Chris Bennett

Tiny Habits book is finally out!

Dr. BJ Fogg has had a huge influence on the Game Design Thinking research group. His Persuasive Design Lab‘s focus on technology to promote peace in 2009 led to the Peace Innovation Lab at Stanford, which made this research group possible. The Black Lives Matter movement emerged in 2013 amid anger over the acquittal of… Read more Tiny Habits book is finally out!

Tools For Looking at GDT, Design Thinking and Other Frameworks

We are asked a lot about tools for using Game Design Thinking, especially combined with other ideas and frameworks out there. David Clifford, Founder and Executive Director of DSX and former fellow and Senior Learning Experience Designer at the Stanford d.school’s K12 Lab shared a useful tool that he and I co-created with some wonderful other collaborators. Methodological Connections… Read more Tools For Looking at GDT, Design Thinking and Other Frameworks

LDT Expo Showcases New Ways To Improve Learning

On July 26th, Chris helped to review Masters projects for the Learning, Design and Technology (LDT) program at GSE. After having some LDT students work on their projects during EDUC/ENG 391 this spring, it was amazing to see the progress they made in a short period of time to get ready for the Expo! In… Read more LDT Expo Showcases New Ways To Improve Learning

Designing Serious Games student showcase on June 6th

Please join us on Thursday, June 6th from 6:30-8:30pm in Lathrop 282 for the final showcase for CS 377G: Designing Serious Games. I have been co-teaching this class with the amazing Christina Wodtke, and we are excited to share the hard work of our students. You will see a mix of analog and digital games,… Read more Designing Serious Games student showcase on June 6th

What's New for GDT?

  “What have you been up to?” is a question we’ve been getting a lot lately. So we wanted to get everyone up to speed on what we’ve been working on at the Game Design Thinking Research Group. WINTER This winter Margarita has been spending a lot of time in The Hague on our latest… Read more What's New for GDT?

Designing for Difficult Subjects

Games are typically designed as entertainment to take us away from the “real world” and get us into what Johan Huizinga called The Magic Circle. Temporary worlds within the ordinary world, dedicated to the performance of an act apart. Jesper Juul has built on this with a wider definition of games and digital experiences in his… Read more Designing for Difficult Subjects

Scaling Experiences

Often we want students or participants to experience something compelling or engaging, but we do not have enough time or space allotted for the full experience. Even a moderately complex board game can take several hours to setup, learn and play. Which is well out of the range of most group events we can easily… Read more Scaling Experiences

How Do You Create Paper AI?

One of the challenges of board games, and especially more sophisticated historical simulation games, is finding the opponents and the time to play. In the past decade or so, we have seen a shift in the hobby towards games that support more robust solitaire play. But until more recently, most solitaire play felt very luck… Read more How Do You Create Paper AI?

Course Hero Education Summit

This summer, Margarita Quihuis and Chris Bennett were invited to give an interactive presentation at the Course Hero Education Summit in Redwood City. It was a fascinating look inside the cutting edge of education, with keynotes from Robert Reich and Sir Ken Robinson. We spoke about Game Design Thinking in particular, and invited the participants to engage… Read more Course Hero Education Summit

Stanford LDT Expo on August 3rd

The Learning, Design and Technology (LDT) Expo will be happening at CERAS in the Graduate School of Education on Friday, August 3rd from 4:00-6:00pm. “This year, LDT students developed fifteen projects that address a wide range of learning challenges using innovative, theory-driven strategies. Students have taken on challenges such as teaching computational literacy through smart phones, helping learners make meaning… Read more Stanford LDT Expo on August 3rd