Learning through Play: Exploring Data Skillbuilding, Education, and Enthusiasm in the World of Video Games

For some learners, the idea of data and working with data can be an intimidating and scary concept, especially if the person has found the learning environments around data to be unwelcoming. Gaming can be an incredible way to learn about introductory data concepts in a fun, welcoming, and engaging environment, as well as practice your own skill development around data! In this talk, Hannah Gunderman uses gameplay elements, videos, and images from Animal Crossing: New Horizons, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, GRIS, Pokémon, and Little Nightmares/Little Nightmares 2 to talk about several concepts in working with data and organizing data, and provides attendees with tips for how to apply the lessons we can learn in these games towards supporting their own data skill development and confidence building!

This invited talk was virtually delivered on Tuesday, February 15th, 2022 for the Hesburgh Libraries at the University of Notre Dame as a part of their Love Data Week programming. The recording for this talk can be viewed here (you will need to copy and paste the link): https://notredame.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=211ea316-e7c3-4646-9a86-ae3d0137ef70