David Williamson Shaffer

How Computer Games Help Children Learn

Foreword: Seeing the Future J.P.Gee Introduction Epistemology: The Debating Game Knowledge: The Digital Zoo Skills: Eschers World Values: The Pandora Project Identity: Science.net Beyond the Industrial School: The Future of Education and How We Get There

Video Games and the Future of Learning

Will video games change the way we learn? We argue here for a particular view of games—and of learning—as activities that are most powerful when they are personally meaningful, experiential, social, and epistemological all at the same time. From this perspective, we describe an approach to the design of learning environments that builds on the educational properties of games, but deeply grounds them within a theory of learning appropriate for an age marked by the power of new technologies. We argue that to understand the future of learning, we have to look beyond schools to the emerging arena of video games. We suggest that video games matter because they present players with simulated worlds: worlds which, if well constructed, are not just about facts or isolated skills, but embody particular social practices. Video games thus make it possible for players to participate in valued communities of practice and as a result develop the ways of thinking that organize those practices. Most educational games to date have been produced in the absence of any coherent theory of learning or underlying body of research. We argue here for such a theory—and for research that addresses the important questions about this relatively new medium that such a theory implies. Video games and the future of learning Page 3 Video games and the future of learning Computers are changing our world: how we work... how we shop... how we entertain ourselves... how we communicate... how we engage in politics... how we care for our health.... The list goes on and on. But will computers change the way we learn? We answer: Yes. Computers are already changing the way we learn—and if you want to understand how, look at video games. Look at video games, not because games that are currently available are going to replace schools as we know them any time soon, but because they give a glimpse of how we might create new and more powerful ways to learn in schools, communities, and workplaces—new ways to learn for a new information age. Look at video games because, although they are wildly popular with adolescents and young adults, they are more than just toys. Look at video games because they create new social and cultural worlds: worlds that help people learn by integrating thinking, social interaction, and technology, all in service of doing things they care about. We want to be clear from the start that video games are no panacea. Like books and movies, they can be used in anti-social ways. Games are inherently simplifications of reality, and current games often incorporate—or are based on—violent and sometimes misogynistic themes. Critics suggest that the lessons people learn from playing video games as they currently exist are not always desirable. But even the harshest critics agree that we learn something from playing video games. The question is: how can we use the power of video games as a constructive force in schools, homes, and at work? In answer to that question, we argue here for a particular view of games—and of learning—as activities that are most powerful when they are personally meaningful, experiential, social, and epistemological all at the same time. From this perspective, we describe Page 4 Video games and the future of learning an approach to the design of learning environments that builds on the educational properties of games, but deeply grounds them within a theory of learning appropriate for an age marked by the power of new technologies. Video games as virtual worlds for learning The first step towards understanding how video games can (and we argue, will) transform education is changing the widely shared perspective that games are “mere entertainment.” More than a multi-billion dollar industry, more than a compelling toy for both children and adults, more than a route to computer literacy, video games are important because they let people participate in new worlds. They let players think, talk, and act—they let players inhabit—roles otherwise inaccessible to them. A 16 year old in Korea playing Lineage can become an international financier, trading raw materials, buying and selling goods in different parts of the virtual world, and speculating on currencies. A Deus Ex player can experience life as a government special agent, where the lines between state-sponsored violence and terrorism are called into question. These rich virtual worlds are what make games such powerful contexts for learning. In game worlds, learning no longer means confronting words and symbols separated from the things those words and symbols are about in the first place. The inverse square law of gravity is no longer something understood solely through an equation; students can gain virtual experience walking on worlds with smaller mass than the Earth, or plan manned space flights that require understanding the changing effects of gravitational forces in different parts of the solar system. In virtual worlds, learners experience the concrete realities that words and symbols describe. Through such experiences, across multiple contexts, learners can understand Page 5 Video games and the future of learning complex concepts without losing the connection between abstract ideas and the real problems they can be used to solve. In other words, the virtual worlds of games are powerful because they make it possible to develop situated understanding. Although the stereotype of the gamer is a lone teenager seated in front of a computer, game play is also a thoroughly social phenomenon. The clearest examples are massively multiplayer online games: games where thousands of players are simultaneously online at any given time, participating in virtual worlds with their own economies, political systems, and cultures. But careful study shows that most games—from console action games to PC strategy games—have robust game playing communities. Whereas schools largely sequester students from one another and from the outside world, games bring players together, competitively and cooperatively, into the virtual world of the game and the social community of game players. In schools, students largely work alone with school-sanctioned materials; avid gamers seek out news sites, read and write faqs, participate in discussion forums, and most importantly, become critical consumers of information. Classroom work rarely has an impact outside of the classroom; its only real audience is the teacher. Game players, in contrast, develop reputations in online communities, cultivate audiences as writers through discussion forums, and occasionally even take up careers as professional gamers, traders of online commodities, or game modders and designers. The virtual worlds of games are powerful, in other words, because playing games means developing a set of effective social practices. By participating in these social practices, game players have an opportunity to explore new identities. In one well-publicized case, a heated political contest erupted for the president 1 As Julian Dibbell, a journalist for Wired and Rolling Stone, has shown, it is possible to make a better living trading online currencies than one does as a freelance journalist! Page 6 Video games and the future of learning of Alphaville, one of the towns in The Sims Online. Arthur Baynes, the 21 year old incumbent was running against Laura McKnight, a 14 year old girl. The muckraking, accusations of voter fraud, and political jockeying taught young Laura about the realities of politics; the election also gained national attention on NPR as pundits debated the significance of games where teens could not only argue and debate politics, but run a political system where the virtual lives of thousands of real players were at stake. The substance of Laura’s campaign, political alliances, and platform—a platform which called for a stronger police force and an overhaul of the judicial system—shows how deep the disconnect has become between the kinds of experiences made available in schools and those available in online worlds. The virtual worlds of games are rich contexts for learning because they make it possible for players to experiment with new and powerful identities. The communities that game players form similarly organize meaningful learning experiences outside of school contexts. In the various web sites devoted to the game Civilization, for example, players organize themselves around shared goal of developing expertise in the game and the skills, habits, and understandings that requires. At Apolyton.net (a site devoted to the game), players post news feeds, participate in discussion forums, and trade screenshots of the game. But they also run a radio station, exchange saved game files in order to collaborate and compete, create custom modifications, and, perhaps, most uniquely, run their own University to teach other players to play the game more deeply. Apolyton University shows us how part of expert gaming is developing a set of values—values that highlight enlightened risk-taking, entrepreneurialship, and expertise, rather than formal accreditation emphasized by institutional education (Beck & Wade, 2004). If we look at the development of

Epistemic frames for epistemic games

This paper, develops the concept of epistemic frames as a mechanism through which students can use experiences in video games, computer games, and other interactive learning environments to help them deal more effectively with situations outside of the original context of learning. Building on ideas of islands of expertise [Crowley, K., & Jacobs, M. (2002). Islands of expertise and the development of family scientific literacy. In G. Leinhardt, K. Crowley, & K. Knutson (Eds.), Learning conversations in museums. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum], communities of practice [Lave, J., & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press], and ways of knowing [Broudy, H. (1977). Types of knowledge and purposes of education. In R. C. Anderson, R. J. Spiro, & W. E. Montague (Eds.), Schooling and the acquisition of knowledge (pp. 1-17). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum], epistemic frames are described as the ways of knowing, of deciding what is worth knowing, and of adding to the collective body of knowledge and understanding of a community of practice. Data from two experiments [Shaffer, D. W. (2004a). Pedagogical praxis: the professions as models for post-industrial education. Teachers College Record, 106(7); Shaffer, D. W. (2004b). When computer-supported collaboration means computer-supported competition: professional mediation as a model for collaborative learning. Journal of Interactive Learning Research, 15(2); Shaffer, D. W. (2005a). Studio mathematics: The epistemology and practice of design pedagogy as a model for mathematics learning (WCER Working Paper Series No. 2005-3). Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Center for Educational Research] are used to show that students can incorporate epistemic frames into their identities when engaged in extended educational role-playing games. Epistemic frames are thus proposed as a possible mechanism through which sufficiently rich experiences in computer-supported games based on real-world practices may help students deal more effectively with situations in the real-world and in school subjects.

What Good are Statistics that Don’t Generalize?:

Quantitative and qualitative inquiry are sometimes portrayed as distinct and incompatible paradigms for research in education. Approaches to combining qualitative and quantitative research typically “integrate” the two methods by letting them co-exist independently within a single research study. Here we describe intra-sample statistical analysis (ISSA) as a general technique for using quantitative tools to support qualitative inquiry so as to simultaneously provide warrants from qualitative and quantitative traditions. In certain circumstances ISSA makes it possible to relax the requirement that individual participants be treated as the unit of analysis in statistical models, and thus provides justification for coding qualitative observations and drawing statistically based conclusions about observations in a qualitative context. We developed ISSA and describe it here both because it can be used as a tool for qualitative research, and because it illuminates the relationship between method and interpretation in the research traditions that it bridges. In this article, we (a) summarize key features of qualitative and quantitative research relevant to ISSA; (b) describe ISSA as an analytical technique; (c) discuss the quantitative and qualitative justification for ISSA and the nature of the conclusions that can be drawn based on it; and (d) explore the more general implications of ISSA for qualitative and quantitative inquiry.

Assessment of a Clinical Performance Evaluation Tool for Use in a Simulator-based Testing Environment: A Pilot Study

Purpose. This study assessed a clinical performance evaluation tool for use in a simulator-based testing environment. Method. Twenty-three subjects were evaluated during five standardized encounters using a patient simulator (six emergency medicine students, seven house officers, ten chief resident-fellows). Performance in each 15-minute session was compared with performance on an identical number of oral objective-structured clinical examination (OSCE) sessions used as controls. Each was scored by a faculty rater using a scoring system previously validated for oral certification examinations in emergency medicine (eight skills rated 1–8; passing = 5.75). Results. On both simulator exams and oral controls, chief resident-fellows earned (mean) “passing” scores [sim = 6.4 (95% CI: 6.0–6.8), oral = 6.4 (95% CI: 6.1–6.7)]; house officers earned “borderline” scores [sim = 5.6 (95% CI: 5.2–5.9), oral = 5.5 (95% CI: 5.0–5.9)]; and students earned “failing” scores [sim = 4.3 (95% CI: 3.8–4.7), oral = 4.5 (95% CI: 3.8–5.1)]. There were significant differences among mean scores for the three cohorts, for both oral and simulator test arms (p < .01). Conclusions. In this pilot, a standardized oral OSCE scoring system performed equally well in a simulator-based testing environment.

When People Get in the Way: Promoting Civic Thinking Through Epistemic Gameplay

A growing body of research suggests that computer games can help players learn to integrate knowledge and skills with values in complex domains of real world problem solving. In particular, research suggests that epistemic games—games where players think and act like real world professionals—can link knowledge, skills, and values into professional ways of thinking. Here, we look at how the epistemic game Urban Science develops civic thinking in young people as they learn about urban ecology by role-playing as urban planners redesigning a city. Specifically, we ask whether and how overcoming authentic obstacles from the profession of urban planning in the virtual world of a role-playing game can link civic values with the knowledge and skills young people need to solve complex social and ecological problems—and thus be a powerful context for learning civic thinking.

Learning mathematics through design: The anatomy of Escher's world

Abstract This article explores one example of an open learning environment created by combining mathematics and design activities in a “mathematics studio”. Two iterations of the mathematics studio experiment in a project at the MIT Media Laboratory known as Eschers World suggest that: (a) students can learn about the mathematical concept of symmetry in a studio learning environment, (b) students learn to use visual thinking to solve mathematical problems in a studio learning environment, and (c) students develop a more positive attitude towards mathematics as a result of working in a studio learning environment. This article uses a qualitative research model to explore the specific characteristics of the mathematics studio that were influential in creating a successful learning environment—in particular, how expressive mathematics activities and expressive computational media give students a sense of control over their learning.

Learning, Testing, and the Evaluation of Learning Environments in Medicine: Global Performance Assessment in Medical Education

Changes in the profession of medicine are creating the demand for a substantive reexamination of current practices in medical education. Many of the major issues in addressing this challenge are structural and political rather than scientific; here we address one critical scientific issue that will be important to (though not by itself adequate for) guiding such changes. The factor we address is the development of a global performance assessment: a standardized mechanism to assess individual skills and abilities that can be used to evaluate alternative educational interventions. We discuss the issues involved in developing such a system, and describe a set of principles for defining desired outcomes and developing assessment tools, including (a) wide clinical scope, (b) direct relationship to actual clinical performance, (c) reliability and repeatability, and (d) non-longitudinal measurement. We discuss the role of simulation, reflective practice, and portfolios of work in developing such a system, and argue that whatever form such metrics take, a system of global performance assessment will develop from close collaboration between clinicians and educators with innovative ways of thinking about performance and expertise.

Look together: analyzing gaze coordination with epistemic network analysis

When conversing and collaborating in everyday situations, people naturally and interactively align their behaviors with each other across various communication channels, including speech, gesture, posture, and gaze. Having access to a partners referential gaze behavior has been shown to be particularly important in achieving collaborative outcomes, but the process in which peoples gaze behaviors unfold over the course of an interaction and become tightly coordinated is not well understood. In this paper, we present work to develop a deeper and more nuanced understanding of coordinated referential gaze in collaborating dyads. We recruited 13 dyads to participate in a collaborative sandwich-making task and used dual mobile eye tracking to synchronously record each participants gaze behavior. We used a relatively new analysis technique—epistemic network analysis—to jointly model the gaze behaviors of both conversational participants. In this analysis, network nodes represent gaze targets for each participant, and edge strengths convey the likelihood of simultaneous gaze to the connected target nodes during a given time-slice. We divided collaborative task sequences into discrete phases to examine how the networks of shared gaze evolved over longer time windows. We conducted three separate analyses of the data to reveal (1) properties and patterns of how gaze coordination unfolds throughout an interaction sequence, (2) optimal time lags of gaze alignment within a dyad at different phases of the interaction, and (3) differences in gaze coordination patterns for interaction sequences that lead to breakdowns and repairs. In addition to contributing to the growing body of knowledge on the coordination of gaze behaviors in joint activities, this work has implications for the design of future technologies that engage in situated interactions with human users.

Epistemic Games as Career Preparatory Experiences for Students with Disabilities

This paper looks at how computer- and video-based epistemic games can help provide career preparation experiences for young people. Epistemic games are a simulation of professional training in game form. As such, they help players try on or assume different professional identities and learn to think and act like professionals in that community. First, journalism is explored as a community of practice. Second, a study of a journalism-based epistemic game called science.net with middle school students is shared, demonstrating the learning potential of this approach. The value of a practicum for career preparation and transition planning is discussed, and readers are challenged to consider how epistemic games might benefit students with disabilities who are preparing to enter the work force.