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  2. 322 — Learning design: Lessons from Scottish Games Week

Nov 29, 2022

This October saw cities across Scotland play host to the first ever ‘Scottish Games Week’, a nationwide event featuring a conference, an education symposium, and awards show. What lessons from that event can the organisers share with the L&D community? 

This week on The Mind Tools L&D Podcast, Gemma and Sam are joined by organisers Brian Baglow and Julie Drybrough to discuss: 

  • the elements of a good ‘learning’ game; 
  • some of the problems that come when we design games with an explicitly ‘learning’ focus; 
  • how to leverage game mechanics to improve learning. 

During the show, Brian discussed the game Island Saver, from NatWest. See: natwest.mymoneysense.com/island-saver/  

Sam referenced McDonald’s gamified approach to till training: kineo.com/case-studies/mcdonalds-till-training-game 

For more on Scottish Games Week, see: gamesweek.scot/ 

In ‘What I Learned This Week’, Sam discussed what a World of Warcraft virtual outbreak taught us about how humans behave in epidemics: arstechnica.com/science/2020/03/that-time-world-of-warcraft-helped-epidemiologists-model-an-outbreak/ 

Julie discussed the relationship between trauma and coaching, with reference to Dr Gabor Maté. See: drgabormate.com/ 

Brian discussed Bugzy Malone’s Grandest Game, a podcast series about Grand Theft Auto, available on BBC Sounds: bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/p0df1893 

And Gemma discussed ‘inosculation’, courtesy of Robert Macfarlane on Twitter: twitter.com/RobGMacfarlane/status/1592220645697486856?s=20&t=NcanHDv48LNdU1BAdl0qaQ 

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