Educational gaming has seemed tantalizingly close, yet somehow not quite within our reach for a number of years. The singular focus of the Online Conference on Educational Gaming, part of the NMC's Series of Online Conferences, is to explore the state of this art, where things are heading, and what might be on the horizon.

This unique online event included sessions on topics from using games in practice to gaming research, from gaming and engagement theory to implications for multimedia and web design, and more. The event will be conducted entirely live and online using conferencing tools and real time facilitation approaches provided by NMC distinguished partner LearningTimes.

Click here to see the Complete Conference Program.

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The conference is designed to continue the very engaging and rich dialogs begun at the recent NMC Regional Conference at Yale with a broader audience, and further explore how to meet the expectations of technology-savvy digital natives coming to campus looking for visually rich learning experiences and collaborative activities that build on their years of familiarity with massively multi-player role-playing games. Attendees will explore topics on gaming practice, theory, and implications for education.

Designed for both synchronous and asynchronous participants, the event was conducted entirely online using an innovative conferencing environment provided by NMC distinguished partner LearningTimes. Attendees of NMC's online meetings enjoy a wide range of features commonly associated with their traditional face-to-face conferences, including interactive sessions from engaging presenters, "hallway" conversations, exhibitions, chats with exhibitors, chances to ask presenters questions, and more.

The conference featured 45-minute live breakout sessions conducted in an interactive online format, each with a "live/interactive" component, a "presentation-on-demand" component, and a vibrant threaded discussion that will expand on and illuminate the topic.

The Affordances of Katamari Damacy
Angel Inokon, Stanford University

Alternative Reality Games (ARG)
Bryan Alexander, Middlebury College/NITLE

Ancient Spaces: Reconstructing Cultures of Antiquity
Michael Griffin, Oxford University
Cyprien Lomas, University of British Columbia / ELI

An Instructional Technologist Looks at World of Warcraft
Katie Livingston Vale, MIT Academic Computing

Opensource Game Creation in the Classroom:
A Teenage Entrepreneur's Journey
Dan Moorehead, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dan Balzer, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy
Brian Knox, Cummins, Inc.

Play to Learn: Designing Educational Games in Museums
Herminia Wei-Hsin Din, University of Alaska Anchorage

"It Walks like a Duck and Talks like a Duck but… "
Why Educational Games are Neither Educational nor Games
Jared Bendis, Case Western Reserve University

Click here to see the Complete Conference Program.

This fall, NMC is pleased to announce an addition to its Online Conferences: Poster Sessions! Making their online debut at the NMC Online Conference on Educational Gaming, these Poster Sessions will consist of a brief slide presentation and a short descriptive narrative in PDF format for each topic. Attendees may browse these at any time during the conference. In addition, two special live panels featuring the authors of the Poster Sessions will be held, in which attendees may ask questions as they would at a face-to-face conference.

Panel 1: Exploring the Intersection of Gaming and Education
What happens when gaming and education mix? How can learning be assessed when gaming is involved? Do students benefit in measurable ways from learning through games? The eight Posters in this Panel explore themes like these, taking a close look at what really happens when games are used for education.

Panel 2: Educational Gaming at Work
Are you curious about how games are actually being used in teaching? In this Panel, seven Posters give examples of a rich array of resources that are being put to the test. Explore simulations, interactive fiction, even an adaptation of a popular online game -- and find out what happens in the real world when students use games for coursework.

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For questions or for additional information, please contact the NMC at 512-445-4200 or via email at info@nmc.org.