Game Camp 7

One way I judge CPD is whether I come away with something that will be useful in my teaching practice. For example at the Cambridge Teachmeet I went to in February I came away with "relevant registers" to use with my students. At Pedagoo London the following month it was foldables and the judging the temperature of your classroom.

Today I was in London for Game Camp 7 being hosted at London South Bank University. In away this was CPD for me, working on my subject knowledge. But in reality it was just a fun day. We had left Peterborough at 7 after picking up the mini bus, and 7 of our second year Level 3 students.

After arriving at LSBU at 9:30 we were given a a program for the days Game Camp and a Kinder Egg. "Score" free cholocate is always good. But there was a catch. The Kinder Egg was part of a mini game jam that was detailed in the program. One of the events rooms there were resources to use in creating your game.

Now I really liked this and could instantly see the practical use of this for me in the game design class I teach and also in open days. So going by the guidelines I mentioned at the start of this post, before the event had properly started I had already made the day a success.

Game Camp runs likes an unconference. So now predetermined speakers, just those putting their name up on a voluntary basis on a board saying what they want to discuss, and people showing up if they are interested. So while all these talks are going on there are also demos of games tabletop/physical and video being given around the place, an area to play games and chill out, multiplayer games. Just a totally inspiring and creative environment.

So I attended some talks one on narrative, a couple of education ones. Got some great ideas for games to play with students in induction week. Needed something to get away from the build a bridge from paper activity.

I met some friends, made some knew (these events are great for networking), got inspired, came away with a few ideas (noted in my CPD book). But just as important the students that I took along had a great time, and where exposed to new ideas and experiences around games.

If you get a chance to go to Game Camp you should definitely go. I can't recommend it enough.

 

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