Daniel Lindenberger

I love my job. I'm lead programmer for Action-Ed, and I spend me time working on Civic Mirror, an videogame that is so much more than a videogame: A simulation in which high school classes become countries and have to work out their constitution, laws, political parties and elections all while providing for their families and wheeling and dealing in their country's economy.

As an experiential education enthusiast, video game fan, and programmer in my bones, the job's a natural fit. Add to that the chance to work with an extraordinary team of people: inspirational paradigm shifter Regan Ross, long time friend and co-mischief maker Ben Weston, cool cat Derek Lam, Georgian powerhouse Darlene Franco and a host of extraordinary teachers and students.

I've been particularly basking in what a fun and rewarding job it is today for two reasons:

1) The Governor General spent some time visiting a class running Civic Mirror in Alberta today. It's rewarding to have the opportunity to work on software that's revolutionizing education. It's that much more rewarding when folks are noticing! (There's a bit about the visit here and here).

2) I got to visit a classroom using Civic Mirror for the first time today. They were doing the 'Practice Run', a fast-paced event in the game that introduces Citizens to the basic rules of play and to the interface. It was a total blast! Talking with Ms. Foster (a powerhouse teacher who also introduced me to Civic Mirror), the TA and the class about it was a rush, and I came away with loads of ideas on how to make the game even better, both from an entertainment and an education perspective.

Ever since watching Jane McGonigal's Ted Talk on 'Gaming can make a better world', I've been increasingly pumped up about the possibilities for changing the world through not just games, but what she calls 'gamification' - using the techniques used in game design to bring about change in the real world.

There's a ridiculous amount to say on this topic, but in the interests of actually making my blog something approaching weekly, I'll leave it here for now: There's something incredibly exciting about the twofold fact that

1) A tremendous number of people use video games to escape from humdrum reality into a world where there is meaning, important quests to be undertaken, mysteries to unravel and worlds to save.

2) We are living in the most exciting times imaginable - our world really needs saving, there really are mysteries to unravel, and we are increasingly waking up as a culture to the fact that the more we as individuals jump into the profound adventure life offers, the better things get, and the more we get to choose more interesting games to play than the stale zero sum games of scarcity, domination, and destruction.