Benvenuti! Welcome to my site & blog!

On Thursday, March 8 and Friday, March 9, 2018, Dr. Simone Bregni, Associate Professor of Italian and Coordinator of the Italian Studies Program in the Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures at Saint Louis University delivered two game-based learning sessions to an audience of instructors and students in Italian at the Spring Hill College Campus in Bologna. Dr. Bregni, currently on sabbatical, is the 2018 recipient of the James H. Korn Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award. As a recipient of a SLU Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning Innovative Fellowship Award, in fall 2017 Dr. Bregni developed “Intensive Italian for Gamers.” The course, which applies game-based learning and digital media to second/foreign language acquisition, will be offered again in spring 2019.

On Friday, May 11, 2018 Dr. Bregni met students and faculty at the Istituto Enogastronomico ”G.Penna”- in S. Damiano (near Asti). He was invited by the grade 13th student collective to deliver three two-hour lectures on video game-based foreign language learning to students in grades 9-13 as part of their “Co-Gestione” (students/teacher cooperation in teaching & learning week).

On Wednesday, June 6, 2018, Dr. Simone Bregni, Associate Professor of Italian and Coordinator of the Italian Studies Program in the Department of Languages, Literatures & Cultures delivered one presentation (Video Games & Learning in Higher Education) and two workshops (Video Game-Based Learning in Higher Education, and on Video Games in Second/Foreign Language & Culture Acquisition) at the “Lehre und Lernen” E-Learning Conference (Teaching and Learning Days) at the Alpen-Adria University of Klagenfurt, Austria. Both the workshops and the presentation were created with the assistance of the SLU Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning. Dr. Bregni, on sabbatical in spring ’18, is the 2017 recipient of the James H. Korn Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award.

On Thursday, February 15, Dr. Bregni delivered a presentation entitled “Assassin’s Creed Taught Me a Foreign Language: Video Games in Second/Foreign Language & Culture Acquisition” to students and faculty at the SLU Madrid campus. Dr. Bregni’s workshop and presentation formats were created with the assistance of the SLU Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning. Dr. Bregni, on sabbatical in spring 2018, is the 2017 recipient of the James H. Korn Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award.

I am a Professor of Italian language, literature and culture with twenty-eight years of teaching & leadership experience at the university level. My areas of specialization are Medieval & Renaissance Italian literature and foreign (F/L2) language acquisition. Currently, my focus is on the applications of technology and digital media to language acquisition, in particular video game-based learning (VGBL). In fall 2016, as a recipient of the Saint Louis University (SLU) Reinert Center for Innovative Teaching, I developed Intensive Italian for Gamers. The course was successfully taught in the SLU state-of-the-art Learning Studio in spring 2017. I have presented my research and results in workshops and presentations, at conferences and in publications (in print and forthcoming).

Since July 1st, 2022, I serve as the Director of the Spring Hill College Italy Center in Bologna (https://italycenterbologna.com/).

I have an extensive and eclectic background in Classics (Greek and Latin, Philology, Literature), Ancient and Medieval History, Theology, Philosophy; but also in Cinema Studies, International Studies, Communications and Journalism. I definitely enjoyed the variety of my studies. I am a firm believer in multidisciplinary approaches to both learning and teaching.

This blog focuses on my research and teaching practices in video game-based learning. I use commercially-available (“non-serious” games) on gaming consoles and PCs.

A short video presentation of my scholarship and teaching practices on video game-based foreign language acquisition is available here: https://vimeo.com/214052615 [Simone Bregni, Ph.D., presenting at the 2017 Learning Studio Symposium]

The views reflected here are solely my own.

Parlo italiano (ovviamente!); je parle français; yo hablo español.

I can be contacted through LinkedIn; Academia.com; my institution, Spring Hill College (www.shc.edu), and through the Contact form on this blog. 

[Created on June 11, 2018; Last updated August 10, 2022]

Photos (from left to right, top to bottom): Dr. Bregni delivering a video game-based Italian elementary sample class to students and faculty at Spring Hill College Italy Center in Bologna, March 8, 2018; with grade 13/5th year students at Istituto Enogastronomico G. Penna, S. Damiano (Asti, Italy), May 11, 2018; delivering a workshop on VGBL in higher education at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria, June 6, 2018; delivering a presentation entitled “Assassin’s Creed Taught Me a Foreign Language: Video Games in Second/Foreign Language & Culture Acquisition” to students and faculty at the SLU Madrid campus, Thursday, February 15, 2018.