Katie Salen to keynote Montreal Serious Play Conference

Katie Salen, founder of both The Institute of Play and Connected Camps, an online learning platform powered by youth gaming experts, will keynote Serious Play Conference’s Montreal conference on game-based learning July 10-12, 2019.

Salen will discuss the role of Minecraft, a sandbox videogame created by Swedish game developer Markus Peterson, which was reimagined byMicrosoft for use in schools and today is widely used to teach childrencomputer coding as well as classroom subjects ranging from science to the arts.Salen will discuss the game’s role in "Raising a Generation of GoodGamers.”

The international conference, hosted by the University ofQuebec in Montreal (UQAM), will feature more than 100 speakers and thoughtleaders that embrace the concept that games or “play” can better engagestudents, employees and other learners. Research has documented that game-basededucation and training improves retention of content.

Salen, currently a professor, in the Department ofinformatics, UC Irvine, is a member of the Connected Learning Lab. Salen was foundingexecutive director of  the Institute ofPlay and led the design of Quest to Learn, an innovative New York City publicschool. She is also the co-author of Rules of Play, The Game Design Reader andQuest to Learn: Growing a School for Digital Kids, all from MIT Press, and aforthcoming book, Affinity Online: How Connection and Shared Interest FuelLearning (NYU Press).

The Montreal Conference will be the 13th Serious PlayConference. Universities that have hosted Serious Play include DigiPen, USC,Carnegie Mellon, University of North Carolina, University at Buffalo and GeorgeMason University.