, he talks about the trials and tribulations of creating a Kickstarter-funded game as an academic. To learn more about Meriwether, follow them on Kickstarter.
Episode 5: Deborah Sturm
Deborah Sturm is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the College of Staten Island, where she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses. She designed and teaches two gaming electives and introduced an area concentration in game development. Dr. Sturm is the faculty coordinator for the Faculty Interest Group in Gaming and Pedagogy under the auspices of the Faculty Center for Professional Development. She was the Co-PI and a Project Director on a NSF-STEM grant, “Science and Technology Expansion via Applied Mathematics (STEAM),” an NSF-funded program to expand undergraduate STEM education. Through this and other grants, she collaborates with members of the Psychology Department to design and develop research apps for children on the Autism spectrum.
Episode 6: Carolyn Stallard
Carolyn Stallard, a doctoral candidate at the CUNY Graduate Center, is one of the newest members of the CUNY Games Network. As a grad student, Carolyn has already been integrating game-based learning into her classroom, and she has many great ideas for beginners and experts alike. Her research interests include music and deafness, music and video games, sea chanteys, the vibraphone (past and present), jazz history, and music education. Carolyn is also active as a freelance percussionist, music educator, event planner, and athlete.
