Debbie Denise Reese

Biography

Photo of Debbie Denise Reese

Debbie Denise Reese, PhD, produces CyGaMEs — instructional games to make learning more intuitive. CyGaMEs players construct knowledge through procedural game play. CyGaMEs stands for Cyberlearning through Game–based, Metaphor Enhanced learning objects. Over 2000 youth have registered to play CyGaMEs’s current Selene: A Lunar Construction GaME (selene.cet.edu). Players form the Earth’s moon, pepper it with impact craters, and flood it with lava flows. Reese is senior educational researcher at the Wheeling Jesuit University Center for Educational Technologies and NASA–sponsored Classroom of the Future (COTF) in Wheeling, WV. She is principal investigator for the NSF–funded CyGaMEs project which studies design, learning, and assessment using game–based technologies. Reese developed the CyGaMEs approach as lead COTF researcher and project manager supporting NASA eEducation’s initiative to study learning and assessment within game–based environments. An instructional theorist, Reese applies cognitive science to the design of learning environments and technology tools. The GaME method applies cognitive science metaphor theory (structure mapping) toward design of instructional environments that prepare students for learning complex science concepts. CyGaMEs track game play to assess learning and perceived experience. The CyGaMEs project is developing an informatics system for reporting player achievement based upon statistical analysis and data mining. Reese has led COTF design and research teams in development and study of technology tools for enhancing self–efficacy, identity, and argumentation. She conducts evaluations and needs assessments. She is part of the COTF team producing the MoonWorld simulation for introductory lunar science field work. MoonWorld is scheduled to open in Second Life in late 2009.

Sessions