Clark Aldrich is changing the trajectory of education. ​As a leading analyst he founded Gartner's e-learning coverage and jump-started the adoption of distributed learning by the world’s largest organizations. His research and projects on game based and simulation based learning launched the gamification segment. He is the author of six books, including Unschooling Rules, which empowered the trend of student-centric micro-schools. Now his work on Short Sims is making educational media relevant for preparing students and employees to take leadership roles in a skills-based economy.

Aldrich’s visionary and change-agent status has been codified through awards including numerous "Best of the Years", a U.S. Patent, being highlighted in "top-of-the-profession" lists and cover stories by industry leading publications, roles on multiple boards, his role as columnists for several magazines, keynotes, and being featured in hundreds of news stories including by New York Times, NPR, CBS, and ABC. He has been called a 'guru' by Fortune Magazine and a 'maverick' by CNN. He has also lectured at the Army War College, the Naval War College, and FBI's Quantico. Aldrich recently held Top Secret clearance for his strategic work with the US military.

In this interview, Clark tells us more about his motivation to use simulations for teaching, and shares lifelong experiences and insights about how he sees games and simulations can be used for learning, for motivation and for change.

Katrin is an award winning, internationally known expert in the design and analysis of Serious Games and in gamification in the classroom. She holds two Computer Science degrees and a PhD in Educational Technology. She is a certified instructional designer with a graduate certificate in serious game design and research. She has over 35 years of teaching experience and has taught CS, video game design, DGBL, and technical writing. Her teaching innovations have been internationally recognized and she is widely published. She designs and develops e Learning in all sectors, including educational and advertising games. Her recent game, Gene Rummy is a physical card game to help people learn basic Mendelian genetics. She is also the author of three books; one on the technical aspects of simulations and games written for non-technical people (Wiley, 2011), now available on LeanPub, one on choosing and using digital games for the classroom (Springer, 2016), and a memoir called, "Reni". Her next book, "Gamification 101: A Practical Guide to Gameful Learning", is due out next year.

Finally, to counterbalance a very digital life, she runs a small farm where she has been raising rabbits, waterfowl, and other animals for over 30 years. This farm forms the basis for her “Ducks in the Classroom” program, which provided eggs for hatching in classrooms locally from 1988-2012, and information on school hatching projects globally since 2001. It also accounts for occasional bit of poo on her shoe.

In this interview, Katrin tells us more about her motivation to use gaming and games for teaching, and shares lifelong experiences and insights about how he see games can be used for learning, for motivation and for change.

Simon Egenfeldt-Nielsen(PhD, Psychologist) has studied, researched and developed video games for almost 20 years. He has previously been assistant professor at IT-University of Copenhagen, where he researched the educational potential of computer games. Today he is CEO of Serious Games Interactive, where he has over the last 15+ years developed +150 games for organisations like UN, Maersk, Opel, GIZ and EU Commission. He has served on the Digital Game Research Association Board for 3 years, and served as a reviewer for several journals, research projects, students and conferences on game research. He is a founding member of Centre for Video games Research Copenhagen. He is also the author of four books covering the topics video games, education and learning

In this interview, Simon tells us more about his motivation to use serious games, and shares lifelong experiences and insights about how he see games can be used for learning, for motivation and for change.

• For Show Notes and past/future guests on the LevelUp Life, Podcast please visit https://gbl-summit.com/index.php/podcast/
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