Conference Events
​
Saturday June 25 - PreConference
Computer Science Firehose - Noon to 6:00 pm
Register here
CCC Room 706
Games & Sims Network has a table outside the rooms If your students are doing game design and learning coding you won’t want to miss this event. 6 hours of coding and computer science. We especially recommend the sessions on Minecraft, Coding through Games & Apps and Gaming as a Programming Activity Using Unity.
Come talk to us about game design and where games & simulations meet computer science. Also if you are following bitcoin, blockchain and the hacking ethereum DAO we’d love to strike up a conversation. For our book club, we are currently reading the Blockchain Revolution and would love to get in a discussion with other people reading it or following cryptocurrency. We’ll be there the whole time (Okay we might all be in the Unity session from 5 - 6 pm). Come and chat!
Chris Luchs, Cynthia Calongne, Kate Hagerty and Kae Novak
​
4th Annual Mobile Learning Network Mobile Megashare
Preconference - 2:00 to 6:00 pm
CCC Room 405
​
Game Base Learning Table staffed by Games & Sims people Sherry Jones, Farah Bennani, Bob Smith, Lauren Roy, Chris Luchs and Kae Novak. Topics include Interactive Fiction (IF), Mobile Games, Board Games and using all of these in the classroom.
​Sunday June 26
The Great Escape: Playing and Building an Escape Room Game for STEAM - 8:30 to 11:30 am
(WH113) Room CCC Mile High Ballroom 2C
Play and develop a live-action game based on a STEAM theme, a well developed narrative, maker clues, and math and science puzzles. You have 60 minutes to solve the puzzles and escape the room. An escape room allows you to combine STEM with writing, art and the maker movement.
​
Communities Networking Fair - 3:00 to 5:00 pm
Room CCC Lobby D
Look for the Games & Sims table!!! We’d love to hear what you want next year. If you are already doing something we’d love to help promote it or collaborate.
Monday June 27
​
Mile High PhotoQuest - 8:30 to 11:30 am
Room CCC Blue Bear Lobby
​
Come explore, experiment with the app and take pics of Denver with the Mobile Learning Network. Apps include Voxer, klikaklu and Ingress
​
3rd Annual ISTE LAN Party: Networking with Games - 5:30 to 7:30 pm
Room CCC 109
​
If you are going to ISTE we'd like to invite you to what started out 3 years ago as a LAN party but is now includes every kind of game. We will have tables for World of Warcraft, Dungeons and Dragons, ARK, Ingress, Interactive Fiction, and more. Feel free to bring your own Computing Device or dice and socialize with other players! There may even be some Guild Recruitment going on :D Come celebrate all games; digital, tabletop, cards, and more!
Register here.
​
This is a low key, no hype event where you can talk to other educators and play games. Even if you are not gamer just come for conversation.
​
We are also excited to be able to showcase games from students in Sherry Jones’ Game Design class at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design. These games are works in progress so your feedback would be greatly appreciated!!!!
​
Tuesday June 28
​
​Games & Virtual Environments Maker Playground 2 pm - 5:30 pm
Room CCC Concourse E
The Games & Simulations and Virtual Environments Networks will provide a scaffolded experience for participants to experiment, play and learn how games and virtual environments are part of the Maker Movement. The focus will be on escape rooms, ARGs, game jams and building in Minecraft and virtual environments.
Presentations
​
Playground Kickoff Keynote 2:00- 3:00 PM
Cynthia Calongne (Lyr Lobo) @lyrlobon
Cynthia has been been a speaker for Games & Sims before giving the Ready Player One closing keynote titled Games and 3D Simulations: Dystopian Fears to Utopian Visions (recording). Cynthia returned this March as one of our discussant on Martian Madness since she just happens to have a Mars simulation in OpenSim. She will be talking about the past, present and future of games and virtual worlds.
​
Explore! Google Expeditions 3:00- 3:30 PM
Lyman Missimer lymanmissimer@google.com
Want to learn about the next generation of Simulations in education? Google’s own, Lyman Missimer will give us a guided tour using Google cardboard with Google Expeditions. Devices will be available for participants to try.
​
Game Jams 3:30 -4:00 PM
Erica Liczweski
(“The Global Game Jam® (GGJ) is the world's largest game jam event (game creation) taking place around the world at physical locations. Think of it as a hackathon focused on game development with Erica Liszewski @BlueAppaloosa.
​
​Bitcoin, Blockchains, and the Future of Education 3:30 - 4:30 PM
Doug Levin @douglevin
Doug Levin leads a demo and discussion on the implications of cryptocurrency for privacy and identity management, badging/credentialing, and learner agency.
​
Closing Keynote 4:30 PM - 5:00 PM
Bernhard Drax (Draxtor Despres)
Streaming in Second Life and YouTube
Live from Germany and Streaming in YouTube: Bernhard Drax is an award-winning filmmaker, musician & former radio news guy, originally from Munich, Germany.
​
Table 1: Current VEN Activities
Scott Merrick and Andrew Wheelock
VEN shares events 4 Tuesdays a month in Second Life, AvaCon grid, and wherever else learning is happening! Speak with Scott Merrick and Andrew Wheelock and see examples of the VEN Writers Group, VEN Focus Sessions, Machinima Night, and OOH (Open Office Hours). Andy and Scott will help you set up your avatar/account(s) should you want/need that help. Learn about the VEN Mentor Network and how you can make your own connections! See the VEN Weebly for preview and postview.
​
​Table 2: Past: VEJ - Chronicling our Past --- Engaging our Future
Rosie and Bob Vojtek
Rosie Vojtek and Bob Vojtek are the creators, editors, designers, and publishers of what we are proud to call our “body of work.” Speak with them and learn about their Virtual Education Journal and how you can subscribe to receive updates as they hit the digital printing presses.
All VEJ issues are accessible on the ISSUU website, www.issuu.com where you can search for Edovation to find the entire archive of issues.
​
Table 3: Future: VR Possibilities
Mary Howard
VEN is enthusiastic about the future possibilities of Virtual Environments...especially educational implications! This display will focus on three categories of transition that are expected in education with Virtual Environments.
​
Table 4: Martian Madness/ Minecraft what can you create? (Metagame Book Club)
Bob Smith
Kae Novak @kzenovka
Shushilia Heath
Laurel Thurman @LaurenThurman
Lori Weedo @Lweedo
The #Metagame Book Club this Spring read and watched the Martian and looked at using a Making mindset. Can you use the book and the theme to teach science and math - absolutely! You can take it even further than that and add making in your STEM classroom. After all the Martian didn’t just do “naked math”, it was always about figuring out a problem and making the solution to that problem. Come talk to educators who have found ways to bring the making mindset into the classroom and even make it into an ARG (Alternate Reality Game).
Link to Martian Madness Metagame page http://bit.ly/martianmadness
Link to Google Hangout Discussion https://youtu.be/-Wc8rM7GlGQ
Link to Martian Madness Slides http://bit.ly/martianmadnessslides
​
Table 5: Game James/Escape Rooms/Hackathons
Chris Luchs @center4edupunx
Erica Liczweski @BlueAppaloosa
Sherry Jones @auntes
What to know what a game jam, escape room or a hackathon is? Even better do you want to run one of these Maker, Gamer or Hacker events? Come talk to the educators who are doing these active learning events.
Hackathon slides http://bit.ly/28ISOB3
Escape Room information http://bit.ly/iste16escaperm
​
Table 6: Girls & Coding/Bridging Virtual Worlds & Game Design
Cynthia Calongne (Lyr Lobo) @Lyrlobo
Kate Hagerty @leedaleshepherd
​
​​​EduMachinima Fest 5:45 - 6:45 pm
CCC Room 109
​The EduMachinima Fest is a new media film festival showcasing games and virtual environment formats featuring individual and collaborative works designed to tell a story or instruct.