Michael Matera

Michael Matera is a classroom game designer, author, and social studies teacher known for his work in gamification and game-inspired learning. He teaches at the University School of Milwaukee and has more than a decade of classroom experience using interactive play, technology, and purpose-driven learning to increase student engagement in international, public, and private schools. He is a nationally recognized speaker, consultant, and presenter on game-based learning and gamification, a 2015 ASCD Emerging Leader, and the host of the education podcast Well Played.

Matera is the author of Explore Like a PIRATE: Gamification and Game-Inspired Course Design to Engage, Enrich and Elevate Your Learners and co-author of Fully Engaged: Playful Pedagogy for Real Results (with John Meehan). In Explore Like a PIRATE, he shares practical strategies for using game-based learning and gamification to enhance, rather than replace, existing curricula across grade levels and subjects.