2025 Schedule Deep Dive: Gaming Within Education

Gamification in education has significantly evolved from being a behavior management tool in the classroom to being fully integrated into curricula. By using gamification and game-based learning, educators can create more effective learning environments and a more engaged student body. 

In a study conducted by the National Library of Medicine, undergraduate students who used gamification strategies when studying had a more positive attitude towards academic obstacles, while still accomplishing similarly to their conventional-learning counterparts. 

Game-based learning is extremely popular, as Mambo.io emphasizes that 67% of U.S. students prefer game-based learning, and 90% of instructors in North America want to implement gamified learning into their curricula to increase student motivation and creativity. 

This March, SXSW EDU attendees will have the opportunity to learn from experts who are pioneering this method of teaching and will help you engage your students with the power of gaming.

Complete These Quests:

In the Workshop An Adventurer’s Guide to Gamification, attendees will embark on a quest with Rachel Cohen-Ford, Zach Cohen-Ford, and Marc Pereira to find out how to infuse fun into work. Explore the fundamentals of work, play, and games in this interactive, Dungeon & Dragons style workshop.

School is a Badly Designed Game: RPGs for the Classroom, Michael Low, Founder of Luck of Legends, will teach attendees how to give students back their agency and make academic learning inspiring in this Solo Session.

Restore your conference fatigue and play games with a purpose in the Meet Up Games for Change Game Night with Leah Hirsch and Brendon Trombley. Gamers and game enthusiasts will learn more about Games for Change’s suite of educational programs, and build a network of like-minded educators who are looking to unlock the power of games in their teaching practice. 

Join Jennifer Ashiru, Sydney Eze, Mabel Inoa Meija, and Amy Patterson in the Panel Game Design Pathways to College & Career to discuss how the power of play encourages deep learning and is propelling a new class of creators across the STEM fields.

In the Panel Empowering Literacy through Games, experts from Filament Games, iCivics, the Wilson Center, and iThrive discuss how games can empower students to navigate media landscapes, recognize disinformation, and develop critical thinking skills. Join Louise Dubè, Jennifer Javornik, Elizabeth Newbury, and Susan Rivers to learn about the design process, implementation strategies, and measurable impacts of these games on students’ media literacy and civic participation.

Allison Matthews the leader of the Minecraft Education team at Mojang Studios, Susanna Pollock the President of Games for Change, and Jose Antonio Tijerino the President and CEO of The Hispanic Heritage Foundation are coming together to discuss how to leverage the strengths of video games to build a more resilient and equitable community in the Featured Session Global FTW: Cross-Sector Partnerships for Collective Impact. Learn how empowering partnerships can build a better future!

Learn how to engage with students with the power of play with Bo Stjerne Thomsen, the Head of Lego Education in his Solo Session Boosting Student Engagement Means Getting Serious About Play. Engaged students not only do better in school, but lead their personal lives with more happiness and confidence. Engagement works both ways, as teachers with more engaged students display higher levels of retention at their school. Explore how to excite teachers and students about learning again!

Games are designed to be addicting – how can we translate this to class lesson plans? Learn from Mark Galloway about how games have such a commanding effect in his Workshop Game Design Docs Are Better Than Class Lesson Plans. Through provided templates and guides, attendees will walk away with lessons equally engaging and rewarding as video games.

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Get excited for SXSW EDU 2025 from March 3-6 in Austin, Texas. Register today and keep updated with all things SXSW EDU by subscribing to our newsletter and following us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, and X.

Photo by Daniel Poe