Current Conference Agenda

2. The Pedagogical Possibilities of Interactive Games

11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Moderator: Colm O'Muircheartaigh, Public Policy and NORC, University of Chicago

What ways of thinking and learning, intellectual skills and habits, does game playing encourage or discourage? How much influence do interactive games have on the cognitive development of players of different ages? Are the skills of game playing transferable to other educational endeavors, and if so, how? Answers to these questions should help policymakers identify and support best practices in the fusion of video game technology and education.

Confirmed Panelists

Hubert Dreyfus, Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley
Noah Falstein, The Inspiracy
Laura Groppe, girlGames Research Lab
Terry Hackett, eLearning Division, Deloitte Consulting
Yasmin Kafai, Kids Interactive Design Studios, UCLA
Alan Pope, Langley Research Center, NASA
Marc Prensky, games2train.com
Andrew Rosenfield, UNext

 

3. Video Game Violence: Research Findings, Policy Options, and Constitutional Questions

  Moderator: Jack Doppelt, Northwestern University Medill School of Journalism

On the University of Chicago Campus

Donnelley Biological Sciences Learning Center (BSLC)

924 East 57th Street, Rooms 205, 218

Paper Panel Sessions for Academic and Policy Stakeholders

9:00 - 10:30 a.m.

Panel 1A: Convergences of creativity and commerce: what is the future of interactive game arts?

Chair: Tom Gunning, Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago

As computers and digital communications pervade all areas of life, games spread with them. What role does the game play in the new digital economy? Are we entering an age of ubiquitous entertainment, or entertainment monopolies, and if so, what are the effects on culture? Does convergence help or hinder independent production and variety of games? What kinds of interactivity do games bring to other electronic media applications? And is there a public interest in shaping relations among these cultural industries?

Richard Epstein, Law School, University of Chicago
Noah Falstein, The Inspiracy
Seth Killian, Shoryuken.com
Stephan Meyers, consultant, wireless entertainment
Celia Pearce, Claire Trevor School of the Arts, UC-Irvine

Panel 1B: The Violence Debate I: What does the evidence show?

Chair: John Cacioppo, Psychology, University of Chicago

What does the best research on video games and violence really tell us (or fail to tell us) about the relation between violent video game play and violent behavior?

Craig Anderson, Psychology, Iowa State University
Jonathan Freedman, Psychology, University of Toronto
Jeanne Funk, Psychology, University of Toledo
Jeffrey Goldstein, Social and Organizational Psychology, Utrecht University

11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Panel 2A: The Violence Debate II: The First Amendment, the FTC Report, and Legal Strategies

Chair: J. Mark Schuster, Urban Studies and Planning, MIT and Visiting Professor of Cultural Policy, Harris Graduate School of Public Policy Studies, University of Chicago

What regulatory tools and legal weapons are available to those interested in monitoring, controlling or sanctioning those who violate agreed-upon self-imposed standards? What protections from such censorship efforts do video games enjoy under the First Amendment? What does history tell us about efforts to regulate – and efforts to self-regulate – popular culture?

Mary Engle, Federal Trade Commission
Jeffrey Goldstein, Social & Organizational Psychology, University of Utrecht
Marjorie Heins, Free Expression Policy Project, National Coalition Against Censorship
Marsha Kinder, Cinema-Television, USC
Gail Markels, Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA)
David Walsh, Media and the Family

Panel 2B: Gamers and Gender

Chair: Lawrence Rothfield, associate professor, English & Comparative Literature and faculty director, Cultural Policy Center
How can we best understand how computer games affect the gender attitudes and identities of those who play them? And what steps could be taken to make video games more open to a variety of subjective experiences?

Jeanne Funk, Psychology, University of Toledo
Laura Groppe, Girl Games Inc.
J.C. Herz, Joystick Nation, Inc.
Henry Jenkins, Comparative Media Studies, MIT
Gerard Jones, author of Killing Monsters: Why Children Need Fantasy Games, Superheroes and Make-Believe Violence

2:00 - 3:30 p.m.

Panel 3A: Playing With Your Brain

Chair: Howard Margolis, Public Policy, University of Chicago

What does recent research about childhood development, models of intelligence, and different learning styles tell us about the impact of video-game play on the minds of young people?

Terry Hackett, e-learning Division, Deloitte Consulting
Yasmin Kafai, Kids Interactive Design Studios, UCLA
Alan Pope, Langley Research Center, NASA
Marc Prensky, games2train.com
Eugene Provenzo, Jr., Education, University of Miami

 Panel 3B: The Future of Video Games as an Art

Chair: Kim Rorschach, The David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago

The video game industry today is a magnet for creative talent, talent reflected in the increasing complexity, sophistication, beauty, and variety of game design. How is the art form itself likely to evolve over the next decade? Should we be concerned about the fact that this creative surge is taking place for the most in the commercial sector? Should policies be devised to encourage the development of independent and/or non-profit video-game design (comparable to independent film)?

Sara Diamond, The Banff Centre for the Arts
Joe McKay, computer-based artist
Feng Mengbo, video game artist, Beijing
Ellen Sandor, (art)n
Yuri Tsivian, Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago
Hamza Walker, The Renaissance Society
Eric Zimmerman, gameLab, Inc.

Moderator: TBA
Two University of Chicago cinema and media studies graduate students, Kaveh Askari and Michelle Puetz, have produced a documentary of video game subcultures in the Chicago area. This evening we will screen their work, followed by Q&A with the filmmakers and some video game enthusiasts who appear in the documentary. All are welcome to attend.