Connected Learning Summit 2019

Our symposium will be structured around how games can not only cultivate, but assess future-facing skills (popularly known as 21st century skills). Our discussion will consist of three pillars:

The Problem
Today, there exists growing awareness that the future will require of us “non-cognitive” or “21st century skills.” However, school as it’s currently structured militates against developing these skills. Standardized testing emphasizes individual achievement over collaboration. Siloed instruction does not promote synthesis of ideas from different domains. And a growing trend of treating education as vocational training favors narrow skills over broader understanding. Once we’ve established the landscape of existing hindrances to the cultivation of 21st century skills, we will begin to explore examples of how games can help to modernize the teaching and assessment of these competencies.

How Games Can Help
Next, we’ll discuss how games can be utilized as tools to both promote and assess key future-ready skills through the lens of four unique titles developed by FableVision Studios, Filament Games, and the MIT Education Arcade.

Challenges Ahead
Following an in-depth exploration of the examples detailed in part two, our panelists will assess what the future holds for game-based learning in terms of future-facing skills assessment. How do we assess these key 21st century skills in ways that are accountable? How do we convey to game players that these skills are transferable to the real world? Our panel of experts will ponder questions like these as they prognosticate what lies ahead for game-based teaching and assessment of future-ready skills.