Yesterday at 1PM we launched Ivanhoe 1.0. We are excited about our progress and hope you can take some time to download the theme to your own WordPress accounts. We have made documentation readily available for those new to Ivanhoe and we hope users will add to this space (via GitHub) so that we can continue to create a better product. As I reflect back on the last year I wanted to share a few things….

My favorite moment: playing Apples-to-Apples during a holiday get together. I feel like the experience bonded our team in a cool way and renewed my enthusiasm for integrating games at work. One can never predict the unexpected outcomes of play.

What I learned about myself: I can’t do it all, but that’s ok… especially when you have a team of amazing people ready to step in and help you out.

How I would integrate Ivanhoe into the classroom: A theoretical concept in Media Studies (among other disciplines) is the idea of “intertextuality” - or how we make meaning of one type of media (a text, movie, television show, etc) based on our already existing knowledge of another form of media. I created a game in Ivanhoe using this concept. I uploaded a film from YouTube and inserted the following directions:

1. Watch one of the videos (original or move) available on the game.

2. Create a role based on the video you watched.

3. Make a move (or respond to a move) by inserting in another video from YouTube (preferably under 3 minutes) whose meaning is tied to your role AND the video you watched. Use the rationale section to justify the connection. 

4. The game ends when no more connections can be made.

I look forward to seeing how others incorporate the tool and the games users end up concocting along the way….