In this workshop, our team of professional game designers and researchers will help in-service educators review and reflect on the role of storytelling in both education generally and game-based instruction specifically. We will begin with a workshop-wide, reflective exercise during which participants will share the personal stories they most value from their time spent in and out of the classroom (10-15 minutes). This will segue into a discussion about the way stories have been told and used historically as well as what they represent with respect to creating a “time for telling” (10-15 minutes).
The facilitators will then have participants split into three rotating subgroups given the opportunity to play three different educational games: a card debate and language learning game, a text-based roleplaying game, and an educational gaming experience grounded in a virtual world. Participants will have approximately 15-20 minutes to explore each game with facilitation provided by one of the three workshop leaders. Once the full rotation is complete (approx. 45-60 minutes), the larger group will rejoin to discuss the storytelling opportunities afforded by each game experience and how—even without modifying their instruction—teachers might think differently about the type and quality of stories emergent in their individual classrooms (15-20 minutes). The final 10-15 minutes will be dedicated to answering questions about the topics covered during the workshop, game design/instruction, and contemporary games research.
While we strongly believe that narrative, game-based lesson design is worth adopting, we recognize that the likelihood of a teacher modifying their instructional approach based on a single workshop is quite low. That is what makes this proposed experience different: rather than sidelining the pedagogical techniques teachers are already comfortable with, it repositions them in a way that allows skilled teachers to continue doing what they do best while acknowledging new, researched perspectives on how the notion of storytelling can inform best practice—an immediately actionable outcome.
