The Anderson Dawson School in Las Vegas has begun using a multiplayer computer game to teach middle school students engineering and technology concepts, a method that the school is finding is more engaging for students.

The game the students played is similar to Land Science, where middle schoolers become urban designers, and Nephtorex, where undergraduate engineers role-play as professional engineers-in-training.

In the game played by the students at the Anderson Dawson School the player is stranded in Alaska and much build a shelter in order to prevent contracting hypothermia.

Students must pass 10 levels in the game, levels that teach concepts such as the volume and surface area of geometric shapes, conductive heat flow, structural design and more. The overall goal of the program is to help students understand the heat equation, which is the transfer of heat in a given space over time.

Jonathan Walton, one of the students that has been participating in the program said that he has really enjoyed the class, and that’s it has been one of his favorites this year.

“We’re not just sitting in a classroom and taking tests,” Jonathan said. “We learned engineering principles on the computer, and we’re using that experience.”

“It’s just really fun.”

For more information read the full article from the Las Vegas Review Journal about the program at the Anderson Dawson School.

(Photo courtesy of Jeff Mosier/Las Vegas Review Journal)

Watch the full video of Nash’s EdLab talk here.

David Williamson Shaffer has been invited to speak at the Microsoft Education France: Partners in Learning Conference on Monday, April16th in Lyon, France. This conference gathers hundreds of the world’s experts in technology and education in conjuncture with the CIUEN conference at Lyon University to discuss the future of the education in the digital age.

Shaffer will be presenting his work with Epistemic Games in a presentation titled The University of Play.

“Technology, economics, and population growth have created a global economy. As a result, schools and universities in developed nations need to train graduates for creative thinking, collaboration, and complex problem solving. Is the current system the right way to prepare young people for life in this new world? This session looks at how the technologie of the digital age change old ideas about thinking, learning, and expertise–and at how these same technologies provide the tools to teach and to assess complex thinking through well-designed computer games.”

Epistemic Games Group, located on the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus, is a fast paced, educational work environment where our passion for education and innovation are not only a top priority; they are evident in everything we do.

Position openings:
Undergraduate:

R programmer 
Social Media and Communications Representative
Graduate:

Web Design with Graphic Design Emphasis 
Professional:

Technology Manager

For more information contact Epistemic Games Director of Programs and Partnerships

A Mentor's Virtual Avatar

In epistemic games much of the teaching and mentoring happens in a remote location away from the players. Mentors must respond to players’ questions and issues from virtual communication in the game. Without access to visual cues such as facial expressions or gestures, it can be difficult for mentors to understand where the problem is and how to remedy the situation.

According to a New York Times Magazine article from 2008, Air Force pilots, remote piloting their planes from Nevada, experience a similar issue. These pilots are suffering from an experience called ‘sensory isolation’ that is having adverse effects on their health, performance, and social lives.

“…remote pilots do not receive the kind of cues from their sense of touch and place that pilots who are actually in their planes get automatically. That makes flying drones physically confusing and mentally exhausting.” the article explains, “…it’s hard to grasp your environment when you’re not actually in it.”

Sensory isolation occurs when a person is cut off from a critical sense that may help them in the situation. For pilots it is their sense of touch and equilibrium; for epistemic mentors it is the sense of sight and interpersonal communication tension.

The Epistemic Games project AutoMentor is one way to address the potential tensions that mentors face in virtual interactions. One of the goals of this project is to automate some, or all, of the mentor processes in epistemic games by coding for player issues and mainstreaming the process of game mentoring.

The article frames the issue simply,

“What they did not get, for all that time and money, was much practical training.  Law schools have long emphasized the theoretical over the useful…”

If students never learn the basics of practice, does graduating mean they have become lawyers? Jeffery W. Carr, the general counsel of FMC Technologies, says no.

“They are lawyers in the sense that they have law degrees, but they aren’t ready to be a provider of services.” Carr told the New York Times.

Students are suffering because they are not taught to think like lawyers, to use their skills, knowledge and culture to see the world like a lawyer. When they graduate with a diploma they know a lot of theory, but they don’t have the epistemic frame of a lawyer.

David Segal, New York Times reporter, places the blame on Universities, as law school professors are chosen for scholarly thinking rather than experience. In fact, experience may even hurt one’s prospects of becoming a professor.

“It can be fatal, because the academy wants people who are not sullied by the practice of law,” explained one lawyer turned professor.

Lack of faculty experience presents a mentoring problem. How are teachers, who have very little experience themselves, in a position to show students how to think like lawyers?

Some schools are looking to make changes. What they need is an epistemic model, to teach an epistemic frame, and turn students into lawyers.

So even if young people don’t plan on majoring only in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics, it’s beneficial for them to have some understanding of the STEM world and ways of thinking. Students can complete a double major in STEM and another field, participate in STEM extra-curricular activities and competitions, or play epistemic games like Nephrotex and Land Science that simulate professional workplaces.

Rich sums it up best, “physics and poetry, anyone?”

The 2011 Frontiers of Engineering Education symposium is sponsored by the O’Donnell Foundation.