Speaker to talk video games, learning link

PORT ANGELES — Are you a digital immigrant or a digital native?

Learn which you are and about a connection between video games and learning Thursday, Oct. 6, when the Peninsula College Foundation’s American Conversations brings Marc Prensky to Peninsula College for an evening of food, wine and conversation.

The evening will begin at 6 p.m. in the PUB with wine and food, followed by the main event at 7:30 p.m. in the Little Theater.

Tickets are $125 per person.

Prensky, a writer, consultant, futurist, visionary and inventor, is the founder of Games2train, an e-learning company whose clients include IBM, Bank of America, Nokia, the U.S. Department of Defense and the Los Angeles and Florida Virtual Schools.

He is the author of Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning, Digital Game-Based Learning and Don’t Bother Me Mom — I’m Learning.

A question-and-answer period will follow Prensky’s presentation.

Prensky’s professional focus has been on reinventing the learning process, combining the motivation of video games and other highly engaging activities with the driest content of education and business.

He is considered one of the world’s leading experts on the connection between games and learning, said Phyllis van Holland, Peninsula College spokeswoman.

Strategy+Business magazine called Prensky: “That rare visionary who implements.”

Prensky has designed and built more than 100 software games.

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Time, Fortune and The Economist have published articles about Prensky’s work.

He has appeared on MSNBC, CNN/fn, Fox News, PBS and the BBC.

In 2000, Training magazine named him one of the top “New Breed of Visionaries.”

Prensky also writes a column for Educational Technology magazine and Greentree Gazette, a publication for leaders in academia.

Prensky’s background includes master’s degrees from Yale, Middlebury and the Harvard Business School (with distinction).

He is a concert musician and has acted on Broadway.

He also has taught at all levels from elementary to college.

He worked in human resources and in technology at Bankers Trust Co. and spent six years as a corporate strategist and product development director with the Boston Consulting Group.

He is a native of New York City, where he lives with his wife, Rie Takemura, a Japanese writer, and their 3 1/2-year-old son, Sky.

American Conversations is sponsored by Forks Outfitters, Key Bank Foundation, Olympic Ambulance, Schacht Aslani Architects, 7 Cedars Casino and Wilder Auto Center.

Tickets may be purchased online at www.pcfoundation.ctc.edu.

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