Unboxing education through gaming, playing, and making: Lucien Vattel at TEDxIndianapolis

Trailblazing education and game development visionary Lucien Vattel is at the forefront of a nationwide crusade to revolutionize learning in the classroom and beyond. As the CEO of the Los Angeles-based interactive curriculum creator and digital publisher GameDesk, Vattel is transforming the traditional school model into a hands-on, digitally-charged ecosystem for students to discover and nourish their greatest gifts, while embracing STEM skills through game-based learning.

Founded to help at-risk students in low-income regions tap deeply into their intelligence and talents, GameDesk instills the value of learning through play, and empowers students to collaborate and be active producers of the content from which they learn. Building upon this methodology, Vattel founded PlayMaker, a next-generation, choose-your-own adventure middle school program designed to help teachers and students transcend the confines of textbooks and chalk boards. This is just the beginning of the GameDesk insurgence. Vattel recently secured the largest contribution in AT&T history to develop a national digital learning center and fully comprehensive online portal for educators.

During the last 15 years, Vattel has spearheaded a variety of educational projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Lockheed Martin, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Motorola, Sandia Labs, National Academies of Science, and others. Previously, Vattel co-founded and co-architected the undergraduate and master's computer science programs in game development at the University of Southern California, where he served as faculty lecturer.

Big Idea: "Unboxing Education Through Gaming, Playing, and Making"

Imagine formal education as a box that everyone, for the most part, passes through. We can put whatever we want in this box. Why don't we make it amazing? The talk looks at transforming the traditional school model into a playful hands-on, digitally-charged ecosystem for students to discover and nourish their greatest gifts, while embracing science, technology, and math skills through game-based learning. An example is a model for transforming the learning space, through educational games, play based curriculum, new PlayMaker school, and national digital learning center and portal.