Dissertation Research: Designing From Below: Embedding Knowledge and Values in Educational Simulations

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy NY

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this dissertation research project is to explore the design and use of educational computer technologies (EdSims), with the goal of generating findings that may both influence both the academic literatures of design, science and technology studies (STS), and education and also the practice of education. Study of the development of EdSims as a new educational tool should improve understanding of the design and use of educational technologies and technologies in general. Hopefully, EdSim designers and educators will be able to apply the findings of this study to improve educational pedagogy. This research project has three main objectives. The first objective is to understand and evaluate the design and use of EdSims in a broad context. Secondly, the study aims to train ethically aware and socially conscious designers who will work to level playing fields among individuals with different identities and social locations through conscious and conscientious decisions in the design process. Third, the project seeks to indirectly improve the design and use of EdSims by reaching out to and working with EdSim designers and educators. The central research questions in this study match closely with the study's objectives, as well as the background research and research design. First, how do EdSims compare to more traditional teaching methods? Next, how are social and cultural assumptions embedded in EdSims? Finally, how can EdSim design be improved? The literature review of this study focuses on three specific case studies of EdSim design and use and relates them to the project's objectives and research questions. The first case study on flight simulators demonstrates the importance of EdSims and how they are different from more traditional teaching methods. Second, animal dissection simulators are used to demonstrate the ethical implications of EdSim design and use. For third example, gross anatomy EdSims, specific design recommendations are made, in an effort to improve the design and use of EdSims. Data collection for this study will make use of a variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies and will take place at a variety of sites, both geographical and virtual. Semi-structured interviews and participant observation will take place at EdSim conferences, EdSim design laboratories, and classrooms using EdSims. The Internet will be a site for collecting interview and survey data and contributing to the community of EdSim designers and users. Other forms of data collection will include analysis of EdSim advertising and a comparative usage study of EdSims. A total of 80 semi-structured interviews and 200 web-based surveys will be conducted. The intellectual merit of the proposed research project is based on its ontribution to the design, STS, and education literatures. The study seeks to contribute to the design literature by providing empirical data on how EdSims are designs, including the extent to which their design is participatory, culturally situated, and appropriate. In the field of STS, the research project contributes to understandings of the convergence of simulation and reality, whereby educational and training environments are becoming increasingly realistic, while activities such as aircraft flight and surgery are becoming more technologically mediated, automated, and simulated. Finally, the project will contribute to the field of education by exploring how EdSims can be used in combination with the pedagogies of situated learning and teaching for understanding. The broader impacts of this study all center around improving the practice of education. First, the study aims to determine how EdSims can be used in particular educational settings to meet specific educational goals. Secondly, the study will develop recommendations about how to use EdSims to make education more equitable, just, and participatory. The third impact should be to study how EdSims can be used to make education more economically efficient and environmentally sustainable.