The 7th annual Australian Game Developers Conference Announces
One Day Schools and Computer Games Summit
Melbourne, Australia, November 24, 2005 - The 7th annual Australian Game Developers Conference (AGDC) is to host a pre-event Schools and Computer Games Summit on Wednesday, 30 November 2005. Themed, "Harnessing the Future, the Summit will showcase powerful opportunities for schools to engage with computer games, and how to harness their motivational appeal.
Organisers of the AGDC, Interactive Entertainment Events, have enlisted academic leader Dr. Kurt Squires, Assistant Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to demonstrate how games, when placed in the hands of enterprising teachers, offer a powerful learning tool that raises the interactivity of lessons for primary and secondary school students.
Squires says, "Games make it possible to have a truly interactive educational system - where kids are asking questions, participating in complex practices, and having to prove themselves in communities of practice. With games like Civilization, we've found that students get not only more enthused about history, but deeper understandings.
"Teachers pioneering this work are using games to improve students' performance in mathematics, science, and history. Through sites like the teachersarcade.org, we hope to bring together teachers who are using games in their classrooms in order to establish models of best practice for games and learning."
Taking place at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square, the Summit will encourage teachers, career advisors, educational leaders and academic researchers to devise their own curriculum using games that are proven to inspire and which students are already likely to be familiar with.
John De Margheriti, Founder of the AGDC is eager to dispel the myth that electronic games are a negative influence on learning, claiming they have, ?hampered rather than harnessed their true motivational merits.?
He says, ?The Summit has been inspired by the proliferating number of higher and vocational education providers offering Electronic Games courses over the last few years, and we want to make right the fact that there has been no corresponding increase in games study in schools.?
Indeed, games will continue to be a significant influence on future generations with an annual turnover for game titles increasing at a rate of above 20% year on year. According to a 2002 report by PricewaterhouseCoopers the industry is estimated to be worth $55 US billion globally by 2008.
The Summit is presented by The Academy of Interactive Entertainment Ltd and the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Summit sponsors include: Autodesk, Scholastic, Micro Fort? Pty and ScreenACT.
Sponsors of the AGDC 2005 include Multimedia Victoria, Microsoft DirectX, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Intel, Edge Magazine, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, BigWorld Pty Ltd, GameDev.net, Atomic MPC, Krome Studios, Game Developers? Association of Australia, Control Freaks and Alias.
Visitors to this year's AGDC will also benefit from a $130 discount on the AGDC 2004 ticket price ($900) gaining entry for the full three days for just $770.
For more information on the AGDC and Schools and Computer Games Summit, please visit: www.agdc.com.au.