2012 Keynote: Jane McGonigal, Ph.D.

Director of Game Research and Development, Institute for the Future.
Author of The New York Times best seller, Reality Is Broken
Symposium Theme: Embracing Change and the Culture of Teaching and Learning

Jane McGonigal is a visionary game designer and futurist, and she is harnessing the power of the Internet games in new ways to help solve some of the biggest challenges facing our world today and tomorrow.

Drawing on the latest findings in psychology, cognitive science, and sociology, Jane is turning game play to socially positive ends, developing new reality-based games that are being used to find solutions to business, personal, community-based, and worldwide problems.

Jane is Creative Director at SocialChocolate.com, a game development startup that is using these scientific findings to create radically new social adventure games.

In her groundbreaking new book Reality is Broken: Why Games Make Us Better and How They Can Change the World, Dr. McGonigal explores the power and future of gaming and reveals how its collaborative and motivational aspects are being used to solve some of the most difficult challenges facing humanity, and even battling personal social problems like depression and obesity, and she forecasts the thrilling possibilities that lie ahead.

"Reality Is Broken will both stimulate your brain and stir your soul." --Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and A Whole New Mind

"Reality Is Broken is essential reading for anyone who wants to play a hand in inventing a better future." --Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia

Jane's work has been featured on CNN, MTV, NPR,The Economist, the New York Times, Psychology Today, Fortune, and Wired.

She has advised companies such as Microsoft, McDonald's, Intel, Disney and Mattel, and created games for organizations such as the World Bank and the American Heart Association. Her speech at TED in 2010, "Games can make a better world," is currently rated #16 out of 850 all-time most engaging TED talks.

Previous Keynote and Featured Speakers

2011

Clay Shirky
Distinguished Writer in Residence, Arthur L. Carter Journalism School, New York University
Fellow, Berkman Center for Internet and Society

2010

Michael Wesch, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology
Kansas State University

2009

David Wiley, Ph.D.
Department of Instructional Psychology
Brigham Young University

danah boyd, Ph.D.
Microsoft Research New England
Harvard Berkman Center for Internet and Society

2008

Lawrence Lessig, J.D.
professor of law at Stanford Law School
founder, Center for Internet and Society

2007

Lee Rainie, M.A.
project director, Pew Internet and American Life Project

Bryan Alexander, Ph.D.
director, National Institute for Technology and Liberal Education

2006

Henry Jenkins III, Ph.D.
DeFlorz Professor of Humanities
director of MIT Comparative Media Studies