Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting Two

Monday November 27^th, 2023, at 1PM

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Location: KCTL Conference Room

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Carrie Jedlicka (KCC LIB), Thomas Lavazzi (KCC ENG), Annice Paolino (KCC BUS) and Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO)

This meeting was online.

1. We recapped the previous meeting, which was in-person, where Carrie and Mary shared their games.
2. We discussed the CUNY Games Conference, which will take place 1/22 (online) and 1/23 (in person demos and play-testing). More information can be found here: https://games.commons.gc.cuny.edu/.
3. The due date for abstract submissions is 12/15, you can read more about it here: https://games.commons.gc.cuny.edu/2023/11/16/cuny-games-conference-10-0-call-for-abstracts-and-registration/
4. Thomas discussed his goal of incorporating the games he developed into his course, and restructuring his course around those games.
5. He demonstrated his TaleBlazer game “Let a Sentence be Your Guide”, an interactive tour of Savannah, GA. He also published on the performance here: https://doi.org/10.1080/13528165.2022.2224207
6. Thomas also demonstrated a flippity randomizer for advertisement, and an escape room on tourism advertising.
7. We discussed Jamboard, which will be discontinued in Dec 2024. It is useful for making manipulative games online. However, flippity.net may be a more complex replacement.

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting Two

Monday October 30^th, 2023, at 12PM

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Location: KCTL Conference Room

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Carrie Jedlicka (KCC LIB), Mark Eaton (KCC LIB), and Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO)

We had an in-person meeting to demonstrate and discuss faculty generated games.  We had time to demonstrate two games as follows:

1. Mary demonstrated her card game that explored the criteria for the binomial distribution. We played a round and then discussed possible modifications that could extend the game, such as treating it like “Poker” or “Go Fish”.
2. Mark and Carrie demonstrated their augmented reality tour of the KCC Library. We then discussed “false positives” and how they could be resolved, as well as other applications for library lessons through a scavenger hunt mechanic.

Our final meeting of the semester will be online via Zoom in mid- or late November.  Please email Grace for details.  We will demonstrate the games we did not get to during this session, as well as recap these games in more detail.

Game Based Learning (GBL) Faculty Interest Group (FIG) – Notes from Meeting One

Tuesday, September 19^th, at 12PM

Grace Axler-DiPerte, Facilitator

Participants: Grace Axler-DiPerte (KCC BIO), Carrie Jedlicka (KCC LIB), Victoria Somogyi (LaGuardia ELA), Christina Colon (KCC BIO), Mary Ortiz (KCC BIO), and Kathy Giaimo (KCC Advancement)

• Mary is teaching Comparative Anatomy and would like ideas to develop new activities.
  • She also shared her Binomial Distribution card game, where students receive scenarios and decide if they meet the criteria for a binomial distribution.
  • Student perform the task multiple times with different scenarios.
  • One suggestion was to shuffle or exchange cards after rounds.
• Kathy shared that the office of Institutional Advancement can help find grants and funding for GBL research and development and reminded us about PSC-CUNY grants.
• Christina discussed the use of SimBio in her BIO100 class.
  • It is an accessible, do at your own pace, gamified scientific process
  • She also uses personalization in playful discussion/essay prompts such as having students discuss their favorite fruit.
• Victoria shared some activities using a deck of “getting to know you” cards to have students write about themselves as a way to discourage the use of Chat GPT and other Artificial Intelligence in their writing.
• We discussed progressive stories, where one student begins a narrative, and then another takes over, and so on.
• Carrie shared that Mark Eaton has developed a Library Orientation using Javascript and augmented reality to send students around the library to fill a checklist of important sites.
  • The game uses QR codes and icon scanning throughout the library.
  • Students receive a prize of Rice Krispies treats upon completion.
  • Getting students to try the game was difficult.
• Grace shared that TaleBlazer is having some issues with live maps, and was told that it is no longer being supported by the developers.
• We also discussed in-person activities like IF-AT cards and in-person manipulatives.
• We discussed making a “fact checking” or writing activity by having students correct or improve upon Artificial Intelligence generated text.
• A riddle game was brought up by over-using a thesaurus and having students determine the intended text or meaning.
• Our next meeting date is not yet set, but may be an in-person “Game Demonstration/ Play test” on the KBCC campus. Email Grace for more information.