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I was going through some old papers in my filing cabinet last night, and I found a printout of the following email, sent to me nearly ten years ago by a professor at a university in São Paulo, Brazil.

In it, he discusses his success with using RPGs in high school education, especially with encouraging youths to apply what they've learned to situations - and he mentions taking the same plan to the university level.

I'd love to know if he's had any further success. I tried to contact him at, but the email bounced instantly. While I'm not to surprised by this, I am a little surprised that I can barely find any info on him online.

I'll keep searching, but in the meantime, here is that decade-old email, which I'm posting both to inspire roleplaying educators, and to act as an internet beacon if Professor Bogsan ever Googles his name!

Subj: RPG as a tool for education !
Date: 12/16/99 2:28:05 Eastern Standard Time
From: (Silvio Cesar Bogsan)

Hi,

I'm a professor at Ibirapuera University, Sao Paulo, Brazil. I'm trying to use RPG as a tool for my students here.

We need to find a way so the students could have practical training before they go to work. Specially here in Sao Paulo where a degree is very important. So I'm a player since 1989. GURPS and Vampire mostly of the time. In this year I found some students who used to play, and we formed a group and I mastered for them. They were very stimulated by the game. They did a research of 200 hours at internet, about hackers and counterfeits.

Nexy year I will apply RPG to a whole class (almost 100 students) in a big adventure and I'm collecting suggestions. I'm thinking about Cyberpunk genre, or maybe something involving our real world, but applying their knowledge.

The students will be at the Computing degree. I hope this e-mail will be published as some kind of "news from Brazil."

We have a few cases involving RPG's. I've heard about nothing bad at all. In a high school near here, Magic the Gathering was considering "Interesting and contributes to the development of the youngers" the director said.

I'm using RPG as a tool for the high school classes since 1997, but I'm starting at University now, and I find it very useful.

Thanks for "hear" me. And I hope I can contribute more with you all.

Prof. Silvio Cesar Bogsan - MBA - Universidade Ibirapuera - São Paulo - Brazil

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