Recent posts for Videos
Urban Science game teaches children how to think like urban planners
This video describes the epistemic game Urban Science, which simulates elements of the urban planning process to teach middle school and high school students how to think like urban planners. It was was produced to give educators a view into what playing urban science is like. The video includes footage of middle school students playing and talking about a version of Urban Science that ran in 2007, and also interview footage with a teacher from Lakeview Elementary in Madison, Susan Hobart, who ran a version of the game in the spring of 2009 in her classroom.
David Williamson Shaffer’s Presentation at Eduverse Symposium 3
In Amsterdam, September 2008, the Eduverse Foundation hosted Eduverse Symposium 3, an event that included noted speakers such as David Williamson Shaffer of Epistemic Games; Philip Rosedale, former CEO of Linden Lab; Julian Lombardi, head of the Croquet Consortium at Duke University; Chuck Hamilton, director of the Center for Advanced Learning at IBM, and many more.
The symposium itself was divided into three main sections: 1) serious gaming and the future of game technology, 2) new virtual platforms and the 3D web, and 3) the science of education and virtual learning in the 21st century.
In his presentation, David Williamson Shaffer argues that “games create worlds” and that “a game is always a culture.” While members of a culture require certain knowledge, skills, and values in order to participate in it, they need to share that culture’s epistemology. As Shaffer explains, that epistemology includes the way that decisions are made and actions are justified in that particular culture. He highlights his work with epistemic games, and differentiates these from educational games that simply entail rote learning. A video of his full talk is available on the Eduverse website.
David Williamson Shaffer’s Talk at Eduverse Symposium 2 Now Online
In June 2008, David Williamson Shaffer spoke at Symposium 2, hosted by the Eduverse Foundation in Amsterdam. Check out Eduverse website for a video of David’s 20 minute presentation on epistemic frames, the role of mentors, and his research on epistemic games. Here, he notes that while research has indicated that video games can enhance leadership effectiveness, a full 61% of successful managers don’t believe that they could learn these skills from video games alone.
Shaffer argues that we need to look closely at such findings if our goal is to make game environments more effective, both for exemplifying practices as well as getting people to understand and use them. He suggests that if our aim is to both comprehend and facilitate innovative practices, it is not enough to simply look at knowledge, skills, values, and identity. Instead, we need to understand these elements in relation to epistemology. Ultimately, our epistemic frame is what allows us to see the world – and our learning process – from one perspective and not another.
David Williamson Shaffer interviewed on Madison radio show
In October 2009, David was interviewed on the In Business with Jody & Joan radio show on Madison 1670 WTDY. In the interview, David explains how an epistemic game “is a game that is about a way of thinking”, and describes the Urban Science game and how it teaches kids to think like urban planners. Listen to the podcast of the show here.
Epistemic Games group featured on the UW-Madison Educational Psychology website
Recently, the Educational Psychology Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison revamped its website. Now, prospective students can watch short videos about the department’s different research projects. In a video about the epistemic games group, David Williamson Shaffer, Elizabeth Bagley and Padraig Nash talk about their particular research interests as well as what it’s like to work and study at UW-Madison.
