The positive side of video games, including students’ employability skills, and the on players’ well-being – preceded by BCS AGD SG’s AGM.
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Synopsis
In the past, video games have often been associated with a range of alleged ill-effects, with the popular press and, indeed, published research, painting a lurid picture of the harms caused by playing games. However, a growing body of work suggests that video games may, in fact, have a positive role to play in our lives.
In this talk, two studies will be discussed: one on the use of video games to develop students’ employability skills, and another on the impact of video games on players’ well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Along the way, we will dispel some of the myths about video games that have been fuelled by a combination of moral panic, tabloid hysteria, and bad research.
About the speaker
Dr Matthew Barr
Dr Matthew Barr is a Senior Lecturer in the University of Glasgow’s School of Computing Science, where he is the head of the Education & Practice section. Matt is also Programme Director for the Graduate Apprenticeship in Software Engineering and co-director of the University’s Games and Gaming Lab. He was appointed Director of Education for SICSA (the Scottish Informatics & Computer Science Alliance) in 2021 and is a founding editor of the journal, Open Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Matt previously served as Vice Chair of British DiGRA (the Digital Games Research Association) and as a Trustee and Director of the Scottish Game Developers Association. Until 2022, Matt was a member of the BAFTA Scotland Committee, where he acted as the Games Jury Chair. His first book, Graduate Skills and Game-Based Learning, was published with Palgrave in 2019. An edited collection, Approaches to Work-Based Learning in Higher Education, is due to be published with Routledge this year.
Matt is also the founder of the Ada Scotland Festival, which aims to improve gender balance in Computing Science education across Scotland. He also champions inclusion and diversity through his membership of several Scotland-wide groups, including the Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board Equalities Group, and the Scottish Government’s Digital Economy Skills Group and National Digital Ethics Expert Group.
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This event is brought to you by: Animation and Games Development specialist group, Hampshire branch and Dorset branch
