It has been a delightfully interesting—and busy—few weeks for Matt and the Lessons Learned team! Unfortunately, this has put us a little bit behind on our regular updates. Read on for a roundup of events past and posts to come.
Author: Matthew Stevens
“The Day My Life Froze” Simulation Test
Several weeks ago, Lessons Learned hosted a test of “The Day My Life Froze”, a simulation for 15-25 participants which models the dynamics of an urban refugee response in a fictional country of first asylum.
‘The Day My Life Froze’: An interactive professional development course in refugee response
Lessons Learned is offering a pre-release delivery of the two-day professional development course “The Day My Life Froze”: Urban Refugees in the Humanitarian System for free to interested graduate and undergraduate students. The event will take place at York University in Toronto, on February 23rd and 24th. See the Eventbrite page for more information and to secure your place, or […]
“Serious Games for Policy Analysis and Capacity-Building” Workshop Review
As previously alluded to, on Nov. 22-23, I had the good fortune to attend a workshop entitled ‘Serious Games for Policy Analysis and Capacity-Building,’ delivered by Prof. Rex Brynen (McGill, PAXsims) via the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs Professional Training and Development centre. The course was rich in history, provided extensive examples of modern applications of simulations and wargaming […]
Suffragetto
Proof that games have been training some of the world’s most amazing political actors for over 100 years: this week, my social media echo-chambers have been ringing with the “rediscovery” of Suffragetto, a game of activism and state violence designed by the militant British Women’s Social and Political Union circa 1908. Militant suffragettes are pitted against a team of police […]
Thinking “Inside the Box”
This is the first in a Lessons Learned series on essential resources for simulation development. Natasha Gill’s e-book, Inside the Box: Using Integrative Simulations to Teach Conflict, Negotiations and Mediation, is (in my admittedly humble opinion) very nearly a one-stop shop for educational simulation development. While Gill designs simulations specifically to teach peacebuilding negotiation skills, her method and accompanying manual […]
What We’re Reading – Justin Schon on Motivations vs Opportunities
As a geographer, I certainly have my problems with “push-pull” models of migration. Simply put, people move for many reasons; these motivations are difficult to describe, capture, or categorize, even for the individuals who are migrating. Real trouble starts when overly simplistic models are used to inform state or UN policy on migration. Physical violence and the economics of violence […]
“The Day My Life Froze” – Peek at the Full Summary
Related to the recent first look at “The Day My Life Froze: Urban Refugees in the Humanitarian System”, Matt has another sneak peek for you: the draft promotional one-pager for the full simulation. Expect changes before the first public delivery of the course, but this is the structure you can expect to experience when you register! Here is a direct […]
First look at “The Day My Life Froze”
Here is a first look at LLST’s full-scale educational simulation, titled “The Day My Life Froze: Urban Refugees in the Humanitarian System”, which Matt is pushing into its testing phase later this month.
LLST at the WUSC/CECI International Forum 2019
A panel put forward by LLST, titled “Escaping ‘aidland’: Embracing multiple viewpoints through simulation-based trainings”, has been selected to stand among an inspiring list of finalists for the 2019 WUSC/CECI International Forum in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. This year, the final selection will be made via popular vote. Voting is ranked by preference, with #1 being the highest. https://internationalforum.ca/public-voting-for-sessions-is-now-open/