This is a sometimes collaborative space used by various groups at various times. The projects and groups change as the things I'm working on change. The links below go to the distinct research groups.

Some of the research pages are not public. You will need to be a member of that research group to access the pages.

Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on who you ask), I've never had any funding¹⁾, lab, or grad students. That's partly because I used to be an Instructor (and therefore needed the support of my department to get any of those things, which the department head refused to provide), partly because I've been a student myself, and, well, the other part is something I've been told I'm not supposed to talk about (by the university, who of course wishes to hide the fact that it doesn't treat it's faculty fairly).

What that means for a researcher, is that I have no students to write papers for me, and no money to hire people to do research for me. So, my work is largely done by myself and through my own funding. There are, of course, some very fine people with whom I get to collaborate. I will make every effort to credit those who help along the way.

The Pedagogy of Games (← link to main page)

Game Pedagogy looks at how known best practices in teaching, learning, and instructional design are woven into good games. The goal is to learn how to support learning in games by studying the masters - those who are already doing it well.

Magic Bullet (← link to main page)

The Magic Bullet is a simple and effective model that can be used to help in the design of games for educational purposes, as well as in evaluating existing games for their learning potential. Further, this model can help educators formulate strategies for using an existing game within a learning context.

All games teach, and the way to get through any game (almost) is by learning something. BUT, not all learning in a game is necessary to win and sometimes learning occurs that was never intended by the designers. I have devised four broad categories of learning that happen in games and all learning in and around games can be classified as (non-exclusive) members of at least one of these sets. Initially, several visualizations of the relationships of these four sets were developed, and the final image ended up being somewhat bullet-shaped. Thus, it earned the moniker “Magic Bullet”.

Choosing Games for Study (← link to main page)

Why is it important to justify the choice of game being used as an example in a scholarly article or for the purposes of study? In the early days of games studies there seemed little call for careful scrutiny of one's game choices. We studied what we had handy and wrote about the games we were already playing. However, if we want to make the case that the game in question is good by some measure (however we decide to define “good”) then we really should have some evidence to back this up. When a single game or a small number of games are chosen as the subject(s) of study they form part of the bounded system that is the case being examined, and also forms part of what makes the case of special interest (Stake, 1995). If we are proposing the use of a game in the classroom or the study of some specific game to learn something applicable to our agenda whether that agenda is to examine the educational potential of the game or to learn something else about the game that may inform other instruction, then as academics we have a responsibility to explain why that game is suitable for our purpose.

This project looks at various ways of choosing games for study as well as how people actually justify their choices.

Software Ethology (← link to main page)

Software Ethology is a methodology for analysing entertainment games that uses a synergy of reverse engineering and ethology, neither of which have been used in this context before. Normally, reverse engineering attempts to recover the original design of a software application, but in this case it is used to generate an alternate design that can then in turn be used to inform instructional design. Ethology studies the observed behaviour of animals, but here is adapted as a method for the study of games. Through this perspective, it is possible to identify and classify built-in learning objectives and from there to associate the mechanisms and strategies employed to teach them. These strategies can then be used in educational games without compromising the essential qualities that make good games good.

Instructional Game Design (← link to main page)

• Turtle Island
• I'Powahsin

Body of Knowledge for Interdisciplinary Applications (← link to main page)

This group is fooling around with notions of interdisciplinarity:

• How to facilitate language and communication between disciplines: How do/can practitioners from diverse disciplines negotiate common meanings and terminology to facilitate effective communication?
• How do we facilitate cross-disciplinary collaborations?
• What does someone from one discipline need to know about another to do work that requires knowledge of both? For example, what does a graphic designer need to know about music? or, what does an instructional designer creating a digital game for learning need to know about game design? This also touches on broader questions, such as what does an educated person (who is neither a scientist nor a mathematician) need to know about science and math?
• Is a viable approach to consider different disciplines as different cultures?

General Education Research Group (← link to main page)

This group is looking into teaching Science and Math to non-majors generally, and The Cluster 1 collection of courses specifically.