ISLS 2026
Game-Based & Playful Learning ✕ Clear filters
Thursday, June 18 · 13 sessions

8:00 AM

6 options scroll
Practice Paper · ALP 1100

Co-designing Teaching and Learning Experiences

Practice-oriented papers share co-designed teaching experiences across varied contexts, including wordless books for dual-language kindergarteners, community-building in online undergraduate courses, and board game design with Brownie Scouts. Other talks address climate justice instruction, metacognitive learning strategies, and research-practice partnerships in teacher education.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk
6 talks
Long Paper · ALP 2100

Collaborative problem-solving

A paper session on collaborative problem-solving, modeling how dialogue, metacognitive regulation, and knowledge building unfold during group work in math and other domains. Studies use methods such as ordered network analysis and Hidden Markov Models, and examine collaboration-competition dynamics and the emergence of flexible strategies.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk
5 talks
Short Paper · ALP 2200

Innovative Design for Learning

A short-paper session on designing innovative learning environments, spanning embodied game-based math, collaborative argumentation amid misinformation, and shared feedback visualization in simulation debriefing. Several papers examine generative-AI chatbots in computing education, from technology acceptance to effects on fifth graders' computational thinking.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk
5 talks
Short Paper · ALP 2500

Group Dynamics and Processes

A short-paper session on group dynamics in collaborative learning, examining how active participation, role enactment, and disciplinary engagement unfold over time. Methods include implicit-scripts analysis, physiological synchrony, AR-based inquiry, and socially shared regulation in STEM.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk
5 talks
Arts Gallery & Performance · ALP 2800

#1327: Contracked: Collaborative Learning through Musical Chaos

An interactive performance in which participants co-create music by independently manipulating its elements, exploring how instant shared feedback enables both collaboration and "light conflict." The piece probes the boundaries between productive and unproductive friction in spontaneous collaborative music-making.

Game-Based & Playful Learning
Arts Gallery & Performance · ALP 3700

#1316: “We Know Something You Don’t Know”: A Live Actual-Play Performance

A live, improvisational "actual play" performance of the tabletop roleplaying game "We Know Something You Don't Know," designed to support educator learning. Players create "complex yet capable" troublemaker characters to examine power hierarchies in schooling and cultivate critical civic empathy.

Game-Based & Playful Learning

10:00 AM

2 options scroll
Short Paper · ALP 3600

Strategies and frameworks for learning analytics at multiple scales

Short papers present strategies and frameworks for learning analytics at multiple scales, including latent profile analysis of math anxiety in game-based learning and teacher engagement in micro-credential PD. Other talks compare small versus large language models for generating math problems and examine self-regulated learning with GenAI.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk
6 talks
Short Paper · ALP 3610

Critical Perspectives in Learning Environments

Short papers bring critical perspectives to learning environments, covering AI-supported personality alignment among pre-service teachers, teachers designing AI-ethics scenarios with LLM tools, and whether critical pedagogy survives algorithmic social-media constraints. Other talks explore service-learning tutoring and equity, and game-based learning in literature classrooms.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk
5 talks

2:30 PM

2 options scroll
Long Paper · ALP 2300

AI and Ethics

Four papers on teaching and studying AI ethics across age groups and methods. Approaches include a literature review of AI ethics in ISLS proceedings, tabletop and scenario-based games for fostering multidimensional and ethical thinking, and laddering methodology for surfacing young children's values in design.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk
4 talks
Short Paper · Barclay

Co-Design, Community-based education, sociocultural learning

Six short papers examine co-design and community-engaged education across undergraduate science, minority-owned small businesses, and intergenerational environmental-justice programs. Threads include enacting solidarity in community partnerships, collaborative data co-analysis, and culturally sustaining pedagogy through game redesign.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk
6 talks

4:15 PM

3 options scroll
Demo & Interactive · ALP 1700

Demo & Interactive Session

A hands-on demo session showcasing AI-powered learning tools, including GenAI writing platforms, AI tutors for STEM and self-explanation, and teachable agents. Other demos cover collaboration analytics dashboards, agent-based modeling, VR reflection agents, and mobile creative-coding for community contexts.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk
23 talks
Poster · Outdoors

CSCL Posters - Thursday Poster Session (In-Person)

An in-person poster session spanning collaborative learning research, with strong threads on AI literacy games, epistemic agency, and knowledge building alongside SEL, VR and maker collaboration, and equity-focused design. Studies range from a Turing-test game and weaving-based ML curricula to ceremonial Indigenous designs and belonging infrastructure in research-practice partnerships.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk
19 talks
Poster · Outdoors

ICLS Posters - Thursday Poster Session (In-Person)

An in-person poster session covering wide-ranging learning sciences research, including science and engineering teacher reasoning, AI in classrooms, and equity-oriented design in research-practice partnerships. Topics span heritage-language and algebra apps, urban gardens as educational technology, cognitive presence in MOOCs, and community-engaged research experiences.

Game-Based & Playful Learning in a talk
91 talks