Shaffer, David W. (2006). How Computer Games Help Children Learn. Reviewed by Curtis Lee, University of Colorado at Denver

Shaffer, David W. (2006). How Computer Games Help Children Learn. Palgrave Macmillan Pp. 242         ISBN 978-0-230-60252-6 Reviewed by Curtis Lee University of Colorado at Denver Center February 6, 2009 There has been a constant buzz in both education and business circles about the urgent need to prepare our students for this century’s coming challenges and the increasingly global nature of our economies and future professions. Despite the repeated calls for “re-inventing” schools to prepare students for these eventualities, the nature of schooling, curriculum, and assessment has remained essentially unchanged over the last decade. Society at large, however, has seen dramatic changes occur over that time, especially in the area of technological innovation and its adoption by the younger generations. It is within this context that David Williams Shaffer wades into the conversation with a well-researched and compelling argument about the powerful learning potential of computer games. Shaffer is both an academic and a game scientist who has spent many years examining the deeper nature of games and the way humans interact with them. A colleague of James Paul Gee, authored of “What video games have to teach us about learning”(Gee, 2003), Shaffer takes the analysis even further by examining how computer games with specific attributes can achieve learning goals that would not be attainable without them. Shaffer opens the book with some background information about himself and some insights about experiential learning that came from his time spent in Vermont as a teacher in a school that was also a working organic farm. The students spent their mornings engaged in the difficult labor of running a farm and then transitioned to schoolwork in the afternoons. The curriculum was organized as much as possible to reflect the nature of the farm experience, e.g., including readings from Thoreau and a focus on environmental concerns. The students learned to solve real problems by working on real problems that mattered to them (p.6). And while this kind of “authentic” schooling may be nostalgic, the larger lessons of the farm contain components that still have real currency for educating kids in digital age. For Shaffer, this type of knowledge building is centered on gaining an epistemological understanding of an area of practical expertise. Absent living on a farm or interning at the UN, this type of deep understanding is very difficult for students to achieve in their youth. With the aid of computer games, however, students can journey through these knowledge domains and do meaningful work that requires active problem-solving with legitimate outcomes that learners care about. The use of these epistemic gaming environments allow students to perform daily tasks, solve authentic problems, and “walk a mile” in the shoes of people from a variety of professional domains. Shaffer uses the term epistemic to refer to the underlying knowledge domains, or epistemologies, that inform the thinking of experts in different communities of practice. More importantly, these are domains that would be impossible, or certainly impractical, to emulate without the use of computers to scaffold the experience. Through each of the following chapters, Shaffer examines how a particular computer game helps to create an authentically modeled learning experience for the game’s participants. The primary goal of these epistemic games is to literally change the thinking processes of the players to resemble more closely those of the actual professionals who work in these domains. What is particularly impressive about Shaffer’s book is his extensive use of learning theory to support his central assertions. Throughout the book, he identifies the work of leading theorists like Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky and Papert to support the types of cognitive activities that these epistemic games are developing in participants. These theorists emphasized the importance of embedding learning activities within authentic situations and the social milieus of the world outside the confines of the classroom. In many instances, he sees these games as actually extending and expanding the potential of these theories beyond what could have been envisioned by theorists and practitioners before the dawn of computing. In Shaffer’s eyes, the ability of the computer to model and scaffold participation in the authentic activities of various professional environments is a paradigmatic advancement in how we can teach students to be better thinkers and more thoughtful citizens. The key attribute of these games, which differentiates them from typical computer games, is that they must place the student thoroughly within the unique activities, the special language or terms of art (p.59) of that practice, and the mental processes that would occur within these professions in the “real” world. Each of the game vignettes within the book is described within the context of an actual research project that used a number of ethnographic techniques to measure the efficacy of the games according to the pedagogical objectives of traditional content areas and the thinking traits of the professional domains being emulated. For instance, the game Escher’s World is modeled directly from an existing professional design community, Oxford Studio, and takes students through the various stages of becoming a graphic designer. It utilizes existing software in Geometer’s Sketchpad to help students create and manipulate 2D and 3D designs within space, and then extends the process through critique sessions (a desk crit) with other designers to improve their work and a general cultivation and clarification of design goals throughout the whole project (p.76-80). A desk crit is a critical review process utilized within the design community that seeks continuous feedback by peers and mentors on the overall intentions and quality of the work being produced. By the time students are done with this four-week game, their ability to articulate, using design language, the nature of their own work and that of others has been completely transformed. Shaffer references Donald Schön’s work on “reflective practice” to support the types of iterative improvements that define the nature of design work and how those reflective skills transfer to other areas of a student’s intellectual world. Within every chapter of this book, Shaffer takes similar care to frame the game within the context of a supportive learning theory, to demonstrate the learning that has occurred with excerpts from real students, and to provide suggestions for teachers and parents for follow-up. The game analysis chapters are impressive for both their depth and breadth and really challenge the reader to look more closely at how poorly we currently support this type of explorative thinking and problem-solving within schools. Shaffer has some real reservations, however, about the immediate applicability of these types of games within existing school environments. Shaffer borrows the term “third place” from sociologist Ray Oldenburg, to describe places like coffee shops or recreation centers that are neither home nor school, where people can “hang out” and talk and explore ideas freely. It is in these places that Shaffer first envisions epistemic gaming having the freedom to grow. Unfortunately, the nature of schooling today puts such a premium on content coverage and standardized recall that it tends to diffuse or abbreviate the types of immersive activities that can only occur over time in real communities of practice. My current work as an instructional technologist within K-12 systems confirms Shaffer’s hesitancy. The time-sensitive and prescriptive nature of existing K-12 curriculum structures makes it very difficult for teachers to infuse lengthier, loosely-targeted projects whose outcomes are more global and conceptual in nature. The fact that these role-playing vignettes are also video game-based only adds to the “marketing” challenge teachers would face when trying to sell its merits to colleagues and administrators. Shaffer clearly demonstrates the powerful learning potential of epistemic games and their promise for helping to develop deeper thinking skills for a digital age. The motivational appeal of immersive gaming for the younger generation is undeniable and consumer gaming titles of a similar genre continue to be enormously popular. Massive online role-playing games such as World of Warcraft™, and the virtual spaces of Second Life™, provide concrete examples of the power of computer simulations to both engage and inform players about the identities, verbiage, and behaviors of participants that are unique to each environment. The potential of vicariously-rich computer-simulated learning environments should be researched further as the need for broader and more adaptive thinkers increase as globalization and multiple-career lives await today’s students. Perhaps soon, a hybrid-model of traditional schooling will arise, similar to many online learning models, which will allow for the inclusion of epistemic games as part of the preparation of students for the century ahead of them, not the one behind them. Shaffer’s book does an excellent job of framing the potential contributions of video-games within that larger conversation. References Gee, J. P. (2003). What video games have to teach us about learning and literacy. NY: Palgrave. About the Reviewer Curtis Lee is a doctoral student in the Educational Leadership and Innovation (EDLI) program at the University of Colorado at Denver. He is the currently employed as the Director of Information and Technology Services for Mapleton Public Schools in Denver.