Gaming, Learning and Libraries Group

July 11, 2007

Present:  Marianne Ryan, Paul Bracke, Tomalee Doan, Michael Fosmire, Jane Kinkus, Scott Mandernack, Sammie Morris, Larry Mykytiuk, Dave Eisert, Katherine Riehle

The group convened to prepare for the Gaming, Learning, and Libraries symposium on July 22-24, 2007. Gaming is becoming a hot topic in learning arenas.  The Learning Council felt that sending a group to the gaming symposium would be a good way to explore the potential for using gaming in our library setting.  The symposium group represents broad membership across the Libraries, although not every library has a member.  The work of this group will result in the creation of a gaming working group, which will likely be comprised of some of the symposium attendees and some additional Libraries staff. The group tooks turns discussing "what does gaming mean to you," "why are you interested in attending this symposium," etc.  Responses included:

§     There is interest in developing a collection to support game development efforts on campus.

§     Would like to create some kind of information literacy game (beyond multimedia tutorials that are already in development).

§     Gaming is a new and refreshing way to engage students;  easily applicable to new students;  effective in getting people's attention.

§     The sneakier you can be while teaching, the better;  gaming can make learning entertaining & fun.

§     Gabriela Weaver in Chemistry is creating a chemistry-themed adventure game;  it would be cool for a librarian(s) to get in on that.

§     There are more and more kids who are interested in the Earhart collection;  a gaming approach could help kids interace with the Earhart collection.

§     For undergrads, gaming could be a fun way to learn about archives and other topics.

§     Potential for using gaming techniques to train students and grad students to process archival materials.

§     Want to learn more about whether gaming is a area of interest that the university should go in.

§     Simulations are huge in some curricula as well as in the business sector.  Simulations are very effective and could be useful in info literacy instruction.

§     What can we learn from gaming in terms of user interface design?

§     Many games inherently include lots of instruction for users. 

§     How could gaming help make the CORE tutorial more engaging?

§     How do gamers learn?

§     Promote multimedia development with the DLC.

§     Are there compelling reasons to create a collection of videogames?

§     The DLC has tried to sponsor a videogame contest, but realized that the task of creating a videogame is really quite big.

§     We could learn a lot from games in terms of interface design, active learning, immediate feedback, etc.

§     PUL faces the challenge of a decentralized framework;  maybe a gaming initiative could help pull things together for the Libraries.

§     A PUL gaming initiative could also be fun and generate some excitement across the Libraries for some of our endeavors.