investiGaming is a publication of the Serious Game Design group in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University, 2007
This gateway is partially supported by grant supported by grant 0631771 from the National Science Foundation.
The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent Michigan State University or the National Science Foundation.
Become a Contributing Editor:
If you’re interested in adding implications and highlights, we welcome your participation. Email the editors-in-chief, Carrie Heeter () or Brian Winn () for more information.
Heeter has lived in San Francisco and telecommuted to work full time for Michigan State University for the last ten years. She teaches online graduate courses in design research and serious game design. She is working with Brian Winn and Jillian Caywood to explore the potential of games to improve and alter cognition. Current projects also include investiGaming, Microbe Hunter (a cognitive tutoring game); How Do You Know, How Do They Know (an exploration of the foundations of personal values related to science and society through play). Heeter earned a PhD in mass media from Michigan State University in 1984.
http://seriousgames.msu.edu | http://commtechlab.msu.edu/carrie/
Brian M. Winn is an assistant professor in the Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media, co-director of the Games for Entertainment and Learning (GEL) Lab, and a principal investigator in the Communication Technology Lab at Michigan State University. Winn designs, creates, and researches interactive media design, including game design, digital game-based learning, and interactive health communication. Winn’s award-winning interactive media work has been presented, exhibited, and experienced around the world. Winn is also an accomplished teacher who became an Apple Distinguished Educator in 2001 and a Lilly Teaching Fellow in 2005. Winn serves as faculty advisor of the MSU SpartaSoft game developers student group and a coordinator of the Michigan Chapter of the International Game Developers Association.
http://gel.msu.edu/winn | http://seriousgames.msu.edu
Jillian has a a Master of Arts in Digital Media Art and Technology from Michigan State University. She has worked in the non-profit Games for Entertainment and Learning (GEL) Lab at Michigan State University for the past two years as they have continued to grow as a leader in the field of serious games. She has worn many hats while at the GEL Lab including project management, research, writing, interactivity and user experience design.
Her areas of interest include serious games, interactive media, social networking, learning technologies, design research, usability, and interactivity and user experience design.
Andy is an award winning graphic designer who leads up vuDAT’s art group. When not busy with the day-to-day management and execution of art group projects, Andy also works as a freelance Illustrator and web designer developing his own brand of graphic exuberance responsibly balanced with keen attention to web standards and accessibility.
Since graduating from the renowned Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2000 Andy’s more personal work has consisted of a hand-drawn approach blending kitschy modernist and contemporary themes that inhabit a world all their own. With the launch of his andyandyandy.us website in the autumn of 2007, his original work is available to the public for the first time.
http://www.adetskas.net/
Jason is a senior at Michigan State University as a Telecommunications major with a specialization in game design. He has a firm background in programming from his days as a Computer Science major and is an avid gamer. Outside of school he is very active at his local parish where he has taken on a number of leadership roles and is now working as a student intern. Just this last summer Jason made his first footsteps into the game industry with a QA internship at Stardock Corp. in Plymouth, MI.
http://darguth.alaerth.net
Brad is currently in the final stages of finish his TISM degree with a specialization in Digital Media Art and Technology. He is also working a Bachelors degree in Studio Art and a Minor in Philosophy. Much of Brad’s education focus and future aspirations center around film making.
Born in Germany, Yasmin Kafai undertook her studies on learning theories and technologies in France, Germany and the United States. She received her doctorate from Harvard University in 1993 while working with Seymour Papert and Idit Harel at the MIT Media Laboratory.
She has been one of the first researchers to establish the field of game studies with her work on children’s learning as designers and players of educational software and games. Her research has been published in Minds in Play: Computer Game Design as a Context for Children’s Learning (Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, 1995) and in Constructionism in Practice: Designing, Thinking and Learning in a Digital World which she co-edited with Mitchel Resnick (Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, 1996).Her research has been and is being supported by the National Science Foundation and the Spencer Foundation. In 1996, she was one of two educators to receive an Early Career Award from the National Science Foundation and in 1997 she was among the thirty postdoctoral fellows of the National Academy of Education.
During the past decade, she has been active in several national policy efforts. She directed the research for the report Under the Microscope: A Decade of Gender Equity Interventions in the Sciences (2004) and participated in the National Commission on Gender, Technology and Teaching that Tech-Savvy Girls: Educating Girls in the Computer Age (American Association of University Women, 2000). She briefed the Telecommunication and Computer Science Board for the report Being Fluent with Information Technology (National Academy of Sciences, 1999) and has helped define national research agendas for research about children’s media with the Center for Media Education (1998) and a related effort from the Markle Foundation.
She is the president-elect of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS) and an Associate Editor of the Journal of the Learning Sciences. She organized and co-chaired the Sixth International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) in 2004 at UCLA. She also participates in and presents at numerous other national and international venues such as Interaction Design for Children (IDC), American Educational Research Association (AERA), Computer Supported for Collaborative Learning (CSCL), Siggraph, DIGRA and others.
Dr. Kafai is Associate Professor of Learning and Instruction at the UCLA Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. She lives, works, and plays in Los Angeles.
http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/faculty/kafai/
Jessica graduated from Michigan State University’s School of Journalism in 2001, with a BA in Journalism and a specialization in public relations. She has worked in information technology for nine years, most recently with Academic Computing and Network Services, working extensively with the ANGEL course management system. She is currently pursuing an MA in Education focusing on educational technology and K-16 leadership. Her educational interests include: the potential of video games in learning, maximizing student engagement in virtual settings and the use of technology to enhance student experiences in and out of the classroom.
Solveig Pederson is a producer at PlayFirst, developing original casual games made for casual gamers wherever they play.
As producer on Diner Dash: Hometown Hero (http://www.dinerdash.com) - she led an internal cross-functional team and external resources on development on this title, which is currently selling quite well.
The Mercury News apparently says that Diner Dash is “the Halo of casual gaming”:
Solveig started her career with The Learning Company/Riverdeep, working on award-winning educational games featuring beloved characters like Arthur and Madeline, as well as producing one of the launch titles for an original brand ( StarFlyers) featuring a creative and spunky heroine, Katie Cadet.
At Maxis/EA, she was part of the production team behind The Sims 2 base game and its first expansion pack.
She became a Nintendo fangirl in the last couple years, and can often be found playing the latest DS game while commuting to work, or challenging friends to a game of Wii Tennis.
Mary holds a bachelor of arts in Film/Video studies with an animation emphasis from Grand Valley State University. She currently is earning a Master’s degree in Michigan State’s new Serious Game Design program. Mary also co-manages Sass Studios, a virtual online art studio with 3 other artists. The studio has self-published one comic anthology title and will be releasing their second title in 2008.
http://www.sass-studio.com/