Spotlight on Digital Media And Learning

1.22.08 | This fall, Games for Change, in partnership with Parsons The New School for Design, launched an ambitious agenda for PETLab. As Colleen discussed, PETLab is a public interest game design and research lab for interactive media Prototyping, Evaluation, Teaching and Learning.

Our projects for the year include the design of a series of game prototypes for the Xbox XNA platform and accompanying curriculum that address social and civic issues.  In addition to targeting university students, we are exploring ways to modify and extend this project to after-school programs such as Boys and Girls Clubs.  Through another PETLab project we will work with teens to develop a social issue web-based game design curriculum.  We will also develop a dissemination strategy, through sites such as MTV’s Think portal, for the games created through the project. Looking to extend our work to other informal educational settings, we are working with the New York Public Library to find ways to integrate game design with existing youth services that introduce participants to the trove of digital resources within the library and that connect to the neighborhood and world beyond. 

We will share our process and research with the Digital Media and Learning community throughout the year through the Spotlight Blog and the Knowledge Network.  We look forward to your comments and suggestions.