Debbie Denise Reese

Biography

Dr. Debbie Denise Reese is the senior educational researcher at the NASA-sponsored Classroom of the Future (COTF) within Wheeling Jesuit University’s Center for Educational Technologies in Wheeling, WV. She specializes in the application of cognitive theories to the design of educational technologies and environments. Over the past 10 years, she developed a method for the design, development, and evaluation of metaphor-enhanced, computer-mediated learning objects through applied cognitive science metaphor theory. When NASA eEducation established its roadmap to enhance the nation’s learning and practice of science through videogames and synthetic worlds, COTF appointed Reese to lead the research effort into learning and assessment in videogames. In that capacity, Reese refined her earlier work into a method for game-based, metaphor-enhanced (GaME) instructional design and assessment. In 2007, she implemented GaME design to produce a cyber-enabled research environment. The resultant proof-of-concept, Selene: A Lunar Creation GaME, is the subject of a 2-year national research study in formal and informal education venues. Reese was the principal researcher and project manager for NASA’s COTF Inspiration project, an earlier nationwide research study that developed and tested instructional technology tools for enhancing flow, self-efficacy, and identity. Selene extends flow research into GaME environments.

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