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.