Brandon Pittser Archives | Filament Games

How to Teach With Games

We spend a lot of time at Filament thinking about the best ways to use games in the classroom – our designers, engineers, and artists are all tirelessly invested in uncovering new ways that games can shine in a formal education setting. By far, our most reliable sources of inspiration are the teachers who are…

February 3, 2016 // Brandon Pittser

Filament Games | Educational Game Developer

Yes, You Are a Gamer

Sometimes video games get a bad rap. As a form of media, they’re often considered unserious, or childish, or any number of other negative descriptors implying that time spent on a video game is time better spent elsewhere. There is a stigma applied to games that is somehow more pointed and dismissive than the hesitations…

February 15, 2016 // Brandon Pittser

What Makes Great Learning Games?

Over our long track record of creating educational games, we’ve developed some fairly strong opinions about what makes a great game-based learning experience – from mechanics, to learning objectives, to organization, we have a lot of specific ideas about best practices for learning game development. In this video presented by our Chief Creative Officer Dan Norton,…

April 25, 2016 // Brandon Pittser

Virtual Reality for Learning Games

We’ve talked before about virtual reality and the unique impact it could have on the education space. Now that the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift have both shipped, we asked some of the talented game developers here at the Filament Games studio for their perspectives on how VR might or might not be used in the classroom. Alexander…

May 16, 2016 // Brandon Pittser

Building Creative Practices: Psychological Safety

This is the first piece in an ongoing series about developing skillsets that position you for success in a creative enterprise. Central to my approach is the idea that I’ll explore one concept per article. I’ve gained my perspective directing small marketing teams, wherein skinny resource margins mean that incremental growth is more achievable than…

May 25, 2016 // Brandon Pittser

Building Creative Practices: Strategies for Communication

Welcome back to Building Creative Practices! In my last semi-regular installment, I discussed strategies for creating Psychological Safety in the workplace, which at a high level is simply a way to get your team to operate in such a way that no one on the team is scared to speak their minds. I talked about effective…

August 22, 2016 // Brandon Pittser

5 Ways to Get the Most Out of Your EdTech Pilot

EdTech purchasing is a complex process with many stakeholders. Administrators, educators, students and the surrounding community all have a vested interest in knowing that your next purchase will offer real value to your institution, whether you’re purchasing at the school or district level. It’s tough to weather that level of scrutiny! You can certainly ask…

September 26, 2016 // Brandon Pittser

Incorporating VR into Your Business Strategy

Virtual Reality (VR) is an exciting new technology with a lot of potential, and we’ve spoken to a number of folks who are already exploring ways to augment their businesses with VR. As a technology that provides new modes of interaction and information consumption, VR is highly attractive to corporate trainers, nonprofits with a message,…

October 12, 2016 // Brandon Pittser

Building Creative Practices: Holacracy

The last installment of this Building Creative Practices series talked about employing sound strategies for communication in the context of some common organizational structures and challenging dispositions. Since you’ve all read that article and are at this point colleague-whisperers and conjurers of consensus, I thought today’s installment could focus on an uncommon organizational structure – namely,…

October 13, 2016 // Brandon Pittser

How Game-Based Learning Develops 21st Century Skills

What are 21st Century Skills? If you’ve been watching the K-12 space for the past few years, you’re probably aware that the rapid advance of education technology and the increasing centrality of the service economy in has prompted a re-orientation of education institutions’ goals and benchmarks for success. New standards, new media, and new skillsets…

October 26, 2016 // Brandon Pittser