Recent posts
David Shaffer speaking at ASU February 2, 2012
David Shaffer will be the guest speaker at Advances in Learning Lecture series at Arizona State University on Feb 2. See the flier for more details.
Students Feel High School Insufficiently Prepared Them for STEM Majors
Today, Microsoft released a survey indicating that only 20% of students in STEM fields felt that their high school courses sufficiently prepared them for college-level work, despite the fact that 55% of them decided to pursue STEM fields when they were still in high school. The majority of students and parents of K-12 students agreed that the U.S. does a “poor job” of teaching STEM courses compared to other countries.
We continue to stress that expecting students to simply memorize and recite formulas and concepts is poor teaching. Students need to be taught the ways in which professionals in STEM fields use those formulas and concepts as problem solving tools. Students who play epistemic games are better prepared for the work that lies ahead. In epistemic games such as Nephrotex and Land Science, mentors who play the role of professionals encourage students to reflect on their actions in the game and make connections between values, skills, and knowledge in their STEM domain.
The right kind of telling: an analysis of feedback and learning in a journalism epistemic game
Hatfield, D. (2011) The right kind of telling: an Analysis of feedback and learning in a journalism epistemic game. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/hatfield_dissertation_print_final.pdf
Congratulations to our two new graduates!
Congratulations to both Elizabeth Bagley and David Hatfield, the newest ‘Drs.’ of the Epistemic Games group.
Elizabeth is moving on to a post doc position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, while David will being staying on as Tech Director of our group.
Both Elizabeth and David’s dissertations will be available on this website.
Stop Talking and Type: Mentoring in a Virtual and Face-to-Face Environmental Education Environment
Bagley, Elizabeth A. S. (2011) Stop Talking and Type: Mentoring in a Virtual and Face-to-Face Environmental Education Environment. University of Wisconsin-Madison.
http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/Bagley-Dissertation-FINAL.pdf
David Williamson Shaffer in Paris for Design Education seminar
As a featured speaker at the Design Education seminar in Paris, France (June 2011), David discussed the idea of ‘mastery’ and what it means in education. In particular, he talked about the importance of learning to think with technology, not just from technology.
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.
Nephrotex: Teaching first year students to think like engineers
Shaffer, D.W., Chesler, N.C., Arastoopour, G., and D’Angelo, C. (2011). Nephrotex: Teaching first year students how to think like engineers. Poster presented at the Course, Curriculum, and Laboratory Improvement (CCLI) PI Conference, Washington D.C.
Use of Professional Practice Simulation in a First-Year Introduction Engineering Course
Chesler, N., D’Angelo, C., Arastoopour, G., and Shaffer, D.W. (2011). Use of Professional Practice Simulation in a First-Year Introduction Engineering Course. Paper presented at the American Society for Engineering Education Conference (ASEE), Vancouver, BC.
http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/Chesler_ASEE_2011.pdf
Collaborating in a Virtual Engineering Internship
D’Angelo, C., Arastoopour, G., Chesler, N. & Shaffer, D. W. (2011) Collaborating in a Virtual Engineering Internship. Paper presented at Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Conference (CSCL), Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
http://epistemicgames.org/eg/wp-content/uploads/DAngelo_CSCL2011.pdf
Girls Sweep Global Google Science Fair
Google holds an annual competition to give talented high school students around the world a chance to showcase their ideas about science. NPR reports that Google has just announced their 2011 science fair winners.
The three winners, beating out over 10,000 students in the competition, were all young women. Girls can do science and engineering at the highest level, but we know that somewhere along the way they get turned off (see Goodman’s Final Report of the Women’s Experiences in College Engineering).That’s one of the reasons we are excited about Nephrotex, an epistemic game that offers something different from the typical engineering education curriculum.
We are already seeing results that women who participate in Nephrotex understand what engineering is and have motivation to persist after completing the virtual internship.
The Epistemic Games Group
The Epistemic Games Group is made up of researchers, educators, and game designers who create games in which players see what it is like to live in the world of adults. They learn ways of thinking that matter in the digital age.
If you’re interested in building and studying epistemic games and the future of education, find out more about who we are, and what we do. We’re always interested in talking with potential collaborators and new epistemic gamers….
