GTP Education

I have been teaching in public schools about 30 years. I have taught all grades, and many subjects, from K through 12th as a classroom teacher in the public school system.

I have used gamification and game-based learning to teach whatever subject I was teaching at the time, to whatever age level I was teaching it to. I combine my experiences teaching many different subject areas to blend many different academic subjects into whatever specific subject I am assigned. Currently I am teaching high school game, simulation, and animation design courses using a project based curriculum I have created. I will not use software created through wholesale piracy and plagiarism while telling my students to avoid doing the same (https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/libgen-meta-openai/682093/). I will not use software proven to lessen the critical thinking of those who use it (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/lee_2025_ai_critical_thinking_survey.pdf). Thus, I refuse to degrade the authenticity of my work or devalue my students by using AI. My students are worth being taught by a real human being. They are worth the effort it takes me to do things "the old fashioned way" (using my own brain). I believe that for our current students STEM is largely dead as a career path. They will not be able to compete in a "knowledge" career against AI for long. And AI controlled robots are moving toward economic reality at an ever increasing pace, which will replace the "trades" still remaining after the industrial revolution. Job competition in the bottom rungs of the trade sector is already getting brutally fierce among our newly graduated youth as masses of young people are already seeing the writing on the wall and exiting the STEM paths. I believe the future for our young people is based on ACE (my own attempt at one of those acronyms educators are so drawn to). Authenticity, Creativity, and Empathy are how they will find personal meaning and compete against AI in the future. They must embrace their unique incarnation of humanity, instead of attempting to turn into a human encyclopedia (remember those?). They must rediscover quiet reflection, and daydreaming. They must value and act on the oddball ideas which result from such times. And they must embrace those ideas from others. In my own mind, I have renamed the high school program I teach to "The A.C.E. Program." We see ACE beginning to reshape the gaming industry in the hobby tabletop and indie video game categories. In the hobby tabletop industry, the game designers are well known, with their names featured prominently on the boxes of their games. Frequenting gaming conventions and hanging out with players is a required part of their job now. In the video game industry, indie designers are starting to recreate the same dynamic as the hobby tabletop industry has had for 20 years. More and more video game players can easily list some of their favorite indie designers now, who they are fiercely loyal to. In this we see the combination of authenticity and creativity. It is really not the artistic product that is being sold ex nihilo in the market in these cases, but a combination of a known artistic soul with their artistic product. People are gaining a connection to a known human through that human's creation. Mass produced corporate creations made by anonymous designers (be they human or increasingly AI) cannot offer that. No one mourns the job loss of an anonymous human to an AI in a gaming megacorp. But many gamers would become enraged if Toby Fox (video game designer) or Matt Leacock (board game designer) were somehow replaced by AI (thankfully an impossibility due to their indie status). Both of these designers are known for their empathy. It is their empathy toward their fellow humans that draws patrons to them in return. It will become the same for all the creative industries. At a recent con I was at, John Rhys Davies, the actor, told an aspiring actor in the audience (asking for advice on breaking in to the industry) to give up on a career in film acting. AI would soon replace human actors there, he said . On the other hand, stage acting was safe from AI. Face to face performances are authentic. They create connection between the actor and the audience. In music, AI created songs are starting to top the streaming charts. This is because chart topping megastars in music don't connect with fans. They might as well be AI. Concerts are now too expensive for most people to afford and too large to be personal. But musical artists playing in small, inexpensive venues, like clubs, gain loyal followings. This is the future for human work. Artisans rather than factory workers. Products which receive part of their value through forging a real connection between the known artist and the patron. This is what I teach my students now.

Degrees: BA in Elementary Ed and a MA in Ed Leadership. State Teaching Certifications: Social Sciences 6-12, Reading K-12, Computer Science K-12, Engineering 6-12, Gifted K-12, ESOL K-12, Elementary Education, and Educational Leadership K-12. Industry Certifications: Unity Programmer, Unity Artist, Unity VR, Autodesk 3DSMax, Autodesk Inventor Pro, CompTIA A+, CompTIA Network+