Papers by Benjamin DeVane
The Interdisciplinarity of the Learning Sciences Conference Proceedings Volume 1 Understanding Adult Social Stances During a Children's Museum Visit, 2020
A child's visit to a children's museum is greatly influenced by the adults that accompany them. T... more A child's visit to a children's museum is greatly influenced by the adults that accompany them. This paper presents initial work on adult engagement in children's museums, the stances they take, and how the environment may impact these stances. To do so, we build off both Falk and Storksdieck's (2005) contextual model for learning and Shina and Acosta's (2000) categorization of adult pretend play in children's museums. Results suggest that adults take on many roles, shifting quickly between being playmates, educators, and timeouts. Adult stances are influenced by the environment as well as personal reasons for visiting the museum and their knowledge and interests. While previous research highlights children's islands of expertise as a way for adults to relate museum exhibits to a child's life, we suggest that the adults' islands of expertise and interest also play an important role on what stances the adults take and meaning making.
Characterizing Parent-Child Communication, Affect, and Collaboration During Multi-User Digital Tabletop Gameplay, 2020
Multi-user tabletops can support parent-child STEM learning experiences. This paper presents pilo... more Multi-user tabletops can support parent-child STEM learning experiences. This paper presents pilot data from seven parent-child dyad play sessions, with two example case studies of individual dyads, examining parent-child (age 4 to 8) communicative acts, affect, and collaboration during digital tabletop gameplay. Overall, more collaborative than parallel or individual play was observed. Across dyads, results emphasize the prevalence of joint gameplay in these interactions. Two highlighted case studies illustrate the unique roles that parents take on during gameplay based upon their interactive patterns. Implications for encouraging parent-child collaboration and communication during collaborative digital tabletop gameplay for STEM learning are discussed.
Information & Learning Sciences, 2019
This article reports on a project that used a game-cre ation tool to introduce middle-school stu... more This article reports on a project that used a game-cre ation tool to introduce middle-school students ages 10 to 13 to problem-solving strategies similar to those in com puter science through the lens of studio-based design arts. Drawing on historic paradigms in design pedagogy and contemporary educational approaches in the digital arts to teach young learners about computing, this pro gram employed a programmatic perspective to design a curriculum that emphasizes creativity within specified design tasks, instead of free-form individual artistry.
Human Factors and Ergonomics, 2014
Handbook of Virtual Environments: Design, Implementation, and Applications, Second Edition, K. Ha... more Handbook of Virtual Environments: Design, Implementation, and Applications, Second Edition, K. Hale and K. Stanney (ed.), CRC press, Taylor & Francis Group
... deferentially before parents and teachers, but “swears and swaggers like a pirate among his .... more ... deferentially before parents and teachers, but “swears and swaggers like a pirate among his ... In other words, can we think about participation in and affiliation with a social ... Page 17. merged information technology skills, systems thinking and historical knowledge into active and ...
Proceedings of the 2008 ACM SIGGRAPH symposium on Video games - Sandbox '08, 2008
Though much of the study of games and learning has understandably emphasized the interaction of g... more Though much of the study of games and learning has understandably emphasized the interaction of game players with specific games (e.g., Gee [2003]), recent work has shifted to the understanding the social sphere around games and communities of engaged gamers (e.g., Squire and Giovanetto [2008]; Wright et al [2002]). In particular, online discussions around and supporting games are an increasingly
Theory Into Practice, 2008
... a pleasure of game play was inserting himself into history and then exploring the choices ...... more ... a pleasure of game play was inserting himself into history and then exploring the choices ... scenario was a hypothetical history designed to even out the playing field between ancient ... Such open-ended games are, in fact, already compelling, but largely untapped resources, for ...
TechTrends, 2005
From Users to Designers: ... relevant question is: "How ... more From Users to Designers: ... relevant question is: "How will educational technologists respond to a generation of students who, raised on interactive games, expect the same kinds of interactive experiences from their educational media?" Immersive interactive technologies--- or ...
Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the …, 2010
... Salim seemed to enjoy the attention of older youth, even if it was hostile, and appeared to t... more ... Salim seemed to enjoy the attention of older youth, even if it was hostile, and appeared to take great pleasure in his older brother's praise. ... Review of research in education, 23(1), 119-63. Holland, D., Lachicotte,, W., Skinner, D., & Cain, C. (1998). ...
Most academic and non-profit research projects still use the traditional “waterfall” paradigm of ... more Most academic and non-profit research projects still use the traditional “waterfall” paradigm of software and game development by default, despite its well–documented problems (Rajlich, 2006). The waterfall paradigm focuses on anticipating all software development challenges by planning out every aspect of of a project, and executing that plan. By contrast, agile development frameworks recognize the inherently uncertain and dynamic nature of software development, and look toward incremental and iterative organizational solutions ...
The Educational Design and Use of Simulation Computer Games, 2007
Games are among the oldest forms of experiential learning. Game-based learning scenarios are a st... more Games are among the oldest forms of experiential learning. Game-based learning scenarios are a staple in the military; games have been used to represent, communicate and explore the dynamics of complex situations with multiple interacting variables. Today's videogames allow new kinds of interactions, including real-time 3D and physics simulation. Learners can participate in complex systems over distance and time, and express themselves through game tools (Casti, 1997; Squire, 2004). In recent years, the military has embraced gaming ...
Cook, MS (chair), Fields, DA (organizer), Ching, CC, Devane, B., & Wortham. S. (discussant), (201... more Cook, MS (chair), Fields, DA (organizer), Ching, CC, Devane, B., & Wortham. S. (discussant), (2011, April). Producing selves: The analytical utility of theorizing about identities across spaces, narratives, activities, and time. Symposium presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, LA. ... The full text of this version of the article is not currently available here.
Mind, Culture, and Activity
Drawing on data from a four-year ethnographic research study of CivWorld, a game-based learning c... more Drawing on data from a four-year ethnographic research study of CivWorld, a game-based learning community for youth, this paper argues for an ecological view of identity and learning with games, rather than a model focused predominantly on in-game roles. This analysis investigates an eight year-old participant in the community named Salim as he moves toward game-play mastery over a six-month period. It employs ethnographic discourse analysis and positioning analysis to examine the Salim’s social action as a ‘nexus of identification’ in which mediated social practices and larger cultural-historical forms enter into dialogue at varying timescales.
Theoretical Foundations of Learning Environments (2nd Edition)
Activity theory is a social psychological framework that grew out of two theoretical pillars of S... more Activity theory is a social psychological framework that grew out of two theoretical pillars of Soviet psychological thought in the 1920s and 1930s: Vygotskian cultural-historical psychology and praxis-focused Marxist materialism. Activity theory, also sometimes called Cultural Historical Activity Theory (or CHAT) seeks to create an account of human cognition in which people, their intentions, tools, culture, and encompassing social structures are all considered as inherently inseparable components of human activity which constitute thought. Within educational technology and the learning sciences, hereafter referred to as the "learning technologies," CHAT is used in many ways. Most often, learning technologists have used third-generation CHAT (identified with the Scandanavian school) as a guiding theoretical framework to understand how technologies are adopted, adapted, and configured through use in complex social situations.
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Papers by Benjamin DeVane