Keywords:
Character Education, Games, Social and Emotional Learning, Religion, Ethics, Empathy, Game Design, Games for Learning, gamevironments
Abstract
In this roundtable interview moderated by Paul Darvasi, lecturer at the University of Toronto and co-founder of Gold Bug Interactive, Owen Gottlieb and Matthew Farber discuss research and practice at the intersection of religion, character education, and games in schools. Gottlieb is an associate professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology, founder and lead faculty at the Initiative in Religion, Culture, and Policy at the MAGIC center, and founder and director of the Interaction, Media, and Learning Lab at RIT, where he specializes in interactive media, learning, religion, and culture. Farber is an associate professor of educational technology and coordinator of K12 and Secondary Teacher Education Programs (STEP) at the University of Northern Colorado, where he also co-directs the Gaming SEL Lab. He writes for Edutopia, has authored several books and papers, and has collaborated with UNESCO MGIEP, the iThrive Games Foundation, and Games for Change. This conversation occurred over Zoom on 10 October 2022, and is sometimes specific to how schools, education, and educational television function historically and currently in the United States.
Author Biographies
Owen Gottlieb, Rochester Institute of Technology
Owen Gottlieb is an Associate Professor of Interactive Games and Media at the School of Interactive Games and Media at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He is the Founder and Director of the Interactive, Media, and Learning Lab at RIT (rit.edu/learnlab). His research traverses interactive media for learning and heritage, narrative design, instructional media history, and interactive media for healing and wellness (see the RIT/UW spinout company HypnoScientific.com). His and his team’s learning games have been featured at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, IndieCade, Meaningful Play, Boston FIG, and Now Play This London. His projects have received funding from the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Institutes of Health, and the Covenant Foundation. He is currently working on a history of ITV in the US and Canada in the 70s and 80s, and its implications for interactive media in the classroom today.
Matthew Farber, University of Northern Coloraodo
Associate professor of Educational Technology and coordinator of K12 and Secondary Teacher Education Programs (STEP) at the University of Northern Colorado, where he also co-directs the Gaming SEL Lab. He writes for Edutopia, has authored several books and papers, and has collaborated with UNESCO MGIEP, the iThrive Games Foundation, and Games for Change.
Paul Darvasi, University of Toronto
Paul Darvasi, PhD, is a game developer, educator, speaker, and writer who works at the intersection of games, culture, and learning. He is the CEO and co-founder of Gold Bug Interactive, the Executive Director of the Serious Play Conference, and is a founding member of the PlayLab at the University of Toronto, where he lectures on social media and education, and games and learning. He is a passionate advocate of serious games, digital games for learning, media and digital literacy, design thinking, experiential learning, virtual simulations, and locative experiences. His experiments with game design have included large-scale ARGs, activating institutional archives, interrogating online surveillance, addressing climate change issues, and supporting humanitarian activity. Paul writes for a variety of publications about progressive and innovative education models, and his research explores how commercial video games can be leveraged for teaching and learning.
