Thomas and Cola are on site at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco interviewing many of the key presenters of the Serious Games Summit that is being held concurrently there. Their first interview is with Dr. Debbie Denise Reese, who presented a session titled Designing Selene: Theory-based Game Design and Data Mining. Dr. Reese is a Senior Educational Researcher at the Center for Educational Technologies, and the principal researcher and project manager for the NASA-sponsored Classroom of the Future’s learning and assessment in videogames project.

Here are a few excerpts from the interview (I’m paraphrasing). You’ll want to listen to the podcast: Interview with Dr. Debbie Denise Reese (3:34) to hear more of what she has to say:

Our research has shown us that games have the potential to be an environment that helps people to learn many things. However, they must be adequately specified and designed based on sound theory.

Video games are an ideal platform for learning, they have an underlying relational structure that is identical to targeted learning and making cognitive connections via goal orientation.

Her vision is that we all need to come together - educators, researchers, and game designers to create games based on sound learning principals that truly enhance learning for children.

I think that is consistent with the goal of epistemic games - where many researchers are interested in building these types of games. They describe themselves like this: “Based on more than a decade of research in technology, game science, and education, epistemic games revolutionize the ongoing debate about the pros and cons of digital learning to show the future of education in the digital age.”

Hearing this kind of thing is music to our ears at KidConfidence. Our mission is to help build self esteem and confidence in children, and video games will be increasingly instrumental in this goal.

Thanks for your time and insights Dr. Reese!

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