Katie Salen is a game designer. She is also a professor in the School of Computing and Digital Media at DePaul University and the executive director of the Institute of Play. In 2009 she helped launch Quest to Learn (Q2L), a New York City public school that uses the underlying principles of games to create highly immersive, gamelike learning experiences. Salen and her colleagues have developed an innovative curriculum embraced by scholars, teachers, parents, and students as “education for the 21st century.” In this program, Salen discusses Q2L’s development and success, the planned fall 2011 opening of ChicagoQuest, the near-north charter school that will follow the Q2L model, and the opportunities and challenges of implementing the model.

This program is generously underwritten by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.