“whatever choice [of education style] we make, we have to make it based on some understanding of what it is we want students to accomplish, and what it is we as educators need to do to get them there.”

A copy of his slide presentation can be found on slideshare, and a video of the entire seminar is made available by Think Digital (David’s presentation can be found about 55 minutes in).

In addition to being a featured speaker, David was interviewed by Julien Llanas of Académie de Créteil.

CCLI PI Conference Poster

http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/Chesler_ASEE_2011.pdf

The design of first-year engineering courses represents a classic engineering design problem there are multiple stakeholders with different criteria and constraints and, as a result, there is no single, optimal solution. Our goal was to develop a first-year engineering design course that meets the criteria and constraints of several traditional stakeholders and also provides a platform for studying the ways in which a first year engineering student progresses from thinking like a novice to thinking like a professional engineer. To do so, we developed a computer-based professional practice simulator that can be incorporated into pre-existing first-year Introduction to Engineering courses with minimal resources by course directors with no expertise in an engineering discipline. The simulation provides an introduction to professional communication styles, the engineering design process, library skills and citation requirements, and the engineering disciplines. Importantly, engineering knowledge and skills are not required to complete the two design-build-test cycles in the simulation; instead the emphasis is on managing conflicting client requirements, making trade-offs in selecting a final design and justifying design choices. This paper describes the design of the simulation and preliminary results from its inclusion in a first-year Introduction to Engineering course at our institution.

http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/DAngelo_CSCL2011.pdf

Teamwork and collaboration are vital 21st century skills that students need to master. Specially designed epistemic games modeled after professional practica can help students build and practice these skills. This paper presents preliminary results from a virtual engineering internship, an epistemic game for introductory engineering undergraduates. The game was designed to help build students’ skills in teamwork and collaboration while providing experiences relevant to engineering and design. After the internship students reported a better understanding of what engineers do and about the practice of engineering. Students also made content learning gains. Students overwhelmingly enjoyed the experience and felt encouraged to stay on an engineering career path.

In the piece, titled Computer Games and the Future of Assessment, Shaffer says:

We only need to change three things about current assessments: what is assessed, how the assessment takes place, and the purpose of assessment in the first place.

In other words, just about everything.

Read the entire piece here.

Players of epistemic games – computer games that simulate professional practica – have been shown to develop epistemic frames: a profession’s particular way of seeing and solving problems. This study examined the interactions between players and mentors in one epistemic game, Urban Science. Using a new method called epistemic network analysis, we explored how players develop epistemic frames through playing the game. Our results show that players imitate and internalize the professional way of thinking that the mentors model, suggesting that mentors can effectively model epistemic frames, and that epistemic network analysis is a useful way to chart the development of learning through mentoring relationships.

Full article can be viewed here.

In his presentation, David describes how epistemic games can teach innovative ways of thinking, and how epistemic network analysis helps us examine the process by which such thinking is learned. He suggests that since epistemic games can measure patterns of thinking and learning– as opposed to the single snapshot that a standardized test captures– they are ideal tools for assessment.

David’s full presentation can be viewed here.

http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/04_shaffer_valor1.pdf

¿Qué haremos con los juegos de computadora?
Esta es una pregunta que está en la mente de padres y maestros en todo el país. Se repite en salas de profesores, oficinas de gobierno y reuniones de consejo.

Esto se debe a que nuestros estudiantes actuales viven en un mundo de sofisticación tecnológica y competencia global. La fuerza laboral en el extranjero está a un clic de distancia y los mejores empleos los obtienen aquéllos que han dominado las nuevas tecnologías digitales de información y comunicación, lo que les permite navegar a lo largo de un mar de imágenes, texto y video que a todos nos envuelve.

Por una parte, los juegos de computadora parecen ser una respuesta obvia al problema. Estamos ante una sofisticada tecnología que millones de estudiantes utilizan durante varias horas. Y no sólo la usan, sino que quieren usarla y muchos de ellos quieren usarla de manera desesperada. ¿Qué mejor manera de empezar a construir el interés y el entendimiento de estas nuevas herramientas digitales?

Por otro lado, hay una preocupación porque los estudiantes ocupan demasiado tiempo utilizando juegos de computadora. Hay una preocupación debido a que los juegos son violentos o tienen temas inapropiados para estudiantes de primaria o secundaria. Los maestros y las autoridades se preocupan porque los juegos distraigan a los estudiantes y hagan que las clases sean difíciles de manejar. Las buenas noticias son que de hecho, el dilema es una falsa elección, ya que la investigación actual demuestra de manera convincente que podemos tener lo mejor ambos mundos.

http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/05_shaffer_ciclistas1.pdf

Este documento explora una pregunta fundamental sobre los juegos educativos: ¿De qué manera ayudan las cosas que un jugador hace en un juego a hacer otras cosas en el mundo fuera del juego? El artículo enmarca el problema tanto en términos personales como literarios y después propone una perspectiva teórica particular sobre el tema. Se presentan datos y estudios empíricos de juegos de computadora que utilizan, exploran y amplían dicha teoría, aunque el objetivo principal del artículo es no abogar por una teoría en particular. En su lugar, el artículo ofrece un ejemplo de una clase más general de teorías que consideran al aprendizaje como simbólico y situado de manera simultánea y argumentan que este tipo de teorías son necesarias para el desarrollo del estudio del aprendizaje que se suscita en los juegos.