I had the privilege this year of participating in the CADRE
Fellows program of NSF’s Community for Advancing Discovery
Research in Education, and met a number of colleagues in the
program whose projects, like our Data Games project, are
exploring the classroom benefits of computer-game- or
simulation-based-learning. (In this post, I’ll refer to
technology-oriented games and simulations simply as “games,” for
brevity’s sake.) Some of these exciting projects include: PhET,
Math Snacks, and Evidence Games. As we discussed our work, an
interesting common issue surfaced regarding how each of our
projects envisions the appropriate role for the teacher in
facilitating our game activities. A small group of Fellows
offered a panel presentation at the CADRE conference in
Washington, DC a couple of weeks ago on this topic, and I’ll
share a few of our key ideas here. First of all, no one in these
projects is aiming to design teacher-proof materials, as we all
think the teacher plays a crucial role in using technology too