Welcome

Welcome CU Denver students, friends and colleagues, and others to the public home of INTE 4320/5320 Games and Learning. This graduate course examines the use of games for learning and education across formal and informal environments. In our adventures together, we survey learning theory, media, trends, and challenges related to designing and playing games in informal, community-based, online, and school settings.

Why a blog?

Because this course adopts an ecological approach to design and pedagogy, simultaneously leveraging multiple settings and platforms – including our university’s Canvas-based LMS, student blogs (linked via the blogroll at right), Twitter and a class hashtag (#ILT5320, curated below), and also everyday encounters in community and professional contexts. This blog is one node connecting our distributed learning network.

Because Games and Learning infuses playfulness into its design of teaching and learning. Not only do students play games, students also play with new media and practices. This semester, we’re tinkering with social annotation via Hypothesis. In this collaborative effort, we welcome others to play and learn with us – so download the Hypothesis browser extension, navigate among course readings hosted on our blog, read student annotations and conversations, and join our discussion.

And because in the spirit of participatory culture – a key feature of many games, and a core commitment of this course – this blog is a forum inviting others interested in games and learning to connect with us, participate, and build shared knowledge. Welcome!