18 Aug, 2011 with 0 comments so far
Bagley, Elizabeth A. S. (2011) Stop Talking and Type: Mentoring in a Virtual and Face-to-Face Environmental Education Environment. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/Bagley-Dissertation-FINAL.pdf
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21 Sep, 2010 with 1 comment so far
If you’ve been wondering where we’ve all been (and given how long it has been since anyone around here has posted to the blog, who could blame you for wondering), we’ve been busy as can be the last few weeks getting ready for the new and improved Urban Science 2.0, which will be up and running this coming Monday, bigger and better than ever. Among the improvements are 2 new city redesign scenarios, as well as a whole new game interface for building and customizing scenarios, and–even more exciting–a whole new integrated engine for the game: a prototype of our new professional practice simulation system, the 2PS, ingeniously designed by David Hatfield with help from game developer Nathan MacKenzie, and our own Urban Planning guru Elizabeth Bagley.
As for me, well, in addition to helping the team pull together the new game design, new materials, and new assessments, I’ve been traveling to New York, London, Copengahen, and Utrecht. More on that in some additional posts, I hope. Oh yes, and we’ve also all been trying to finish the semester here at UW.
But in the midst of all of this, a piece on CNN [link removed by source] caught my eye as a must-read:
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7 Sep, 2010 with 0 comments so far
One of the big questions that we have been looking at in the Epistemic Games Group in recent years is whether the newer “all online” versions of our games give players the same kind of experience (and thus offer the same opportunities for learning) as the “live” versions we were using several years ago.
(For those new to the Blog, our AutoMentor project is all about providing computer-generated mentors in epistemic games that will give the same kind of feedback as real mentors. To make that happen, the most recent versions of our games have mentors communicating with players through chat sessions online, rather than face-to-face.)
I just returned from running a short study at the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary outside of Boston that sheds some interesting light on that question.
In the study, kids played two slightly different versions of Urban Science.
One group was ten high school students who interacted with mentors through an internal chat program.
The other group was eleven high school students who interacted face-to-face with mentors in the room.
The players were randomly assigned to each group, and everything else about the two games was the same (or as close to the same) as we could make it.
We’re just starting to analyze the data, but on at least one key dimension we already have a really strong result.
When the game ends, players take an exit interview that contains seven questions about how engaged they are in the game.
The first question is whether they thought the game was fun. With only two exceptions, every player said the game was fun. (And to be fair, those two exceptions were…well, exceptional kids.)
The other six questions are adapted from Green and Brock’s (2000) narrative questionnaire which is an instrument used to measure the level of engagement that readers have in a book.
Here’s the thing:
There was no significant difference between the two groups on these measures of engagement.
In fact, on average, the players chatting with mentors online were slightly more engaged in the game than the players who were talking with mentors face-to-face–although again, that difference was not statistically significant.
So, are epistemic games engaging? Yes. Are they engaging just because kids are in the room with mentors? No.
Which means, in theory, if we can automate the mentors through the relatively thin medium of chat, we may be able to get a lot of engagement without a lot of overhead…
For those interested in the details, a technical report will soon follow.
9 Jul, 2010 with 0 comments so far
Our partners at the Massachusetts Audubon Society are including Urban Science as part of their Conservation Leadership Program August 16-20 for youths entering grades 9-12. To learn more about the free program and to sign up, click here.
9 Jun, 2010 with 0 comments so far
Bagley, E. (2010). Epistemography of an Urban and Regional Planning Practicum: Appropriation in the Face of Resistance. (WCER Working Paper 2010-8). Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Center for Education Research.
http://www.wcer.wisc.edu/publications/workingPapers/Working_Paper_No_2010_08.php
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