Katie Salen, Founder of both The Institute of Play and Connected Camps, an online learning platform powered by youth gaming experts, will keynote Serious Play Conference’s Montreal conference on game-based learning July 10-12, 2019.

Salen will discuss the role of Minecraft, a sandbox video game created by Swedish game developer Markus Peterson, reimagined by Microsoft for use in schools, today widely used to teach children computer coding as well as classroom subjects ranging from science to the arts. Salen will discuss the game’s role in “Raising a Generation of Good Gamers.”

The international conference, hosted by the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM), will feature more than 100 speakers, thought leaders that embrace the concept that games or “play” better engage students, employees and other learners. Research has documented that game-based education and training improves retention of content.

Salen, currently a professor, in the Department of informatics, UC Irvine, is a member of the Connected Learning Lab and Chief Designer and co-founder of Connected Camps.

Earlier, Salen was Founding Executive Director of Institute of Play and led the design of Quest to Learn, an innovative New York City public school. She is also co-author of Rules of Play, The Game Design Reader and Quest to Learn: Growing a School for Digital Kids, all from MIT Press, and a forthcoming book, Affinity Online: How Connection and Shared Interest Fuel Learning (NYU Press).

The Montreal Conference will be the 13th Serious Play Conference. Universities that have hosted Serious Play include DigiPen, USC, Carnegie Mellon, University of North Carolina, University at Buffalo and George Mason University.

To register for the Montreal conference, go to https://seriousplay-montreal.com/