One thing I've learned in graduate school is that good questions are often better than good answers. So here's are questions I'd like answered while at AERA:
- How are video/computer games being used in education today?
- What, besides embodying effective pedagogical techniques, are virtues of commercial video games?
- What to people learn from making amateur movies, and from watching amateur movies (youtube movies, class assignment movies, home movies).
- What is Brett Shelton & Co. at Utah State doing with games for instruction?
- What are the theoretical leanings of other universities, and how does that compare with UW-Madison (known for Critical Theory)?
- How can I beat Christopher at Fantasy Baseball?
6 comments:
Hi. Do you know about David Shaffer's work on epistemic games? He has recently published a book about their educational value.
http://epistemicgames.org/eg/
I'm also attending AERA. Hope to see you there. On Wednesday at 12:30 I'm part of a panel on communicating research to the public, and I'll talk about the value of blogs, podcasts, news feeds, wikis, Flickr, etc.
Paul Baker
Wisconsin Ctr. for Education Research
www.wcer.wisc.edu
EducationPR blog
www.pbaker.wordpress.com
I tell you Blakesley... Your career with entertainment is so much more important than mine. You actually figure out the cause and effects of the industry and how to better it. I decide, "hmmmm... should this cg warthog have more light from the right or the left. Uhhhhh... no... that's too yellow, it needs to be more red!" Pretty brainless. I hope your trip serves you as it will thus serve us as you forge ahead with amazing new thinking. Props to you my friend. Have fun too.
Paul- thanks for the comment. I've met David Schaffer, and am actually reading his book right now. I think his work is great and important.
I would have liked to come to your panel! I unfortunately didn't see your comment in time - as you know internet wi fi was scarce. I'll have to email you more about what you're studying. I hope your AERA experience was great!
Rob- I hope my dissertation committee will feel the same way you do! I'm jealous of the fun you get to have in your job of making all those creative decisions - especially when I have to learn statistics and research methods. But overall I love learning about learning from movies and games, and couldn't analyze warthogs, pilots, or museums without people like you.
AERA was worth going - I met a lot of good people, learned a lot about education, and, yeah, had fun too. Saw the Cubs vs. Reds on Friday - Wrigley Field is awesome!
What kind of panels did you attend? Anything stand out as groundbreaking or something you are interested in incorporating into your dissertation? Conferences are my favorite part of academics--the people, the research, etc. And, if it was in a far away land and there was a baseball team, I too got to squeeze a game into the trip. lol
I attended about half gaming and education sessions and half instructional design sessions (since that's what my masters was in. The most interesting session was one where older researchers in suits did a session on gaming that was starkly different than other gaming sessions.
After attending AERA, combined with General Conference and our stake conference, I've pretty much decided to focus on learning that takes place in the home - particularly on how to help parents teach children (2-8) learn well with media (video, computer games).
President Monson in our Stake Conference said that the age of 3 is such a formative - the most formative age- for a child. And that struck me as important.
I liked the conference atmosphere too. I also met lots of good Utah people at a utah reception for people from byu, utah, and usu.
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