David Shaffer, Kelly L. Beckett, David Hatfield, Alecia Magnifico & Gina N. Svarovsky

David Shaffer:
the problem is that Star Trek is a world where people can communicate across vast distances, has the holodeck, etc., and yet in this world, education looks the same as it does now
– a failure to imagine

because the power of school is so well-documented; it’s a very well-evolved system
little ball in the little valley metaphor (can’t go backwards or forwards)

distinction of game engine vs. game (dice vs. craps)
recruits skills, identity, knowledge, and values – a game is always a culture
all tied together by an epistemology
you see the game through that epistemology
every subculture has an epistemic frame

anyone who works in an area of uncertainty, where they have to make judgment calls and requires autonomy is a candidate for an epistemic frame
requires reflective practice; gets created in a practicum (doing to knowing); cycle of action and reflection-on-action
gives the opportunity to create a simulated practicum (built on needs, abilities, interests)

mediation as an example
xenotransplantation as one example – players take on the role of a stakeholder in this arena
players get a confidential score, which you want to maximize; if you win your mediated point, you get the points associated with it
tested what students learned using a concept map before and after the game; see more lines after and they can explain why
compared a student’s answer to what should a specific patient do, before and after; much more in-depth understanding after
students are cast in a specific role (which ends up affecting their perspective) - gives them identity

there are 45,000 after school programs, and 100,000 home schoolers – fertile ground for change?
— Jenny notes to herself that David is not even considering libraries  :-(

2nd game: digitalzoo: sodaconstructing the next generation of engineers
Gina N. Svarovsky’s slides, but she couldn’t attend so David presented them

the engineering design process - taking things from idea to market
design—>build—>test model

kids design things in sodaconstructor and can test them – http://www.sodaplay.com/constructor/
they solve the problem first, and then they’re given the knowledge (opposite of school)
can create stuff that is hard to build in real life

an “exploratoid” – a brief snippet of exploration (like an explanatoid); eventually, they add up and provide a foundation

David Hatfield & Alecia Magnifico: Science.net

Alecia:

science journalism – an epistemic game they’ve created; epistemic RPGs (in this case, of a profession)

students do journalistic interviews, stories (write and then receive copy-edits), get peer review, and “power up”
copy-editing is very different from the spelling and grammar correction you see in school
the kids understood that school was all self-editing to see how good a grade you can get, whereas copy editing wasn’t about grades and it’s not a contest - it’s about improvement
Alecia compared an initial storydraft (personal voice, no facts, no balance, no sourcing), showed copy edit comments, then the student’s edited copy (much-improved, had neutral voice, a source, and a balanced perspective)
stories end up being published on science.net – http://www.science.net/ http://coweb.wcer.wisc.edu/science.net

binding is tied to identity development (felt like a journalist, did what journalists do) and journalistic epistemology

David:

“Byline” - the game engine for science literacy (the one in science.net)
a web-based editing, journalistic tool; has special tags, similar to HTML ones, for journalistic terms (lead, byline, jumpline, etc.)
as kids wrote more stories, they began using the tags more often and sooner

James Gee: Respondent

you’re not just learning facts about x; you’re learning about the practices of x, and along with that comes facts

have you thought about other contexts other than professional? eg, participating in a democracy, how to be a good parent, etc.?
David S.: any subculture has a potential epistemic frame, so sure; we’re choosing the professions for pragmatic reasons that are valuable in the real world; “what is in fact worth being able to do, learning to think as?” – journalist, historian;  “this whole approach is a giant cheat;” others have already figured out how to make a good journalist, so they’re just copying it (it’s harder to figure out how a good neighbor makes another good neighbor)

is moving the little ball from one place to another done by enculturation?
David S.: each of the games we’ve seen today is a possible red ball, they’re not how to get there; the point of the exercise is to step out of the school environment and all of the baggage it brings; they show you a place you could be, but not necessarily how to get there

David S.: ultimately, identity and values are not separate, but the kids come to this with these things disintegrated; the challenge is to link them all for the student

David S.: having seen yourself as an expert once, it radiates through everything the student does afterwards, especially when they go back to the rest of school; you’re always an expert in something now; these are valuable ways of thinking, too

physics teacher in the audience agrees with this approach (we already do the one-on-one coaching for graduate students), but it costs a lot of money
David S.: can’t get rid of “school” because someone has to babysit the kids; would mean a massive change in our educational system; would have to start small; let’s see what this could do and then decide what we’d have to compromise on

as a precursor to using one of these epistemic frames, they would have to meet my abilities; what kinds of preconditions are you looking at in terms of accessibility?
David S.: yes, what if there are things kids really have to know and do in order to be able to do this?
the teachers have done architecture, engineering, urban planning, journalism; with middle, high, elite school, and charter school students, all from different backgrounds
– no indication from any of this that there is a systematic reason kids can’t participate in this; has scaled well enough so far, and it seems to work for everyone