{"id":912,"date":"2025-03-02T10:00:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-02T09:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gamesforall.net\/?p=912"},"modified":"2025-03-02T01:37:15","modified_gmt":"2025-03-02T00:37:15","slug":"gamesforall-returns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gamesforall.net\/index.php\/2025\/03\/02\/gamesforall-returns\/","title":{"rendered":"Gamesforall Returns!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Hi Everyone, it’s been a while since I last posted on this blog. 3 years since my last post, but really it’s been 5 years since I last properly updated here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image from Flickr<\/a> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So much has changed in that span of time. I got a new job in September of 2019 working as part of the library team at Blackpool and the Fylde College, and within a month I’d been swapped over to the digital team as a Learning Technologist! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Learning Technologist is someone who does many jobs, all centering around the pedagogical use of educational technology.  Unlike IT who are there to make tech work for<\/em> you, Learning Technologists are there to make sure you can work with<\/em> the technology.  I recently published an open educational resource covering the role and its history: The Changing Role of the Learning Technologist<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this role, I believe I have truly found my calling. I absolutely love it and the challenges it raises day to day. Since that original swap to the digital team I got promoted to Senior\/Lead Learning Technologist at B&FC and then hired by my current workplace as Learning Technology Lead for Regent\u2019s University London, part of the Galileo Global Education Group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve become the Microsoft’s Lead fellow for UK Higher Education in their innovative educator expert programme<\/a>; A fellow of the Adobe Education Institute<\/a>; a founding member of the Human Intelligence Movement<\/a>: I’ve had research and guides published; I’m doing a Masters in Digital Education; I’m looking towards doing a PhD; I’ve presented at numerous events up and down the country, on webinars internationally and even been out to Rome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not to mention there was Covid-19; life changing injuries in my immediate family; my daughter growing into a beautiful little girl; finding it difficult to return to church following 2019 (I still don’t have a regular church I attend); me realising I have, and then being diagnosed with, ADHD and on the waiting list for an Autism assessment as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I gain so much fulfilment, acceptance and joy from my work that I’ve never felt before. Im in a better place than Ihave been for years mentally and emotionally, even with the hardships. But I have been ridiculously busy, and I’ll be honest, this blog fell onto a bit of a back burner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t think I would ever find a chance to resurrect it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I have been working on my masters, and become more involved in things like the creativeHE community<\/a> and the Digital Promise<\/a> playful learning community I have begun to realise that the ideas I have around games, that I put down in writing here, are relevant universally to pedagogy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pedagogy<\/a> for those who don’t know is the word for “the art\/science of teaching.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When I worked for the church, and in the activities I set up for amazing organisations such as the Scripture Union<\/a>, I realised the power of games to bring people together and make them open to talking to one another. Exploring what made them tick.\u00a0 As I quoted my good friend Rev Andy Gray<\/a> in my last post before going AWOL\u00a0 (Theology of play)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

when we play together or tell our stories to one another, we create a liminal safe space in which personal truths, opinions and even faith, can be shared safely without fear of causing offence or being offended<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Well that extends beyond just that. The liminal space opens up our ability to learn.<\/em> It’s a safe space that allows for repeated trial and error with no fear of failure. Infact failure is part of the fun!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve always believed that play is learning, and learning is play. That has been confirmed to me through my extensive reading as part of my masters and through the people I talk to daily through my role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LEGO serious play<\/a> exists for this reason, Minecraft Education<\/a> exists for this reason, Epic Games<\/a> have an education department dedicated to using Fortnite Creative and Unreal Engine to facilitate learning experiences for this reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Games are an integral part of my life. They bring me joy and happiness.  Teaching is an integral part of my life. Which brings me joy and happiness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And this brings me to what I want to dedicate this blog to going forward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I believe wholeheartedly that every game that exists out there can be used as part of a educators toolkit to promote not just life long learning (where throughout your life you have distinct periods where learning happens) but to promote lifewide<\/em><\/a> learning<\/a>.\u00a0 This is where everything we do. In every aspect of our lives helps us to learn and improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I aim to help educators find ways to implement games into their teaching in a meaningful, pedagogically sound way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To that end I have teamed up with Tabletopia<\/a>, to help develop their offering to the education sector. To take the 2500+ boardgames they have available on their site and build something meaningful for educators to refer to, in order to use them in their teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as I am aware no one else has looked into using existing digital boardgames in education, so bear with me as this will be new ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hope you look forward to joining me on this journey of discovery, to ensure that Games truly can be used For the betterment of All.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi Everyone, it’s been a while since I last posted on this blog. 3 years since my last post, but really it’s been 5 years […] Read More<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_bluesky_dont_syndicate":"","_bluesky_syndication_accounts":"","_bluesky_syndication_text":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,91],"tags":[41,93,92,11,89,95,94],"class_list":["post-912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-games-for-all","category-education","tag-board-game","tag-edtech","tag-education","tag-games","tag-research","tag-tabletop","tag-tabletopia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9PaoJ-eI","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamesforall.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamesforall.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamesforall.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamesforall.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamesforall.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gamesforall.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":939,"href":"https:\/\/gamesforall.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions\/939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gamesforall.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamesforall.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gamesforall.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}