About Gamedidactics
Martijn Koops is the author of books on Gamedidactics and has great expertise when it comes to communication by games. Games can carry messages, and communicate in an immersive way. Yet every message needs a different type of game. As expert on gamedidactics Martijn loves to design games for various purposes. He sees possibilities for games in any situation, and is more than happy to share his knowledge; with anyone who wants to hear it. Not only can we communicate facts and mechanisms by games, but also experiences and attitudes. Koops is convinced that the world can benefit if we decide to use games more often as a communication tool. That is the reason that he uses games as the basis for all the courses he delivers at the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht, where he is a physics lecturer as well as a game-didactician.
Martijn holds a PhD in physics and has a sound scientific base. In the late 90’s he started his research into serious gaming working for the telecom industry. Nowadays he works as lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht. Martijn is a researcher, funded by inter alia Senior Fellow of the Comenius Netwerk (KNAW) and is member of The International Simulation And Gaming Association (ISAGA) and Simulation And Gaming Association The Netherlands (SAGANET). He organises the Conference on Gamedidactics in the Netherlands and he exploits TheConferencegame.
In lectures Martijn explains how games can be used to explain, convince, and raise awareness, or just to make a boring task more fun. His speaking style is quite informal, yet very to the point with a somewhat subdued humour. He does not make things more complex than they are but just points out the essential nature and features of communication by games. The ever present overarching goal is to inspire the audience and provide them with the tools to get started.
The goal is not to present a view on the ideological future of learning, but to show the steps we can make today. His motto: “Action paves the road”.
