In the late 1970s, Richard Bartle and Roy Trubshaw of the University of Essex developed the first MUD (multi-user dungeon/domain/dimension, depending on the source) to facilitate multiplayer role-playing games run over computer networks (Bartle, 1999; Dourish, 1998), allowing groups of individuals to build virtual realities collaboratively. Despite limited visual and social cues, immersion in text-based virtual environments have the capacity to support thriving virtual communities that demonstrate characteristics of traditional communities, such as love, hate, friendship, and betrayal (Rheingold, 1993). Advances in computational power and network connectivity have driven the evolution of MUDs, resulting in diverse human computer interfaces such as MOOs (object-oriented MUDs), multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs), and massively-multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), among others. The present article focuses primarily on MUVEs. Although MUVEs are commonplace to gamers (i.e., players of EverQuest, Doom, and Madden NFL), the affordances of this interface are rarely utilized for substantive teaching and learning. This article will discuss how MUVEs can be used to support the situated and distributed nature of cognition within an immersive, psychosocial context. After summarizing significant educational MUVEs, we present Harvard University’s River City MUVE (http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject) in depth as an illustrative case study.
Current research shows that digital games can significantly enhance children's learning. The purpose of this study was to examine how design features in 12 digital math games influenced children's learning. The participants in this study were 193 children in Grades 2 through 6 (ages 8-12). During clinical interviews, children in the study completed pre-tests, interacted with digital math games, responded to questions about the digital math games, and completed posttests. We recorded the interactions using two video perspectives that recorded children's gameplay and responses to interviewers. We employed mixed methods to analyze the data and identify salient patterns in children's experiences with the digital math games. The analysis revealed significant gains for 9 of the 12 digital games and most children were aware of the design features in the games. There were eight prominent categories of design features in the video data that supported learning and mathematics connections. Six categories focused on how the design features supported learning in the digital games. These categories included: accuracy feedback, unlimited/multiple attempts, information tutorials and hints, focused constraint, progressive levels, and game efficiency. Two categories were more specific to embodied cognition and action with the mathematics, and focused on how design features promoted mathematics connections. These categories included: linked representations and linked physical actions. The digital games in this study that did not include linked representations and opportunities for linked physical actions as design features did not produce significant gains. These results suggest the key role of mathematics-specific design features in the design of digital math games. Highlights Children made significant learning gains when using 9 of the 12 digital math games Children's awareness of the mathematics in digital math games impacted learning Eight categories of game design features supported children's learning Learning gains were tied to design features that linked representations to the mathematics Learning gains were tied to design features that linked physical actions to the mathematics
Despite almost three decades of advances in information and communications technology (ICT) and a generation of research on cognition and on new pedagogical strategies, the field of assessment has not progressed much beyond paper-and-pencil item-based tests whose fundamental model was developed a century ago. In 2001, the National Research Council (NRC) published a report, Knowing What Students Know, which highlighted current innovative projects using technology to assess learning and foreshadowed how further advances in technology and statistical analysis could provide new models for assessment. However, not until recently did state, national, and international high-stakes testing programs start to deliver assessments via technology. For example, in 2006 the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) piloted online versions of their items, preparatory to moving into online delivery. In the US, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) recently piloted technology-based items in math and literacy, and developers are currently designing technologybased items for science. Also, states such as Minnesota and North Carolina are starting to use technology-based items in accountability settings. However, using technology to deliver automated versions of item-based paper-and-pencil tests does not realize the full power of ICT to innovate via providing richer observations on student learning. This study describes research underway attempting a breakthrough in the use of technology to improve assessment dramatically beyond the century-old methods in widespread use today.
Science education frameworks in the United States have moved strongly in recent years to incorporate more dimensions of learning, including measuring student use of scientific practices employed during scientific inquiry. For instance, the Next Generation Science Standards and related multidimensional frameworks adopted or adapted recently by more than 30 United States include numerous complex science performance skills required of students. This article considers whether valid and reliable evidence can be obtained in online performance tasks to yield an estimate of both student inquiry practices and of the ability of students to explain their understanding of scientific concepts. A data set from a Virtual Performance Assessment (VPA) task, There's a New Frog in Town, is examined. Delivered through an online system, the VPA task engages students in guided inquiry through problem solving, modeling, and exploration. The VPAs are designed to produce evidence on more than one latent trait in the respondent performance. Results of the case study reported here indicated that maps of student proficiency in scientific inquiry were possible to generate from the VPA data set, using measurement models. Addition of process data through a new hybrid measurement model, mIRT‐Bayes, improved reliability of results. Results indicated overall that virtual performance tasks may be helpful for science assessment, especially if assessment time is short and a goal is to increase the validity and quality of performance measures with authentic and engaging virtual activities.
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