This week I was excited to be part of The CUNY Games Conference 10.0.
The CUNY Games Network is an organization dedicated to encouraging research, scholarship and teaching in the developing field of games-based learning. They connect educators from every campus and discipline at CUNY and beyond who are interested in digital and non-digital games, simulations, and other forms of interactive teaching and inquiry-based learning.
We had a LOT going on at this, their 10th anniversary.
Nick Martinez and I spoke about the soon-to-be launched exhbit – Video Games: The Great Connector. We emphasized how it was commissioned by The Harlem Gallery of Science as part of their efforts to inspire Black and Latinx youth to pursue a career path through the City College of New York. We also spoke about the many CUNY faculty and students who contributed to its design. The deck is below:
Then I gave a talk about how and why I created the card game Uncannny Valley, as an educational tool to develop AI visual literacy. I prefer to address this in person, so people can play with the cards themselves, but I still made sure to provide playful ways – over Zoom – to engaged with the topic of using games to address controversial topics.
Finally, Nick Fortugno gave a talk about the academic-side of the Gaming Pathways program at CCNY, which is building towards the first B.A. in game design in the CUNY system. These three talks were all part of the Day One online sessions; Day Two was in person, where Robert Duarte ran a table to share information about the Pathways within the community.
