Presenter: Nikki Navta, CEO, Zulama Your students all want to play games. And make games. How do you know if playing and making games is educational? How can you assess student achievement? Examination of how playing and building games satisfies State and Common Core Standards, develops 21st Century Skills, and promotes higher-order Blooms Taxonomy, as well as how you can use rubrics to assess project-based learning such as building game boards and completing web quests.

2. Teaching Game Design
in the
Classroom
Serious Games Conference
July, 2015
Nikki Navta, CEO
Nikki.Navta@Zulama.com

3. •Agenda
• My Experience/Context
• Your Experience/Context
• Why Make Games?
• Demonstrate Blooms/Standards/Skills
using Game Design
• How to Start Making Games
• Tools/Tips/Resources
• Q & A

4. •Nikki Navta
• CEO, Zulama
• Mother of teenage gamers
• puzzle gamer (crosswords, Wurdle,
Letterpress, Lume)
• board games (Scrabble, Upwords, Catan)
• beautiful indie games (Contre Jour,
Flower, Journey)

5. Zulama
= teacher training
+ curriculum
+ platform
that schools use to teach game design,
programming, art, and screenwriting

7. Why Games?
Joan Ganz Cooney Center survey of 694 K-8
teachers:
• 74% use digital games in their classes,
up from 50% two years ago
• 65% note that lower-performing students
show increased engagement with content,
and only 3% who show a decrease
• 53% find that video games foster positive
collaboration among students

9. •About You
• Have you made games?
• If so, what tools have you used?
• Do you use games in your school or work
today?
• Why do you want to make games?
(What are your desired outcomes?)

14. Entertainment Technology Program

20. Screenwriting

22. Harmony High School, Osceola School District, Florida

24. Elizabeth Forward High School, PA

25. STEM + A = STEAM EDUCATION
Science
Technology
Engineering
Art
Mathematics

27. Classrooms that
celebrate the process of
design and making,
which includes
overcoming challenges,
produce students who
believe they can solve
any problem.
Martinez and Stager
The Maker Movement

28. Game Design Process
1. Idea/Goal/Solve Problem
2. Design a prototype
3. Playtest
4. Analyze what happened
5. Playtest some more
6. Analyze some more
7. …….
8. Publish
ADD AN IMAGE OF A DECK
OF ZULAMA CARDS HERE.
A game is never finished!

29. I’ve failed
over and over.
That is why I
succeed—
Michael Jordan

30. Outcomes
• Fast-track careers—students ready for
internships, entry-level employment,
college/university
• Students develop the skills necessary for
communication, collaboration, creative
expression, and job preparedness in a
digital world
• Students come away with portfolio-worthy
games/artwork/code, and other “artifacts”
to use when applying for jobs/higher ed

31. How to Get Started
Read Jesse Schell’s book, The Art of Game Design
(http://www.jesseschell.com/)

32. Paper, Markers, Dice!

34. kodu
scratch
GameMaker

35. Selecting a Tool
• type (toolkit/engine vs programming language)
• community/tutorials
• age/experience level of students
• platform (what you use &what it publishes to)
• learning curve
• desired outcomes
• cost
• 2D/3D
• time

37. Resources
Videos
• So You Want To Be a Game Designer
http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episode/so-you-want-to-be-a-game-designer
• Randy Pausch of CMU’s Entertainment
Technology Center, giving his last lecture
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo
• Jane McGonigal's TED talk on how games can
change the world:
http://www.ted.com/talks/jane_mcgonigal_gaming_can_make_a_better_world.html
• Jesse Schell’s “Visions of the Gamepocalypse”
http://fora.tv/2010/07/27/

38. Resources
Podcasts
• Indie Game Developers Podcast
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/indie-game-development-podcast/id159065675
• The Game Developer’s Radio
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-game-developers-radio/id307631856
• EdGamer
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/edgamer/id445751915?mt=2
• EdReach
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/edreach-all-edreach-shows/id412489812
• Education Innovation
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/education-innovation/id722372916?mt=2

39. Resources
Books
• Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning,
by Mark Prensky
• Game Feel, by Steve Swink
• Character Development & Storytelling for Games, by
Lee Sheldon
• Game Development Essentials, by Jeannie Novak
• The Gamer Generation: Reaping the Benefits of Video
Games, by Jennifer Wagner
• Video Games and Learning: Teaching and
Participatory Culture in the Digital Age, by Kurt Squire