Key Players
DIRECTORS
Eric Klopfer is the Director of the MIT Teacher Education Program, and the Scheller Career Development Professor of Science Education and Educational Technology at MIT. The Teacher Education Program prepares MIT undergraduates to become math and science teachers. Klopfer’s research focuses on the development and use of computer games and simulations for building understanding of science and complex systems, on desktop computers as well as handhelds. He currently runs the StarLogo TNG project, a platform that enables students and teachers to create 3D simulations and games using a graphical programming language. On handhelds, Klopfer’s work include “participatory simulations” which embed users inside of complex systems, and “augmented reality simulations” which create a hybrid virtual/real space for exploring intricate scenarios in real-time. Klopfer’s work combines the construction of new software tools with research and development of new pedagogical supplements supporting the use of these tools in the classroom. He is the co-founder of The Education Arcade, and co-author of the book, "Adventures in Modeling: Exploring Complex, Dynamic Systems with StarLogo" (2001).
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Kurt Squire is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Educational Communications and Technology division of Curriculum and Instruction. He is a former Montessori and primary school teacher and, before coming to Wisconsin, was Research Manager of the Games-to-Teach Project at MIT and Co-Director of the Education Arcade. Squire earned his doctorate in Instructional Systems Technology from Indiana University; his dissertation research examined students' learning through a game-based learning program he designed around Civilization III. Squire co-founded Joystick101.org with Jon Goodwin and currently writes a monthly column with Henry Jenkins for Computer Games magazine. In addition to writing over 30 scholarly articles and book chapters, and he has given dozens of talks and invited addresses in North America, Europe, and Asia. Squire's current research interests center on the impact of contemporary gaming practices on learning, schooling and society. Along with several other University Wisconsin-Madison faculty, he runs the Games and Professional Practice Simulations (GAPPS) initiative located at the Academic Advanced Distributed Learning Co-Lab.
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Alex Chisholm is founder of [ICE]3 Studios, a Boston-based development company that creates transmedia entertainment and educational properties. He recently served as Director of Content at LeapFrog Enterprises and as a member of the company's Learning Institute, focusing on early development of the FLY pentop computer and establishing the company's Quantum X Team, a group of 50 "tweens" who shared their ideas of youth and popular culture on a weekly basis and directly contributed to the design of FLY, its applications, and accessories. Prior to LeapFrog, he served as Director of External Relations and Special Projects for MIT Comparative Media Studies where his project interests focused on media convergence, electronic game design, film, theatre, and fiction, as well as on the uses of all media in education. He also supervised creative development efforts and research as part of a strategic collaboration between MIT and the Royal Shakespeare Company, exploring new ways of storytelling and theatrical experience, and managed research around the use of advertising in popular culture, working with Initiative Media to conduct a large-scale viewer study around American Idol 2 in the spring 2003; as part of this work, he co-authored papers on the "expression," a new metric to help understand consumer behavior and to value advertising across today's mediascape, which were presented at the Advertising Research Foundation's Annual Conferences in 2002 (Cannes, France) and 2003 (Los Angeles, California). At The Education Arcade, Chisholm contributes to the project's research agenda, including work around the Learning Seal, as well as the conference programs held at E3 (Los Angeles, May 2004 and May 2005). He holds a BS from Cornell University.
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ADVISORS
Henry Jenkins III, the John E. Burchard Professor of Humanities and Co-Director of MIT Comparative Media Studies, has spent his career studying media and the way people incorporate it into their lives. He was principal investigator for the MIT-Microsoft Games-to-Teach project, which examined the educational potential of computer and video games; he continues this work through MIT’s Education Arcade initiative. He writes a regular column, The Digital Renaissance, for Technology Review magazine and is currently writing a book on technological and social media convergence. He testified in 1999 before the U.S. Senate during the hearings on media violence that followed the Littleton, Colorado shootings, testified before the Federal Communications Commission about media literacy, and spoke to the governor’s board of the World Economic Forum about intellectual property law. His books include Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture (co-editor, 2003), Democracy and New Media (co-editor, 2003), From Barbie to Mortal Kombat: Gender and Computer Games (co-editor, 1998), The Children’s Cultural Reader (editor, 1998), Classical Hollywood Comedy (co-editor, 1994), and Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture (1992). Jenkins earned his doctorate in communication arts from the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
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James Paul Gee is the Tashia Morgridge Professor of Reading at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his PhD in linguistics in 1975 from Stanford University and has published widely in linguistics and education. His book Sociolinguistics and Literacies (1990) was one of the founding documents in the formation of the "New Literacies Studies", an interdisciplinary field devoted to studying language, learning, and literacy in an integrated way in the full range of their cognitive, social, and cultural contexts. His most recent books both deal with video games and learning. What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy (2003) offers 36 reasons why good video games produce better learning conditions than many of today's schools. Situated Language and Learning (2004) places video games within an overall theory of learning and literacy and shows how they can help us to better understand deep human learning and lead us in thinking about the reform of schools. His new book, Why Video Games Are Good for Your Soul, shows how good video games marry pleasure and learning and have the capacity to empower people.
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