Keynote: Digital Games Education in Austria

Friday morning, besides keynotes about the Austrian Games Industry and education, we have a keynote about local game pedagogy at our LETS PLAY stage.

Friday 15.September 2017, 11:30 at the LETS PLAY Stage

On Playful Peaks and Educational Valleys

Gaming, learning, and pedagogy are closely interconnected, and Austria has proven to be a fertile and opportune ground for new initiatives and projects in this area. Do the projects fulfil their game-related and educational aspirations? Is this (interdisciplinary) balancing act even possible? We explore the challenges (=VALLEYS) and the potentialities (=PEAKS) of digital games education and describe the terrain in Austria. The talk will provide an overview of the scientific landscape of gaming in Austria. Afterwards, the highlights of educational game developments will be discussed and new projects in the socio-entrepreneurial, political, and school-pedagogical contexts introduced. We will conclude our contribution with the Top 3 insights for educational game endeavours!

Lena Robinson is an experience designer, social entrepreneur, and anthropologist. She is head of inspiration at Playful Solutions and co-founder of Lightspace. She is involved in various projects related to innovation, learning, and mediation. Her academic background is in cultural and social anthropology, social economics, and social work. She has gained professional experience working at the social enterprise Three Coins, which offers games-based financial education and training for youth in various countries.

Dr. Konstantin Mitgutsch is a consultant and expert for game design, gamification, and serious games. He is the founder of the company Playful Solutions, lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, and freelance researcher in the MIT Game Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. His publications include books like “Schauplatz Computerspiele”, “Sports Video Games”, and “Context Matters!”.