The book launch will feature a panel on games and learning, with the following panelists:

  • Elena Bertozzi, Quinnipiac University (Author of chapter “Using Games to Teach, Practice, and Encourage Interest in STEM Subjects”)
  • Ethan Hein, NYU (Author of chapter “Music Games in Education”)
  • Gabriela Richard, University of Pennsylvania (Author of chapter “Designing for the Audience and Inclusive Considerations”)

The panel will be moderated by Karen Schrier, Marist College, who is the editor of the book series.

More About the Panelists:

Elena Bertozzi, Quinnipiac University

Author of chapter “Using Games to Teach, Practice, and Encourage Interest in STEM Subjects”

Elena Bertozzi has developed curricula and game design programs at Indiana University, Bloomington, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater and LIU. She founded the Engender Games Group Lab to facilitate partnerships between the public and private sectors. Her team of student artists, programmers, and interface designers has worked on a wide range of projects ranging from frog identification to helping women make decisions about birth control. She is currently involved in efforts to increase the quality of game proposals submitted for federal funding, and she is working on a serious game to promote safe sex practices funded by a Gates Foundation Global Challenge grant.

Ethan Hein, NYU

Author of chapter “Music Games in Education”

Ethan Hein is a recent graduate of the New York University Music Technology program. He has spent fifteen years performing, teaching, composing, and writing about music. He is a co-developer of Play With Your Music, a MOOC (Massively Open Online Course) that introduces audio production concepts and techniques, developed in collaboration with New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, P2PU, and Peter Gabriel. He is currently developing an iOS app that teaches drum programming with a constructivist approach through a novel circular interface.

Gabriela Richard, University of Pennsylvania

Author of chapter “Designing for the Audience and Inclusive Considerations”

Gabriela T. Richard is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow for Academic Diversity at the University of Pennsylvania in the Graduate School of Education. She is a National Science Foundation (NSF) and AAUW-funded scholar, whose research speaks more broadly to issues important to media designed for formal and informal education. Specifically, her research focuses on how to design and implement educational media and technology that is inclusive and sensitive to how social realities can disproportionately affect identification and achievement (particularly across sociocultural experiences, including gender, ethnicity, and sexuality). She has worked as an interactive designer, and taught instructional design and educational games courses at New York University, CUNY, and University of Pennsylvania. Before starting her Ph.D., she developed an innovative outreach program, which taught New York City public school students and teachers how to develop tangible media with physical computing, which received grant funding from the NSF. For over ten years, she has taught youth how to develop interactive and tangible media, including digital games. She has presented widely on why diversity matters in media design, as connected to her research findings of marginalizing practices in game culture and their relationship to social identities and stereotype threat. She received her master’s degree from the Interactive Telecommunication Program at New York University, and her Ph.D. from the Educational Communication and Technology Program at New York University.

The panel will be moderated by Karen Schrier, Marist College, who is the editor of the book series.

Dr. Karen Schrier is an Assistant Professor of Media Arts at Marist College, where she leads the concentration in Interactive Media/Game Design. She also directs the Play Innovation Lab (www.playinnovationlab.com), which researches and creates games and media for education and social change. Prior to Marist, she designed and produced websites, apps, and games at Scholastic, BrainPOP, Nickelodeon and ESI Design. She is the editor of this book series on games and learning, and has previously edited two books on games and ethics: Designing Games for Ethics and Teaching Values through Play. Dr. Schrier is also currently writing a book on games and social change (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015). She is a member of the steering committee of the IGDA Learning, Education, and Games (LEG) SIG—the group that collaborated to write, review and edit this book. She holds a doctorate from Columbia University, master’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a bachelor’s degree from Amherst College.