EPISTEMIC GAMES by Pedro A. R. Díaz

“Computers are changing our world: how we work . . . how we shop . . . how we entertain ourselves . . . how we communicate . . . how we engage in politics . . . how we care for our health. . . . The list goes on and on. But will computers change the way we learn?”
(Shaffer, Squire, Halverson, & Gee, 2005)

Epistemic Games: Real World Problems Solving

As schools prepare students for academy knowledge, they also need to recognize that outside the classroom the world is requiring skills that must be applied to creative thinking and analytical reasoning. Educators can fulfill this obligation by employing the use of epistemic games. Epistemic games are computer games that are essentially about learning to think in innovative ways. They’re designed to be educational tools for the digital age where the player learns to think like professionals by playing a simulated game of such professions as management, engineering, urban planning and other valued professionals. Epistemic games are great ways of creating a learning environments whereby students (players) can work in groups to collaborate and solve complex real world problems. This allows them to make meaningful and critical decisions in which “learning happens in the context of activity when a person is trying to accomplish some meaningful goal and has to overcome obstacles along the way (Shaffer, 2006, p. 3). The purpose of epistemic games is to change the traditional world view of standardization testing and allow students to think independently and creatively. This does not mean to simply trade out textbooks for video games, however, it requires giving students the tools they need to become competent and creative problem solvers. Becoming an architect for example, is more than knowing materials properties and tools for computer aided design. It is being able to see what architects see and being able to frame it in ways the profession thinks, knowing how to work with and talk with other architects and clients, and using concepts and procedures within the scope of activities that constitutes architecture. David Williamson Shaffer a pioneer and scholar on epistemic games development at the University of Wisconsin Madison in his paper, Epistemic Games (Shaffer, 2006, p. 4) claims;

Rather than constructing a curriculum based on the ways of knowing of mathematics, science, history, and language arts, we can imagine a system in which students learn to work (and thus to think) as doctors, lawyers, architects, engineers, journalists, and other valued reflective practitioners—not in order to train for these pursuits in the traditional sense of vocational education, but rather because developing those epistemic frames provides students with an opportunity to see the world in a variety of ways that are fundamentally grounded in meaningful activity and well aligned with the core skills, habits, and understandings of a postindustrial society.

Shaffer (2006) further states, epistemic games provide ways of helping students learn to think like professionals.

Epistemic Frames:

Epistemic games are organized around epistemic frames. Any profession is structured around a culture that is composed of skills, values, knowledge, identities and an epistemology that anchor how creative professionals operate. Shaffer calls this configuration an epistemic frame: an integral theory of learning that sees how the collection of a profession’s knowledge and skills synergistically work together to create a learning community.

Sample Epistemic Games: Video games that are designed for learning.

Land Science: a virtual internship in which high school students assume the role of interns at a fictitious urban planning firm, Regional Design Associates. Their task is to propose a rezoning plan for a city and they must take into account the demands of various community groups.

Nephrotex: a virtual internship for students at a fictitious biomedical engineering design firm. The interns’ primary task is to develop a novel nanotechnology based membrane for use in kidney dialysis systems.

RescuShell: a virtual internship for students at a fictitious mechanical engineering design firm RescuTek. The interns are asked to develop the legs for an assistive mechanical exoskeleton which will be used by rescue personnel in dangerous or demanding situations.

Practical examples of the instructional model Epistemic Games at work

This video described the motives and goals of the Epistemic Games Group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The group studies how digital learning tools can be implemented into classroom setting to help teach 21th century skills

David Williamson Shaffer’s talk, “How Computer Games Help People Learn” (Stockholm, September 2013), discusses the problems of modern education and how technology can be used to improve learning.

Types of Epistemic Games according to Collins and Ferguson:

v Structural Analysis games such as timelines

v Functional Analysis games such as diagrams

v Process Analysis games such as graphing.

Constructivism

Epistemic games fall under the Constructivism Learning Pedagogy: active learning is one of the four key principles or values this teaching approach has generated. "Constructivist learning theory focuses on the role of the learner in making meaning and constructing understanding. Both Piaget and Vygotsky emphasized the active role of the learner, but whereas Piaget emphasized stages of behavior and the child's accomplishment according to preceding developmental stages, Vygotsky emphasized the importance of social interaction" (Harasim 2012, page 68). "According to Vygotsky, child development is a sociogenetic process shaped by the individual's interactions, "dialogue," and "play" with the culture" (Ornstein and Hunkins, 2013)

Constructivist teachers emphasize the importance of problem-solving where students construct their knowledge and then work to solve a problem in their own way thinking like the profession they are role-playing either alone or in groups. "Constructivism seeks to tap into and trigger the student's innate curiosity about the world and how things work. Students are not expected to reinvent the wheel but to attempt to understand how it turns, how it functions" (Harasim 2012, page 69).

Epistemic games means encouraging students to participate and act, such as conduct a real experiment, rather than passive learning (listening to a lecture, reading a book). Epistemic games are typically student-centered, and the role of the student is to engage in an activity, such as constructing and testing a theory, and planning a solution strategy. Students then reflect on and discuss what they are doing and how their understanding is changing" (Harasim 2012, page 69).

June 2014 EDT605 - Instructional Models

Thursday, June 19, 2014

EPISTEMIC GAMES by Pedro A. R. Díaz

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