While attending the Virtually viral Hangouts by Media Education Lab at University of Rhode Island I was given the opportunity by Renee Hobbs to rekindle a flame that was burning inside of me. when I prepared my gameplay session for the VVH community I was once again alive in my zone or what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi refers to as a state of flow. I was challenging myself to use online tools I just recently discovered in other sessions and make them meet my needs for the session I plan with other media literacy professionals. I was having fun, enjoing myself and was re-energized to get back on track to solving a riddle that was left unanswered to my interest in creating more behavioral changes in the Library Media world beyond my immediate school environment. Renee Hobbs empowered me to continue my investigation that led me to sign up for the Serious Play Conference.
As a first time attendee I was nervous as I am not a gamer. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there were many folks there that had questions and not all attendees were experienced game designers.
One of the toughest choices I had to make was which session to attend since all of them sounded fascinating. I felt like I was in Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The questions I was seeking were there to pick. It was 3 and half intense days of information that made sense to me and started fitting into the puzzle of answers to my game design,
What was more interesting is that as I was learning, more connections were being made and a clearer picture was starting to formulate for me. Sue Bohle brought together a wonderful caring community of people interested in creating meaningful engaging learning experiences and I can’t wait to listen and watch all the sessions I could not attend. However, they will have to wait until after Games for Change conference is over as tomorrow I get to dive in again to an amazing adventure with more trepidation and excitement.
