The Anderson Dawson School in Las Vegas has begun using a multiplayer computer game to teach middle school students engineering and technology concepts, a method that the school is finding is more engaging for students.

The game the students played is similar to Land Science, where middle schoolers become urban designers, and Nephtorex, where undergraduate engineers role-play as professional engineers-in-training.

In the game played by the students at the Anderson Dawson School the player is stranded in Alaska and much build a shelter in order to prevent contracting hypothermia.

Students must pass 10 levels in the game, levels that teach concepts such as the volume and surface area of geometric shapes, conductive heat flow, structural design and more. The overall goal of the program is to help students understand the heat equation, which is the transfer of heat in a given space over time.

Jonathan Walton, one of the students that has been participating in the program said that he has really enjoyed the class, and that’s it has been one of his favorites this year.

“We’re not just sitting in a classroom and taking tests,” Jonathan said. “We learned engineering principles on the computer, and we’re using that experience.”

“It’s just really fun.”

For more information read the full article from the Las Vegas Review Journal about the program at the Anderson Dawson School.

(Photo courtesy of Jeff Mosier/Las Vegas Review Journal)

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

David Williamson Shaffer has been invited to speak at the Microsoft Education France: Partners in Learning Conference on Monday, April16th in Lyon, France. This conference gathers hundreds of the world’s experts in technology and education in conjuncture with the CIUEN conference at Lyon University to discuss the future of the education in the digital age.

Shaffer will be presenting his work with Epistemic Games in a presentation titled The University of Play.

“Technology, economics, and population growth have created a global economy. As a result, schools and universities in developed nations need to train graduates for creative thinking, collaboration, and complex problem solving. Is the current system the right way to prepare young people for life in this new world? This session looks at how the technologie of the digital age change old ideas about thinking, learning, and expertise–and at how these same technologies provide the tools to teach and to assess complex thinking through well-designed computer games.”

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)

Epistemic Games Group, located on the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s campus, is a fast paced, educational work environment where our passion for education and innovation are not only a top priority; they are evident in everything we do.

Position openings:
Undergraduate:

R programmer 
Social Media and Communications Representative
Graduate:

Web Design with Graphic Design Emphasis 
Professional:

Technology Manager

For more information contact Epistemic Games Director of Programs and Partnerships

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

A Mentor's Virtual Avatar

In epistemic games much of the teaching and mentoring happens in a remote location away from the players. Mentors must respond to players’ questions and issues from virtual communication in the game. Without access to visual cues such as facial expressions or gestures, it can be difficult for mentors to understand where the problem is and how to remedy the situation.

According to a New York Times Magazine article from 2008, Air Force pilots, remote piloting their planes from Nevada, experience a similar issue. These pilots are suffering from an experience called ‘sensory isolation’ that is having adverse effects on their health, performance, and social lives.

“…remote pilots do not receive the kind of cues from their sense of touch and place that pilots who are actually in their planes get automatically. That makes flying drones physically confusing and mentally exhausting.” the article explains, “…it’s hard to grasp your environment when you’re not actually in it.”

Sensory isolation occurs when a person is cut off from a critical sense that may help them in the situation. For pilots it is their sense of touch and equilibrium; for epistemic mentors it is the sense of sight and interpersonal communication tension.

The Epistemic Games project AutoMentor is one way to address the potential tensions that mentors face in virtual interactions. One of the goals of this project is to automate some, or all, of the mentor processes in epistemic games by coding for player issues and mainstreaming the process of game mentoring.

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.