I’m pleased to be a presenter at the 2026 Educators Rising National Conference in Portland. I’m leading a breakout session on gamification and using the psychology of game design in instruction. I hope to have both teacher leaders and students in my session.
I started exploring gamification in my last job with the Virginia Department of Education in alignment with how to improve professional learning for educators. Gamification can be used across multiple disciplines, and its potential in instructional design I think is untapped.
The tool I share at the end is the Playful Learning Coach, a custom-GPT I developed. Both educators and pre-educators can use this tool to test out learning design ideas, providing the AI with what you want to teach and some background about your students. It will lead you through options on how to include gamified experiences for your learners.
This tool was highlighted in my Kappan Magazine article from Dec 2025.
Looking forward to meeting you in Portland!