Connected Learning Summit 2019

The pre-conference day at CLS is composed of informal self-organized meet ups. Please note that this program was not constituted as part of the formal conference program, therefore, if you have questions about the meetings or workshops, we will make sure to connect you with the organizers. Contact us at dmlhub@hri.uci.edu.

Pre-conference info (with signup form)

I would like to gather folks who are interested in developing high school and collegiate-level curricular materials that are supported by eSports. There is a great opportunity as eSports expands into high schools and colleges not only with an eye toward competition but also to learning.

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The Connected Learning in Teacher Education (CLinTE) network is an open collective of scholars and teacher educators that research and teach aspects of Connected Learning in teacher education. We have four main working groups: Scholarship, Pedagogy, Communication, and Equity. Each working group develops resources and opportunities for us to connect and exchange ideas such as: virtual writing retreats, international twitter chats, co-authored publications, presentations, and special issues, and a Marginal Syllabus on CLinTE. Members can learn about and join CLinTE activities/workgroups by joining our CLinTE Listserv. At the CLS annual meeting, participants will have the opportunity to meet in workgroups to get updates about past projects and propose projects for the new year. This year we will highlight two main topics: 'Developing graduate programs in Connected Learning,' and 'CLinTE Marginal Syllabus.'
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Twin Cities PBS (Momo Hayakawa and Dennis Ramirez) in collaboration with partners from UCI, are hosting a Data Jam using telemetry produced by Hero Elementary games and apps.

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Game-based and Gamified Assessments [Signup Form]

There is little doubt that the shift from offline- to online learning environments goes hand in hand with an increasing use of gamification- and game-based learning strategies. The potential benefits of digital game-based learning (GBL) applications and strategies have been explored thoroughly, as have their limitations. However, games are at the verge of becoming significant elements in the educational sector not only as enablers of effective learning experiences: in recent years, the assessment of learning processes through gamified and game-based means (GBL/A) has also become a growing trend that promises to transform the educational sector even further.

Game-based approaches to learning assessment can take various forms: First, game-based approaches to learning assessment can either rely on the gamification of conventional testing situations, or on the creation of actual testing game environments.

Second, game-based assessment approaches can either serve the sole purpose of testing, or they can be part of a broader game-based learning approach, in which game-based tools are used for enabling as well as evaluating learning experiences.

And finally, the difference between game-based learning and game-based assessment can either be explicit or done in a way that is hardly noticeable by learners.

Dr. Alexander Pfeiffer (MIT) and Dr. Nikolaus König (Danube-University Krems) like to suggest, discuss and improve a classification of game-based approaches to assessment in the context of education. Furthermore, they like to showcase two prototypes that store results of the learning outcome on (the Ardor) blockchain. (further information about the project behind: https://alexpfeiffer.mit.edu/.

This pre-conference event is open to educators who participate in and lead connected learning networks across cultural institutions, museums, nonprofits and community organizations. Networks of educators include communities of practice similar to Hive, Remake Learning (Pittsburgh), and the Chicago Learning Exchange. We hope to see educators from networks across cities, ecosystems, communities, and contexts. This pre-conference event is also open to those who currently do not participate in this kind of network but might want to learn how to start one in their own city.

At the event, participants will share what it means to participate in these kinds of networks—highlighting what works well and rethinking areas of improvement. Connected learning educators will have the opportunity to discuss how these networks serve as professional learning opportunities and how they bring ideas, such as innovations uncovered by attending the Connected Learning Summit, back into their networks.

Participants in this pre-conference event will also get to expand their own professional contacts by meeting colleagues from across the country who are members of similar networks.

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Workshop for educators interested in bringing humanities-focused games into their classrooms with Walden, a game as the primary example. Hands on play, discussion of example curriculum and discussion of best practices. Copies of the game and curriculum will be provided to all participants.
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In a session geared towards educators and organizational leaders working in community-based organizations (afterschool programs, museums, libraries, clubs), partner organizations from the Reclaiming Digital Futures project will share how-to’s of organizational approaches and best practices you can draw on to achieve success in youth-centered digital learning.

The workshop will be participatory, with attendees collaborating and thinking with peers about shared problems of practice around implementing community-based diigtal learning programs, including questions of capacity building, pedagogy, community connections, and usage of digital tools.
For more information about the toolkit please click here https://digitallearningpractices.org/

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Education is moving toward more playful, authentic, student-centered, and project-based learning. But assessment has not kept up! At the MIT Playful Journey Lab, we work on designing assessment tools and approaches that incorporate play to capture future-ready skills. We aim to uncover the ways play can make assessment more engaging, personalized, and accurate—and we hope to inspire educators to create their own playful assessments.

In order to infuse our ideas with fresh perspectives and bring more people into the playful assessment community, we are excited to host a Playful Assessment Designathon on the day before Connected Learning. It will be open to everyone interested in making assessment more fun and less stressful. Held in an unconference style, we will come with a couple of prompts and challenges related to the Playful Journey Lab’s work in embedded assessment and game-based assessment. And we will open the floor to participants to suggest needs they see in assessment or ideas they would like to explore. We will form groups organically and spend the time designing, prototyping, and imagining a more playful future for assessment!

If you plan to join us, please RSVP here: https://forms.gle/5ZU9UoqaZdpec9TZ8
(Last minute participants are still welcome without RSVP.)

[Signup Form]