Last Chance to Register for Play Learn Read Conference

 

From DPI's Chris Baker

The 2025 Play Make Learn Conference (Thursday, August 21st & Friday, August 22nd; Pre-cons Wednesday, August 20th) is a place for collaboration and discovery in the design, research and practice of playful learning, games for learning and positive social impact, making and makerspaces, STEAM education, and arts in education. PML creates an inspirational space for preK-12 educators, designers, developers, innovators, librarians, museum professionals, makers, and researchers to tinker together, share knowledge, and celebrate one another’s work. Check out our website and follow us on our social media for updates about the 2025 conference!

Keynote Speakers

August 21
Nicole Louie is a professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. A former middle school math teacher, her research addresses issues of exclusion and belonging in K-12 mathematics education, as they are shaped by racism and other oppressive systems. She is currently working to integrate the arts into her research and teaching, writing poems, playing with sock puppets, and producing a multiracial history of US school desegregation efforts in graphic novel form.

Chundou (HMoob RPA: Tshaavntuj) of the Hmong clan Her (HMoob RPA: Hawj) is a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Curriculum & Instruction. Chundou was born and raised in the Madison area where they also completed their bachelor’s, masters, and taught high school English. Whether someone has an inner child or an outer child who needs healing and justice, Chundou hopes their work can help people to tell their stories in culturally relevant and significant ways even if it is not legible to institutions.

August 22

Luke Bassuener is an artist, musician, and educator based in Madison, WI. He holds a Masters in Global Education Policy from the University of Illinois and has taught for over twenty years; as a K-12 substitute in nearly every imaginable setting, a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ghana, and now an elementary art teacher. He has toured extensively as an independent musician and taught workshops on everything from art and skateboarding to interdisciplinary collaboration, stop-motion animation, songwriting, and creating music with loop pedals. Each year his 4th and 5th grade students turn a myth from around the world into an animated short, and their films have screened in festivals all across the United States and on three different continents so far (Luke's YouTube & Instagram). Photo credit: Audre Rae Photography.

August 20 Preconference Sessions
Want to get even more out of the Play Make Learn conference? Consider registering for pre-conference sessions on Wednesday, August 20th, before the official conference begins on Thursday, August 21st! We have a lot of exciting pre-conference presentations and workshops this year, such as:

• Camouflaged Making-Based Assessments
• Play to learn: Board games as teaching tools
• Trusting Your AI
• Wisconsin Makerspace Summit
• Communities of Belonging
• Introducing SceneCraft: A New AI Tool to Create Interactive Narratives for Learning
• Repair as Practice: Cultivating a Mindset of Renewal

STEAM Highlight: People interested in STEAM Education and connecting with other Makers should consider registering for the Wisconsin Makerspace Summit -- a workshop designed and led via collaboration between DPI consultants and UW-Madison. More info:

Presenters: Peter Wardrip (Associate Professor, UW-Madison Dept. of Curriculum & Instruction), Kevin Anderson (Science Education Consultant, DPI), and Monica Treptow (School Library Media Consultant, DPI)

The Wisconsin Makerspace Summit is an all-day pre-conference at Play Make Learn 2025. Experienced and novice maker educators and leaders from schools, libraries, museums and other settings will come together to learn about creating and supporting maker-based learning experiences. Participants will leave with ideas, inspirations and a small network of co-conspirators to initiate or continue their maker educational work.

Conference Session Schedule & Activities
The 2025 Conference Session Schedule (which includes various "wraparound" conference experience activities) is now available. We will have all sorts of interactive and maker elements in the "Arcade" for attendees to enjoy, a Dungeons & Dragons campaign (that newcomers and veterans of the game alike will enjoy) on Friday, August 22nd, and more! You can click each session to learn more about the presenters and session content: 

Link to Conference Session Schedule

Register Today!
Registration for the 2025 Conference is still available! The Play Make Learn conference has historically sold out in recent years, so if you are considering attending, you might want to register as soon as possible.

While we are no longer offering Early Bird Rates, Advanced Rates registration is still available.
Click here to register

Are you a first-time participant, young person, or practitioner considering attending Play Make Learn, and need additional support? Do you have a unique scenario related to approval of registration purchases you'd like to work with us on? Reach out to our planning team at: conferences@education.wisc.edu.