ISLS 2026 Agenda

Wednesday, June 17 · 12 sessions

8:00 AM

1 option

Short Paper · ALP 2700

Teachers learning and agency

These papers explore teacher learning, agency, and positioning, including reinterpreting project-based learning in Kazakhstan and how inclusive 'we' discourse shapes belonging in science. Further talks treat customization dilemmas, teacher positioning during student game redesign, resistance as a professional resource, and autonomy in informal learning.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk

6 talks

10:00 AM

4 options scroll

Practice Paper · ALP 1100

Collaborative Design Structures in Researcher and Practitioner Partnerships

Six practice papers describe how researchers and practitioners co-design educational programs, including a university laboratory school for equitable computing and a community partnership developing urban-agriculture curriculum. Cases also span co-designed embodied games for computational thinking, technology-education pathways, and designing edTech with schools rather than for them.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk

6 talks

Short Paper · ALP 1110

Place and land-based learning and education across various modalities

Six short papers explore place- and land-based learning across modalities, including spatial typologies for active-learning classrooms and syncretic game designs interweaving virtual and natural worlds. Others address youth climate storytelling, multispecies discomfort in a STEAM program, identity play through creek science, and scientific practice in an archaeological apprenticeship.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk

6 talks

Short Paper · ALP 2700

Design based research and instructional design to support learning

Six short papers report design-based research and instructional design work, including comic cons for scientific literacy and redesigning a graduate program toward learning design. Additional talks cover game-based planning for disability transition services, teacher agency in co-design, hybrid conference history, and boundary tools bridging home and classroom.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk

6 talks

Arts Gallery & Performance · ALP 3700

#1279: What’s In A Game? Framing Undergraduate Improvisers Contributions as Legitimate Participation in Improv’s Oral History

A demonstration of improv games created and modified by undergraduates in an 'Improv for Games' course, performed by a campus improv troupe. The work frames students' new forms as legitimate contributions to improv's oral history, motivated by a pedagogy of meaningful making.

Game-Based & Playful Learning

11:45 AM

1 option

Social / Networking · ALP 1600

Ignite Talks I

A fast-paced set of Ignite talks featuring auto-advancing slides on emerging ideas and works-in-progress across the learning sciences. Threads include AI in classrooms and teams, joy and wellbeing pedagogies, neurodivergent and inclusive learning, computational thinking, and arts-based methods such as dance and game design.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk

12 talks

4:15 PM

6 options scroll

Arts Gallery & Performance · ALP 1360

#1368: “On the fly”: A collaborative game for musical improvisation

"On the Fly" is a card-and-dice game that supports musicians in practicing collaborative improvisation through generative constraints, asking players to improvise performances that enact contours shown on cards. It functions at once as a performance format, a pedagogical tool, and a research instrument for theorizing how improvisation is learned.

Game-Based & Playful Learning

Demo & Interactive · ALP 1700

Demo & Interactive Session

A demo session showcasing interactive prototypes, with a strong emphasis on generative-AI tools for self-regulated learning, AI literacy, and coaching, alongside immersive technologies such as olfactory VR and mixed-reality simulations. Other demos cover block-based quantum computing, Jupyter notebooks for K-12 educators, music and topological analytics tools.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk

22 talks

Poster · Online

ICLS Virtual Posters - Virtual Poster Session

A virtual poster session covering a wide range of learning-sciences topics, including making and aesthetics, computational thinking and creative coding, and culturally responsive STEAM across international contexts. Studies also examine generative-AI policies and student-LLM reasoning, field trips, and physics teacher professional development.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk

70 talks

Poster · Online

CSCL Virtual Posters

A virtual poster session on computer-supported collaborative learning, featuring AI as a collaborative partner, adaptive support, and feedback literacy across peer, AI, and teacher sources. Methods span meta-analysis, scoping reviews, multimodal and physiological data on teamwork, teacher stress, and argumentative discourse.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk

13 talks

Poster · Outdoors

CSCL Posters - Wednesday Poster Session (In-Person)

In-person CSCL poster session dominated by generative AI in collaborative learning, from teacher-in-the-loop essay scoring and AI lesson-planning to constrained GenAI for deeper learning and agency. Other posters cover multimodal and NLP methods for assessing collaboration, conversational agents in shared reading, and AI tools in arts learning.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk

39 talks

Poster · Outdoors

ICLS Posters - Wednesday Poster Session (In-Person)

An in-person poster session spanning equity-oriented learning across STEM, computing, and the arts, with threads on multilingual and culturally responsive teaching, integrated STEM+C and AI literacy, and teacher learning in makerspaces and curricular customization. Settings range from family garden activities and afterschool math to climate-change pedagogy and preservice teacher preparation.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk

93 talks