Gabe begins his talk by speaking about his earliest experience with educational games, playing "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego" in school. He relates his career in games and "gamification" to this early experience. He discusses alternative views on ADD, questioning whether it is that children have ADD or if the world is too slow for them. He shares the story of a teacher who used video games as the main method for an 18 week class, improving students' reading and math levels significantly. He closes by saying his generation is out of touch with how children experience the world today, but that the children will turn out alright.

1. Gabe
Zichermann
How Games
Make Kids Smarter

2. Gabe begins his talk by speaking of his first experience with
games in education: playing “Where in the World is Carmen
San Diego” in school.

3. Question 2:
Gabe first captures the audience’s Gabe keeps attention by offering up
attention by telling about his new ways of looking at old
earliest experiences with problems and supporting
video games. He relates his ideas with many colorful
his story to education stories and examples.
right away when he
speaks about playing
“Where in the World
is Carmen San Diego”
in school.

4. He speaks about his
career and how it
relates to games and
“gamification.” He is
an example of how a
person can make a
career out of games.

5. He brings up ADD, first
explaining traditional views
on the subject and then
offering a different
perspective. Children easily
focus on games but often
struggle to pay attention in
school.

6. “Is it that our children have
ADD, or is our world just too
freakin’ slow for our
children to appreciate?”
-Gabe Zichermann

10. He shares the work of Ananth
Pai, who taught a class using video
games as the main method of
learning for the students. In 18
weeks the class went from a below
3rd grade level in reading and math
to a mid 4th grade level.

13. In closing he says that
his generation is the
most out of touch with
the world of their
children, but also goes
on to say that the
children will turn out
alright.

14. Question 4
Gabe kept his slides
simple and organized.
They were aiding in his
speech rather than
distracting from it.

15. Question 5
Always have a plan for
what you’re going to say
next. Keep your
audience engaged with
jokes and stories, but
don’t ramble.