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Summary Sentence: Serious Games = Serious Opportunity
Full Summary: No summary paragraph submitted.
Deborah ThomasSpeaker:
Deborah Thomas
Title:
Serious Games = Serious Opportunity
Abstract:
Serious Games is a fairly new industry that is taking hold and providing job opportunities to computational studies experts, training professionals, UX designers, communications and media professionals and game developers. But there is a lot more to serious games than what meets the eye.
Games can be regarded as providing a credible, purposeful and compelling lexicon for learning. Furthermore, they can provide players with engaging challenges that require skill development in order to achieve the game and learning objective.
This presentation will provide a brief overview of the industry and the Taxonomy of Serious Games. It will highlight a few categories such as games for training, games for health and games for change.
Creating serious games can be rewarding and challenging. The challenge can also be the reward. It is very difficult to create a good serious game because the learning outcome must be tied to a game mechanic in a meaningful way, which is the hard part. There is ample opportunity for new entrants to make a mark in this exciting field. It is wide open and exciting.
Bio:
 Deborah Thomas is owner of SillyMonkey, LLC, a game-based learning business. Early in her career she was a public education teacher at one of the worst performing middle schools in the country, she drove her students’ SAT scores up 30 percent by using innovative educational techniques she created. She applied that same passion for helping people retain learning objectives through games as a trainer/designer /manager for Fortune 500 companies including the Coca-Cola Company. Now, she provides services for clientele of beverage, manufacturing, energy, pharmaceutical, sales, customer service and finance companies.
Deborah was honored to receive the 2011 Best Fun and Serious Game Award Europe, 2009 ASTD Dugan Laird Award, 2009 ASTD Atlanta E-Learning Excellence, 2009 finalist National Association of Women Owned Business. Deborah is president of the Atlanta Chapter of Georgia Game Developers Assocation, a Former President of the North American Simulation & Gaming Association and Vice President of Professional Development for the Atlanta American Society of Training and Development. President of Georgia Game and Development Association Atlanta 2008-2012
