Sticky++What are epistemic games?
Epistemic games are games that help players learn the ways of thinking–the epistemologies–of the digital age.
The word epistemology comes from the Greek root words episteme, meaning ‘knowledge’ or ‘understanding,’ and logos, meaning ‘thought’ or ‘study.’ Thus epistemology is the study of knowledge and what it means to know something.
The problem
Computers are creating a world that places a premium on innovation and creative thinking, and computer and video games also make it possible to prepare young people for life in that world’ but only once we understand how people learn to think as innovators. We have to develop the tools to help young people learn the epistemologies of creative innovation. One way to do this is through epistemic games: games that are fundamentally about learning to think in innovative ways. This is surely not the only way to use new technologies to change education for the better, but it is the kind of solution we need: one that uses technology to think about learning in new ways appropriate for a postindustrial, global economy and society.
New life for old ideas
The view of learning presented here builds on work done over the last century to understand how people think and how we can best help them learn to think more deeply, more compassionately, and more effectively about the problems and situations they will encounter in the world. But epistemic games take ideas about learning in two new and important directions.
First, they are about how learning can happen in games. Second, they are about what children need to prepare for the economic and social conditions that new technologies are creating. This is a view of learning in virtual worlds and for a changing world.
To prepare for life in a world that values innovation rather than standardization, young people need to learn to think like innovators. Innovative professionals in the real world have ways of thinking and working that are just as coherent’ just as fundamental, just as epistemological as any of the academic disciplines.
Creative thinking for all
Creative professionals learn innovative thinking through training that is very different from traditional academic classrooms because innovative thinking means more than just knowing the right answers on a test. It also means having real-world skills, high standards and professional values, and a particular way of thinking about problems and justifying solutions.
Epistemic games are about learning these fundamental ways of thinking for the digital age.
Read more about epistemic games
Find out the latest updates on the games we develop…
Read more about research on epistemic games on our publications page…
View webcasts and other discussion about epistemic games…
