Katrin is an award winning, internationally known expert in the design and analysis of Serious Games and in gamification in the classroom. She holds two Computer Science degrees and a PhD in Educational Technology. She is a certified instructional designer with a graduate certificate in serious game design and research. She has over 30 years of teaching experience and has taught CS, videogame design, DGBL, and technical writing. Her teaching innovations have been internationally recognized and she is widely published. She designs and develops eLearning in all sectors, including educational and advertising games. Her recent game, Gene Rummy is a card game to help people learn basic Mendelian genetics. She is also the author of two books; one on the technical aspects of simulations and games written for non-technical people (Wiley, 2011, LeanPub 2018), and another on choosing and using digital games for the classroom (Springer, 2016). Her current book, "Reni" is a memoir written by her mother, who grew up during WWII in Berlin. After that she will turn her attention back to teaching and learning, with Death to Deadlines: Gamification and Other Subversive Thoughts on Formal Education.

Finally, to counterbalance a very digital life, she runs a small farm where she has been raising rabbits, waterfowl, and other animals for over 25 years. This farm forms the basis for her “Ducks in the Classroom” program, which provided eggs for hatching in classrooms locally from 1988-2012, and information on school hatching projects globally since 2001. It also accounts for occasional bit of poo on her shoe.

I am a professor at the University of Calgary, and have taught computer programming for over 30 years. I have a small game development company (Minkhollow, Media) in Cochrane Alberta, where we work on education software. I'm also a musician (well, bass player).