501(c)(3)
A 501(c)(3) organization is a United States corporation, trust, unincorporated association or other type of organization exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3) of Title 26 of the United States Code. It is one of the 29 types of 50 ...
corporation founded in 2007. Based out of
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, the institute offers school design services, educator programs, game and curriculum design, and corporate trainings / workshops.
Their initial work promoted game design, games and gaming as a model tool to enhance personal and social development, in particular
learning
Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machine learning, machines ...
in secondary school students. Within six months of its formation by a group of
game design
Game design is the art of applying design and aesthetics to create a game for entertainment or for educational, exercise, or experimental purposes. Increasingly, elements and principles of game design are also applied to other interactions, in ...
ers from
gameLab
Gamelab was an independent game studio in New York City, New York founded by game designer Eric Zimmerman and Peter Seung-Taek Lee in 2000. It is best known for creating Diner Dash, one of the most downloaded games of all time (over half a bill ...
Quest to Learn
Quest to Learn (Q2L) is a public middle and high school in New York City, United States. The school is operated by the New York City Department of Education. It is located in the Bayard Rustin Educational Complex in the Chelsea, Manhattan, Chelsea ...
, a New York City
public school
Public school may refer to:
* State school (known as a public school in many countries), a no-fee school, publicly funded and operated by the government
* Public school (United Kingdom), certain elite fee-charging independent schools in England an ...
designed around game design principles and based on over thirty years of learning research.
The Institute of Play has announced it plans to shut down operations by the third quarter of 2019 and its materials will remain available through licenses through the Connected Learning Lab at the
University of California, Irvine
The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine) is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and pr ...
.
Work
School Design
Institute of Play has supported public, private and charter school design projects for over 10 years. Their first success was the design of the New York City public middle and high school Quest to Learn, which opened in 2009. IOP engages in processes to design new programs and schools that encourage innovation, creativity, and collaboration. More info.
Educator Programs
IOP designs and facilitates research based professional development programs for teachers across subject areas and disciplines. Their programs support educators in bringing play and design into their teaching practice to create more student-centered learning environments. They have worked with teachers from all over the world through in-person workshops and online courses. More info.
Curriculum and Game Design
IOP partners with schools, educators, and organizations to design, produce, playtest and refine games and other learning materials that engage students in new ways. Past partners and clients include: The Museum of Modern Art, Committee for Children, Brainpop, Acton Academy, and Boys and Girls Club of America. More info.
Corporate Training and Workshops
IOP designs and facilitates hands-on trainings to help businesses, cultural institutions and other organizations use the power of play-based learning in their work. Past clients include: The Museum of Modern Art, The Art Institute of Chicago, Transamerica, Gap Inc., Audi, Burberry, Pearson, and Freemantle Media. More info.
Board
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Eric Zimmerman
Eric Zimmerman (born 1969) is an American game designer and the co-founder and CEO of Gamelab, a computer game development company based in Manhattan. GameLab is known for the game '' Diner Dash''. Each year Zimmerman hosts the Game Design Ch ...
- Chair, Independent game designer & Arts Professor, NYU Game Center.
*
Tristan Louis
Tristan Louis (born February 28, 1971) is a French-born American author, entrepreneur and internet activist.
Early work
Louis was born in Digne-les-Bains, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence. In 1994 and 1995, as publisher of iWorld, part of the Mecklermedi ...
- Vice Chair, Founder at TNL.net. CEO, Case Commons
* Steven Masur - Partner at Masur Griffitts + Co, LLP.
* Dawn Barber - Co-founder at NY Tech Meetup.
* Katie Salen Tekinbas - Co-Founder and Chief Designer, Connected Camps.
* Rose Else-Mitchell - Executive Vice President at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
* Sophie Rogers-Gessert - Treasurer, Photographer & Business Owner at Shameless Photography.
Advisory Council
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Arnab Basu Arnab Basu is a product manager, game designer and a videogames producer. He has contributed to the Tomb Raider series for Crystal DynamicsJohn D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
*
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), a merging of the William H. Gates Foundation and the Gates Learning Foundation, is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was ...
*
Carnegie Corporation of New York
The Carnegie Corporation of New York is a philanthropic fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1911 to support education programs across the United States, and later the world. Carnegie Corporation has endowed or otherwise helped to establis ...
*
Intel Corporation
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. It is the world's largest semiconductor chip manufacturer by revenue, and is one of the developers of the x86 series ...
*
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) is an American philanthropic organization. It is the largest one focused solely on health. Based in Princeton, New Jersey, the foundation focuses on access to health care, public health, health equity, ...
*
National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National I ...
*Pearson Foundation
*Margulf Foundation
*New Youth City Learning Fund at the
New York Community Trust
The New York Community Trust is the community foundation for New York City, with divisions in Westchester and Long Island. It is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the United States and one of the largest funders of New York Ci ...
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Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
;Partners
*Digital Youth Network
*Remix Learning
*E-Line Media
*CingleVue
*K-12 Embodied Media and Learning Group at ASU
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Parsons The New School for Design
Parsons School of Design, known colloquially as Parsons, is a private art and design college located in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. Founded in 1896 after a group of progressive artists broke away from established Manhatt ...
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New York City Department of Education
The New York City Department of Education (NYCDOE) is the department of the government of New York City that manages the city's public school system. The City School District of the City of New York (or the New York City Public Schools) is t ...