Contributor
Sasha Barab and Alan Gershenfeld
Sasha Barab is an internationally recognized learning scientist who researches, designs, and publishes on the power of immersive games and platform technologies for supporting connected growth. He is a professor in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society and the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College, and the executive director of the Center for Games and Impact at Arizona State University. His research has resulted in numerous grants, over 100 published manuscripts, and multiple game-infused innovations, which have been engaged by over 250,000 players to support learning and transformation. His current work extends the design boundaries from the bits and bytes of the game world to complex real-world ecosystems with the goal of helping all learners thrive in a complex, rapidly changing, digitally connected world.
Alan Gershenfeld is cofounder and president of E-Line Media, a developer of games that help players understand and shape the world. Previously, he was chairman of Games for Change and head of Activision Studios, a leading commercial video game publisher. His writing about technology, media, and social impact has appeared in Scientific American, Education Week, Huffington Post, Slate, Politico, MarketWatch, and Knowledge Quest. Most recently, he coauthored Designing Reality: How to Survive and Thrive in the Third Digital Revolution. Alan is on the board of FilmAid International and the advisory boards for iCivics and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center for Educational Media and Research, and is a founding industry fellow at Arizona State University’s Center for Games and Impact.