Background: The educational knowledge domain may be understood as a system composed of multiple, ... more Background: The educational knowledge domain may be understood as a system composed of multiple, co-evolving networks that reflect the form and content of a cultural field. This paper describes the educational knowledge domain as having a community structure (form) based in relations of production (authoring) and consumption (referencing), and a cognitive structure (content) based in relations of ideas and concepts. Purpose: We propose developing an online interactive system whereby the vast array of available ...
Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Support for Collaborative Learning Foundations for a CSCL Community - CSCL '02, 2002
ABSTRACT Recent advances in small, personalized computing devices have made possible distributed ... more ABSTRACT Recent advances in small, personalized computing devices have made possible distributed and ubiquitous computing within the classroom. This creates a fundamentally different environment from one that has 4 or 5 desktop machines per classroom (Soloway et al., ...
... The intent of the multiple data source collection was to capture as many of the ... Codes, ca... more ... The intent of the multiple data source collection was to capture as many of the ... Codes, categories and themes for the data set were, for the most part, negotiated amongst the ... of our lead facilitators became well connected with the various middle and high school administrators in ...
This symposium seeks to illustrate and discuss the salient elements of project design and design ... more This symposium seeks to illustrate and discuss the salient elements of project design and design decisions of a two-year implementation effort in high school science classrooms focused on improving knowledge and skills in biology content, complex systems, and computational thinking using StarLogo TNG simulations. We present design challenges that emerged in the areas of 1) Professional Development and Workshop Design; 2) Designing for Computational Thinking Through Computational Modeling; 3) Curriculum Design and Development; 4) Issues in the Design of Learning Progressions; and 5) Designing Assessments for Larger Scale. Through interactive discussion with the CSCL audience, we hope to share experiences that will enable similarly oriented design researchers to build successful programs in real-world educational systems.
Background/Question/Methods Biology instruction at the secondary and undergraduate level is under... more Background/Question/Methods Biology instruction at the secondary and undergraduate level is undergoing rapid change. Some of these changes are in response to a growing recognition that students are not leaving their coursework in biology with the conceptual understanding, skill set, or habits of mind that we associate with proficiency in biology. While there are a number of potential explanations for these deficiencies, one may be that students often lack an understanding of complex systems. Complex systems exhibit emergent and non-intuitive properties and processes that cannot be predicted from the behavior of their component parts. Some example concepts associated with complex systems include randomness, non-linear responses, and feedback loops. Given the ubiquity of complex systems in biology, mental models that incorporate aspects of complex systems may better support student learning in biology. However, there has been little in the way of development of instructional approache...
Specifically targeted to classroom teachers, this paper, researched by Jennifer Groff with assist... more Specifically targeted to classroom teachers, this paper, researched by Jennifer Groff with assistance from Jason Haas, provides classroom teachers with compelling reasons to incorporate new technologies like games, simulations, and social networking into their classroom and strategies to overcome potential barriers. The authors introduce specific examples of these technologies being used to successfully enhance classroom learning, and they use case studies with specific teachers to illustrate some best practices in classroom learning with technology. The paper also introduces the i5 framework, which provides specific strategies for overcoming the many potential problems that come with introducing new and complicated tools into schools.
ABSTRACT The history of computer-based learning games has a story arc that rises dramatically, an... more ABSTRACT The history of computer-based learning games has a story arc that rises dramatically, and then plummets steeply. In the early days of personal computers, creative minds drawn to the new medium explored a variety of approaches to learning games, ranging from behaviorist drill-and-practice exercises, to open-ended environments suitable for either exploration or construction. Early practitioners were inventing new forms, and even the fundamentally limited drill-and-practice games were infused with a measure of creative energy and humor. The late 1980s and mid 1990s were a heyday for the CDROM edutainment era. However, this era came to a crashing halt as the Internet dawned and the market for edutainment dried up in the late 1990s. Despite the downfall of the edutainment era there is new energy and perspective behind the idea of learning games. While edutainment of the 1990s style has gone, there is a new take on what learning games can be. In this era, we are finding that "making a game out of learning is most certainly not the way to approach the development of learning games. However, finding the fun in that learning" and devising ways to focus on and enhance that fun as a core game dynamic is a good strategy.
Background: The educational knowledge domain may be understood as a system composed of multiple, ... more Background: The educational knowledge domain may be understood as a system composed of multiple, co-evolving networks that reflect the form and content of a cultural field. This paper describes the educational knowledge domain as having a community structure (form) based in relations of production (authoring) and consumption (referencing), and a cognitive structure (content) based in relations of ideas and concepts. Purpose: We propose developing an online interactive system whereby the vast array of available ...
Proceedings of the Conference on Computer Support for Collaborative Learning Foundations for a CSCL Community - CSCL '02, 2002
ABSTRACT Recent advances in small, personalized computing devices have made possible distributed ... more ABSTRACT Recent advances in small, personalized computing devices have made possible distributed and ubiquitous computing within the classroom. This creates a fundamentally different environment from one that has 4 or 5 desktop machines per classroom (Soloway et al., ...
... The intent of the multiple data source collection was to capture as many of the ... Codes, ca... more ... The intent of the multiple data source collection was to capture as many of the ... Codes, categories and themes for the data set were, for the most part, negotiated amongst the ... of our lead facilitators became well connected with the various middle and high school administrators in ...
This symposium seeks to illustrate and discuss the salient elements of project design and design ... more This symposium seeks to illustrate and discuss the salient elements of project design and design decisions of a two-year implementation effort in high school science classrooms focused on improving knowledge and skills in biology content, complex systems, and computational thinking using StarLogo TNG simulations. We present design challenges that emerged in the areas of 1) Professional Development and Workshop Design; 2) Designing for Computational Thinking Through Computational Modeling; 3) Curriculum Design and Development; 4) Issues in the Design of Learning Progressions; and 5) Designing Assessments for Larger Scale. Through interactive discussion with the CSCL audience, we hope to share experiences that will enable similarly oriented design researchers to build successful programs in real-world educational systems.
Background/Question/Methods Biology instruction at the secondary and undergraduate level is under... more Background/Question/Methods Biology instruction at the secondary and undergraduate level is undergoing rapid change. Some of these changes are in response to a growing recognition that students are not leaving their coursework in biology with the conceptual understanding, skill set, or habits of mind that we associate with proficiency in biology. While there are a number of potential explanations for these deficiencies, one may be that students often lack an understanding of complex systems. Complex systems exhibit emergent and non-intuitive properties and processes that cannot be predicted from the behavior of their component parts. Some example concepts associated with complex systems include randomness, non-linear responses, and feedback loops. Given the ubiquity of complex systems in biology, mental models that incorporate aspects of complex systems may better support student learning in biology. However, there has been little in the way of development of instructional approache...
Specifically targeted to classroom teachers, this paper, researched by Jennifer Groff with assist... more Specifically targeted to classroom teachers, this paper, researched by Jennifer Groff with assistance from Jason Haas, provides classroom teachers with compelling reasons to incorporate new technologies like games, simulations, and social networking into their classroom and strategies to overcome potential barriers. The authors introduce specific examples of these technologies being used to successfully enhance classroom learning, and they use case studies with specific teachers to illustrate some best practices in classroom learning with technology. The paper also introduces the i5 framework, which provides specific strategies for overcoming the many potential problems that come with introducing new and complicated tools into schools.
ABSTRACT The history of computer-based learning games has a story arc that rises dramatically, an... more ABSTRACT The history of computer-based learning games has a story arc that rises dramatically, and then plummets steeply. In the early days of personal computers, creative minds drawn to the new medium explored a variety of approaches to learning games, ranging from behaviorist drill-and-practice exercises, to open-ended environments suitable for either exploration or construction. Early practitioners were inventing new forms, and even the fundamentally limited drill-and-practice games were infused with a measure of creative energy and humor. The late 1980s and mid 1990s were a heyday for the CDROM edutainment era. However, this era came to a crashing halt as the Internet dawned and the market for edutainment dried up in the late 1990s. Despite the downfall of the edutainment era there is new energy and perspective behind the idea of learning games. While edutainment of the 1990s style has gone, there is a new take on what learning games can be. In this era, we are finding that "making a game out of learning is most certainly not the way to approach the development of learning games. However, finding the fun in that learning" and devising ways to focus on and enhance that fun as a core game dynamic is a good strategy.
This paper provides a rationale for a class of mobile, casual, and educational games, which we ca... more This paper provides a rationale for a class of mobile, casual, and educational games, which we call UbiqGames. The study is motivated by the desire to understand how students use educational games in light of additional distractions on their devices, and how game design can make those games appealing, educationally useful, and practical. In particular, we explain the choices made to build an engaging and educational first example of this line of games, namely Weatherlings. Further, we report results from a pilot study with 20 students that suggest that students are engaged by the game and are interested in learning more about academic content topics, specifically weather and climate, after playing the game. Research should continue to determine whether Weatherlings specifically does increase learning in these areas, and more generally to determine whether any learning gains and similar results with regard to engagement can be replicated in other content areas following the general model for game design.
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Papers by Eric Klopfer
Further, we report results from a pilot study with 20 students that suggest that students are engaged by the game and are interested in learning more about academic content topics,
specifically weather and climate, after playing the game. Research should continue to determine whether Weatherlings specifically does increase learning in these areas, and more generally to determine whether any learning gains and similar results with regard to engagement can be replicated in other content areas following the general model for game design.