Since I was a kid I’ve lived on the fringes of board game culture. My friends were Dungeon Masters and geniuses at Risk. They let me hang out with them, but I was never one of them. I was a happy board gamer hanger-on.

Today, the kids who grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons and Clue are some of the same people who populate our world of higher ed.

Us latchkey kids of the 1970s - the children of the divorce revolution and of Stratego - are now navigating the highways and byways of academia.

I’m still not a board gamer. But just as when Carter was president, some of the people in the world that I like best are people of the board game.

What has changed between now and then - then being that time before the internet - is that my board gamer friends are now all playing different board games. Better board games.

They are gathering in groups and playing games Settlers of Catan, Bohanza, Colosseum, Coup, Dutch Blitz, Dominion, and Ticket to Ride.

Once again, I’m the guy hanging out with the board gamers - and I think that they might be able to teach us a few things about teaching and learning.

First (#1), today’s board gamers can teach us a thing or two about social learning. Modern board games are intensely social. They only work well if everyone playing is engaged and involved. We happen to know that the best learning environments are also deeply social - and that classes succeed to the extent that peer and collaborative learning is present. In a world of social media it is ironic that so much of digital learning remains so isolating. A board gamer would never design a digital learning platform in which the learner was alone, disconnected from all other learners as they progressed towards mastery. But this is just what we have done with our learning management systems and our open online learning platforms.

Secondly (#2), board games teach skills such as cooperation, collaboration, and empathy. These happen to be the skills that want to cultivate in our learners - some of the skills that we highly value in a liberal arts education. When people talk about the “gamification of learning”, they often focus on attributes such as levels and points and quests - and leave out the more important social elements of cooperation and collaboration. Board gamers who are also educators would not make this mistake.

Finally (#3), today’s board gamers understand when technology has its uses - and when technology should be left behind. The modern culture of adult board gaming is not anti-technology. Board gamers own and use their various devices for their work and play. But they also know enough to analog when analog is the better choice. Smart phones, apps, and the internet are wonderful for advancing teaching and learning - and for improving everything else in our lives - but only when we know when to set our screens down.

Are you part of a regular board game group?

Can I hang out with you?