Media X to host "Gaming To Learn" 2003 Workshop
Sims creator Will Wright to give keynote presentation

SEPTEMBER 5, 2003. A dialog with Will Wright, founder of Maxis, now a division of Electronic Arts, and the creator of SimCity, The Sims, and Sims Online, will kick-off an exciting two day "Gaming To Learn" workshop to be hosted by Media X on September 18-19. Wright is the creator of one of the most successful categories of games that teach while they entertain. The Sims is the best selling PC game of all time. His games are amongst the most successful in bridging the gender divide and bring women and girls to the video game market.

The workshop is an invitation-only event that will combine the interests and talents of diverse communities to support the creation of a new art and science community at the intersection of gaming and learning. The goal is to bring together expertise and best practices from communities involved in game development, from industry, government and universities. The conference is being sponsored by IBM's Center for Advanced Learning, a Strategic Partner in Media X. About 120 experts from academia and the gaming industry are expected to take part.

The Stanford faculty organizing the conference are Roy Pea, Director of the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning (SCIL) and Professor of Education and the Learning Sciences, Byron Reeves, Director, Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI) and Paul C. Edwards Professor of Communications, and Dan Schwartz, Associate Professor of Education.

Their principal goal is to explore interdisciplinary efforts to conduct research and create games that will advance learning of substantive content and skills in contexts ranging from K-12 to corporate training and lifelong learning. They want to stimulate research and the creation of new video games to help people learn. They envision the emergence of revolutionary educational applications that combine the sensibilities of video media games with proven learning methods in the learning sciences, and they foresee a future where learning applications entertain while providing instruction more closely aligned with real world experience. In putting together this workshop, they decided they did not want another event where attendants simply listen to a long series of presentations. Rather, they want to bring together groups with similar interests that will leave the workshop to create games that enrich a new community and work on projects that will emerge from their interactions at the workshop.

Please note: this working event is by invitation only.

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