Graduate School of Education
Centre for Teaching Thinking and Dialogue
Talk by Professor David Williamson Shaffer
(University of Wisconsin-Madison & Game Scientist at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research)
Wednesday 2nd July 2014
4.30 pm, Lecture Theatre BC114, St Luke’s Campus
ALL WELCOME TO ATTEND
How Computer Games Help Children
Learn
What can—and should—education look like in the digital age?
In this talk, Professor Shaffer argues that the future
of learning in the age of smart machines requires
integrating new theories of cognition and culture,
new approaches to curriculum design, and new
modes of assessment.
Professor David Williamson Shaffer is a game
scientist and quantitative ethnographer, known for
his work in epistemic frames, epistemic games, and
epistemic network analysis.
The theory of epistemic frames suggests that
complex thinking is best understood not in terms of
knowledge and skills, but rather as a network of
knowledge, skills, values, identity, and epistemology.
Based on this theory of learning, Professor Shaffer
and his lab have developed virtual internships—
simulations of real-world practices such as
engineering and urban planning—to promote the
development of epistemic frames.
Data from these simulations are analyzed using
Epistemic Network Analysis (ENA)—a method of
quantitative ethnographic learning analytics that
focuses on whether and how students link the skills,
knowledge, identity, values, and epistemology of a
real-world practice into a coherent way of thinking
about complex problems.
Related Literature
Shaffer, K.D. (2006). How computer Games Help Children Learn. Palgrave:
Macmillan.
Gee, J.P. and D.W. Shaffer.(2010). Looking where the light is bad: Video games
and the future of assessment (Epistemic Games Group Working Paper No.
2010-02). Madison: University of Wisconsin-Madison.
http://edgaps.org/gaps/looking-where-the-light-is-bad/
Shaffer, D.W. (2010). The Bicycle Helmets of “Amsterdam”: Computer games and
the problem of transfer. (Epistemic Games Group Working Paper No. 201001): University of Wisconsin-Madison. http://edgaps.org/gaps/the-bicyclehelmets-of-amsterdam/