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

Cynthia is presenting at the National Council on Measurement in Education (NCME) Annual meeting:

Padraig will be presenting at the America Educational Research Association (AREA)

Abstract Virtual environments allow users to explore complex concepts using
simulations of real-world problems. In order to examine whether having mentors
communicate with players through a virtual chat program rather than face-to-face
changed anything about the players’ experience, this study compared a virtual chat
and a face-to-face condition of the epistemic game, Urban Science. 21 high school
aged players were randomly assigned to either the virtual chat or face-to-face
condition, and all players played Urban Science for 10 hours. As part of the game,
they participated in six reflection meetings led by their mentor, completed intake
and exit interviews, and wrote a final proposal. Using discourse analysis, epistemic
frame theory, and epistemic network analysis, this paper examines the mentors’ and
players’ reflection meeting discourse and the players’ interviews and final
proposals and asks whether there were differences in discourse, outcomes, or
engagement levels between the two conditions. This study concludes that virtual
mentoring can be just as effective as face-to-face mentoring and suggests that
mentoring via chat is a viable method for mentoring in the context of epistemic
games.

And techies everywhere are beginning to notice.

Mashable- the largest independent news source dedicated to covering digital culture, social media and technology- has found eight specific ways that technology is improving the future of education.

1. Better Simulations and Models– At Epistemic Games we constantly reinvent our games to make the simulations to better suit the students and make a realistic experience.

2. Global Learning

3. Virtual Manipulatives

4. Probes and Sensors

5. More Efficient Assessment– Epistemic Games is also working on ENA to analyze the data from our games.

6. Storytelling and Multimedia

7. E-books

8. Epistemic Games

http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/Orrill-Shaffer-ExploringConnectedness.pdf

In this study, we consider teacher knowledge of mathematics from the perspective of connectedness. To accomplish this, we adapted Epistemic Network Analysis techniques to characterize the connections between and among pieces of teacher knowledge related to on aspect of proportional reasoning. We discuss the value of this approach as well as directions
for further research.

Levasseur gets straight to the point when he says schools need to be looking to the future, not the past, for innovations in the classroom.

“As schools aim to prepare students for life outside of school, they need to realize that the world now values knowledge and skills that can be applied in creative ways. Epistemic games fit the learning requirements of today’s world because they allow students to role-play professions while learning skills that they apply in the game.”

Levassuer’s article is a great review of the epistemology that is behind Epistemic Games and learning through play.

“In playing games,[students] are doing explicitly, openly and socially what as adults they will do tacitly, privately and personally. They are running simulations of worlds they want to learn about in order to understand the rules, roles and consequences of those worlds.”

This video  presents a perspective on learning and assessment suited to the realities of modern work and education in a knowledge-based society.  Shaffer explores the research behind Epistemic Games.

“The work that I have been trying to do is to develop a game-like environment, a culture, where you would actually be able to learn, to think; in the way that people in the real world who solve problems; do.”

In particular he points to Nephrotex, an Epistemic Game that teaches students to behave like engineers, and the different engineering gender gap theories. Shaffer argues that students

“…actually came into engineering so they could be engineers.  They spend the first three years of engineering doing calculus, basic science courses and they aren’t actually designing anything.”

Nephrotex lets first year students experience what it actually means to be a professional engineer by participating in authentic engineering design. Epistemic games like Nephrotex can be used to propel education forward in the 21st century.

“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.”

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.