Games, Learners, and Innovation

Sasha Barab is an internationally recognized learning scientist who has researched, designed, and published extensively on the challenges and opportunities of using games for impact. More recently, his work has focused on designing, scaling, and optimizing innovations for impact. He is a professor in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University, where he holds the Pinnacle West Presidential Chair. He is also a founding member and director of the Center for Games and Impact. His research has resulted in numerous grants, dozens of articles, and multiple chapters in published books, which investigate knowing and learning in its material, social and cultural context, and multiple innovations that have impacted tens of thousands of users. Barab’s design work includes everything from bounded games used in K-12 classrooms to multiuser virtual worlds with thousands of connected participants to game-enabled services designed to support users in achieving real-world goals. His current work extends the design boundaries from ‘magic circle’ surrounding game worlds to complex real-world ecosystems with the goal of helping all learners thrive in a complex, rapidly changing, digitally connected world.

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