Cate Tolnai

Cate Tolnai supports educators and leaders as Chief Learning Officer at BUOY and Adjunct Faculty member at the Krause Center for Innovation at Foothills College. She has been in education since 2002, and brings her experience in classrooms and as a site, district, and county administrator to each of her projects. Cate is committed to designing professional learning opportunities that empower educators to design excellent and dynamic learner-focused instruction. She speaks nationally on digital badges, gamification, and the impact of instructional play for both k-12 students and teachers.

Cate’s recent co-authored publication, “Power Up Your Classroom: Reimagine Learning Through Gameplay,” (ISTE, 2019) presents frameworks for game-based learning engagement and instructional design. She works to deepen the perceived value of instructional play and exploration for both K-16 and adult learners. She's presented workshops, sessions, online webinars, and keynote addresses to thousands of educators throughout the nation on the topic of GBL and instructional play. Her work has touched librarians, administrators, instructional coaches, classroom teachers, online instructors, pre-intern teachers, university faculty members, and consultants in both the private and public sectors.

Cate also partners with the ISTE U team to design mini-courses for members to engage in smaller, more niche areas of educational expertise. She authored “Press Play: Reimagine Learning Through Gameplay, ” ISTE U’s first 4-hour, asynchronous mini-course that premiered in Spring 2020. This mini-course empower educators to (re)discover how gameplay engages learners and shifts classrooms towards cultures of awesome. Participants explore the foundations of game-based learning, critically evaluate game platforms that are already out there, decide how ready your students are to persevere through the struggles and successes of gameplay, and design their own original instructional game -- all recognized with digital open badges.

She loves to talk gamification, micro-certifications, blended and online learning, personalized PD, learning through play, and finding reasons to celebrate every EDUvictory step.